Curated Reading Lists & teaching materials

University of Cambridge: Soc12 Rethinking Europe (2024-2025)

In this session, we will interrogate the social, cultural and political meanings of ‘Europe’. We will think critically about the construction of ‘Europe’ – and relatedly, ‘Europeanness’ – as a racial and political category of difference, both in the past and in the present. Empirically, we will focus on three aspects:

The erasure of entangled histories of Blackness and Europeanness, and of Europe’s ongoing colonialism and coloniality;
The production of ‘Eastern’ Europe and its place in regional and global power structures;
The politics of the European Union – particularly its ‘Eastern’ expansion and its violent border regimes.

The learning objectives of this session are as follows:

To deconstruct and contextualise the multiple meanings of ‘Europe’;
To interrogate the function of coloniality within Europe

2.1. To understand and critically evaluate the post-/de-colonial perspectives on the European Union;

To think critically about the possibilities of decolonizing Europe.

Essential readings:

Boatcă, M. (2013). Multiple Europes and the politics of difference within. In: Worlds and Knowledges Otherwise No. 3(3). Durham, NC: Center for Global Studies and the Humanities, Duke University

Boatcă, M. (2021). Thinking Europe Otherwise: Lessons from the Caribbean. Current Sociology, 69(3), 389-414. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392120931139

Chakrabarty, D. (2000). Provincializing Europe. Princeton University Press. (Introduction)

Engel-Di Mauro, S. (2006). The European's Burden: Global Imperialism in EU Expansion. Peter Lang. (Introduction, chapters 7, 8, 12)

Further readings and resources [these are just suggestions, you do not need to read everything]:

Readings

Balogun B (2018) PolishLebensraum: the colonial ambition to expand on racial terms. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 41(14), 2561-2579. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2017.1392028

Balogun B (2022) Eastern Europe : the ‘other’ geographies in the colonial global economy. Area. https://rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/area.12792

Boatcă, M .(2014). Inequalities unbound. Transregional entanglements and the creolization of Europe. In: Broeck S, Junker C (eds) Postcoloniality-Decoloniality-Black Critique: Joints and Fissures. Frankfurt and New York: Campus, pp. 211–230.

Böröcz J. (2006). Goodness Is Elsewhere: The Rule of European Difference. Comparative Studies in Society and History. 48(1):110-138. doi:10.1017/S0010417506000053

Bhambra, G. K. (2015). Whither Europe? Postcolonial versus Neocolonial Cosmopolitanism. Interventions, 18(2), 187–202. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369801X.2015.1106964

HINE, D. C., KEATON, T. D., & SMALL, S. (Eds.). (2009). Black Europe and the African Diaspora. University of Illinois Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/jj.8543482

Kusic, K., Manolova, P., & Lottholz, P. (Eds.) (2019). Decolonial theory and practice in Southeast Europe. dVersia. (Introduction & Final Chapter at least)

Proglio, G. (Ed.). (2021). The Black Mediterranean: bodies, borders and citizenship / Gabriele Proglio, editors [and six others (The Black Mediterranean Collective)]. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.

Rexhepi, P. (2022). White Enclosures: White Enclosures Racial Capitalism and Coloniality along the Balkan Route. Duke University Press.

Sierp, A. (2020). EU Memory Politics and Europe’s Forgotten Colonial Past. Interventions, 22(6), 686–702. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369801X.2020.1749701

Tlostanova, M. (2017). Postcolonialism and Postsocialism in Fiction and Art Resistance and Re-existence. Springer Link.

Tlostanova, M. (2012) Postsocialist ≠ postcolonial? On post-Soviet imaginary and global coloniality, Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 48:2, 130-142, DOI: 10.1080/17449855.2012.658244

Vilenica, A. (Ed). (2023). Decoloniality in Eastern Europe: A Lexicon of Reorientation. New Media Center, Kuda. org https://www.academia.edu/99480434/Decoloniality_in_Eastern_Europe_A_Lexicon_of_Reorientation_First_edition

Other resources:

Amsterdam Institute for Social Science. (2021). Decolonising Europe (video series). https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8roVYSOmToVRBhShavgoDf8GenrSQ-8Y

https://black-europe.com/

An incapacity to see ourselves as part of the whole world and the insistence to see ourselves as part of Europe. Interview with József Böröcz. https://lefteast.org/jozsef-borocz-interview-2016/

Supervision questions:

Critically discuss the merits and limitations of applying a decolonial perspective to studying East Europe.
Can Europe be decolonized? If not, why? If yes, how?
What or who is Europe?

University of Cambridge: Soc12 Eugenics (2024-2025)

In this session we will discuss the emergence and discourses of eugenics, a ‘scientific’ paradigm popular in the late nineteenth and early to mid twentieth centuries. In particular, our focus will be the relationship between eugenics and colonialism/coloniality. The empirical example we will reflect on is eugenics in 20th century Romania; we will analyse the way Romanian eugenicists and their sympathisers constructed an essentialist figure of ‘the Roma’ as deviant, undesirable and, ultimately, a threat to Romanianness, and how such discourses materialised in the policies of the authoritarian military dictatorship of Ion Antonescu. We will reflect on the relationship between academic knowledge and the necropolitical modern paradigm of politics in the past and in the present, particularly seeking to understand how eugenicist logics persist today.

The learning objectives of this session are:

To analyse eugenics as a manifestation of modernity/coloniality;
Understand the role of eugenics in the construction of nation-states;
Examine the ways eugenicist logics persist in society today.

Essential readings:

Balogun B (2022) Race, blood, and nation: the manifestations of eugenics in Central and Eastern Europe. Ethnic and Racial Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2022.2095221

Collins, P. H. (2019). Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory. https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478007098 (ch 8 Intersectionality without Social Justice?)

Levine, P. & Bashford, A. (2010). The Oxford Handbook of the History of Eugenics. Oxford University Press. (Introduction: Eugenics and the Modern World; Epilogue: Where did Eugenics go? Chronology; Eugenics and Genocide)

Turda M. & Balogun B. (2023). Colonialism, eugenics and ‘race’ in Central and Eastern Europe. Global Social Challenges Journal. https://doi.org/10.1332/TQUQ2535

Further readings and resources [these are just suggestions, you do not need to read everything]:

Readings

Carey J. (2011). ‘Wanted! A Real White Australia’: The Women’s Movement, Whiteness and the Settler Colonial Project, 1900–1940. In: Bateman F., Pilkington L. (eds) Studies in Settler Colonialism. Palgrave Macmillan, London.

Goellner, S. V., Votre, S. J., & Pinheiro, M. C. B. (2012). ‘Strong mothers make strong children’: Sports, eugenics and nationalism in Brazil at the beginning of the twentieth century. Sport, Education and Society. 17 (4), 555–570

Mbembe, A. (2019). Necropolitics. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478007227

(ch 2 The Society of Enmity; ch 3 Necropolitics)

Renwick, C. 2011. “From Political Economy to Sociology: Francis Galton and the Social-Scientific Origins of Eugenics.” The British Journal for the History of Science 44 (3): 343–369.

Roberts, D. (1997). Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and The Meaning of Liberty. Random House.

Roberts, D. (2012). Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-create Race in the Twenty-first Century. The New Press.

Saini, A. (2019). Superior: The Return of Race Science. Fourth Estate.

Stote, K. "From Eugenics to Family Planning: The Coerced Sterilization of Indigenous Women in Post-1970 Saskatchewan," NAIS: Journal of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association 9, 1 (2022): 102-132. https://doi.org/10.1353/nai.2022.0013

Stern, M.A. (2015). Eugenic Nation: Faults and Frontiers of Better Breeding in Modern America. University of California Press.

Turda, M., & Furtuna, A. (2022). The Roma and the Question of Ethnic Origin in Romania during the Holocaust. Critical Romani Studies, 4(2), 8-32. https://doi.org/10.29098/crs.v4i2.143

Turda, M. (2007). The Nation as Object: Race, Blood, and Biopolitics in Interwar Romania. Slavic Review, 66(3), 413–441. JSTOR. https://doi.org/10.2307/20060295

Turda, M. (2010). Modernism and Eugenics. Palgrave Macmillan. (especially ch Eugenics and Biopolitics)

Turda, M. & Quine, M. S. (2018). Historicizing Race. Bloomsbury. (especially ch 3 Nation & ch 5 Science)

Podcasts

REE Collective. (2021). REE in Conversation with Marius Turda: Eugenics and Modernity.

https://soundcloud.com/user-788206922/ree-in-conversation-with-marius-turda

The Surviving Society Podcast. (2020). E113 Lisa Tilley: Race, 'populations' & Malthusianism. https://soundcloud.com/user-622675754/e113-lisa-tilley-race-populations-malthusianism

The Surviving Society Podcast. (2020). S2/E1 'Objectivity', scientific racism & racial justice with Furaha Asani & Mwenza Blell. https://soundcloud.com/user-622675754/s2e1-objectivity-scientific-racism-racial-justice-furaha-asani-mwenza-blell

Videos

A Virtual Conversation: ‘Race Science’ and Eugenics in Historical and Contemporary Context https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f54_kk9ChIs

A History of Eugenics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeSM9vz6ylg

Other resources

The Eugenics Archive https://eugenicsarchive.ca/ (useful resource for concepts, events, archival evidence & more; particularly Encyclopaedia page)

Hjelmar, T. (2023). ‘Eugenics influenced the formulation of the European Convention on Human Rights’. The European Times: https://www.europeantimes.news/2023/05/eugenics-influenced-the-formulation-of-the-european-convention-on-human-rights/

Supervision questions:

Discuss the role of ‘race science’ and/or eugenics in the nation-state. Draw on a historical or contemporary case study to build your argument.

To what extent can we understand eugenics as a manifestation of ‘modernity/coloniality’?
Discuss the legacies of eugenics and/or ‘race science’ in relation to a contemporary case study. Draw on social theory to make your case.

University of Cambridge: Soc12 Nationalism (2024-2025)

In this session we will survey key mainstream approaches to nationalism as well as their shortcomings when it comes to conceptualising the relationship between nationalism, colonialism and race. To critically engage with nationalism and understand its emergence in West Europe, we will interact with post- and de-colonial theories of nationalism. We will also touch upon anticolonial nationalism, and nationalisms outside West Europe more broadly, in order to better understand what nationalism is and what political projects it can support.

The learning objectives of this session are:

To become acquainted with classical theories of nationalism;
To critically examine the relationship between nation-states and empires, and between nationalism and race;
To evaluate the political potentials and pitfalls of nationalism.

Essential readings:

Chatterjee, P. (1996). ‘Whose Imagined Community?’ In Balakrishnan, G. (Ed.). (1996). Mapping the Nation. Verso. https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/1558-mapping-the-nation

Kumar, K. (2010). Nation-states as empires, empires as nation-states: Two principles, one practice? Theory and Society, 39(2), 119–143.

Valluvan, S. (2019). The clamour of nationalism: Race and nation in twenty-first-century Britain. Manchester University Press. https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526126146 (at least Introduction & ch 1)

Smith, A. D. (1998). Nationalism and Modernism: (1st ed.). Routledge. (Introduction; ch 1, 9, & Conclusion)

Further readings and resources [these are just suggestions, you do not need to read everything]:

Anderson, B. R. O. (2006). Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. Verso. (chapters 1, 2, 3, 6)

Bhambra, G. K. (2023). Rethinking Modernity: Postcolonialism and the Sociological Imagination (2nd ed.). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-21537-7 (chapter 5)

Branch, J. (2012). ‘Colonial reflection’ and territoriality: The peripheral origins of sovereign statehood. European Journal of International Relations, 18(2), 277–297. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354066110383997

Chaloult, N. B., & Chaloult, Y. (1979). THE INTERNAL COLONIALISM CONCEPT: METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. Social and Economic Studies, 28(4), 85–99. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27861779

Chattarjee, P. (1993). The Nation and Its Fragments. Princeton University Press. https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691019437/the-nation-and-its-fragments (ch 1, 2, 3)

Cohn, B. S., & Dirks, N. B. (1988). Beyond The Fringe: The Nation State, Colonialism, and The Technologies of Power*. Journal of Historical Sociology, 1(2), 224–229. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6443.1988.tb00011.x

Gellner, E. (1983). Nations and Nationalism. Cornell University Press. (Introduction, ch 1)

Go, J. (2013). Fanon’s postcolonial cosmopolitanism. European Journal of Social Theory, 16(2), 208–225. https://doi.org/10.1177/1368431012462448

Go, J., & Watson, J. (2019). Anticolonial Nationalism From Imagined Communities to Colonial Conflict. European Journal of Sociology / Archives Européennes de Sociologie, 60(1), 31–68. https://doi.org/10.1017/S000397561900002X

Gupta, S., & Virdee, S. (2018). Introduction: European crises: contemporary nationalisms and the language of “race”. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 41(10), 1747–1764. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2017.1361545

Hage, G. (2000). White Nation: Fantasies of White Supremacy in a Multicultural Society (1st ed.). Routledge.

Hobsbawm, E. J. (1992). Nations and Nationalism since 1780: Programme, Myth, Reality (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521439612 (Introduction & ch 1)

Koegler, C., Malreddy, P. K., & Tronicke, M. (2020). The colonial remains of Brexit: Empire nostalgia and narcissistic nationalism. Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 56(5), 585–592. https://doi.org/10.1080/17449855.2020.1818440

Kumar, K. (2013). Empires and Nations: Convergence or Divergence? https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822395409-011

Nisancioglu, K. (2020). Racial sovereignty. European Journal of International Relations, 26(1_suppl), 39–63. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354066119882991

Smith, A. D. (1986). The ethnic origins of nations. Wiley.

Tinsley, M. (2019). Decolonizing the civic/ethnic binary. Current Sociology, 67(3), 347–364. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392117750212

Tinsley, M. (2022a). Commemorating Muslims in the First World War Centenary: Making Melancholia. Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Commemorating-Muslims-in-the-First-World-War-Centenary-Making-Melancholia/Tinsley/p/book/9780367551865

Tinsley, M. (2022b). ‘The opposite of nationalism’? Rethinking patriotism in US political discourse. Identities, 29(6), 807–826. https://doi.org/10.1080/1070289X.2021.2004739

Valluvan, S., & Kalra, V. S. (2019). Racial nationalisms: Brexit, borders and Little Englander contradictions. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 42(14), 2393–2412. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2019.1640890

Supervision questions:

Critically discuss at least one classical nationalism theory (e.g. Hobsbawm, Gellner, Smith, Anderson etc).
What, if any, is the relationship between nation-states and empires?
Can nationalism be useful to decolonial projects?

University of Cambridge: Soc12 Settler colonialism & genocide (2024-2025)

In this session we will explore the historical and contemporary entanglements of settler colonialism and genocide. To do so, we will discuss the economic and political motivations of settler colonialism through the paradigm of ‘colonial racial capitalism’. We will also survey key Indigenous theorists’ approaches to settler colonialism and genocide.

Additionally, we will interrogate the history and meanings of the term ‘genocide’, and the legal, cultural, and political discourses around it. To do this, we will evaluate debates around the limitations and affordances of the concept of ‘genocide’ as they appear in field of Genocide Studies. We will pay particular attention to two paradigmatic cases that have generated large amounts of discussions around the meanings of genocide and its relation to (settler) colonialism: the Holocaust and the genocide against the Palestinian people.

The learning objectives of this session are:

To understand the functioning of settler colonialism as a genocidal project per se;
To recognise and evaluate different perspectives on ‘genocide’, as well as their political implications;
To historicize and critique Genocide Studies as an academic field, as well as to imagine what a decolonial study of genocide might entail.

Essential readings:

Moses, D., A. (ed). (2010). Empire, Colony, Genocide: Conquest, Occupation, and Subaltern Resistance in World History (chapters 3,4,5,6,7)

Koshy, S., Cacho, L.M., Byrd, J.A., Jefferson, B.J. (Eds). (2022). Colonial Racial Capitalism. Duke University Press. (Introduction & chapters 1, 2)

Wakeham, P. (2021). The Slow Violence of Settler Colonialism: Genocide, Attrition, and the Long Emergency of Invasion. Journal of Genocide Research, 24(3), 337–356. https://doi.org/10.1080/14623528.2021.1885571

Wolfe, P. (2006). Settler colonialism and the elimination of the native. Journal of Genocide Research, 8(4), 387–409. https://doi.org/10.1080/14623520601056240

Further readings and resources [these are just suggestions, you do not need to read everything]:

Readings

Césaire, A. (1950). Discourse on colonialism. Monthly Review Press.

Coulthard, J., S. (2014). Red Skin, White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition. University of Minnesota Press. (at least Introduction and chapter 2)

Crook, M. & Short, D. (eds). (2021). Special Issue on the Genocide-Ecocide Nexus. Journal of Genocide Research, Volume 23, Issue 2. https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cjgr20/23/2

Forum: Gaza: International Humanitarian Law and Genocide. Journal of Genocide Research

Forum: Israel-Palestine: Atrocity Crimes and the Crisis of Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Journal of Genocide Research

Kingston, L. (2015). The Destruction of Identity: Cultural Genocide and Indigenous Peoples. Journal of Human Rights, 14(1), 63–83. https://doi.org/10.1080/14754835.2014.886951

Meissner, S. N. (2018). The moral fabric of linguicide: un-weaving trauma narratives and dependency relationships in Indigenous language reclamation. Journal of Global Ethics, 14(2), 266–276. https://doi.org/10.1080/17449626.2018.1516691

Moreton-Robinson, A. (2014). The White Possessive: Property, Power, and Indigenous Sovereignty. University of Minnesota Press. (at least Introduction)

Pergher, R., Roseman, M., Zimmerer, J., Baranowski, S., Bergen, D.L., & Bauman, Z. (2013) The Holocaust: a colonial genocide?A scholars' forum, Dapim: Studies on the Holocaust, 27:1, 40-73, DOI: 10.1080/23256249.2013.812823

Wildt, M. (2023). What Does Singularity of the Holocaust Mean? Journal of Genocide Research, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/14623528.2023.2248818

Segal, R., & Daniele, L. (2024). Gaza as Twilight of Israel Exceptionalism: Holocaust and Genocide Studies from Unprecedented Crisis to Unprecedented Change. Journal of Genocide Research, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1080/14623528.2024.2325804

Stote, K. (2015). An Act of Genocide: Colonialism and the Sterilization of Aboriginal Women. Fernwood Publishing.

Three Responses to ‘Can There Be Genocide Without the Intent to Commit Genocide?’ (2008). Journal of Genocide Research, 10(1), 111–133. https://doi.org/10.1080/14623520701850955

Other resources

Alagraa, B. (2024). On Sudan and the Interminable Catastrophe: A Conversation with Bedour Alagraa. Logic(s). https://logicmag.io/issue-21-medicine-and-the-body/on-sudan-and-the-interminable-catastrophe-an-interview-with-bedour-alagraa/

Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.1_Convention%20on%20the%20Prevention%20and%20Punishment%20of%20the%20Crime%20of%20Genocide.pdf

Lentin, R. (04/12/2023). Genocide is not a metaphor. Identities Blog. https://www.identitiesjournal.com/blog-collection/genocide-is-not-a-metaphor-reflections-on-gaza-and-genocide-denial

Turfah, M. (18.06/2024). Running Amok. The Baffler. https://thebaffler.com/latest/running-amok-turfah

Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1450124405592/1529106060525

Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action. https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/british-columbians-our-governments/indigenous-people/aboriginal-peoples-documents/calls_to_action_english2.pdf

United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect - Genocide Definition https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml

Supervision questions:

Critically identify and discuss the main limitations of genocide studies. What are the political implications of these challenges?
What would a decolonized study of genocide look like?
Critically discuss different theoretical and/or activist approaches to settler colonialism. Which ones do you find most persuasive and why?

University of Bristol: MA Education History’s silence and violence: the role of history curricula in perpetuating anti-Roma racism in Romania (2023, 2024)

In this session, we will focus on the bearings of the past onto the present in relation to anti-Roma racism in Romania. We will survey the state of history education in Romania and how it represents Roma people and anti-Roma state violence, to better understand the (re)production of current racial injustice in the Romanian state in and through education. In doing so, we will also reflect on the broader role of history education and History as a discipline in maintaining and/or disrupting racially articulated injustices and racial thinking.

We will ask three main questions:

What role do school curricula play in obscuring past injustice and therefore legitimizing the continuation of state violence in the present?
To what extent can historical discourses (e.g. history education or History as an academic discipline) be dehumanizing and reproduce racial thinking?
How can we reimagine our engagement with violent histories in education as part of the broader struggle for a just future?

Essential reading (in order in which you should read them)

Matache, M. (2020). It is time reparations are paid for Roma slavery. Al Jazeera: https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2020/10/5/it-is-time-reparations-are-paid-for-roma-slavery/

Pecak, M., Spielhaus, R., & Szakács-Behling, S. (2022). Between Antigypsyism and Human Rights Education: A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Representations of the Roma Holocaust in European Textbooks. Critical Romani Studies, 4(2), 100-120.

Mills, C. W. (2007). Chapter 1: White Ignorance. In S. Sullivan & N. Tuana (Eds.), Race and Epistemologies of Ignorance. SUNY Press.

Mills, C. W. (2014). WHITE TIME: The Chronic Injustice of Ideal Theory. Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race, 11(1), 27–42. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1742058X14000022

University of Cambridge:SOC12 Eugenics & Genocide (2022-2024)

This session will discuss the phenomenon of eugenics knowledge-making through the case study of eugenics in 20th century Romania. In particular, we will analyse the way Romanian eugenicists and their sympathisers constructed an essentialist figure of ‘the Roma’ as deviant, undesirable and, ultimately, a threat to Romanianness, and how such discourses materialised in the policies of the authoritarian military dictatorship of Ion Antonescu. Through this historical case study, we will be able to examine how genocides have been discursively legitimated through ‘scientific’ knowledge produced in universities and research institutes. We will also unpack the meaning of ‘genocide’ as a legal and political category both in the past and the present, as well as the debates over what constitutes a genocide. In addition to this, we will discuss the legacies of eugenicist thinking in the present, ultimately reflecting on the power and responsibility associated with knowledge-making.

By the end of this session you will be able to:

Analyse eugenics as a manifestation of modernity/coloniality
Understand the role of eugenics in the construction of nation-states
Examine the ways eugenicist logics persist in society today
Identify the varied manifestations of genocides over time

Essential reading:

Balogun B (2022) Race, blood, and nation: the manifestations of eugenics in Central and Eastern Europe. Ethnic and Racial Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2022.2095221

Collins, P. H. (2019). Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory. https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478007098 (ch 8 Intersectionality without Social Justice?)

Turda M & Balogun B (2023) Colonialism, eugenics and ‘race’ in Central and Eastern Europe. Global Social Challenges Journal. https://doi.org/10.1332/TQUQ2535

University of Cambridge: SOC12 Coloniality & Europe's East (2024)

In this lecture, we will survey scholarly debates and arguments regarding the relationship between East Europe and coloniality. If we are to take seriously that modernity/coloniality is a world-system, where does that leave the regions of Europe that have not been imperial cores nor colonies? How does modernity/coloniality manifest outside the West European empires, e.g. British, French, Spanish, Portuguese? How can we understand the relationship of ‘Eastern Europe’ to wealthy countries in the West of Europe? What experiences, spaces, subjectivities do the hegemonic constructions of ‘Europe’ and ‘Europeanness’ erase?

In particularly, we will focus in on three interrelated areas:

The co-constitutive social construction of the categories ‘Western Europe’ and ‘Eastern Europe’
The European Union as an imperialist project
The relationship between postsocialism and postcolonialism.

By the end of this lecture you will be able to:

Expand your understanding of the modern/colonial world system
Identify the imperialist tendencies of the European Union empirically, including the uneven relationship between East and West Europe
Navigate debates around the nature of ‘postsocialism’ and how ‘postsocialism’ might (not) relate to ‘postcolonialism’

Essential reading:

Behr, H. & Stivachtis, Y. (Eds.) (2016). Revisiting the European Union as Empire. Routledge (chapters 1,3,4,7)

Boatcă, M. (2007) THE EASTERN MARGINS OF EMPIRE, Cultural Studies, 21:2-3, 368-384, DOI: 10.1080/09502380601162571

Boatca, M. (2013). ‘Multiple Europes and the Politics of Difference Within’. Worlds & Knowledges Otherwise.

Kusic, K., Manolova, P., & Lottholz, P. (Eds.) (2019). Decolonial theory and practice in Southeast Europe. dVersia. (Introduction & Final Chapter at least)