Global History Initiative
Critical Issues in Global Historiography
an online conference
April 15-17, 2026
The Global History Initiative at Queen’s University is pleased to announce this upcoming three-day on-line conference featuring several scholars who have made field-defining contributions to the study of global history, historical theory, and historiography, and others who are rising early talents in these fields.
The conference it falls into the broader outreach goals of the Queen’s Global History Initiative and the network it has created; it will also enable publication of the papers from both this meeting and a preceding conference hosted at Queen’s in 2024.
For a conference link and a schedule of sessions, which will be held on three consecutive mornings (Eastern Daylight Time) April 15, 16 and 17 to permit synchronous participation from around the globe, please email Paige Groot at global.history@queensu.ca
Confirmed speakers include:
Antoon De Baets (University of Groningen, Netherlands): The Schrödinger Universality of Historiography
Lisa Hellman (Lund University, Sweden): Global History For-and as-the Future
Ian Hesketh (University of Queensland, Australia): The Science of Global History?
Tyson Retz (University of Stavanger, Norway): Exemplifying Categories: The Example of Early Twentieth-Century Progressive Associations
Dominic Sachsenmaier (University of Göttingen, Germany): Global History in an Age of Geopolitical Crises
Larissa Schulte-Nordholt (Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands): The Problem of “Local” Knowledge
Q.Edward Wang (Rowan University, United States): All Under Heaven: Chinese Cosmology and the Reframing of Global History
Conference Co-Chairs and Convenors:
Amitava Chowdhury (a.chowdhury@queensu.ca)
Daniel Woolf (woolfd@queensu.ca)
Graduate Student Assistant
Paige Groot (global.history@queensu.ca)
Schedule of Events
April 15 – Day I: Deep Time and the Future of Global History
8:30 EDT
Daniel Woolf: Opening Remarks
8:45–9:45 (21:45-22:45 Japan, same day)
Lisa Hellman: “Global History For-and as-the Future”
9:45–10:45
Q.Edward Wang (11:00-12:00 EDT)
All Under Heaven: Chinese Cosmology and the Reframing of Global History
Adjournment for day 1
April 16 – Day II: Science, Universality, and Conceptual Scale
8:30–9:30 (22:45-23:45 Brisbane, AU, same day)
Ian Hesketh: “The Science of Global History?”
9:30–10:30 (15:30-16:30 CET)
Antoon De Baets: “The Schrödinger Universality of Historiography”
Break (10:30–10:45 EDT)
10:45–11:45 (16:45-17:45 CET)
Tyson Retz: “Exemplifying Categories: The Example of Early Twentieth-Century Progressive Associations”
April 17 – Day III: Decolonization, Locality, and Geopolitics
9:30–10:30 (15:30-16:30 CET)
Larissa Schulte-Nordholt: “The Problem of “Local” Knowledge”
Break (10:30–10:45 EDT)
10:45–11:45 (16:45-17:45 CET)
Dominic Sachsenmaier: “Global History in an Age of Geopolitical Crises”
Break (11:45-12:00 EDT)
12:00-13:00 EDT
Plenary Discussion: All Participants (individual time zones permitting)
Closing Remarks: Amitava Chowdhury