How have the circulation of people, commodities and ideas shaped our world throughout time? The Global History Research Cluster is one of the research areas of the History @ Erasmus research community. It analyses such global flows and networks from a long-term historical perspective. Our research seeks to explain the ways in which these networks and flows have influenced the everyday lives of people, their identities and ideas, and how they have set commodities and their meanings in motion.
Global histories often illuminate contemporary issues in surprising and productive ways, and we consider participation in public debates and public outreach a vital part of our academic work.
The research project ‘Sport and Nation’ focuses on talented migrant athletes in football and the Olympics in the context of changing citizenship, ‘complex nationality issues’ and elite migration. We will emphasize how ideas, institutions and context in this global ‘race for talent’ have changed over the past century and highlight the paradox of states promoting the ‘nation’ without ‘nationals’.