Research sparks hope of creating cross-globe historians

An Oxford academic has helped to initiate a unique research project with Princeton University that could change the way students study history. Professor Rana Mitter of Oxford University's Faculty of History and Department of Politics and International Relations will work with the award-winning historian Professor Linda Colley of Princeton University analysing the history of changing political identities in the eighteenth to twentieth centuries. They will use transnational approaches rather than studying nations individually. 'There is an increasing realisation that simply studying developments in separate countries is no longer sufficient', Professor Mitter says. 'Using the framework of political identity, we will be looking at everything from political change to the way societies think about themselves and ideas flowing across boundaries. 'For example, parts of Latin America established democratic processes in advance of similar changes in Europe and had a significant influence on European democratic developments. Another example is the influence of modernising reforms in Turkey on changes in China even though Turkey is not generally thought of as a country that had great influence in East Asia.' Professor Mitter is an expert in the emergence of Chinese nationalism and relations between China and Japan.