The network is made possible by funding from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG.

We are a network of mainly historians who are interested in expeditions. From December 2021 to October 2024 we will meet in six workshops to share and discuss our insight about the politics, the actors, and the epistemology of expeditions during Modernity and Contemporary History. We aim to tackle several questions. Some of these are: 

How should we research and tell the story of an expedition? Where does an expedition start, and where does it end? How do politics shape expeditions? How do they change politics in turn? Who are the people who went on an expedition, and why? Which narratives about nation, empire, race, gender, or nature do they tell themselves and the public? How does the media portray these travelers and the people they met? How is nature represented? What and who do these stories written from the view of the metropole leave out? How can we bring left-out accounts and people back into the story? How is knowledge produced on an expedition? How are things collected or represented in the field? How is data processed, stored, used, or forgotten? What role does technology play? On which infrastructures do expeditions rely? And how do all these things change over time? Is there anything specific about expeditions that challenges or underpins periodizations such as Early Modern History, Modern History, High Modernity, Cold War History, or Contemporary History?

This blog will document our activities.

If you have questions or comments, please contact our coordinator Eike-Christian Heine.