070298 UE Course on Methodology - Theories and Methods of Global History und Global Studies (2024S)

During the last decade, one of the most lively and original debates in historiography has emerged around the question of the possibility to combine microhistory and global history. On the one hand, the two approaches developed at different times (microhistory in the 1970s-1980s and global history starting from the late 1990s) and within distinct academic contexts, and each of them includes distinct and even contradictory theoretical and methodological perspectives. On the other hand, scholars are hoping that, by combining microhistory and global history, they can bring together detailed analysis and spatial sensitivity in the study on historical and social processes. Thus, the questions have emerged: What approaches within global history and microhistory can actually be combined? And what does one exactly gain (and lose) by bringing the two approaches together?

This UE Course on “Methodology in Global History and Global Studies” aims to take stock of the multiple ways to combine microhistory and global history that the scholars have proposed. Moreover, it investigates the potential that such combination bears for the renewal of both microhistory, global history, and the field of social history.

This UE Course on “Methodology in Global History and Global Studies” is centred around two activities:
1. Reading and discussing scholarly publications, with the view to analyzing how the scholars have addressed the issue of the combination between microhistory and global history.
2. Writing the script of the podcast “Microhistory and Global History”. The students will form the groups and decide how to structure the podcast. Possibly, each group will be responsible for the script of one episode of the podcast.
The participation of the E-Multiplikatorin of the historical departments, Katharina Kührner (E-Learning (univie.ac.at)), in two sessions will allow the students to get the necessary information about the making of a podcast and (eventually) transform (part of) their script into a podcast.

The sessions will include:
* Group discussions and collective discussions on the assigned readings.
* Group work around the script and the making of the podcast “Microhistory and global history”.