The Project was formed by merging several already existing networks of scholars from a wide range of associations and from many parts of the world. . . . The GUHP is based on a broad understanding of global urban history as encompassing any effort to think of cities as creations or creators of larger-scale or global historical phenomena. It celebrates the fact that scholars approach the intersection of urban and global history from different directions. Some travel along “transnational turns” in various subfields. Others draw on the concept of networks, looking at urban connections across oceans, between colony and metropole, or along trade routes and supply chains. Others see cities as incubators of historical change with potentially global ramifications or think of cities in relation to their variably-sized hinterlands. Some scholars aim mostly to compare different places. Some projects focus on a single “hub” city, others on two or more cities, still others on cities across an entire regions or empires; and still others aim to synthesize larger world-historical narratives. In short, global urban history, as understood in the GUHP, can comprise a variety of geographical scopes and theoretical inspirations.
The GUHP organizers are Mariana Dantas, Ohio University, Michael Goebel, Freie Universität Berlin, Emma Hart, University of St. Andrews, Nancy Kwak, University of California, San Diego, Tracy Neumann, Wayne State University, Carl Nightingale, University at Buffalo, SUNY, and Joseph Ben Prestel, Freie Universität Berli. More information can be found on the GUHP website.