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.
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.
Program Fall 2026
2 September 2026, 12:15-14:00
Fabio Ferrarini (ekstern lenke) (University of Milan), book talk: Italian Fascism in the Nordic Countries (ekstern lenke) (1919–1945)
Venue: Undervisningsrom 130, Building: Sydnesplassen 12–13
23 September 2026, 12:15-14:00
Stephan Sander-Faes (UiB), draft monograph “The Habsburg Monarchy, 1648-1740: A Book Project”
Peter Good (UiB), current research “Iran, Persia and the Wider World: Understanding a Cultural Superpower in World History”
Venue: Undervisningsrom 130, Building: Sydnesplassen 12–13
2 October 2026, 12:15-15:00
TBA
28 October 2026, 12:15-14:00
Jonas Ochs (UiB), research/Master`s project "Pandemics in Public History: Comparing the Social Impact of the Black Death, the Spanish Flu and Covid-19"
Elena Kochetkova (UiB), UiB-MIT research project "Usable Past: Connecting History and Engineering"
Venue: Undervisningsrom 130, Building: Sydnesplassen 12–13
4 November 2026, 12:15-14:00
Tamar Qeburia (ekstern lenke) (Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies (IOS)) "From Remote Landscape of the South Caucasus to Resource Frontier: Chiatura Manganese in Global Commerce, 1880–1920."
Venue: Undervisningsrom 210, Building: Sydnesplassen 12–13
10 November 2026, 12:15-14:00
Ellan Sperro (ekstern lenke) (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) "Technological Models as Object Lessons of Agitation"
Venue: Undervisningsrom 130, Building: Sydnesplassen 12–13
25 November 2026, 12:15-14:00
TBA
7 December 2026, 12:15-14:00
Anika Seemann (UiB), TBA
Venue: Undervisningsrom 130, Building: Sydnesplassen 12–13
Other events:
7 September, 12:00–15:30
Workshop: “The Kremlin’s Memory Policies and Mythmaking in Russia and Ukraine”
Venue: UiB Læringsarena, Nygårdsgaten 5, room Nordre Allmenning 3.
Events
Projects
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)
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).
The Usable Past: Connecting History and Engineering
2026–2027 — Forsknings- og undervisningsprosjekt finansiert av MIT–Norge Universitetet i Bergen Seed Fund «The Usable Past: Connecting History and Engineering»
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).
People
Group manager
Elena Kochetkova Førsteamanuensis
Group members
Camilla Brautaset Dekan
Sarah Hamilton Førsteamanuensis
Christhard Hoffmann Emeritus
Nathan Edwin Hopson Førsteamanuensis
Arne Solli Førsteamanuensis
Frode Ulvund Professor
Stephan Sander-Faes Førsteamanuensis
Marcus Colla Førsteamanuensis
Anders Fylling Stipendiat
Joanna Zofia Spyra Stipendiat
Ines Prodöhl Professor
Anika Seemann Førsteamanuensis
Trond Espen Teigen Bjoland Historiker ved Norsk Vegmuseum
Heidi Hannele Kurvinen Førsteamanuensis
Karina Hestad Skeie Professor
Interns
Jonas Ochs Master`s Program Global Development (UiB) (fall 2026)