Jon Chappell will be presenting his research on Chinese and European uses of international law from 1842-1895) at the National Library of Taiwan. His presentation examines how European historical precedents were used in Sino-foreign debates about the lawful conduct of foreign relations. For more information, see here.
Roundtable on Chronotypes
Martin Dusinberre on “temporal progress”
On the November 21, 2017, Martin dusinberre gave a talk on “Das japanische Kaiserreich 1868-1945” at the Volkshochschule Zürich. His lecture was the fifth in a Volkshochschule series, “Geschichte Asiens: Imperialismus und Moderne.” It offered an overview of Japanese imperialism based on nine general observations, and pointed out the significance of “temporal progress” to the ways that Japanese intellectuals posited Japan in relation to China and Korea in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries.
Birgit Tremml-Werner on co-produced imperial history narratives
On the October 31, 2017, Birgit Tremml-Werner gave a talk on “Co-produced imperial history narratives: Murakami Naojirō’s work with ‘old’ classics for ‘new’ ideas of expansion in early 20th-century Japan” (Geschichtskontor, UZH). She discussed an article draft about her research on the role of the work of Japanese historian Murakami Naojirō on the understanding of early modern foreign relations with historians and area studies scholars. The Geschichtskontor is a weekly history-writing workshop for doctoral, postdoctoral and guest speakers at the Department of History, UZH.
Martin Dusinberre on the “Sinosphere”
On October 4, 2017, Martin Dusinberre gave a lecture on “Other Spheres in History: The Sinosphere” for the UZH public lecture series, “Debating the Anglosphere: History, Hegemony, Identity.” This was a contribution to UZH’s “Debating the Anglosphere” lecture series, inspired by the work of Srdjan Vučetić (who was one of the guest speakers). Martin Dusinberre’s argument was that cultural, linguistic, political and even military “spheres” are in themselves nothing new in history; and he also questioned whether the “Anglosphere” is a useful analytical category for scholars to think about the twentieth- and twenty-first century history.
Joachim Kurtz gives a lecture on the concept of “Middle Ages” in China
Joachim Kurtz, Professor for Intellectual History at the Heidelberg Center for Transcultural Studies, gave the Tenth SAGE – Medieval History Journal Annual Lecture at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi on November 10, 2017. Prof. Kurtz talked about “Chinese Dreams of the Middle Ages: Nostalgia, Utopia, Propaganda.”
On modernity as a concept
In August 2017, the members of HERA research group “East Asian Uses of the European Pasts” discussed an article by Shmuel Eisenstadt, “Multiple modernities,” which was published at the beginning of the 2000s in the journal Daedalus. Some months later, the group kept on discussing the concept of “multiple modernities” and, through it, the concept of modernity itself. Below we reproduce the first part of conversation they had: Continue reading
Conference: Making International Law in Africa and Asia, 1850–1900
Jon Chappell will be presenting his research on Chinese and European uses of international law during the Sino-French War (1884-1885) at the American Historical Association conference in Washington DC. His paper examines how European historical precedents were used in Sino-foreign debates about the lawful conduct of war. For more details, click here.
Empire as analytical category
In a discussion held on our e-platform, Lorenzo Andolfatto, Jon Chappell, Leigh Jenco and David Mervart engaged in a discussion about empire as an analytical category. What are the heuristic limits of this category? How far can it encompass the specific features of the very different political institutions it often refers to? Is it possible or desirable to get rid of it? Here are some reflections on the issue: