The planned symposium will be the fifth meeting of the International Standing Working Group on Cross-Cultural Influences in History of Education. After having discussed methods, networks, organizations, and transfers in the cross-cultural history of education at the previous meetings, the Hamburg symposium takes up the concept of “space” that has been intensively discussed within historical scholarship for more than a decade. Historical research has shown that spaces are constructions that are defined by cross-cultural interaction and symbolic practices and that undergo permanent changes of meaning. Whereas mostly nation states have been regarded as the spatial point of departure within the history profession, the globalization process and its history have raised the interest in transnational and global processes that go beyond national boundaries, differentiate between space and territory, and require the investigation of hitherto neglected actors in transnational spaces. Central points of discussion in the symposium shall not be only these transnational relations in the field of education but the way in which actors interpreted these contacts, how they viewed their own local places in relations to others, how they created, imagined, and defined spatial identities, and what symbolic practices of inventing and negotiating of these identities were used. In addition, processes of the transformation of geographical landscapes in time as well as the overlapping of various layers of spatial identities are also topics for discussion. Contributions that go beyond Western countries and accounts on how to conceptualize the process of “spatialization” in the history of education are particularly welcomed.
We invite you to submit proposals along the lines suggested above. They should include an abstract of the presentation (about 500 words in English) and a short CV of no more than two pages, including a list of relevant publications. The deadline for submissions is November 30, 2006. The chosen applicants will be notified by mid-December.