Lecture by Matthias Middell (Leipzig University) "Comparative History and Cultural Transfers"

Matthias Middell - prominent scholar in the history of transfers.

The lecture explored first some aspects of the history of comparison and its impact on concepts in modern historiography. Secondly, there was an overview on approaches that address the history of connections and why they came to the fore over the past two decades. There are of course various variants of analyzing connections from entangled history and histoire croisée to the study of cultural transfers, métissage and acculturation. They are presented in their capacity to shed light on different aspects of global and/or transnational connectivity. As a sort of conclusion the lecture discussed if comparison and the investigation of connections could go together or are rather exclusive as methods in today's historiography.