In this seminar, we will probe ways of re-reading the history of modern empires, and discuss various ways of moving beyond separate (and internal) histories of empire. In the latter half of the nineteenth century, the geopolitical order was fundamentally transformed, as European empires expanded and new imperial powers (including Germany, Japan, the United States, Italy) generated new forms of political competition and imperial penetration. While the historiography of empire continues to be organized primarily along national lines, this shift in the imperial order challenges such isolationist narratives, and invites us to think about empires within transnational and global frameworks.

Questions to be addressed include: What was the role of inter-imperial interactions, on both sides of the imperial divide (migration, labor, institutions, discourse)? How were imperial formations (and anti-colonial activists) impacted by global contexts, the transnational circulation of ideas and people? What was the relationship between imperialism and globalization? How do we assess the role of non-Western empires in this age of high imperialism? How can we analyze imperial formations beyond the dichotomy of empire vs. nation-state? In what ways have empires lived on, and how do we assess the effects of colonialism into the present? How do we historicize the history of empires today?

Geographically, the seminar will focus on Africa and Eurasia, in the period between 1870- 1920. close