CMY - Junior Scholars Seminar in the Contemporary History of Europe in the World

Cambridge- LMU-Yale Junior Scholars Seminar in the Contemporary History of Europe in the World (CMY)

Contemporary European history—broadly defined as the history of the continent since c. 1900—is a lively area of historical enquiry. As a relatively young field, however, its ‘academic infrastructure’ is still developing. One promising methodological turn has invited scholars to think beyond national historiographical traditions and narrower topics that consider Europe in geographical isolation and instead interrogate the history of Europe’s relationship to other parts of the world. Practitioners of this approach engage with the history of the region, varyingly, in comparative, international, transnational, and global contexts. They tend to consider Europe’s interactions with other non-European nations, regions, or empires or its role in global processes like migration, globalization, environmental change, epidemics, among many others.

In support of a new generation of historians in this field, the Department of History at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, the Faculty of History at the University of Cambridge, and the Department of History at Yale University are pleased to announce a new, three-part collaborative seminar for junior scholars working on themes pertaining to the contemporary history of Europe in the world. This collaboration aims to create a space for PhD candidates and post-docs at the three partner universities to advance their research by engaging with cutting-edge debates, workshopping writing-in-progress, and building international intellectual networks at an early stage in their careers.

CMY will invite a small group of junior scholars from each of the three partner institutions to participate in three two-day seminars. The first seminar will be held at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (Munich, Germany) on 27–28 May 2024. The second will take place at Cambridge University (Cambridge, UK) on 29–30 May 2025. The third will be at Yale University (New Haven, Connecticut, US) on 22–23 September 2025. The seminars will include opportunities to discuss important methodological and historiographical approaches, to engage with recent literature, as well as to discuss precirculated papers (e.g. historiographical, conceptual or methodological think pieces, dissertation chapters or article drafts) with an international group of both junior and senior scholars. All selected applicants will receive full funding to participate in all three seminars.

CMY is co-directed by Jennifer Allen (Yale), Kiran Klaus Patel (LMU), and Pedro Ramos Pinto (Cambridge). Each seminar will also involve the participation of additional senior scholars from the respective host institution.