Imperialist Order Transformed?

Global Perspectives on the Legacies of World War I

March 2 – 4, 2007

Duke University

This conference, organized by the global history network “world orders,” which is co-headed by Sebastian Conrad (Berlin) and Dominic Sachsenmaier (Duke), will address the trans-cultural influences of WW I on different but related levels. For example, some panels discuss the question whether the war indeed marked the end of the “civilizing mission” and of the hegemony of Western style modernity. On the conference agenda are also questions such as in what ways the perceived decline of the imperialist order gave rise to alternative concepts of world order and efforts to build new international institutions. Furthermore, the conference will discuss problems ranging from changing notions of race and bio-politics as well as, more generally, the trans-regional dynamics of certain ideologies during and after the war. The event will bring together leading scholars and experts working on different world regions.

For further information, please contact:   Shelley Stonecipher <shelley.stonecipher@duke.edu> or

Dominic Sachsenmaier <dominic.sachsenmaier@duke.edu>.

Conference Venue:

Rhodes Conference Room

Sanford Institute of Public Policy

Duke University

201 Science Drive

Durham, NC 27708

Saturday, March 3rd, 9.00 am – 11.45 am

Sebastian Conrad (Free University of Berlin) & Dominic Sachsenmaier (Duke University):  

Welcome and Introduction

Theme 1: Doubts About European Modernity

Moderator: Sebastian Conrad (Free University of Berlin)

• Cemil Aydin (UNC-Charlotte) & Dominic Sachsenmaier (Duke University): Critiques of Western Modernity. Chinese, Middle Eastern and European Network

• Michael Adas (Rutgers University): Intellectual Critique of the West in Africa and Latin America

• Kris Manjapra (Harvard University): Roy, Debates on Capitalism and Intellectual Exchange between South Asia and Central Europe 1910-1925

Saturday, March 3rd, 1.15 pm – 3.45 pm

Theme 2: Effects on International Governance

Moderator: Erez Manela (Harvard University)

• Susan Pedersen (Columbia University): The League of Nations and the Mandates System

• Mekondjo Kaapanda (University of Cambridge): Civilized Negroes: Pan-African Petitions to the League of Nations

• Glenda Sluga (University of Sydney): Nationalism, Psychology, and the End of the First World War

Saturday, 4.15 pm – 6.00 pm

Theme 3: Race, Ethnicity, and Bio-Politics

Moderator: Matthias Middell (University of Leipzig)

• Fatma Göçek (University of Michigan-Ann Arbor): Provincializing Modernity: the Social Engineering Projects of the Young Turks During World War I

• Klaus Mühlhahn (University of Turku): WWI and the Global Spread of Concentration Camps

Sunday, 9.30am  – 12.00am

Theme 4: The Socio-Cultural Impact of War Experiences and Migration

Moderator: Walter Mignolo (Duke University)

• Andreas Eckert (University of Hamburg): African Migrant Workers, Global Labour Standards and the Question of 'Race' after WWI

• Harald Fischer-Tiné (International University of Bremen): Indian Diaspora and ‘Cultural Nationalism’ during WW I

• Adriane Smith (UNC-Chapel Hill): African American Identities After World War I
  

Sunday, March 4th, 1.00 pm – 3.30pm

Theme 5: Imperialism and Empire – Ruptures and New Formations

Moderator: Dominic Sachsenmaier (Duke University)

• Fred Cooper/Jane Burbank (New York University): Clash and Rupture in a System of Empires

• Rebecca Karl (New York University): Semi-Colonialism, Imperialism, and Social Formation: China, 1920s-1930s

• Han Jung-Sun (Korea University): Japan in the Shadow of the Great War: Enveloping Internationalist Aspirations into Regionalist Ambitions, 1920s

Sunday, March 4th,  3.30pm

Conclusion