On June 16, 2017, Professor David Bell (Princeton University), who was visiting the University of Tokyo through the Princeton - UTokyo Partnership, gave a talk at the University of Tokyo Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia. The title of the talk was "Questioning the Global Turn: The Case of the French Revolution."

Professor Bell began his talk by asking what approaches might be possible if one were to reconsider the French revolution, which has hitherto been interpreted and understood in the context of French history, from the stance of global history and presented a series of novel explanations and interpretations of the French revolution by citing numerous specific examples. He especially emphasized the analytical framework of "Atlantic world," and persuasively illustrated how many of the various incidents that occurred in this arena at the time were interrelated and interconnected. The question and answer session following the talk was extremely lively, giving the participants a strong sense of the fascination and potential of global history research. Professor Bell's explanation that there was not as yet any full-fledged studies that considered the American War of Independence and the French Revolution in a common framework and from a common viewpoint made a great impression on the attendees. This was due to the notion that it is the right and the duty of Japanese researchers, who belong to neither of the two countries, to conduct this research.