Globalization and Nationalisms: Historical Perspectives on a Complex Relationship

Summer Semester 2021, Mondays, 18:00-20:00

Joint Lecture Series of the Universities of Bayreuth (UBT) and Regensburg (UR)

Zoom: Link, Meeting-ID: 618 2133 3903, Code: 263634

The shut-down of borders and the disruption of global supply chains in reaction to the COVID-19 crisis, Britain's "Brexit," U.S. President Donald Trump's "America First" nationalism among other current developments show that the growing economic entanglements of the world, often abbreviated as globalization, have not put an end to nations, and nation states. Contrary to what liberal theories suggest, market-oriented economies actually can enter into high-level conflicts, and economic integration has not dried out one of the most powerful historical forces of the so-called modern age: Nationalism.

While recent developments highlight the seemingly paradoxical relationship between nations and nationalisms on the one hand, and the economic integration of the world on the other, their complex and conflictual interplay is nothing new. Rather, it is one of the key frictions of our modern world, whose modernity more often than not is defined by the unfolding of capitalism and the invention of nations and nationalism.

In the context of a joint research project dealing with these pertinent issues, Professors Erdmute Alber (Social Anthropology, UBT), Ulf Brunnbauer (Director of the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies, Regensburg), Volker Depkat (American Studies, UR), Hartmut Egger (Economics, UBT), Gerlinde Groitl (Political Science, UR), and Susanne Lachenicht (Early Modern History, UBT), in co-operation with the Leibniz Science Campus "Europe and America in the Modern World" and the Center for International and Transnational Area Studies (CITAS) at UR, and the Institute of African Studies and the Cluster of Excellence "Africa Multiple" at UBT, organize this joint zoom lecture series that probes into the paradoxical relationship of nationalisms and globalization in a longue durée perspective.

The lectures will take place on Mondays 6-8pm CET and will feature a number of renowned international specialists.

A cooperation between the University of Regensburg (UR), the Center for International and Transnational Area Studies (CITAS) at UR, the University of Bayreuth (UB), the Institute for African Studies (IAS) at UB, the Cluster of Excellence "Africa Multiple: Reconfiguring African Studies" at UB, and the Leibniz ScienceCampus "Europe and America in the Modern World"

Program

PDF

April 26 | Volker Depkat (UR)/Susanne Lachenicht (UBT)
Introduction

May 10 | Stefan Link (Modern Economic History, Dartmouth College)
London 1933: The World Economic Conference, the Great Depression, and the History of Globalization
Respondent: Ulf Brunnbauer (IOS, Regensburg)

June 7 | Bartolomé Yun Casalilla (Early Modern History, Seville)
Early Globalization, Cross-border Social Networks and the Making of Spain: A Methodological Problem and Some Thoughts
Respondent: Susanne Lachenicht (Early Modern History, UBT)

June 14 | Mary Nolan (Modern History, New York University)
Empires, Nation-States and Globalization in the Long Twentieth Century
Respondent: Volker Depkat (American Studies, UR)

June 21 | Dan Hamilton (Political Sciences, Johns Hopkins University)
The Transatlantic Economy in a Changing World: Economic Integration - Political Nationalism - De-Globalization?
Respondent: Gerlinde Groitl (Political Sciences, UR)

June 28 | Konstantinos Katsakioris (History, Charles University, Prague)
Nationalism and the Economy through the Prism of Africa's Relations with the Socialist Countries
Respondent: Erdmute Alber (Social Anthropology, UBT)

July 5 | Annalisa Urbano (History, Milano)
Citizens and ‘Strangers’, Panafricanism, Nationalism, Labour and Diamonds in West Africa (1920-1970)
Respondent: Joël Glasman (History of Africa, UBT)

July 13 (Tuesday) | Stefan Berger (Institute for Social Movements, Ruhruniversität Bochum)
Deindustrialisierung und „der kleine Mann“ – rechtspopulistische Strategien im Ruhrgebiet im transregionalen Vergleich‘
Respondent: Rainer Liedtke (19th and 20th-century European History, UR)