Towards a Global History of Anti-Fascism: Transnational Civil Society Activism, International Organisations and Identity Politics Beyond Borders, 1922–1945

This Academy of Finland post-doctoral research project aims to make an innovative contribution to the global history of transnational civil society activism. The project’s case study is focused on the transnational antifascist movement. It is based on new basic research in the global archives of the international antifascist organisations located especially in Berlin and Moscow. The project will engage in an important theoretical and methodological discussion on how the entanglements and contradictions between international politics (governmental) and transnational (non-governmental) influenced the formation of global civil society. The project will analyse how anti-fascist practices, enemy images, and identity politics were transferred and constructed across borders and across the Atlantic between Europe and the USA, and how international non-governmental organisations contributed to the making of the contemporary world community. The project is based at the History Department at Åbo Akademi University. As a part of the project, I will function as visiting researcher at the Friedrich-Meinecke-Institut, at the Free University in Berlin (Dec. 2017–August 2019).