International History Institute

Mission

The International History Institute (IHI) at Boston University was founded to promote greater awareness of the importance of history to a full understanding of international affairs. It supports existing teaching programs at the graduate and undergraduate levels, promotes collaborative faculty research and publication — including across disciplinary lines — and invites wide participation in its conferences, public lectures, seminars, and film series.

The Institute sponsors faculty seminars, symposium, and multi-day conferences at which eminent scholars from other universities join IHI Fellows in scholarly discussion of major issues of international history. It also assists faculty in obtaining funding to organize conferences that expand upon their own research and to carry out advanced research leading to publication of monographs, edited books, or dedicated journal issues.

The Institute organizes and hosts occasional University lectures by senior international historians and eminent ‘witnesses to history.’ Conference papers presented at Institute events are available upon request. Some are distributed as “Occasional Papers.” Scholarly research carried out under the auspices of the Institute has been published in affiliated outlets such as the journal Diplomacy & Statecraft and the Praeger book series, International History (Erik Goldstein, William R. Keylor, and Cathal J. Nolan, editors).

The IHI is expanding its outreach to students and the general public through hosting of more broadly themed conferences and film series and talks about historical films.