History of the World
Students study global history from 1300 to the present, working in teams on shared historical problems and posting their findings in a global gallery.
Research & Methods
From global learning to new knowledge.
Global History Lab brings students through a connected sequence of historical learning, qualitative research methods and public-facing scholarship.
Learning Journey
A curriculum designed to move students from learners to researchers.
The Global History Lab begins with shared historical learning and develops into original student research. Students first encounter global history through collaborative case studies, then build qualitative research skills, design independent projects and share their work through Global History Dialogues.
This model treats the classroom as a global research community. Students work with peers across partner institutions, learn from different locations and lived experiences, and create new narratives about the global past.
History of the World → Qualitative Research Methods → Global History Dialogues → Narrative Observatories
How the programme works
A connected pathway from historical understanding to public research.
Qualitative Research Methods
Learners develop skills in oral history, documentary methods, visual sources, ethics, archiving and research design.
Student Research
Students apply their methods to original research projects rooted in local experience and global historical questions.
Public Dialogue
Final projects can be shared through Global History Dialogues, extending the classroom into a wider public conversation.
Course 1
History of the World
History of the World introduces students to global history from 1300 to the present. Students work in teams, solve common historical problems and share their work in a gallery space where peers across the GHL network can comment, compare and collaborate.
The course teaches global history globally. It encourages students to debate integration and disintegration across borders, while bringing refugee and non-refugee learners into a single collaborative learning ecosystem.
Collaborative case studiesStudents analyse historical problems as teams.
Global gallery exchangeWork is shared for comments and feedback across locations.
Peer learningStudents learn from local and distant classmates.
Introduction to History of the World
Professor Jeremy Adelman
History Dialogue Trailer
Introducing the follow-up research project to Global History Lab
Course 2
Qualitative Research Methods
Qualitative Research Methods carries the exchange started in History of the World one step further. It helps students move from interpreting existing narratives to designing and conducting original research projects that can continue through Global History Dialogues.
The course develops practical skills in oral history, documentary practice, visual sources, ethics, archiving and research planning. Students learn how to create studies and stories about migration, resettlement, integration, exclusion and other themes shaped by global history.
Global History Dialogues
The next step in the Global History Lab journey.
Global History Dialogues builds on the History of the World and Qualitative Research Methods courses, providing a dedicated platform where students develop, publish and share original research with an international audience.
Student projects explore contemporary issues through oral history, qualitative research and collaborative storytelling, demonstrating how local experiences connect to wider global historical processes.
The Global History Dialogues Project
Student research beyond the classroom
Narrative Observatories extends the pathway from student research into collaborative international research.
Narrative Observatories
Continuing the research journey after Global History Dialogues.
Narrative Observatories is a follow-on research platform for Global History Lab graduates. It enables alumni and researchers to investigate how stories shape identity, belonging, exclusion and power in real time.
Working across borders, Observers track narratives of emergency, integration, polarisation and reconciliation, applying a shared framework that helps connect local stories to wider global patterns.
Research Skills
A practical toolkit for creating historical knowledge.
GHL’s methods training helps students work critically and responsibly with sources, stories and communities.
Historical Analysis
Students work with primary sources, case studies and global historical questions to understand processes of integration, disintegration and change.
Oral History
Learners develop ethical interviewing, listening and storytelling practices, with attention to memory, power and lived experience.
Visual Sources
The course introduces students to visual literacy and the interpretation of still and moving images as historical sources.
Archives
Students learn how archives are formed, how to use them, and how to think critically about what they include and exclude.
Research Design
Learners develop research questions, identify sources, assess feasibility and build structured project plans.
Peer Feedback
Research develops through workshops, comments, presentations and dialogue across the wider Lab network.
GHL’s pedagogy depends on connection: between students, teachers, locations, histories and research questions.
Teaching Model
A hybrid classroom anchored by Teaching Fellows.
The Lab combines online learning with local teaching, team meetings and direct encounters between Teaching Fellows and students. This hybrid model allows students to engage with shared global course materials while remaining rooted in local classroom communities.
Teaching Fellows support discussion, teamwork, research development and feedback. Their role is central to making connected learning feel personal, rigorous and responsive to local context.
Observatory Themes
Four initial themes for observing stories in motion.
Narrative Observatories extends the Lab’s teaching and research mission by enabling alumni to investigate how stories shape identity, belonging, exclusion and power in real time.
Emergency
Exploring how narratives emerge and circulate during crisis, displacement and disruption.
Integration
Investigating stories of settlement, belonging, adaptation and exclusion across communities.
Polarization
Studying how narratives divide communities, shape identities and influence public life.
Reconciliation
Exploring how stories can help communities repair relationships and imagine shared futures.
Rapid Response History
Capturing stories before they harden into dominant accounts.
At the heart of Narrative Observatories is the idea of Rapid Response History: capturing voices and perspectives as events unfold, before they are rewritten into official or dominant narratives.
The Observatories combine global history, ethnography, narratology, qualitative analysis and digital collaboration across borders. Together, they form a living narrative commons shaped by GHL graduates and research associates.
400+
alumni invited to the pilot
72
graduates joined the first cohort
4
initial thematic Observatories