UCL’s Centre for Transnational History offers eight bursaries for MA and PhD students from outside the UK to attend its conference on “Rewriting
Histories – The Transnational Challenge”, taking place at UCL on 30 April – 1 May 2010. Bursaries will cover train or air fares up to £150 (or up to £300 for non European destinations) and two nights in a hotel. Five bursaries are offered to applicants from the European continent and three bursaries will go to applicants from outside Europe. Applicants are expected to be currently registered for a MA or PhD programme and will have to attend the entire programme of the two-day conference. Applications should include a short CV and a statement of not more than 350 words explaining why the conference is relevant to the applicant’s research interests.
Applications should reach UCL’s Centre for Transnational History via email (a.korner@ucl.ac.uk) no later than 28 February 2010.

Rewriting Histories - The Transnational Challenge
Organised by UCL’s Centre for Transnational History, this two-day conference will discuss methodological approaches to transnational history and the challenges transnational history presents to the different sub-disciplines of history. Its aim is to explore how transnational history works in practice, to discuss the theoretical implications of rethinking and rewriting history from a transnational perspective, and to consider the impact this process will have on representations of the past within the academic discipline as well as on history more generally defined. Our approach to transnational history is inclusive rather than exclusive. We do not understand transnational history as an attempt to write nations or states out of history, but we look for structures that transcend the boundaries between them. Transnational history, as we understand it, neither replicates nor contradicts the approaches of International Relations or Diplomatic History, but instead wishes to revisit research in these disciplines by taking into account patterns of transnationality. We believe that transnational history presents a challenge not only to historians of the modern period, when nationality became a dominant feature in the organisation of state structures.Modern historians can learn from historians of earlier periods, who are transnational historians by the very nature of their subject matter; but also we wish to think about the ways in which the principle of nationality has insinuated itself into nineteenth- and twentieth-century treatments of earlier periods of history, “nationalising” medieval or early modern history. Finally, we wish to discuss how transnationality works within the different sub-disciplines of history, how historians of art and of medicine, ancient or medieval historians, economic, diplomatic and intellectual historians understand transnationality. What can historians learn from colleagues working in related disciplines? Is there a particular way to do transnational history? Is transnational history a method, a theory, or is it just a new way of thinking historically? Organised by historians working in various departments within UCL, the conference brings together experts from different parts of Europe and the world, as well as research students, teachers and professionals working for museums or the media. Panels will take a thematic approach, illustrating transnational approaches in different sub-disciplines of history. Each panel will include a theoretical introduction, a number of case studies and a comment, followed by general discussion. The proceedings will be framed by a keynote lecture and a round-table discussion.