EurhistXX

The Network for the Contemporary History of Europe

European Comparative History Network 30.03.2006 Apor, Peter <aporpceu.hu>

European Comparative History Network

A Call for Strategic Partners

Sorin Antohi
University Professor and Head of History Department
Director of Pasts, Inc. Institute of Historical Studies
Central European University, Budapest
Secretary General, International Commission for the Theory and History of Historiography
Member of the Board, International Committee of Historical Sciences
www.ceu.hu/hist, www.ceu.hu/pasts

Starting from 2006-2007, I am coordinating – with the assistance of my younger colleagues, Constantin Iordachi, Balázs Trencsényi, and Péter Apor -- a major Comparative History Project (CHP; description criculated separately), with generous funding from the Open Society Institute’s Higher Education Support Program. While initial funding of USD 500,000 is meant to cover CHP-related costs for the first three years of operation, other sources of funding exist and are needed in order to continue work beyonf that point, and to expand CHP coverage to EU member states.

Building a European Comparative History Network (ECHN) is thus the next logical step. As of March 28, 2006, we have already secured the partnership of many EU-based institutions and organizations, including the Universiy of Graz, the Berliner Kolleg fuer Vergleichende Geschichte Europas, Charles University (Prague), University of Manchester, the Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut (Essen), etc. At this stage, I am seeking institutional strategic partners that could cover their own costs in the first phase, while collaborating towards a comprehensive strategy, action plan, concrete projects, and of course fundraising. I think a number of smaller applications to various funders (national agencies, foundations, etc.) should be envisaged as modules or complements of a larger application, to be submitted to the European Commission (Framework Program 7).

Three annual conferences are planned for the Comparitive History Project. The first, to be held on November 9-12 at CEU in Budapest, on “The State of the Art in Comparative History”. Its opening panel will feature, among others, our distinguished colleagues, Juergen Kocka and Miroslav Hroch. Some of the most important comparative projects, recently finished or ongoing, will also be featured during the conference. ‘Mapping’ comparative history research in and on Europe – from its various regions to its diverse ‘holistic’ variable geometries –, and examining the methodological-theoretical underpinnings of this empirical work shall be the focus of the conference, while a final panel shall examine follow-up strategies and action plans. A steering committee would also emerge on the same occasion. Similar conferences are planned for Fall 2007 (Belgrade: “Fostering New Research in Comparative History”) and Fall 2008 (Bucharest: “Teaching Comparative History”). Some other activities of the CHP, from parallel seminars to workshops to publications could well be replicated in the framework of the ECHN.

Please contact us with any comments, suggestions, criticisms, concrete offers, by writing to Sorin Antohi (antohiceu.hu) or to Dr. Péter Apor, Co-Director, Center of Comparative History, Pasts, Inc. Institute of Historical Studies, CEU: aporpceu.hu.