81961 - History of Colonial and Post-Colonial Spaces (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course students will reach an understanding of the social and cultural history of areas of the world that have been subject to modern colonial rule and that, in most cases, experienced a subsequent phase of political decolonization. Students will be able to critically engage in the study of different kinds of sources, using a comparative perspective. They will acquire the analytical tools needed to properly investigate the complex social, cultural, and political realities of colonial and postcolonial spaces. At the end of the course, students will also be able to deploy their analytical skills in professional activities linked with the popularization and public use of historical knowledge.

Course contents

This course aims to analyze different aspects of spatial imaginaries in the context of colonial and post-colonial history. The main focus of this course concerns visions of international order after empire in the twentieth century.

The five modules deal with:

1) Framing Political and Historical Spaces;

2) Colonial and imperial spaces;

3) nationalism, statehood and Federalisms;

4) Regionalisms;

5) International and Global Visions.

The first part of the course concerns an introduction to the category of ‘space’ in historical studies in order to provide an analytical framework to imperialism and colonialism.

The second part of the course will focus on the spatial dimensions of the colonial and imperial rule.

In the third part, we will discuss nationalist and federalist visions for post-colonial order, analysing the relations between nationalist movements and supra-national political spaces.

The topic of the fourth part will be about the idea of pan-regionalisms, looking at three specific case studies.

The last week will be dedicated to the connections within and between the imperial and colonial spaces and visions of international and global order.

All attending students are requested to prepare the required readings carefully, in order to be able to participate in class discussions.

In week I the lecturer will assign readings to small groups who, in turn will be asked to prepare a short oral presentation (no longer than 15 minutes) to the rest of the class.

All the readings are uploaded in 'Virtuale'.

Readings/Bibliography

Course plan

Part 1: Framing political and historical spaces

Lecture 1, 18 March

Presentation of the course and definitions:

Jane Burbank and Frederick Cooper, Empires in World History: Power and the Politics of Difference, Princeton University Press, 2011, Chapter 10.

Lecture 2, 20 March

Theory:

Henri Lefebvre, La Production de l'espace, Paris: Editions Anthropos, 1974. Henri Lefebvre, The Production of Space (Oxford, Blackwell, 1991]. Introduction

Lecture 3, 21 March

Historiography and Postcolonial Studies:

Dipesh Chakrabarty, Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference, Princeton University Press, 2000, Introduction.

Part 2: Colonial and Imperial Spaces

Lecture 4, 25 March

Empire:

Benton, Lauren. 2010. “Anomalies of Empire” in A Search for Sovereignty: Law and Geography in European Empires, 1400-1900. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 1-39.

Lecture 5, 27 March

People and Settlement:

Caroline Elkins and Susan Pedersen (eds.), Settler Colonialism in Twentieth Century: Projects, Practices, Legacies, Routledge, 2005, Chapter 10.

Lecture 6, 3 April

Anti-imperialism and peace:
Marc-William Palen, 2023. Pax Economica. Princeton University Press. Chapter 4.

Guest lecture: Dr Marc-William Palen

Part 3: nationalisms, federalisms and international law

Lecture 7, 4 April

Nationalism
Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, Verso, 1983, Introduction and Chapter 6

Lecture 8, 8 April

The colonial state
Goswami, Manu. 2004. “Introduction” and/or chapter “Geographies of State Transformation: The Production of Colonial State Space.” Producing India: From Colonial Economy to National Space. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Lecture 9, 10 April

Post-colonial statehood and federalism
Adom Getachew, Worldmaking after Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination,introduction and/or chapter 4.

Lecture 10, 11 April

International Law and global governance

Guest lecturer: Dr Aden Knapp (EUI)

Part 4: Pan regionalisms

Lecture 11, 15 April

Pan Asianism
Hotta, E. Pan-Asianism and Japan's War 1931-1945. Palgrave Macmillan, 2007, introduction.

Lecture 12, 17 April

Eurafrica
Burbank, Jane, and Frederick Cooper. “Eurafrica.” In Post-Imperial Possibilities: Eurasia, Eurafrica, Afroasia, 89–152. Princeton University Press, 2023. https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.3079199.7.

Lecture 13, 18 April

The Black Atlantic

Gilroy, Paul. The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness. Harvard University Press, 1995, introduction.

Part 5: visions of international and global order

Lecture 14, 22 April

Particularism and internationalism

Sluga, G. (2016). Women, Feminisms and Twentieth-Century Internationalisms. In G. Sluga & P. Clavin (Eds.), Internationalisms: A Twentieth-Century History (pp. 61-84). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Or

Vik, H. (2016). Indigenous Internationalism. In G. Sluga & P. Clavin (Eds.), Internationalisms: A Twentieth-Century History (pp. 315-339). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781107477568.015

Lecture 15, 24 April

Global spaces?

Cosgrove, Denis. “Contested Global Visions: One-World, Whole-Earth, and the Apollo Space Photographs.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 84, no. 2 (1994): 270–94.

Teaching methods

15 Frontal lectures divided into 5 parts, slides, class discussion led by lecturer with presentations by individual or groups of students.

Assessment methods

È considerato frequentante lo studente che partecipa almeno al 75% delle lezioni.
Students who attend at least 75% of the lessons are considered to be attending

Attending students will be evaluated through the final exam is a paper on a topic to be agreed with the professor. The length of the paper will be 3000-3500 words including footnotes (excluding bibliography).

Non-attending students are required to write a final paper on a topic to be agreed with the professor. The length will be 6000-6500 words including footnotes (excluding bibliography).

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Proper language and the ability to critically analyse relevant topics will lead to a good/excellent final grade (27-30L)

Acceptable language and the ability to resume relevant topics will lead to a sufficient/fair grade (22-26)

poor language and a superficial knowledge of relevant topics will lead to the minimum grade to pass the exam (18-21)

Insufficient linguistic proficiency and fragmentary knowledge of relevant topics will lead to a failure in passing the exam

Office hours

See the website of Or Rosenboim