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 has fed into his second monograph, Activism across Borders since 1870: Causes, Campaigns and Conflicts in and beyond Europe, which Bloomsbury Academic published 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), collaborations with the National Union of Students (NUS) and the Workers' Educational Association (WEA) as well as two projects for edited volumes that are under contract with Liverpool University Press.

Daniel is a historian of modern and contemporary Europe, with a particular interest in movements and organisations whose activities transcended national boundaries. In this context, he has worked on the causes promoted by socialists, anarchists, pacifists, humanitarians, student activists and anti-racist campaigners.

Daniel joined Northumbria University in 2009, having previously worked as a Teaching Fellow at University College London (UCL). Between 2013 and 2018, he served as Programme Leader for the BA History and BA History & Politics courses at Northumbria, and between 2010 and 2014, he coordinated Northumbria University's European exchanges across the Humanities. From 2017 to 2019, he served as Head of History, followed as a stint as Director of Education for the Humanities from 2020 to 2022. He is currently the Head of Research and Knowledge Exchange for History.

Daniel's teaching covers a wide range in modern and contemporary history, including the option modules 'Into the Dark Valley: Europe, 1919–1939', 'Where Have All the Good Times Gone: Crisis and Change in Western Europe, 1965–1987' and 'Peace, Love and Understanding: International Political Activism in the 19^thand 20^thCenturies'. He also convenes the MA/MRes module 'History in the Digital Age: Institutions, Issues and Ideas'. Daniel's teaching has been recognised via a Provost's Teaching Award at UCL (2009), a Distinguished Teaching Fellowship at Northumbria (2022) and through accolades in the teaching awards run by Northumbria University Students' Union ('Best Lecturer' award in 2013; 'Committee Highly Commended' award in 2016). He has supervised 7 PhD theses to completion and is the principal supervisor of a Collaborative Doctoral Award project in cooperation with the National Union of Students.

Daniel has organised over 20 academic conferences or workshops and has been involved in collaborative projects with historians in Belgium, Britain, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the US. Together with Georgina Brewis (UCL Institute of Education), he has led a series of intertwined projects that investigate the impact of the First World War on university life.