Anthropology

This advanced seminar is an anthropological exploration of empire both as an analytic category and a historical phenomenon. In this course, we will first discuss anthropology’s historical entanglements with empire as the discipline that studies the non-European Others. Then we will read from anthropologists who have criticized this epistemological legacy and incorporated the study of imperialism, empire and imperial formations in their research agenda since the second half of the twentieth century. By looking at cases from the Caribbean, Africa, America, and the Middle East, this course explores key concepts and major debates such as race, genocide, settler colonialism, security, militarism, diaspora, material culture and museums. Students will emerge from this course with an in-depth understanding of anthropological approaches to empire, methodologies ranging from archival research to ethnography, and the analytical limits and possibilities of empire in making sense of our contemporary world.