Welcome - Becoming the State HIST 4355   Becoming the State
CREDIT HOURS: 3
The state is undeniably the central “agent” of the modern global system, yet explanations for the emergence of the state as the hegemonic mode of organizing human society tend to privilege Eurocentric histories, obfuscating the different ways of organizing space that have existed around our shared planet. Consequently, the inter-state system itself that constitutes the ‘terrain’ of modern global studies remains only partially historicized. In this seminar, we study the emergence of the modern territorial state with attention to the tensions that emerge when distinct modes of organizing space encounter one another in the modern, colonial era. We begin surveying methods and approaches for studying the state, then move into geographic case studies and critical problems emerging from the rise of the state as a creature of the modern, colonial encounter.
FORMAT: Seminar