Renewing Faith, Improving Society. A Comparison of Protestant Reform Movements in Prussia, England, and Georgia (First Half of the 18th Century).

The conference project seeks to bring together scholars from both sides of the Atlantic for a conference to be held in Halle (Saale), Germany from October 11 to October 13 2026. The conference will explore the Protestant reform movements that led from the founding of the Francke Institutions in Halle (1695), via the missionary societies in England (SPCK and SPG), to the establishment of the colony of Georgia in North America in 1732. By discussing the common features of these institutions, the history of Georgia is linked much more specifically to German history than it has been previously recognized. These topics are to be expanded and deepened at a second conference, which is scheduled to take place in Atlanta in the spring of 2027. The goal of this project is to establish lasting collaborations between experts in Germany, Great Britain and Georgia including university partnerships, exchanges of doctoral students and visiting professors, and the exploration of new topics in the field of German-American history.