TRENDS OF POSTCOLONIAL HISTORY RESEARCH THROUGH THE LENS OF BIBLIOMETRIC

(Trend Penyelidikan Sejarah Pascakolonial melalui Lensa Bibliometrik)

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Postcolonial history has developed as a critical field of historical inquiry that investigates the continuing legacies of colonialism and their influence on political structures, cultural identities, social relations and systems of knowledge. By challenging Eurocentric interpretations of the past, postcolonial historiography has expanded historical analysis towards questions of agency, representation, memory and the experiences of formerly colonised societies. This study aims to examine the evolution, intellectual structure and development of postcolonial history research through a bibliometric analysis. Based on Scopus-indexed publications from 1947 to 2025, this study evaluates publication trends, citation patterns, geographical contributions, keyword developmentand international research collaboration. A structured search strategy was applied to identify relevant publications within the Arts and Social Sciences, while VOSviewer was utilised to analyse citation networks, keyword co-occurrence and collaboration patterns. The findings indicate a sustained growth in postcolonial history scholarship, particularly from the early twenty-first century, demonstrating the increasing institutional significance of the field. Citation analysis highlights the influence of key studies addressing imperial governance, colonial economies, knowledge systems and cultural domination. The country-level analysis shows that research production remains concentrated in the United Kingdom and the United States, although contributions from other regions indicate a gradual expansion of global scholarly participation. Thematic analysis reveals continuity in core concepts such as colonialism, imperialism, and decolonisation, while identifying emerging areas of inquiry related to identity, race, memory, nationalism, and settler colonialism. This study demonstrates that postcolonial history has transformed from a critique of imperial narratives into a diverse and interdisciplinary field that continues to redefine approaches to historical knowledge production. The findings provide a systematic understanding of the field’s development while highlighting the ongoing need for more inclusive and geographically balanced global scholarship.