We will explore how the transitory, often cyclical, nature of popular research topics and methods has both informed and obstructed our understandings of international movements, ideologies, agents and sources. Grouped into five thematic clusters (Migration; Far Right or Right-Wing Politics; the UN; Intellectual Histories, Economics), we will bring together scholars who are trying to make space for topics or approaches that have been conspicuously absent from key parts of the recent historiography on internationalism. Perhaps they were once on trend but have been eclipsed by other priorities, or perhaps they are deemed unconventional or passé within some of our academic disciplines or fields.
By being attentive to the pressures and rewards of the academic status, publication, and funding ecosystems, we will use this workshop to explore how the phenomenon of scholarly trends has shaped the study of internationalism and, more broadly, modern history at large. Has this short attention span kept the field ‘fresh’, or has it deterred (often materially) scholars from establishing deep knowledge on a subject? These meta-questions allow us to revisit some trends and bandwagons in recent historiography and explore the dynamics of a subfield with waxing or waning academic interest. We will discuss how these topics have regenerated once out of the spotlight and to what extent – if at all – the framework of internationalism can enrich them as they open up new directions and innovative approaches. Can scholars continue to turn to internationalism as a generative concept for researching these post-buzz topics?
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