Linguistics: Theory and Methodology

Coordinator: Thomas Dubois, Associate Professor, History

Project Description and Scope

This group reads on two topics: conceptual scholarship on imperialism as a global phenomenon, and historical scholarship on the foundation, operation and erosion of empires in Asia. It is thus far based around a group of scholars in History and Japanese Studies who are planning an extensive collaborative project on these two themes, and serves the dual purposes of allowing them to develop a common intellectual foundation and keep abreast of new scholarship in this quickly changing field, and opening the discussion to scholars and students in other departments, thereby broadening the entire enterprise and making it more useful to the FASS scholarly community.

Readings fall into two categories. The first is new and classic scholarship on imperialism in East and Southeast Asia. This topic relies on a breadth of area expertise that is beyond any one individual, and is thus particularly well suited to explore in a reading group. The second component is conceptual literature on imperialism. Here we are less concerned with the field identified as "post-colonial" studies than with the global perspective on what constitutes an empire, and the evolution and operation of new forms of supranational systems.

Initial Reading List

  • Benton, Lauren A. A Search for Sovereignty: Law and Geography in European Empires, 1400-1900. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
  • Burbank, Jane, and Frederick Cooper. Empires in World History: Power and the Politics of Difference. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2010.
  • Casale, Giancarlo. The Ottoman Age of Exploration. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
  • Dale, Stephen Frederic. The Muslim Empires of the Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
  • Darwin, John. After Tamerlane: The Global History of Empire Since 1405. New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2008.
  • Immerman, Richard H. Empire for Liberty: A History of American Imperialism from Benjamin Franklin to Paul Wolfowitz. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010.
  • Parsons, Timothy. The Rule of Empires: Those Who Built Them, Those Who Endured Them, and Why They Always Fall. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.
  • Perdue, Peter C. China Marches West: The Qing Conquest of Central Eurasia. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2005.

Meeting Schedule and Events

We propose to meet once every three weeks. Venue would depend on the numberof people involved, but our hope is to meet off campus, if this is logistically feasible.

This would allow us 10-12 meetings (assuming that we may have to go on hiatus during vacations). The schedule would be relatively straightforward - we would meet for two hours or so to discuss a new book that we had all read beforehand. As some of us will know these authors personally, some meetings may include a conversation with the author via Skype. Actual (i.e., not virtual) guests may include short term visitors to ARI, but this would not be a regular feature.

List of Participants

  • Thomas DuBois, History
  • Ryoko Nakano, Japanese Studies
  • Brian Farrell, History
  • Peter Borschberg, History
  • Jack Fairey, History
  • Michael Kelly, History