About IHI

Founded in 1999, the International History Institute (IHI) at Boston University promotes the importance of history in understanding international cultural, economic, political, and military affairs. It supports interdisciplinary research and teaching and encourages public conversation through open and active participation in its conferences, lectures, seminars, colloquia and film series.

The Institute draws heavily upon its internal and external Faculty Fellows and Graduate Fellows in hosting lectures, seminars and roundtable colloquia. It assists Fellows and students in putting on panels and conferences. It also hosts occasional University lectures by esteemed academics and eminent ‘witnesses to history.’

The IHI has progressively expanded its outreach to the BU community and general public through hosting broadly themed conferences, lectures and symposia on the major issues that continue to shape the world in the 21st century: the two great wars as well as efforts at peacemaking, the end of empires and problems of post-colonial failed states, the politics of the first Cold War and prospect of new cold wars, and the conflict-ridden globalization of world markets and diplomacy.  For example, in honor of Veterans’ Day, 2023, IHI co-sponsored the screening of a U.S. military veteran-produced documentary, What I Want Them to Know, about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, followed by an in-person panel of BU-affiliated combat veterans.