As an emerging field, transimperial history pays more attention to inequalities and hierarchies than global histories usually do, not only studying inter-governmental relations but also adopting bottom-up perspectives that revolve around colonized and subaltern actors’ transimperial activities and impacts. It brings, at the same time, the histories of empires, be they Asian, American, African, or European, into closer conversation, critically engaging exceptionalist narratives and pushing back against Eurocentric narratives of the formation of the modern world. As the field matures, however, questions remain about its spatial and temporal boundaries and methodological innovations.

Since late 2022, historians Cyrus Schayegh, Nadin Heé, Daniel Hedinger, Damiano Matasci, and Shellen Wu have been collaborating on a state-of-the-field edited volume on transimperial history that addresses the scope, possibilities, and challenges of the field. This roundtable, composed by several members of this editorial team, will explore the conceptual and methodological underpinnings of this emerging field; discuss how it differs from global and international history; and consider future research directions.