Events

Towards the Transnational History of International Organizations: Methodology / Epistemology
6-7 April 2009
This was one of three international conferences prepared by the International Scientific Committee for the UNESCO History Project and relating to UNESCO's history. The conference was held at King's College and considered UNESCO as a case-study, and took a broader view of methodological issues relating to the study of the history of international organizations. The conference was part of an ongoing collaboration between the Centre and UNESCO in connection with the project on International and UN History and Archives. For further information, visit the conference web site.

United Nations and international history
18 June 2007
A meeting of the United Nations and international history project at the Centre for History and Economics was held on June 18 at King's College, Cambridge. The meeting discussed archival and other resources for the history of the UN and other international institutions, and new initiatives in curricula for the history of the UN and of humanitarianism. Jens Boel, the Archivist of UNESCO, talked about web-based resources for UN history. The meeting was held jointly with a meeting of the advisory committee, chaired by Chris Bayly, of the UN history project of the South Asia Initiative at Harvard University. Other participants included Ike Achebe, Sunil Amrith, Patricia Clavin, Emma Rothschild, Glenda Sluga and Jessica Reinisch.

UN/International History
16 June 2006
A small roundtable meeting, organised by Sunil Amrith, took place in Trinity College on 16 June 2006. The meeting discussed issues on the theme of the United Nations and international history; it was also concerned with a special journal issue arising from an earlier meeting in Sydney. Participants included Ike Achebe, Patricia Clavin, Emma Rothschild, Glenda Sluga and Laura Wong. Click for the programme. Click for a list of participants.

Symposium On The 60th Anniversary Of UNESCO
Paris, 16 to 18 November 2005
Click here for further information. The conference proceedings (book cover) are now available. The symposium was organised by UNESCO in partnership with amongst others the Centre for History and Economics.

Meeting Of The International Network On The International History Of International Organisations: The UN, UNESCO And Other NGOs After 60 Years
5.00- 6.30 pm, 8 July 2005, Sydney, Australia.

In celebration of the 60th anniversary of the UN and UNESCO, a special networking meeting was held on approaches and outcomes in recent historical initiatives in the history of international organizations and international history.

The meeting considered, among other themes:

the use of history/archives of international organizations as an alternative to the focus on diplomatic history and the relations between States in international history;
The place of the history of ideas, the importance of cultural exchanges, and the history of transnational ‘civil society’ in international history.

This meeting was attended by representatives of key projects on the UN and UNESCO, including Jens Boel, UNESCO archivist, Patrizia Dogliani from the University of Bologna, and Sunil Amrith, the Centre for History and Economics, Cambridge University. The organisers of this meeting are also planning on editing a related special journal issue on the Cultural History of the United Nations.

The network invites participants interested in developing projects in these areas, or already working in this historical area to join us for a discussion of the state of the field, and coincides with the 20th International Congress of Historical Sciences to be held at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.

For further information, please contact, Associate Professor Glenda Sluga,
at glenda.sluga@arts.usyd.edu.au.

UN History
24 June 2005
A one-day meeting, organised by Sunil Amrith and Holger Nehring, took place in the Saltmarsh Rooms, King's College, Cambridge on 24 June 2005. The meeting was part of a series of meetings on UN history, and took place close to the 60th anniversary of the signing of the UN Charter in San Francisco on 26 June 1945. Participants included Paul Kennedy from Yale University and St John's College, and Jens Boel, Chief Archivist of UNESCO. Jens Boel talked about the UNESCO History Project which is underway in connection with the 60th anniversary of UNESCO, and Paul Kennedy talked about his forthcoming book on the history of the UN.