Call for Papers: Summer school 'Socioeconomic diplomacy and global empire building, 16th-19th centuries'
On 26-28 June, 2023, Leiden University’s Institute for History will host a summer school on Socioeconomic diplomacy and global empire building, 16th-19th centuries, in collaboration with the N.W. Posthumus Institute (the research school for economic and social history in the Netherlands and Flanders) and the Global Diplomacy Network. The summer school will bring together approximately 10-15 advanced students or young academics and a team of experts at the crossroads of (new) diplomatic history, the history of empires, and global history. We will discuss and present content, historiography, concepts and methodology in these innovative fields. We aim for a stimulating programme consisting of lectures, interactive workshops, and thorough discussions of the participants’ work.
Themes, discussions and questions
This summer school will explore the concept of socioeconomic diplomacy in the context of global empire building (16th-19th centuries). The main questions to be assessed are:
- In the context of empire building, where political and economic aims closely interrelate, how do we distinguish between ‘traditional’ political diplomacy and economic diplomacy? Is there even a distinction?
- What purposes did socioeconomic diplomacy serve in empires?
- How applicable are the general historiographical definitions of ‘commercial’, ‘economic’, ‘business’, ‘social’ and ‘cultural’ diplomacy to specifically global contexts?
- What sources, methodologies and framings are best suited to approach these questions?
These questions will be explored by comparing cases with a wide temporal, spatial and cultural (western and non-western) spread, to properly gauge the diversity but also commonalities found in socioeconomic diplomacy in empires, and especially the concepts and methodologies to assess it.