The Sciences Po Centre for History (CHSP)
The Sciences Po Centre for History was founded in 1984 and brings together all research and teaching in history at Sciences Po, doctoral studies included. The CHSP is primarily concerned with political history, understood in the broadest sense and approached from a transnational and comparative perspective.
The CHSP has implemented several changes in recent years. We have increased and internationalised our staff, broadened our fields of research on a European and global scale, extended our chronological range back to the early modern period, and stepped up multidisciplinary collaboration. We have fully integrated our PhD students into our research activities, placed greater emphasis on their professional training, and regularly host post-doctoral fellows and visiting researchers.
At the CHSP, research and teaching are closely linked and geared towards a multidisciplinary, international outlook. We have 26 permanent faculty members, 50 PhD students, several post-doctoral fellows and 32 affiliated researchers, accompanied by a research support team.
We maintain several partnerships for academic collaboration with research centres, networks, and associations at the international level, such as with the London School of Economics and King’s College. The CHSP is active in the CIVICA network, established in 2019 by several major European universities including Sciences Po.
CHSP ACADEMIC POLICY
The CHSP specialises in contemporary political history, which includes:
- the study of the political realm: conceptual foundations; local, national, and supranational state institutions; distribution of powers; interactions with knowledge and expertise, or with arts, culture and intellectual debate
- the study of politics: parties; political competition; political cultures and identities; interactions with social movements and civil society organisations; political commitments, passions, and emotions; infrapolitical phenomena; social practices of participants in public life; situations of war and violence
- the study of public policy: biopolitics; environment; demography; culture; economics; and justice
- international history: European history; international relations; US foreign policy; the history of Russia and Central and Eastern Europe, of sub-Saharan Africa, of the Maghreb, of East and South-East Asia; diplomatic history; the new history of the Cold War.
HISTORY TEACHING
History is offered at all levels at Sciences Po—at the Undergraduate College, the graduate schools, the Doctoral School, and in Sciences Po Executive Education—and taught primarily by permanent faculty, post-doctoral fellows and PhD students.
Undergraduate history teaching is defined and coordinated by the Department of History, a unit under CHSP governance.
Doctoral studies in History
The Master’s in History delivered at the Sciences Po School of research is intended for students wishing to specialise in this discipline with a research degree. To round out their training, Master’s students are encouraged to follow the CHSP’s research activities and seminars.
The integration of PhD students from the Sciences Po School of research into the CHSP’s research activities is essential, and facilitated by the provision of specific workspaces. In addition to their involvement in organising research seminars, the CHSP offers PhD students the opportunity to organise an annual junior colloquium and to participate in the scholarly initiatives organised by the European and international networks to which the CHSP belongs.
The Centre for History Archives (AHC)
The CHSP has its own documentary resource centre, the Contemporary History Archives (AHC), which has been part of the CHSP since 1989. The AHC houses some 100 archival collections, mainly related to political history, and attracts many historians working on the period from the 19th century to the present day to the CHSP.
The Archives are a rich resource for master’s dissertations, theses, books and articles. The written sources are complemented by photographic collections, which can be used for iconographic research for exhibitions, films, or television documentaries.
Research impact
In addition to our conferences, seminars and scholarly events, the CHSP publishes an electronic peer-reviewed journal, established in 2007: Histoire@politique (FR).
The Centre engages in research dissemination through social networks such as twitter (FR).
