Transnational history, 1750–present

The research group's main focus is on modern time period, covering historical and cultural processes from the 18th to the 21st century.

Bildet viser norske seilere i Afrika, sannsynligvis Sør-Afrika tidlig 1900-tall. — The image is taken from Guldbrandsen, Ågot and Fardal Klev, Ådne, Svinør. The Back of Norway – Looking Out to Sea, 1997 Photo: Bildet er hentet fra Guldbrandsen, Ågot and Fardal Klev, Ådne, Svinør. Ryggen til Norge - Blikket mot havet, 1997

Affiliation

About the research group

The research group “Transnational History, 1750–Present” was established in 2008 under the name “Transnational History and Cultural Encounters, 1850–Present.” The aim of the group was to bring together colleagues from different disciplines and former departments. As a result, the group has become home to economic historians, cultural historians, ethnologists, migration historians, and scholars of religion.

The common denominator has been a shared interest in studying people and phenomena that transcend political and geographical borders. This includes the transaction and exchange of goods and services, the movement of people, and the transfer of culture and ideas — including processes of acculturation and the hybridization of identities. In short, we study historical and cultural processes in the 18th to 21st centuries that both facilitate and impede internationalization, serving as its causes as well as its consequences.

Externally funded research projects have been an integral part of the strategy of increasing the scale and scope of our research.

Programme for spring 2026

Our meetings and seminars are open to everyone, including interested students. Unless otherwise announced, we meet at 14:15--16:00 in the Corner Room on the second floor of Øysteinsgate 1. To access the drafts we are discussing and to confirm the date/venue, send an email to Anders Fylling or Elena Kochetkova.

4th February:
Marcus Colla (UiB): Book Chapter: "Memory in the Twilight of History / Scream, Memory: The Presence of the Past in European Politics and Culture, 1968–Present"

18th February:
Nathan Hopson (UiB): Work in Progress: “A Mess of Conspiracies and Malfeasance” — A brief genealogy of Japanese anti-anti-whaling conspiratorialism

18th March:
Anders Fylling (UiB): Thesis Chapter: "Establishment and Differentiation: Alvøen's Network of Materials, 1871–81"
Heidi Kurvinen (UiB): Work in Progress: "Transnational Entanglements and Knowledge Exchange in the Nordic Women’s Suffrage Movements, 1871–1921"

8th April:
Vladia Torres Herrera (UiB): Conference Paper Draft: "Local Responses to Commodity Diseases: Salmon Farming and Crisis in Chiloé, Southern Chile"
Elena Kochetkova (UiB): Article (Forum) Draft: "Zero Growth and Socialist Modernity in Eastern Europe, post-1945"

13th May:
Group Discussion: A New Study Course on Transnational History

29th May:

VENUE: SEMINAR ROOM 1, ØYSTENSGATE 3
Molly Pucci (Trinity Dublin) (external link): "The Right to Revolution: Communism, Law, and the Courtroom in the interwar United States"

3rd June:
Erik Hennum-Bergsagel (external link)(Norwegian Canning Museum, Stavanger): Project Talk: "Modernisering av sardinproduksjonen i Norge på 1960-tallet"

Projects

Merchants and Missionaries. Norwegian Encounters with China in a Transnational Perspective, ca, 1890-1937

The research group was instrumental in developing the NFR-funded research project Merchants and Missionaries. Norwegian Encounters with China in a Transnational Perspective, ca, 1890-1937 (see: Møter med Kina | Fagbokforlaget), and received funds from the Norwegian Research Council for a Seminar Series “Perspectives on transnational history” and other activities (HUMEVAL-prosjektet, 2018-2022).

Completed and ongoing Ph.D. projects

Completed Ph.D. projects from group members:

Per Kristian Sebak: A Transatlantic Migratory Bypass – Scandinavian shipping companies and transmigration through Scandinavia, 1898-1929 (23.3. 2012)
Michael I. Hertzberg: The Anti-Conversion Bill: Political Buddhism, ‘Unethical Conversions’ and Religious Freedom in Sri Lanka (26.2. 2016)
Olga Medvedeva: Norwegian Employees of the Chinese Customs Service, 1890-1927 (8.12. 2017)
Åsmund B. Gjerde: The Meaning of Israel. Anti-Zionism and Philo-Zionism in the Norwegian Left, 1933-1968 (29.3. 2019)
Simon Gogl: Laying the Foundations of Occupation: Organisation Todt and the German Construction Industry in Occupied Norway (NTNU høst 2019)
Sara Kohne: Gentrifiseringens flertydighet. En kulturvitenskapelig analyse av endringer i to byområder i Berlin og Oslo (7.2. 2020)
Kristine Sævold: Tax Havens of the British Empire (16.12. 2022)
Trond Espen Bjoland: Norwegian-American Identities in Small-Twon Wisconsin (6. 12. 2024).

Ongoing Ph.D. projects from group members:

Anders Fylling: Resources, Relationships, and Networks: The Material Foundations of Alvøen Papirfabrikk, 1871–1930 (ongoing)

Publications

Publications (selected)

Elena Kochetkova:

Kochetkova, Elena (2024). The Green Power of Socialism: Wood, Forest, and the Making of Soviet Industrially Embedded Ecology.
Global fat resources: Connecting themes, approaches and narratives, ca. 1850-2022, special issue ed. by Elena Kochetkova, Matthias Heymann, Ines Prodöhl, Global Environment (forthcoming in 2026)

Marcus Colla:

(With Anna Gutgarts and Oded Steinberg) Zeitenwenden: New Approaches to the History of Periodization and Time, ca. 1750 to the Present (De Gruyter, forthcoming in 2026)
(With Paul Betts) Rethinking Socialist Space in the Twentieth Century (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024)
Prussia in the Historical Culture of the German Democratic Republic: Communists and Kings (Oxford University Press, 2022)

Christhard Hoffman:

Mellom rasehygiene og religionssosiologi. Arvid Brodersens avhandling om den hebraiske eugenikken (1929/31). Historisk Tidsskrift 104:1 (2025>): 41-57.
Forced Migrants in Nordic Histories, Helsinki: Helsinki University Press 2025, ISBN 978-952-369-130-8, bidragsyter og medredaktør (sammen med Johanna Leinonen, Miika Tervonen, Hans Otto Frøland, Seija Jalagin, Heidi Vad Jønsson og Malin Thor Tureby).