How to Dismantle an Empire
Wednesday, May 12, 2021Discussion
12:30 pm CEST
As university departments consider what it means to "decolonize" a curriculum and reckon with the institutional legacies of modern European imperialism -- especially slavery and racist ideologies -- this discussion addresses fundamental questions about the political formations claiming to be, or that have been called, "empires": what are the chief characteristics of three of the most world-altering empires -- Ancient Rome, the British Empire, and the United States? What has been the relationship between beliefs about these empires and their historical reality? What lessons can be drawn today from the knowledge of how ancient, modern, and contemporary empires actually functioned?
This event is a cooperation between Bard College Berlin and the American Academy in Berlin.
Speakers:
Nandini Pandey is Associate Professor of Classics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She works on the literature, culture, history, and reception of early imperial Rome. She is the Spring 2021 Nina Maria Gorrissen Fellow in History at the American Academy in Berlin.
Erik Linstrum is Associate Professor of History at the University of Virginia, where he works on modern Britain in its imperial and global contexts. His research explores the politics of knowledge and the circulation of information, with particular focus on science and technology, war and violence, and the long history of decolonization. He is the Spring 2021 Axel Springer Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin.
Boris Vormann is Associate Professor of Politics at Bard College Berlin. His current research project examines the developmentalist qualities of the U.S.-American state in building a logistical empire of frictionless circulation from its early beginnings in the 18th century until today -- and how this history of active statecraft contrasts with national mythologies of an exceptionally small state.
Introduced and Moderated by:
Berit Ebert (American Academy)
Catherine Toal (Bard College Berlin)
Email: [email protected]