Presenter: Burak Sayim (University of Antwerp)
Topic: The Making of Communism in the Middle East: Anticolonial Revolutions, Global Networks and Itinerant Militants (1910s-1920s) - chapter of an upcoming book
Respondent: Leyla Amzi-Erdogdular (Rutgers University Newark)
Abstract: The second chapter zooms in on the trajectories of the first generation of Middle Eastern communist militants. I make two principal arguments through these trajectories. First, I demonstrate that most, though not all, of these militants reached communist militancy as a consequence of their bid for national liberation and not as an internationalist alternative to nationalism. The caveat of the previous sentence is also where my second argument starts: The early years of the Communist International in the region were marked by the convergence of militants and groups with sundry political origins and coming from diverse networks. But convergence is not to be mistaken for coherence. In this chapter, I assert that forging united organizations out of a mélange of networks was a complicated project that left its imprint on the communist groups in the Middle East, as they evolved from being a network of networks to patchwork parties.
About the International, Global, and Transnational History Workshop
We are thrilled to announce that the International, Global, and Transnational History Workshop will be supported by ISERP, along with Professors Mark Mazower, Adam Tooze, and Matthew Connelly.
This newly designed workshop builds on its earlier version (International History Workshop) but aims to expand its scope - geographically, chronologically, and methodologically. A key new feature is the inclusion of a respondent for each guest speaker, fostering deeper engagement with the presented work.
Our goal is to bring together a diverse group of graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and faculty members interested in comparative, transnational, global, and international subjects. The workshop will meet weekly on Wednesdays, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., in Fayerweather Hall, Room 411, and will serve as a forum for discussing work-in-progress.
We hope you will find this schedule as engaging as we do and that many of you will join us this semester! To receive the paper (which will be distributed approximately a week in advance), please RSVP using this link. Only registered participants will receive the papers.
Full Spring Semester Schedule: First Half
February 5
Presenter: Dillon Banis (Columbia University)
Topic: “Children, Chocolate, and Colonialism: The Chocolate Marketing Revolution and the Rise of Working-Class Sugar Consumption in Imperial Germany, c.1850-1914” - dissertation chapter
Respondent: Carl Wennerlind (Barnard College)
February 12
Presenter: Karuna Mantena (Columbia University)
Topic: “The Rowlatt Satyagraha: Why and How Gandhi Civilized Disobedience” - chapter of an upcoming book on M. K. Gandhi and the politics of nonviolence
Respondent: Sandipto Dasgupta (New School for Social Research)
February 19
Presenter: Elidor Mëhilli (Hunter College, CUNY)
Topic: “Revise and Resubmit: An Albanian History of China in 1979”
Respondent: Mark Mazower (Columbia University)
February 26
Presenter: Angelo Caglioti (Barnard College)
Topic: “From the Alps to the Great Rift Valley: Hydrology, Hydropower and the Italian Colonization of Ethiopia (1935-1941)”
Respondent: Emmanuelle Saada (Columbia University)
March 5
Presenter: Janick Schaufelbuehl (University of Lausanne)
Topic: Crusading for Globalization: US Multinationals and Their Opponents Since 1945 (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2025) - book presentation (the introduction and a chapter will be shared)
Respondent: Rohan Shah (NYU)
March 12
Presenter: Burak Sayim (University of Antwerp)
Topic: The Making of Communism in the Middle East: Anticolonial Revolutions, Global Networks and Itinerant Militants (1910s-1920s) - chapter of an upcoming book
Respondent: Leyla Amzi-Erdogdular (Rutgers University Newark)
Elijah Ferrante, Dimitrios Mitsopoulos, Lélia Roche, Audrey Siraud & Ziqian Zheng - co-conveners of the IGT History Workshop
