This is a B.A. Orientation Course designed for B.A. students in their first to third semester. Due to precautions taken against COVID-19, the seminar is experimental and so is the syllabus. Sessions will conceivably take place in a virtual classroom for which each student will receive access to a virtual seminar room via an invitation and, if necessary, an access code and a password. If your standard browser (e.g. Safari) does not work, try a different one (e.g. Firefox). Sessions will vary with some consisting of a lecture while others focus on interactive work and research. Individual student teams will be assigned to research individual lecture themes and raise questions. Topic: Empires are back. While for a long time, the history of empires seemed outdated, in the last decade the historiography dedicated to this theme has experienced a forceful revival. Globalization, multinational organizations, international networks, and the histories of transnational encounters all have led to rediscovery of empires as both a phenomenon and an analytical category. An “empire” (Latin: power) is a geographically extensive territory of states and people with highly diverse ethnic or cultural backgrounds, governed by a ruler or a group of rulers. The history of empires, in turn, describes the rise and the history of hegemonic states with imperial ambitions, i.e. whose intention it was and is to dominate and colonize within the international system. From ancient Rome over the Ottoman Empire to the EU, historians have examined the question of what makes an “Empire” an empire, if and how nation states and empires differ, and whether an empire has to claim status in order to “be” an empire. The United States plays a peculiar role in this context and this course will take a comparative approach to study what some historians have called the U.S. empire. On the methodological level, the course introduces BA students both practically and theoretically to the study of history, what historians do, how they work and what they write; as such, it includes elements of lecture, reading, discussion, team work and hands-on labs. To successfully pass this course, students are required to compose weekly précis, present sources and ideas in class, work in teams, and take an oral exam at the end of the term. Course: This lecture-seminar seeks to fulfill two premises: first, we will spend a significant amount of time looking at the history of the rise and fall of empires across two millennia, including ancient Rome, China, and Islam. The format of these sessions will be live lectures including slides, followed by a Q&A discussion. Within that context, we shall try to situate the meaning, function and impact of the United States in the history of empire. Central questions include: What is an empire? How do we define an empire? Who is an empire – and who is not? And most importantly: Does the United States feature as an empire among others and why (not)? Second, we will talk about what it is that historians do all day, how and where they work, and what they are trying to achieve. To this end, we will peruse individual texts, talk about the pedestrian work of historical research, and visit an online archive. Third, while doing all of the above, we will also actually and collectively read a book, Daniel Immerwahr’s highly readable How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States (New York 2019), a tome that came out last year, received quite a bit of public attention and will likely remain on the public and the profession’s radar screen for some time to come. Students are highly encouraged to purchase their own copy for personal use while we try to put individual chapters online. Requirements: class participation; engagement with the weekly readings and uploading of a weekly “précis” to Blackboard (for exact time, see below); team leadership, research and discussion of a specific topic/primary source. No more than two no-shows/submissions are acceptable; there will be no reminders for students who have failed to submit material in time. close