Affiliated Event: Bridging EurAsia
Cluster of Excellence EurAsian Transformations 3rd Annual Conference
About the Event
Bridging EurAsia: Pathways of Communication, Mobility, and Shared Histories in EurAsia from Antiquity to Today
The Pourdavoud Institute is pleased to share the program of “Bridging EurAsia: Pathways of Communication, Mobility, and Shared Histories in EurAsia,” the Cluster of Excellence EurAsian Transformations 3rd Annual Conference, hosted by the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW). This conference will take place on November 16-19, 2026 in Vienna, Austria.
Conference Background
From ancient trade routes and elite networks to contemporary digital networks and transnational communities, Eurasia has always been a hub of interconnectedness. To understand Eurasia as an entangled space, however, requires transcending disciplinary silos and fostering dialogue across fields (e.g., history, archaeology, linguistics, anthropology, art history, digital humanities).
Adopting such a methodological perspective, Bridging EurAsia seeks to illuminate the complex, often unpredictable, and profoundly interconnected nature of Eurasian societies, fostering a more inclusive and comprehensive understanding of their enduring shared histories. The 2026 Annual Conference of the CoE EurAsian Transformations strives to critically examine the intricate dynamics of societal interaction across time and space throughout the vast Eurasian landmass.
Moving beyond traditional Eurocentric narratives and static conceptualizations of “borders”—whether geographical, political, or disciplinary—the conference embraces the transformative potential of Global Studies. This approach foregrounds the simultaneous interplay of global processes and local specificities, allowing for a more nuanced understanding of how diverse societies in Eurasia have communicated, moved, and exchanged ideas, technologies, and cultures across millennia, while also seeking to unravel the complex patterns of communication—verbal, material, and symbolic—and the multifaceted forms of mobility that have shaped its shared pasts and presents.