Universität Wien

070250 SE Research Seminar Applied Global History - (2025S)

Practices of Internationalism in the post-colonial era

10.00 ECTS (4.00 SWS), SPL 7 - Geschichte
Continuous assessment of course work
Moodle
Th 05.06. 16:45-20:00 Seminarraum 8 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 9 Hof 5

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 25 participants
Language: German, English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Thursday 06.03. 16:45 - 20:00 Seminarraum 8 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 9 Hof 5
  • Thursday 13.03. 16:45 - 20:00 Seminarraum 8 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 9 Hof 5
  • Thursday 20.03. 16:45 - 20:00 Seminarraum 8 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 9 Hof 5
  • Thursday 27.03. 16:45 - 20:00 Seminarraum 8 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 9 Hof 5
  • Thursday 03.04. 16:45 - 20:00 Seminarraum 8 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 9 Hof 5
  • Thursday 10.04. 16:45 - 20:00 Seminarraum 8 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 9 Hof 5
  • Thursday 08.05. 16:45 - 20:00 Seminarraum 8 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 9 Hof 5
  • Thursday 15.05. 16:45 - 20:00 Seminarraum 8 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 9 Hof 5
  • Thursday 22.05. 16:45 - 20:00 Seminarraum 8 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 9 Hof 5
  • Thursday 12.06. 16:45 - 20:00 Seminarraum 8 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 9 Hof 5
  • Thursday 26.06. 16:45 - 20:00 Seminarraum 8 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 9 Hof 5

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

The focus of this Research SE is on forms of internationalist practices – rather than on conceptualisations or discourses - understood as practices of overcoming inequality in the world, make people more equal, which emerged in the "three continents" Africa, Asia and Latin America. "Internationalism" in this sense means that movements, states or groups of activists endeavoured to potentially spread their causes and ideas beyond their nation across the world because they found their programme applicable to other parts of the world. In this sense, all great revolutions had their "internationalist" phases. We will study international organization efforts under Soviet, Chinese and Cuban agency, three "suns in the heaven of global socialism". The thematic spectrum also includes movements that practiced their internationalism through peaceful activities, for example in fostering the process of the "development" of societies with the aim of bringing more similarity to the world by exercising "international solidarity". The time frame of the case studies ranges from internationalisms in the course and aftermath of decolonisation to the "Cuban cycle" of world revolution in the "Three Continents" from the 1960s to the 1980s.
The aim of this Research SE is to orientate participants towards qualification works at an international standard. We will work with archival sources and practice the processing of such material into texts. The course thus is based on continuous active participation by the students.
Working languages are German, English and – as part of the sources is in Spanish – Spanish. Participants should master at least 2 of them.

Main Thematical Areas:
- Kominform/Internationale Beratungen Kommunistischer Parteien
- A Cuban International? The "Tricontinental"
- The "third sun in the heaven of socialism": The Cuban revolution's international outreach, as expressed in the self-designation Internacionalismo Cubano
- The "second sun in the heaven of socialism": Chinese Internationalism, Maoist movements for the "Third World"
- The Non-Aligned Movement as a project of the "Third World"
- Internationalist politico-religious movements: from the "Theology of Liberation" up to Islamic internationalist movements

Assessment and permitted materials

Research and criticism of archival sources; Presentation of excerpts from the sources; Regular progress reports; Presentation of an outline of the seminar paper; Writing of a seminar paper (60%)

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

Active participation in the source work (25%) as well as in the discussion (15%), presentation of exposés, progress reports and writing of a research seminar paper (60%). For a successful passing of the course, a positive grading of the final seminar paper is required.

Examination topics

Introduction, recommended Literature, plus knowledge of the literature on the extended area of the individual seminar paper.

Reading list

Dinkel Jürgen, Non-aligned movement. Genesis, Organization and Politics 1927-1992, Leiden 2018

Domínguez Jorge, To Make a World Safe for Revolution. Cuba's Foreign Policy, Cambridge/Mass. 1989

Ghirmai Philmon, Globale Neuordnung durch antikoloniale Konferenzen. Ghana und Ägypten als Zentren der afrikanischen Dekolonisation, Bielefeld 2019

Gleijeses Piero, Visions of Freedom. Havana, Washington, Pretoria, and the Struggle for Southern Africa, 1976-1991, Chapel Hill 2013

Mohandesi Salar, Red Internationalism. Anti-Imperialism and Human Rights in the Global Sixties and Seventies, Cambridge 2023

Parrott R. Joseph/Mark Atwood Lawrence (eds.), The Tricontinental Revolution. Third World Radicalism and the Cold War, Cambridge 2022

Pons Silvio, The Global Revolution. A History of International Communism 1917-1991, Oxford 2014

Prashad Vijay, The Darker Nations. A People's History of the Third World, New York-London 2007

Radchenko Sergey, Two Suns in the Heavens. The Sino-Soviet Struggle for Supremacy, 1962-1967, Washington/Stanford 2009

Unfried Berthold/Martínez Hernández Claudia, Cuban Internacionalismo, "Histories of Internationalism", Bloomsbury 2024

Westad Odd Arne, The Global Cold War. Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times, New York 2005

Association in the course directory

Schwerpunkt: Globalgeschichte

MA Globalgeschichte & Global Studies (V2019): PM4 Forschungsmodul (10 ECTS)
MA Geschichte (V2019): PM 2/3 Forschungsseminar (10 ECTS)

Last modified: Mo 17.03.2025 12:25