Stanford Global Studies Division (SGS) provides funding for Global Research Workshops and, in partnership with the Stanford Humanities Center, for Global Humanities Research Workshops to support the sharing of research across fields and national boundaries that advances our understanding of the world.
In 2025-26, four workshops that explore interdisciplinary, transregional themes received funding from SGS. These workshops provide an avenue for faculty, graduate students, and scholars at Stanford and across the globe to collaborate and share research on issues of regional and global importance.
2025-26 Global Research Workshop recipients:
French Speaking Worlds: Then & Now (Cecile Alduy, Fatoumata Seck, JP Daughton, Dan Edelstein, Andrei Pesic)
This speaker series will examine the histories, literatures, and cultures of the various French-speaking worlds that have developed from the 16th century to the 21st century. Through this research workshop, we hope to foster a transregional approach that recognizes the turn towards South-South engagement, which signals an intention to move away from the center-periphery model that has prevailed thus far in French Studies. “French-Speaking Worlds: Then and Now” therefore aims to investigate the transnational, global, local, historical, social, and literary pasts and presents of this extraordinary constellation. It is envisioned as a space where diverse intellectual dialogues and the contested spaces they create can be fully embraced and explored in all their complexity.
The series aims at cross-pollination between different fields and disciplines and will present cutting edge work of interest to scholars and students in History, Political Science, Religious Studies, Race and Ethnicity Studies, Gender and Feminist Studies, French Studies, Law and Philosophy, South-Eastern Studies, Oceanic Studies, Migration Studies, among others. Interdisciplinary and transoceanic, our events will feature new directions in these fields emphasizing how scholars are bringing about new methodologies to expand our frameworks of analysis by putting in conversation various parts of the French-speaking world which spans Asia, the Americas, Europe, Africa, and the Indian and Pacific Oceans. These discussions will focus on themes that are central to the making of the French-Speaking World such as revolution, empire, decolonization, material culture, the literary marketplace, the circulation of knowledge, political philosophy, and globalization. Our speakers will use specific case studies from French-speaking regions to explore the intricate ways in which historical processes, race, class, gender, sexuality, and social practices intersect and influence the ideas and practices that shape our society and the world we live in.
Reframing Conservation: Cultural, Artistic, and Spiritual Approaches to Sustaining Biodiversity (Ariel Mayse)
The loss of biodiversity and the mass extinctions of animal and plant species are among the most catastrophic consequences of global climate change. Entire ecosystems are on the verge of collapse, and, as part of these systems of life, we stand on the edge of cataclysm. Yet even dooming scientific reports and dramatic models have not motivated large-scale shifts in policy or fundamental changes in the human relationship to the non-human world. The proposed interdisciplinary workshop aims to bridge between the biological sciences and the cultural study of the world's many species, sparking conversations about how to twin empirical and quantitative academic research with careful consideration of the cultural, spiritual, and philosophical significance of the animals and plants with whom we share life on this planet.
Our gatherings, which will feature a series of guest speakers as well as a diverse range of readings offered by participants, will center upon applied case studies rather than theoretical or abstract discussions, will highlight the following questions: How do narratives and storytelling, and other forms of aesthetic expression, impact attitudes and actions toward sustaining biodiversity? How do cultural values influence conservation efforts? What role might the moral emotions (from love, awe, and compassion to grief and empathy) and different forms of ethics play in conservation theory and action? What role have these emotions (and their absence) played historically and how can we learn from them? How does the capacious category of traditional ecological knowledge complement, and challenge, contemporary biological science? How might notions of kinship and obligation offer a frame for considering non-human life, from law and regulation (theories of justice, animal personhood/rights) to contemporary economic policy? How does the emergent field of multispecies justice help us consider these questions, and what does this type of interdisciplinary thinking do for environmental education?
2025-26 Global Humanities Research Workshop recipients:
Caste, Culture & Aesthetics (Usha Iyer)
This workshop emphasizes the need for recognizing caste as a critical node for theorizing marginalized cultural-aesthetic practices. The caste system adversely affects more than one billion people across the globe, in South Asia and its diasporas around the world. As a marker of deep inequity, caste is woven into every aspect of social life. Despite this, caste-oppressed communities have historically nourished sturdy counter cultures comprising a range of sociocultural forms and artisanal practices. However, the relationship between caste and cultural production is under-studied. This workshop will investigate the ways in which the graded social hierarchy of caste informs dominant aesthetic standards and values. It pays close attention to the counter-cultural assertions of Dalit and other marginalized communities that demand an anti-caste revisioning of categories like art, aesthetics, and culture. The workshop will create a space of dialogue, access, and interaction between scholars and practitioners of anti-caste art and culture. Rather than separate the realms of practice and theory, this workshop finds points of contact and complementarity between creative and critical practice. This approach is inspired by the ethos of anti-caste art which consciously blurs the boundaries between art, activism, and philosophy.
History of Capitalism (Zephyr Frank, Mark Granovetter, Gavin Wright)
As part of the Stanford Humanities Center Global Humanities Workshops, the History of Capitalism, provides an interdisciplinary forum for faculty and graduate students from both the humanities and social sciences. By examining capitalist development through a historical lens, the workshop bridges diverse research agendas across methods, geographic regions, time periods, and disciplines. Participants will explore how labor, science, environment, politics, and gender have shaped and been shaped by modern economic growth. This dynamic comparative approach unites scholars from varied fields, fostering engagement with new literature, case studies, and methodologies that are often isolated within specific disciplines.
Beyond fostering interactions among Stanford faculty and graduate students, the workshop welcomes scholars from other institutions, extending its intellectual reach and forging connections beyond the university. Participants also include those who do not specialize in history. Such researchers may find that incorporating historical perspectives could offer new insights to comprehending and tackling contemporary issues such as environmental degradation, socioeconomic inequality, and political upheavals. By facilitating cross-disciplinary conversations and introducing participants to innovative and original research projects, the workshop enriches scholarship at Stanford and contributes to broader discussions on capitalism’s historical development and relevance today.