The aim of the CEU Contemporary History Platform is to promote inter-disciplinary, transnational studies on the history of the twentieth century. The Platform will provide a meeting ground for comparatively-minded scholars from various academic disciplines working on the history of the twentieth and the twenty-first centuries (1918 to present). Its aim is to stimulate reflection on and coordination of teaching on the history of the twentieth and the twenty-first centuries at university level, potentially leading to cross-departmental initiatives and synergy in research. It is hoped that the participants will initiate common thematic colloquia, workshops, cross-departmental courses, and summer schools on topics such as political violence, political religions and fundamentalism, populism, authoritarianism, processes of political radicalization, and fascism. Another important thematic focus will be represented by the comparative study of communism in Central and Eastern Europe.