What does this study entail?
Understanding the past is key in understanding the present. In the one-year master specialisation Global History and International Relations, you approach modern history from multiple angles, examining social, economic, political and cultural themes in the past – and connecting them with contemporary developments.
You will go to archives, museums, and libraries, looking for journals, letters or novels and protest pamphlets to build your cases. Based on such sources, you will learn how the public sphere has changed. Furthermore, you will learn how you can use interesting sources such as paper archives, digital databases, oral history, and political documents for your own research.
Is this the right programme for you?
When studying Global History and International Relations at Erasmus University Rotterdam, you will investigate how and why people, regions, nations, or empires behave like they do. By studying the development of different global histories you learn to understand how history is often a cultural, religious, social or political narrative created to legitimize nation states, conflicts, cultural identities or world domination. At the end of your master you will be able to answer questions such as:
- How do revolutions such as the 2011 Arab Spring or the Haitian Revolution of 1791 shape global order, both directly and indirectly?
- How and why did the global South challenge Western military, political and economic domination?
- How do contemporary societies remember their global pasts?
- How, where and when did imperial relations and post-colonial legacies shape global order?
- When did economic globalization start, how did it develop over time?
A word from our students
Five reasons to study Global History and International Relations at the EUR
- Learn while being in the field, go to archives and museums to find journals or protest pamphlets that will help you to build your cases;
- study in an international environment! According to the Times Higher Education, the Erasmus University is one of the 125 most international universities worldwide;
- you will benefit from the engaging tutorials and a dedicated team of lecturers;
- a master in Global History and International Relations allows you to work in many types of working environments. Whether you want to become a journalist, ambition a career in politics, or as a scientist, this master will prepare you thoroughly;
- studying Global History and International Relations in Rotterdam means living in a city with an interesting past and a dynamic present.