About this Event
About the talk:
Empires as Imperial Debt Formations
This paper makes a case for understanding empires as ‘imperial debt formations’. It is part of a wider research project that develops the heuristic of ‘complex indebtedness’ as a lens through which to analyse modern international ordering practices. Building on established thinking about empires, that understands them as expansionist political orders that maintain principles of hierarchy and distinction - indeed as ‘imperial formations’ – it examines the ways in which imperial orders authoritatively (re)organise relations of indebtedness as a means of mobilising resources, remaking political community and controlling the infrastructure through which debts can be redeemed or incurred. The argument’s primary sites of illustration are British India and French West Africa, with particular attention to the mobilisation of these political formations to fight imperial wars in the twentieth century. However, it is proposed that this framework of the ‘imperial debt formation’ may accommodate a variety of imperial and colonial projects in different phases and expressions, including after formal independence.
About the Speaker:
Dr Meera Sabaratnam is Associate Professor of International Relations and Tutorial Fellow in Politics at New College. Prior to joining DPIR in 2023, she worked at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, the University of Cambridge and the London School of Economics (LSE), from where she received her MSc and PhD in International Relations. Some time before that, she read PPE at Balliol.
Dr Sabaratnam's research explores the colonial and postcolonial dimensions of world politics in their various manifestations. She is interested in the ways in which imperial historical structures, institutions, social relations and forms of knowledge shape the present, as well as the ways in which they are evolving. In her writing, Dr Sabaratnam has explored these questions in relation to international statebuilding, peacebuilding and development assistance, the understanding of war in the international system, International Relations theory and its research methods. She is currently writing a book entitled Complex Indebtedness, which elaborates a postcolonial analysis of the international system with relations of indebtedness - both material and moral - at its centre.
Dr Sabaratnam is Chair (2023-2026) of the Academic Freedom Committee of the International Studies Association (ISA), and has previously served on committees for its Global Development Section, International Political Sociology Section and Theory Section. With Robbie Shilliam and Mustapha Kamal Pasha, she co-founded the Colonial / Postcolonial / Decolonial Working Group of the British International Studies Association, and they co-edit the book series at Manchester University Press. Dr Sabaratnam serves on the editorial/advisory boards of International Studies Quarterly, Security Dialogue and the Cambridge Review of International Affairs, and is a former editor of Millennium: Journal of International Studies. She is an Associate of the Imperial War Museum Institute for the Public Understanding of Conflict. Her work has been previously funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Leverhulme Trust.
About this series:
In recent years disciplines across the social sciences and humanities have observed a surge of renewed interest in imperialism, with a growing consciousness of how the (ongoing) process of decolonisation has shaped our world today. This interdisciplinary seminar series brings in scholars from history, political science, political theory, law, and postcolonial studies to speak to topics in anticolonial resistance and decolonisation, imperial legacies in the contemporary world and decolonial political ideas.
Our hope is to complement existing intellectual offerings with discussions that centre questions of historic injustice, race and colonial oppression, subaltern agency and political activism, and contemporary decolonial politics. Drawing on examples from across the globe, the seminar will seek to unpack both the political impetus and ramifications of disintegrating empires through an interdisciplinary lens. Through discussion of these themes in an interdisciplinary format, we believe that participants will benefit from sharing distinct analytical frameworks and approaches to common themes.
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For any enquiries, please email:
Ami Mistry - [email protected]
Emily Katzenstein - [email protected]
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Nuffield College, New Road, Oxford, United Kingdom
USD 0.00