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Workshop on Citizenship, Empire, and Nation

This workshop explores the ways in which the modern nation-state is historically distinct from pre-modern imperial states and how nationalism and the nation-state emerged in the modern period from successful imperial expansion. We ask to what degree imperialism has underwritten forms of citizen inclusion and exclusion in the governmental processes of imperial communities: How has the subjugation and exploitation of conquered peoples enabled the articulation and implementation of equalitarian and egalitarian political practices within the civic society of dominant powers? And how have the responses of subjected peoples to imperial powers shaped patterns of inclusion and exclusion within both periphery and metropole?

Participants in the workshop study how imperialism and nationalism have shaped international diplomacy, ideas of citizenship, technological advances, social hierarchies, interstate and domestic economic interactions, and cultural and artistic expression. We are also concerned with how imperialism and state formation impact individual and collective identities, including gender, ethnic, racial, and religious identities. The relation of public power to domestic arrangements is another focus of inquiry.