Professor Chester
Hellems 225
Office Hours: Tues/Thu 1:30-2:30 and by appointment
chester@colorado.edu
history 4339: borderlands of empire
Presenting the borderlands of the British Empire as central rather than peripheral, this course examines their development through imperial expansion, consolidation, and decolonization. Themes include domination, resistance, and negotiation in areas such as Afghanistan, India, and the Palestine Mandate. Students will acquire skills in comparative history and develop a better understanding of the roots of contemporary conflict. Prior knowledge of South Asian, Middle Eastern or African history will be helpful but is not required. Sophomore standing and well-developed writing skills are prerequisites.
The course is organized in five sections: an introduction to borderlands studies, South Asian borderlands, Middle Eastern borderlands, African borderlands, and post-colonial legacies. Within the geographical sections, lectures are organized in a roughly chronological fashion. Lecture topics are indicated below. The course also provides an introduction to comparative historical methodology. Course requirements include a map quiz, midterm exam, final exam, and 10-15 page research paper, with a paper proposal and primary source exercise to be submitted during the semester. The work load for this course is heavy, with at least 100 pages of reading on many weeks.
required reading (available at CU bookstore)
Text:
Rudyard Kipling, Kim (London: Penguin, 1999)
Course Reader:
A. I. Asiwaju, ed. Partitioned Africans: Ethnic Relations across African’s International Boundaries 1884-1984 (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1985) 51-70, 155-193.
M. Baud and Willem van Schendel, “Toward a Comparative History of Borderlands”, Journal of World History 8:2 (Fall 1997): 211-242.
Joya Chatterji, “The Fashioning of a Frontier: The Radcliffe Line and Bengal’s Border Landscape, 1947-1952,” Modern Asian Studies 33:1 (Jan 1999): 185-242.
George Nathaniel Curzon, Frontiers: [lecture] delivered in the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, November 2, 1907 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1976) 1-58.
Toby Dodge, Inventing Iraq: The Failure of Nation Building and a History Denied (New York: Columbia UP, 2003) ix-41, 157-191, 224-226
Ainslie T. Embree, "Frontiers into Boundaries: From the Traditional to the Modern State," in Realm and Region in Traditional India, ed. Richard G. Fox (Durham, N.C.: Duke UP, 1977): 255-280.
Stephen B. Jones, “Boundary Concepts in the Setting of Place and Time”, Annals of the Association of American Geographers 49:3 [Part 1] (Sep 1959): 241-255.
Walter Laqueur and Barry Rubin, eds., The Israel-Arab Reader, 6th rev. ed. (New York: Penguin, 2001) 1-77.
Peter Mansfield, A History of the Middle East, 2nd ed. (London: Penguin, 2003) 167-238.
Oscar J. Martinez, Border People: Life and Society in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1994) 5-25.
Benny Morris, Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-1999 (New York: Knopf, 1999) 161-189, 249-258
Paul Nugent and A. I. Asiwaju, African Boundaries: Barriers, Conduits and Opportunities (London: Pinter, 1996) 1-67.
J.R.V. Prescott, Political Frontiers and Boundaries (London: Allen & Unwin, 1987) 227-233, 239-280.
Kamal Osman Salih, “British Policy and the Accentuation of Inter-Ethnic Divisions: The Case of the Nuba Mountains Region of Sudan, 1920-1940” African Affairs.
Willem van Schendel, “Working Through Partition: Making a Living in the Bengal Borderlands,” International Review of Social History 46 (Dec 2001) 393-421.
C.H. Schofield and R.N. Schofield, The Middle East and North Africa [World Boundaries Series] vol. 2 (London: Routledge, 1994) 1-20.
assignments
map quiz—Sep 2
paper proposal (1-2 pages)—Due Sep 30 by 1:30pm
Identify a topic in borderlands history that you will address in your final paper. Specify the question or questions you will attempt to answer. Include a preliminary bibliography of relevant secondary accounts.
primary source exercise (2 pages)—Due Oct 14 by 1:30pm
Identify at least one primary source you will use in writing your final paper. These sources may be textual, visual (e.g. a map), or even aural (e.g. a national anthem). Provide a full citation and brief description, as well as a preliminary discussion of your source’s relevance to the question(s) outlined in your paper proposal.
The midterm will include a map section, identification questions, and one essay selected from several choices.
final paper (10-15 pages)—Due Dec 2 by 1:30pm
This is a research paper and your argument must be based on primary sources. The paper must also include a discussion of relevant secondary accounts. Take note: papers that do not meet these fundamental requirements and lack prior approval from me may be penalized a minimum of two letter grades (e.g. from an A to a C). If you have questions about primary sources, ask me.
final exam—Tues, Dec. 16, 1:30-4:00pm
The format of the final will be similar to that of the midterm exam.
Be warned: If attendance and/or attention flags, I may conduct in-class quizzes or add other assignments. In this case, I will adjust the grading percentages accordingly and announce the new percentages in class.
religious obligations and class conflicts
If you have a conflict with exams, assignments, or class meetings because of religious obligations, please let me know at least two weeks in advance. We will work together to arrange appropriate accommodations.
CU disability Services
If you qualify for accommodations because of a disability, please submit to me a letter from Disability Services as soon as possible so that your needs can be addressed. You can reach Disability Services at (303) 492-8671, at Willard 322, or through their website <www.colorado.edu/disabilityservices>; they determine accommodations based on documented disabilities.
grading
Grades will be determined on the basis of map quiz (5%); paper proposal (5%); primary source exercise (5%); midterm exam (25%); final paper (30%); and final exam (30%). If you need an extension, discuss it with me in advance. I do not offer makeup exams except under extraordinary circumstances (e.g. a medical emergency or death in the family). Late work will be penalized.
office hours and email
Coming to my office hours (listed above) is the best way to get immediate feedback. Email should be reserved for questions I can answer in a sentence or two. I aim to reply to emails within 72 hours.
plagiarism
Plagiarism will not be tolerated. As a violation of the CU Honor Code and the university’s policy on Academic Integrity, it is punishable by dismissal from the university. We will discuss proper citation in class, but you are responsible for familiarizing yourself with the meanings of plagiarism; “Sources: Their Use and Acknowledgement,” published by Dartmouth College, is an excellent resource, available online at <www.dartmouth.edu/~sources>.
A key element of the university Honor Code is that CU students will not plagiarize (that is, use the words and thoughts of others as their own). As part of the effort to control plagiarism and to ensure that submitted works from students are fully their own, the university has subscribed to TurnItIn.com. As the Honor Code website notes, “This service allows faculty to submit sentences, paragraphs, or entire term/research papers or other scholarly works to the TurnItIn.com website for review. After the service scans more than 1.5 billion pages on the Internet, the faculty member will receive a report including the percentage of the material that has been identified as drawn from other sources, the degree of similarity in the matching material, and live hyperlinks to the original source material so that each faculty member can determine for themselves whether plagiarism has indeed occurred.” The electronic files submitted will then become part of the TurnItIn “closed database.” According to the Honor Code website, “This procedure not only ensures that multiple submissions of the same material can be detected, regardless of the passage of time or the location of the submission, but protects the integrity of each student's scholarly efforts. No additional access to, use, or publication of the material in this paper bank is made by TurnItIn.com.”
It is my intention to submit all student papers to TurnItIn.com, to give a grade of F in the course to any student in violation of the CU Honor Code, and to refer incidents of plagiarism to the Honor Code Council. Note that you cannot submit the same paper for two different classes without the express permission of both instructors.
If you have any questions about this procedure or about any matter regarding proper citation and the Honor Code, ask me.
classroom behavior
In this class, we will all treat each other with respect. Civil discussion of differing viewpoints is an essential part of the study of imperial history. Appropriate classroom behavior includes arriving on time and remaining for the entire class; let me know before class if you will need to leave early. Do not eat, sleep, read the newspaper, text your friends, play games, have private conversations, etc. during class. Turn cell phones off.
discrimination and sexual harassment
The University of Colorado at Boulder policy
on Discrimination and Harassment
(http://www.colorado.edu/policies/discrimination.html), the University of
Colorado policy on Sexual Harassment, and the University of Colorado policy on
Amorous Relationships apply to all students, staff and faculty. Any student,
staff or faculty member who believes s/he has been the subject of discrimination
or harassment based upon race, color, national origin, sex, age, disability,
religion, sexual orientation, or veteran status should contact the Office of
Discrimination and Harassment (ODH) at 303-492-2127 or the Office of Judicial
Affairs at 303-492-5550. Information about the ODH and the campus resources
available to assist individuals regarding discrimination or harassment can be
obtained at <http://www.colorado.edu/odh>.
course outline
Department Guidelines for “Referencing” and “Papers” (please read carefully)
• Aug 26: welcome and introduction to borderlands studies
• Aug 28: introduction to regions
Jones, Martinez, Baud and Schendel
• Sep 2: borderlands characteristics; MAP QUIZ
• Sep 4: borderlands characteristics, cont.
Week Three: Early Imperial Borderlands
Curzon, Kipling 48-89
• Sep 9: Religious borderlands, imperial mindsets
• Sep 11: Mughal boundaries: Islamic India
South Asia
Week Four: The Beginnings of European Imperial Expansion in South Asia
If you must obtain sources through Interlibrary Loan, order them now
Kipling 90-144, Embree
• Sep 16: maps and power: British expansion in South Asia
• Sep 18: race in the borderlands
Kipling 145-232, Prescott 227-233, 239-41
• Sep 23: Kipling and the Great Game
• Sep 25: the Afghan wars
Paper proposal due in my box in the History Department (Hellems 204) by 1:30pm on Tue, Sep. 30
Kipling 233-339
• Sep 30: communalism and territoriality
• Oct 2: the rise of Gandhi
Chatterji, Manto
• Oct 7: partitioning British India
• Oct 9: adjusting to new boundaries
The Middle East
Primary source exercise due in my box in the History Dept. (Hellems 204) by 1:30pm on Tues, Oct. 14
Prescott 262-280, Schofield and Schofield, Mansfield
• Oct 14: boundary-making in the Middle East
• Oct 16: pan-Islam
Dodge
• Oct 21: the creation of Iraq
• Oct 23: Britain’s evolving interests
Laqueur and Rubin 1-41
• Oct 28: MIDTERM
• Oct 30: the Palestine Mandate
Laqueur and Rubin 41-77, Morris 161-189, 249-258
• Nov 4: partition proposals
• Nov 6: Britain’s withdrawal from Palestine
Africa
Prescott 242-261, Nugent and Asiwaju 1-67
• Nov 11: society and ethnicity in Africa
• Nov 13: the “Scramble for Africa”
Asiwaju
• Nov 18: European expansion and its impact on African societies
• Nov 20: the development of ethnic identity
• Happy Thanksgiving!
Salih
Final paper due in my box in the History Department (Hellems 204) by 1:30pm on Tuesday, Dec. 2
• Dec 2: methods of colonial control
• Dec 4: Britain in Sudan
Post-Colonial Borderlands
Week Sixteen: Legacies of Decolonization in South Asia, the Middle East, & Africa
Schendel
Read the international section of the New York Times or Washington Post this week, considering the current state of the British imperial borderlands we have studied this semester. Both newspapers are available online at <www.nyt.com> and <www.washingtonpost.com>.
• Dec 9: post-colonial states
• Dec 11: conclusions
FINAL EXAM Tuesday, December 16th, 1:30-4:00pm