2026-06-26 –, Room 106 (Seats 105)
What does it mean to write and teach world history in the 21st century? This plenary session brings together historians whose work spans Africa, Asia, the Indian Ocean world, and China in a global context, this plenary examines the methodological and pedagogical challenges of narrating the past beyond the nation-state. Drawing on their diverse regional and thematic expertise, the panelists will discuss how historians balance what analytical scales best illuminate historical connections and how global history can be taught and written about in ways that remain both rigorous and accessible in an era of renewed nationalist storytelling.
Sharika D. Crawford is the inaugural Speedwell Professor of International Studies and Professor of History at the US Naval Academy. A historian of modern Latin America and the Caribbean, her research centers on Colombia, the circum-Caribbean, and African-descended communities more broadly. She brings them into her teaching of modern world history.
Laura J. Mitchell is Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine. A specialist in African and world history, her scholarship examines colonial South Africa, Dutch East India Company networks, and environmental and social histories of land, labor, and family. She writes and teaches history with comparative perspectives.
Heather Salter Associate Vice-Chancellor for Global ConnEXions and Professor of History at Northeastern University. A specialist in global and imperial history, her research explores empire, anti-colonial movements, and transnational politics. She is also a widely published scholar and co-author of world history textbooks used in classrooms worldwide.
Qiao Yu is Associate Professor of History at Capital Normal University in Beijing. She earned her Ph.D. in World History from Peking University (2013) and her B.A. from the History Department at Capital Normal University. She has been a visiting scholar at the University of Melbourne. Her research and teaching focus on environmental history, Australian history, and global history. She is particularly interested in agricultural development and drought management in modern Australia, as well as the history of species transmission across the Pacific and global historical methodologies.
She is the author of Agricultural Development and Environmental Change in Colonial Australia (1788–1901) (2024). At the undergraduate level, she teaches courses including "A Concise Global History" and "Modern Environmental History," engaging students with broad historical narratives and the intersection of human societies and the natural world.