The theme of the 2005-2006 Seminar Series in the Center for Historical Studies is "Histories of Globalization." Many scholars treat globalization as a process of recent vintage, a product of modern communcation and transportation networks that have rendered the movement of people, goods, and information so efficient that national boundaries and cultural differences are becoming less and less meaningful. This view of globalization as novelty, however, should provoke some close questioning by historians. First, treating globalization as a stricly contemporary affair shears this process from its historical roots. Can we understand the persistent hierarchies, inequalities, and frictions of this 'new world order' without reference to the historical processes and patterns that have preceded and influenced globalization in our time? Second, should we regard contemporary globalization as a singular and novel process, particular to the rise of the modern West, or merely as the latest wave in a series of 'globalizations' that have profoundly altered the way humans view their world?

The seminar series will provide a forum for historians, and historically-minded scholars in other disciplines, to address these questions, whether by examining the parallels and differences with earlier shifts in 'global' integration, by historicizing the current globalizing wave, or by considering the connections between past and present processes of globalization.

Seminar discussions are based on pre-circulated papers, which participants are asked to read in advance. Copies of the papers will be available in the History Department office ten days before each seminar or may be requested by email from historycenter@umd.edu.