FEEGI - an organization of scholars dedicated to the study of the expansion of Europe and the world-wide response to that expansion, from its beginnings in the fourteenth century to the middle of the nineteenth century

The Forum on European Expansion and Global Interaction (FEEGI) exists to promote study and research related to the history of European expansion and the complicated reactions to it worldwide. The initial focus of the Forum is on the early modern period, but the study of later periods in the history of European expansion is not excluded.
FEEGI aims to encourage scholarship and collaboration across the boundaries of national histories and disciplinary frameworks.

Members come to FEEGI from a wide range of fields, interests, and perspectives. Some members study Europe, others European colonies overseas. Some focus on European expansion, while others work on powerful kingdoms and empires or small scale societies around the globe with which Europeans had different kinds of interactions. We focus on the colonist and the colonized, on the conqueror and the conquered. We specialize in different oceanic basins and land masses. Some of us adopt a global perspective while others pursue microhistory. Some live within nations whose histories are deeply entangled with the issues central to FEEGI's intellectual scope. But, together, we look at places and people touched directly and indirectly, benignly or catastrophically, by the process of enhanced global interaction that commenced in the fourteenth century.

FEEGI holds a biennial conference in even-numbered years. The first meeting in 1996 established a practice that continues to the present: panels at FEEGI meetings are organized topically, rather than geographically or by nation, to encourage comparative thinking across large amounts of space and time. By custom all sessions have been plenary, thus privileging the collective and collegial interaction which is at the heart of FEEGI's enterprise, and offering the possibility of making theoretical connections outside the limits of a conference session.

FEEGI hosts an official website with an electronic Newsletter (http://feegi.org), manages an email distribution and discussion list (feegi@lists.uoregon.edu), and is affiliated with Itinerario (Itinerario@let.leidenuniv.nl).

The Forum is an affiliated organization of the American Historical Association, and is linked to the journal Itinerario, which is based in Leiden, The Netherlands. FEEGI also has established partnerships with the John Carter Brown Library and the Huntington Library, two of many research institutions and other organizations with purposes and interests similar to FEEGI. In 2007, FEEGI has more than 200 members, largely based in North America but spanning the globe. The executive committee and membership invite you to become a member and participate in upcoming FEEGI activities.

New members are encouraged to join at any point during the year. Please download the Membership Form, which is a fillable PDF form (600 Kb), to give us your scholarly and contact information.

Members receive a discount of 11 dollars when subscribing to Itinerario (51 dollars instead of 62 dollars) and are automatically placed on a list for potential reviewers for future issues. Membership dues for 2007 are 20 dollars (USD)