Call for Papers
Conference: Imperial Comparison
Transnational and Global History Seminar, Oxford
8-9 July 2016, All Souls College, Oxford
Keynote speaker: Ann Laura Stoler (New School for Social Research, New York)
Deadline for abstracts: 15 December 2015
Convenors: Alex Middleton (Corpus Christi, Oxford) and Arthur Asseraf (All Souls, Oxford)
How have comparisons been used to establish, sustain, and resist empire? Empires, after all, have
always compared themselves to other empires. Imperial officials consistently sought information on
their competitors, and deployed strategic comparisons to justify techniques of imperial rule. But
alternative comparisons could bring to light uncomfortable truths, and motivate networks of
resistance to imperial authority. Comparisons, moreover, have been used to create imperial
exceptionalisms, or in some cases to deny ‘imperial’ status altogether. This interdisciplinary
conference will explore imperial comparisons holistically, covering both their employment by
historical actors, and by academics studying empires.
Following an exploratory workshop in Oxford last year, the conference aims to explore three main
interrelated areas:
- Official comparisons – how have comparisons been used for imperial statecraft? How do imperial
administrators strategically collect and select information from other empires? How have
comparisons been used to transfer techniques of imperial rule?
- Resistant comparisons – how have movements of resistance (nationalist or otherwise) used
comparisons to undermine imperial rule? How have comparisons with other peoples under
domination shaped political action by those resisting empire?
- Scholarly comparisons – how have academics used comparisons to study empires? What happens
to imperial comparisons after empire formally ends? How can we be sensitive to the roles of
comparisons in justifying imperial rule when conducting our own research?
Building on recent scholarship, the conference will move beyond distinctions between comparative
and connective histories in order to construct a more thoroughly global history of empire. It will
investigate how geographies of knowledge circulation limited the spectrum of available
comparisons, and in turn, how this opened and closed intellectual and political possibilities. It will
explore the relationship between comparison and power, up to and including the controversial use
of historical analogies with empires in the present day.
Ann Laura Stoler, Willy Brandt Distinguished University Professor of Anthropology and Historical
Studies at the New School for Social Research, will be giving the keynote address. We are soliciting
200-word proposals for 20-minute papers: we welcome abstracts from all geographical areas and
periods, as well as from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds, especially history, literature,
anthropology, philosophy and law. Please send proposals to imperialcomparison@gmail.com by 15
December 2015, along with a brief academic CV. Decisions as to acceptance will be communicated
early in 2016. We expect to be able to subsidize travel and accommodation for a limited number of
speakers; a moderate conference fee will be charged to cover costs.