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WiSe 20/21: "Institutionalized" - A Global History of Punishment

Alexandra Oberländer

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Convergence in Global History is a familiar phenomenon. However, systems of punishment are still rarely studied from a global point of view. This seminar looks at the global history of punishment, however, from the perspective of the Russian and Soviet Empire. While the Russian empire exiled its “criminals” as future colonizers to remote regions in newly acquired Siberia, Great Britain colonized today’s Australia with its “delinquents”. A next phase of institutionalized punishment relied on prisons, in which the mechanics of surveillance were essentially implemented into the individual inmate. Camps as yet another version of imprisonment were used in colonialism, the Third, the Soviet Union, and can be found around the globe to this very day. This seminar addresses questions about the institutions and mechanics of punishment and thereby also raises topics like law, morality, guilt or “criminality”. It aims to follow the delinquents from court to their respective places of exile/prison/camp. It will also consider the regions and localities surrounding exile and punishment, as well as their peculiar infrastructure stemming from and maintaining a penal system. This seminar look at Russian and British colonies as well as Russian/Soviet, US-American and South-African prisons. This course requires intensive reading and writing. close