History of Europe

Over the past twenty years, European historiography has undergone major changes. Research in political, economic, social, and cultural history, drawing on previously unpublished archives or reexamining classic subjects through the prism of new approaches and methodologies, has simultaneously promoted the decompartmentalization and “provincialization” of the continent. The circulation of actors, imaginaries, and practices is at the heart of this work, which is more the exception than the norm. Criticism of European historians often focuses on their Eurocentric bias and their focus on the national framework, which leads them to ignore the contributions of the global and transnational turn. These analytical perspectives are said to render them incapable of proposing a truly European history, one that is not limited to that of the EU or the western part of the continent. It is true that, in a more or less explicit way, the adjective “European” often refers to these areas in the works, with Central and Eastern Europe remaining a specific field of study.

1 - The logic of formation, decomposition, recomposition, and fragmentation of European regional spaces over the long term during the 19th and 20th centuries.

2 - The circulation of actors, ideas, practices, and imaginaries within the European space and between it and non-European worlds. In particular, we will reflect on the phenomena of appropriation, alteration, and rejection that these circulations can provoke among populations.

3 - The mental maps and practices through which actors shaped—and continue to shape—the continent's internal and external borders in relation to other cultural and political spaces. The “phantom border” between East and West, the result of the continent's division during the Cold War but based on ancient fractures, is one of the most emblematic examples of this.

By striving to think about Europe beyond and beneath its various national entities, this seminar aims to show how problematic the definition of “European history” is and how much it requires historians to constantly reflect on their research subjects.

Rethinking European divisions: imaginaries and practices

Calendar 2025-2026 

October 16, 2025
Repenser l’Histoire de l’Europe : Introduction au séminaire
Mathieu Fulla, Jakob Vogel, Agnieszka Wierzcholska (Sciences Po, Centre d'histoire))

November 13, 2025
Les mots des migrations portugaises (19e-21e siècles)
Victor Pereira (Université de Pau/Instituto de História Contemporânea da Universidade
Nova, Lisbonne)

December 11, 2025
Penser/classer : à l’Ouest des savoirs et des cartographies mentales de l’Europe
Nadège Ragaru (CNRS/CERI Sciences Po Paris)

January 15, 2026
Concealment, Exception, Cooperation : State Violence in Europe since 1945
Pavel Kolář (Univ. Konstanz, Allemagne)

February 19, 2026
Revisiting Eastern, Rethinking European: Developing a Historical Narrative in Contemporary Ukraine
Sofia Dyak (Lviv Center of Urban History, Ukraine)

March 12, 2026
Qu'est-ce que l'UE dans l'histoire de l'Europe : Un État ?  Une perspective géohistorique du temps long
Sylvain Kahn (Sciences Po, Centre d'histoire)

April 16, 2026
L’Europe de l’Est : un pont entre l’Ouest et le Sud (1930s-1970s) ?
Sandrine Kott (Université de Genève, Suisse)

May 21, 2026
In the Storm of Transformation: Shipbuilding in (post)socialist Europe and in the EU since 1970 in global context
Philippe Ther (Université de Vienne, Autriche)