Dr Daniel Laqua

Daniel's research deals with transnational movements and associations in 19th/20th-century Europe. He is particularly interested in competing conceptualisations of global order, the ways in which campaigners sought to effect change at the international level, and the relationship between nationalism and internationalism. Daniel has special expertise in the history of international organisations, covering the work of the League of Nations as well as the associations set up by activists. He has edited two volumes that relate to this research area, Internationalism Reconfigured: Transnational Ideas and Movements between the World Wars (London, 2011) and, with Wouter Van Acker and Christophe Verbruggen, International Organizations and Global Civil Society: Histories of the Union of International Associations (London, 2019).

Daniel first monograph – The Age of Internationalism and Belgium, 1880–1930: Peace, Progress and Prestige – was published by Manchester University Press in 2013. The study examined European internationalism through the prism of congresses, conferences and campaigns that took place in Belgium. Moreover, in a range of articles, he has covered the efforts of pacifists, humanitarians, revolutionaries, student activists and intellectuals who construed their aims as transcending national categories. Much of this work is feeding into his second monograph, Activism across Borders since 1870: Causes, Campaigns and Conflicts in and beyond Europe, which Bloomsbury Academic will publish in 2023. Daniel has also co-edited special journal issues on histories of humanitarianism (Journal of Modern European History, 2014), transnational solidarities (European Review of History, 2014), challenges to state socialism in the 1970s and 1980s (Labour History Review, 2021 and East Central Europe, 2023) and on the relationship between youth and internationalism (Social History, 2023).

At present, Daniel is working on the history of student activism in the period from the interwar years to the early Cold War. Specific findings from his work in this area feature in The English Historical Review (2017) and Social History (2023), while the broader themes are covered in a book chapter on 'Student Activists and International Cooperation in a Changing World'. His research in this field has generated funded research projects (run together with Georgina Brewis, UCL Institute of Education) and collaborations with the National Union of Students and the Workers' Educational Associations.

• Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
• Activism across Borders since 1870: Causes, Campaigns and Conflicts in and beyond Europe, Laqua, D. 7 Sep 2023
• The politics of transnational student mobility: youth, education and activism in Ghana, 1957–1966, Laqua, D. 2 Jan 2023, In: Social History
• Transnational Dimensions of a ‘German Case’: The Expatriation of Wolf Biermann and the Politics of Solidarity in the 1970s, Laqua, D. Dec 2021, In: Labour History Review
• Rebuilding the Universities after the Great War: Ex-Service Students, Scholarships and the Reconstruction of Student Life in England, Brewis, G., Hellawell, S., Laqua, D. 2020, In: History
• International Organizations and Global Civil Society: Histories of the Union of International Associations, Laqua, D., Van Acker, W., Verbruggen, C. 21 Mar 2019
• Activism in the 'Students' League of Nations': International Student Politics and the Confédération Internationale des Étudiants, 1919–1939, Laqua, D. 4 Jul 2017, In: The English Historical Review
• Rocking Against the Right: Political Activism and Popular Music in West Germany, 1979–1980, Laqua, D. 1 Oct 2018, In: History Workshop Journal
• Democratic Politics and the League of Nations: The Labour and Socialist International as a Protagonist of Interwar Internationalism, Laqua, D. May 2015, In: Contemporary European History
• Freethinkers, Anarchists and Francisco Ferrer: The Making of a Transnational Solidarity Campaign, Laqua, D. 4 Sep 2014, In: European Review of History
• Pacifism in Fin-de-Siècle Austria: The Politics and Limits of Peace Activism, Laqua, D. Mar 2014, In: The Historical Journal

• Paul Davy Urban Violence in the 1920s: a Comparison of Newcastle upon Tyne, Bremen and Seville Start Date: 01/10/2023
• Rowan Thompson The Peculiarities of British Militarism: The Air and Navy Leagues in Interwar Britain Start Date: 01/10/2016 End Date: 18/03/2020
• Sarah Hellawell Feminism, Pacifism and Internationalism: The Women’s International League, 1915-1935 Start Date: 23/03/2016 End Date: 15/06/2017
• Paul Simpson Socialism, Internationalism and Zionism: The Independent Labour Party and Palestine, c. 1917-1939 Start Date: 01/05/2017 End Date: 01/06/2020
• Sophie Roberts British Women Activists and the Campaigns against the Vietnam War, 1965-75 Start Date: 15/02/2017 End Date: 07/02/2019
• Anne Zetsche The Quest for Atlanticism: German-American Elite Networking, the Atlantik-Brucke and the American Council on Germany, 1952-1974 Start Date: 31/12/2016 End Date: 30/03/2017
• Andre Keil States of Exception: Emergency Government and ‘Enemies Within’ in Britain and Germany during the First World War Start Date: 04/10/2011 End Date: 23/04/2015
• Emily Sharp The National Union of Students and its Internationalisms: British Students and Transnational Solidarity from the 1950s to the 2000s Start Date: 01/10/2020
• James Taylor Start Date: 01/10/2015 End Date: 05/06/2020

• History PhD
• History MSt
• History BA (Hons)
• Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy