The concept of transnationality has come to dominate the history of modern East Central Europe. The region has provided ample stories of emigrants, refugees, and migrant labor, both forced and voluntary; of markets for Western European goods and sources of raw materials; of occupations by dictatorial regimes; and of the successes and fragilities of multinational or supranational empires and nation-states. Countless individuals who lived between France and Russia in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries spoke more than one language, were citizens of more than one state, and even identified with more than one national community over the course of their own lifetimes. Historians of Central Europe appear, therefore, to have a unique opportunity to shape new discussions and pioneer new methodologies being developed under the rubric of ‘transnational’ or ‘international’ history. This conference will bring together historians of East Central Europe who are explicitly considering the region from a transnational or international perspective, in order to reflect on the usefulness and limitations of this approach. We understand transnationality both horizontally and vertically. By horizontal transnationalism we mean movement, interaction, and comparison across real and imagined political and national frontiers, including imagined boundaries between Eastern and Western Europe. By vertical transnationalism we mean to explore continuities and changes across the dramatic political ruptures which have shaped the history of modern Central and Eastern Europe: 1867, 1871, 1918, 1938/39, and 1945. The loyalty of a single individual, village, or region in East Central Europe is likely to have been demanded by several different imperial or national political regimes. Exploring this transnational experience can contribute to a larger project of challenging nationalist narratives and categories. It may also, however, reveal elements of the Central European story that do not fit conveniently into the ‘transnational’ rubric.