Modern North American History

The political developments, societal transformations, cultural shifts, foreign policy initiatives, national security concerns, and international relations that originated from the US have left an indelible mark on the North American continent and the global landscape. This seminar series, organized by the Sciences Po Center for History (CHSP) in Paris and the Roosevelt Institute for American Studies (RIAS) in the Netherlands, forms a platform to explore these diverse and interconnected themes. 

This series, one of very few of its kind in Europe, intersects with various significant historiographical trends, continuing the move towards a more integrated view of US and North American history. It pays special attention to the inclusion of global, imperial, transnational, and interconnected histories to reframe our understanding of the United States’ place in the world and the emerging focus on international environmental history and issues.

The platform, which meets once a month in a hybrid format, encourages active participation from doctoral students and aims to serve as an open and inclusive forum for discussing some of the most innovative recent scholarship. It aspires to bring together historians of different backgrounds and in different stages of their career, foster a historiographical and interdisciplinary conversation, and critically consider the contemporary societal and political ramifications of the historical events under discussion.

Provisional Calender 2024-2025

1. 23 September 2024, 17:00-18:30 CEST (online)
   Melani McAlister (George Washington University), Promises, Then the Storm: Promises, Then the Storm: Notes on Memory, Protest, and the Israel-Gaza War
2. 7 October 2024, 17:00-19:00 CEST (hybrid, in Person at Sciences Po)
   Jayita Sarkar (University of Glasgow), Global Southwests: Capital and Uranium in Africa and America
3. 18 November, 2024, 17:00-18:30 CET (online)
   James T. Sparrow (University of Chicago)
4. 9 December 2024, 17:00-18:30 CET (online)
   Emma Day (Oxford University)
5. 27 January 2025, 17:00-18:30 CET (online)
   Evan McCormick (Columbia University)
   Remembering a Presidency: The Obama Presidency Oral History Project
6. 17 February 2025, 17:00-18:30 CET (online)
   Joel Suarez (Harvard University)
   Towards a Global Labor History of the Volcker Shock: Mexico, Informality, and Undocumented Labor
7. 24 March 2025, 17:00-19:00 CET (hybrid, in Person at Sciences Po)
   Evan Bonney (Sciences Po, Centre d'histoire)
   Forestry and the Intermountain Experiment that Transformed Executive Power in the Age of Empire, 1897-1914
8. 14 April 2025, 17:00-18:30 CEST (online)
   Gretchen Heefner (Northeastern University)
9. 19 May 2025, 17:00-19:00 CEST (hybrid, in Person at RIAS)
   Jeanine Quené (RIAS)
   The (Un)changing Nature of U.S. Women's Conservatism Across the Twentieth Century