The Global History Collaborative (GHC) Workshop was held from November 4 to 6, 2015, at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS), Paris. Its program is as follows:

November 4^th (Wednesday)

Joint event with the seminar: The Value of Human Being, ESOPP-CRH group

Round table around Jeremy Adelman, “Thinking about Inequality: A Global History”

Jeremy Adelman, Introduction

Commentators:

Andreas Eckert, Humboldt University

Ines Zupanov, CNRS and EHESS

Jean-Frédéric Schaub, EHESS

November 5^th (Thursday)

Morning (Moderator: Jeremy Adelman)

Antonella Romano, EHESS (Koyré Center), Globality and Temporalities: What the 16th Century Tells Us

HANEDA Masashi, the University of Tokyo, The Paradox of Asymmetry, Language as a Scale

Etienne de la Vaissière, EHESS (Cetobac), Early Global Points of View

SHIMADA Ryuto, the University of Tokyo, Describing the Early Modern World: Temporal and Spatial Analytical Problems and Solutions in Using the Dutch East India Company Records

Afternoon (Moderator: Masashi Haneda)

Nancy Green, EHESS, CRH, A Century of Transnationalism: Immigration History and Historiography

MURAKAMI Ei, Kyoto University, Maritime History of Modern China

OTA Atsushi, Hiroshima University, Piracy and Anti-Piracy Campaigns in Global History

Gyan Prakash, Princeton, Urban Form and Scale: Bombay, 1860-1940

November 6^th (Friday)

Joint event with the GHC project advanced seminar: Knowledge, Institution, Economies, Connected Histories and Global Dynamics

Corinne Lefevre, EHESS and CNRS (CEIAS) The Mughals of India: Imperial Competition and Cosmopolitanism

ZHONG Yijiang, the University of Tokyo, Citizen, Nation, and the Constitutional State in 19th-century Europe and Japan

Marc Elie, CNRS (Cercec), How to Re-integrate the Soviet Experience in the Transnational History of Environmental Concerns and Mobilizations (last third of the 20th century)

Xavier Paulès, The Worldwide Dissemination of the Chinese Game of Fan-tan 番攤, 1850-1950

On November 4^th, a round-table workshop was held in which Professor Adelman provided an interpretation of modern and contemporary history (from the 19^th century until the present) around the keyword of “inequality,” which was followed by comments submitted by the four researchers and then the responses from Professor Adelman. The four researchers had carefully read the paper submitted beforehand and arrived with quite extensive, well-prepared comments. The discussion thus came together well, with some high-quality arguments exchanged over topics such as the value and interpretation of significant events in recent history, approaches to the periodization, and the evaluation of some topics not raised in Professor Adelman’s report. With a one-hour presentation followed by three hours of debate, this was a prolonged but highly engaging session.

On November 5^th, four members of the GHC Tokyo hub, three researchers from the EHESS, and one member of the Princeton hub presented results of their individual approaches to the issue of scale in historical research. Each presentation, along with the questions and comments they elicited, covered a broad range of subjects, uncovering a diversity of views and opinions on key issues of historical scale, such as spatial and temporal limits and historical actors, as well as around some terms and concepts used in historical description: sovereignty, state, immigration, and piracy. Each of these form central issues within the methodology of global history studies and will likely be the subjects of continued debate throughout future GHC events.

On November 6^th, four researchers introduced their own research outcomes in connection with global history. The presentations covered subjects as diverse as the characteristics of the Mughal Empire and its society, an interpretation of Japan’s modernization, the responses of Soviet scientists toward environmental problems, and the global spread of a simple game characteristic of southern China. Common to each, however, was the serious attempt of each presenter to grapple with his/her chosen subject in terms of global history.

Although members from Berlin were able to attend the workshop only up until the second day’s morning session, following on from the Summer School in September, the main researchers from the four GHC hubs were able to share rich discussions based on their mutual scholarly interests. The sessions on the 4^th and 6^th were held as part of EHESS classes, with many graduate students in attendance. Participation in these sessions was particularly energetic amongst the EHESS students who visited the Tokyo hub and those who participated in the Summer School in September, and also amongst the graduate students sent to Paris from the Tokyo hub. The event gave a clear impression that the network amongst the GHC members is beginning to function in earnest.   (HANEDA Masashi)