Recapping the “Orientation Workshop for Students of M.A. Programme in Comparative and Public History” conducted on 4 September 2021

The Orientation Workshop for the M.A. Programme in Comparative and Public History was conducted on 4 September 2021, which was attended by over 110 new students. At the workshop, the Department’s teaching staffs provided students with information on programme features, study schemes and courses offered. Representatives of the M.A. Programme Alumni Association also gave an introduction on the alumni association and shared their learning experience with new students, enabling them to learn more about the fruitful university life. Students were keen to take the opportunity to meet and exchange views with the teaching staffs and academic advisors.

 

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Recapping the Academic Seminar “Transnational History as Methodology” conducted by Prof. Stuart MCMANUS on 10 September 2021

Prof. Stuart MCMANUS delivered an illuminating workshop on “Transnational History as Methodology” on 10 September 2021 to our graduate students, during which he led lively discussions on historical methodologies, global history and microhistory. The discussions probed into the idea of global history as meta-geography, whose spatial frameworks provide us with a lens through which we understand and conceptualize the world. Unlike other methodologies, which look at who should be the subject of history (e.g. great men, the masses, ethnic groups) and how it should be approached (e.g. political, cultural, intellectual), global history is about one’s choice of “map of the world.” For instance, if one were to study Rome, the global history approach would look at the ancient city as part of the world as a whole, rather than using urban, national, regional or civilizational history approaches.

Based on texts on global history by different scholars, students discussed issues on what is meant by global history, its relationship to national, regional, continental, civilizational histories, how the methodology emerged, its application and sources. Students also discussed the difference between imperial history and global history, how global history enables historians to find out how nations influenced and shaped one another, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of global history and its future in different parts of the world. The discussions then shifted to microhistory, the relationship between the part (micro) and the whole (macro), as well as its advantages and disadvantages in practical application and global microhistory. Prof. MCMANUS highlighted the importance of looking at the “exceptional normal” to demonstrate how zooming in on an unusual case can often reveal a broad historical trend.

 

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For teachers and students who have information to share with the Department, please email your articles in both Chinese and English to chanfiona@cuhk.edu.hk by 4:00pm every Monday.