On Monday, 13 July 2026, Oleksandr Polianichev from Södertörn University in Stockholm will be a guest speaker at the Colloquium on Eastern European History at the University of Münster. From 6.15 pm, he will give a lecture in Room F3 of the Fürstenberghaus on the topic: ‘Partners in Empire? Ukrainian Cossacks, Imperial Loyalty, and Local Pride in the Caucasus’. If you are interested, you can find the abstract for the lecture here: Abstract
The lecture will be held in English.
Students at the University of Münster and anyone else interested are very welcome to attend.

On 26 October, Sarah Albiez-Wieck, Raquel Gil Montero, and Xosé M. Núñez-Seixas will introduce their new book "The Spanish Empire. A Global History, 1478-1975" to the public.

The event will take place at Käte Hamburger Kolleg, Servatiiplatz 9, in Münster. 

From 11 to 13 June 2026, the University of Münster hosted the major annual conference of the Association for Political History (APH). Under the title ‘Dynamising and Decentring Empires. A Recalibration of the History of the Political’, international scholars discussed new perspectives on global and trans-imperial history. As a partner of the conference, the Centre for Empire Studies (CES) looks back on an inspiring programme.

Christiane Hoth de Olano is a historian specializing in Latin American and Caribbean history with expertise in environmental history, the history of knowledge and science. Since June 1, 2026, she has been a Research Fellow at the German Historical Institute in Washington, D.C. Prior to her stay in Washington, she has been affiliated with the Centre for Empire Studies (CES) at the University of Münster. From June to August 2026, the CES is delighted to welcome her as a visiting scholar. She received her Ph.D. from KU Eichstätt-Ingolstadt in 2024 and has held academic appointments at the University of Bern and UniDistance Suisse in Brig, Switzerland.
Her research examines the production of knowledge in frontier contexts, with particular attention to the long nineteenth century. She has published on missionary encounters, exhibitions and collections, drawing on approaches from material culture studies and the history of photography. She is also interested in community knowledge and engagement-oriented history, especially in connecting academic research with teaching and public engagement in higher education.
At CES, her current postdoctoral project explores the environmental history of water in the imperial contexts of the Caribbean during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Her office is currently in Room 219 in the Fürstenberghaus.

The Centre for Empire Studies (CES) would like to announce the upcoming major conference of the Association for Political History (APH), which will take place in Münster from June 11 to 13, 2026, under the title “Dynamizing and Decentring Empires. A Recalibration of the History of the Political.”

The conference is being organized primarily by Jacco Pekelder and the ZNS Centre for Dutch Studies. In addition to the CES, other partners include the Research School Political History (RSPH/OPG), Utrecht University with the Security History Network/History of International Relations (SHN), and the Chair of Contemporary History at Heidelberg University (Silke Mende).

The conference program can be found here: ApH Program

To participate, please register in advance via the following link:
https://indico.uni-muenster.de/event/4115/registrations/4156/

Next Monday, 18 May 2026, Dr Franzisa Davies from the  Leibniz-Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung  in Potsdam will give a lecture entitled ‘Liberation from the Empire: Ukraine, Poland and the Emergence of the New Europe, 1980–1991’ at the Department of Eastern European History’s colloquium.

Students and other interested parties are warmly invited to attend at 6.15 pm in Lecture Theatre F3 in the Fürstenberghaus at Domplatz 20–22.

“Kandik fights against evil. Using her superpowers, the heroine protects her village from attackers – in the comic. Sudanese artist Sara Amin drew inspiration for this from history. ‘Kandake’ was the name given 2,000 years ago to the queens of Meroë, in the Nubian kingdom of Kush. During the 2018–19 revolution, Sudanese female activists were called ‘Kandake’. They fought for democracy and freedom, sadly without superpowers. The revolution is considered to have been ‘stolen’.” Using this example from the volume “Sudan Retold”, Cornelia Wegerhoff illustrates how every era reinterprets stories and thereby preserves them (Amnesty Journal 02/2026).
The journalist will host the book launch with Larissa-Diana Fuhrmann and the artists Amna Elhassan and Rund Alarabi. They have contributed to the art book, which features works by 40 cultural practitioners – including the illustrator who depicts ‘Kandik’ as a superheroine and the musician who blends Sudanese sounds with hip-hop, jazz and reggae. Larissa-Diana Fuhrmann will provide food for thought, researching the impact that violent conflicts have on artists, and conversely, the influence of art on affected communities. Sandra Hetzl will provide German-Arabic translation, and Ibrahim Abdulhalim will perform music.
Admission is free – donations are welcome.
The event is organised in collaboration with various associations and institutions. These include Afrikanische Perspektiven e.V., vhs-Münster, Postcolonial, Transnational and Transcultural Studies at the Department of English at the University of Münster, Eine-Welt-Forum Münster e.V., Darfur-Hilfe e.V., Arabisch-deutscher Literaturkreis | ArDeLit, and Afrika Kooperative e.V.
Further information can be found at: https://afrikanische-perspektiven.de

 On Wednesday 13 May 2026, Dr Morag Wright from the DFG Research Training Group 2571 ‘Empires. Dynamic Change, Temporality and Post-Imperial Orders’ will give a lecture in Freiburg on the topic ‘Re-centring the Pacific: The Inter-imperiality of Colonial Labour Routes’. Given the connection to the theme of “Empire”, the Centre for Empire Studies would like to draw attention to this event and warmly invite students and other interested parties to attend. 

The lecture will begin at 6.15 pm in Lecture Hall F2 of the Fürstenberghaus (Domplatz 20–22).

Once again, the CES would like to draw your attention to a lecture on the theme of ‘Empire’ as part of the Colloquium on Eastern European History. On Monday, 11 May 2026, Yurii Zazuliak will give a lecture on the topic: ‘Slavery, Conversion, and Ethnicity in Late Medieval Galicia’. As was the case last week, the lecture will be delivered in English.
Students and anyone else interested are warmly invited. The event begins at 6.15 pm in Lecture Theatre F3 of the Fürstenberghaus.

On 27 April 2026, Dr Ulrich Hofmeister from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich will give a lecture at the Colloquium on Eastern European History on the topic: ‘Migrating Cities: The Relocation of Towns in the Pre-modern Tsarist Empire’. 
Students and anyone else interested are warmly invited to attend. The event will take place in Lecture Theatre F3 of the Fürstenberghaus and begins at 6.15 pm.

On Wednesday 22 April 2026, Dr Kevin Lenk (University of Heidelberg) will give a lecture as part of the Colloquium on Modern and Contemporary History on the topic: ‘A Toad Named Leviathan: Security, Statehood and International Law in the Maritime Interregnum (1890–1958)’.
The lecture examines how colonial empires responded to the uncertainties triggered by new forms of shipping by creating trans-imperial security regimes and new legal orders that consolidated imperial power relations at sea and continue to have an impact on international law to this day.

On 9 and 10 February 2026, the CES will hold a workshop on the topic:  ‘Imperial Frontiers. Global and local entanglements’.

Those interested can register to participate in the workshop by 31 January 2026 at ces(at)uni-muenster.de.
The detailed programme for this conference can be found here: CES Workshop Programme

The conference "The Imperial Dimension of Catherine II's Legislative Commission (1767–1768)" will be hosted by Prof. Dr. Ricarda Vulpius and Prof. Dr. Lena Marasinova from the Department of Eastern European History at the University of Münster's History Seminar in collaboration with the Centre for Empire Studies (CES) on March 12–13, 2026.

Those interested in participating in the conference can register by writing to Irina Rempel (irina.rempel(at)uni-muenster.de).

The program can be found here: Program