Universität Wien

240090 SE VM5 / VM2 - Drugs and Empires (2018W)

7.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 24 - Kultur- und Sozialanthropologie
Continuous assessment of course work
SGU
Moodle

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 25 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

If the students agree (there'll be a voting in the first session), we'd cancel two sessions (19.10. and 16.11.) in favour of participating at a researchworkshop.

  • Friday 05.10. 13:00 - 15:00 (ehem. Seminarraum Internationale Entwicklung Afrikawissenschaften UniCampus Hof 5 2Q-EG-05)
  • Friday 12.10. 13:00 - 15:00 (ehem. Seminarraum Internationale Entwicklung Afrikawissenschaften UniCampus Hof 5 2Q-EG-05)
  • Friday 19.10. 13:00 - 15:00 (ehem. Seminarraum Internationale Entwicklung Afrikawissenschaften UniCampus Hof 5 2Q-EG-05)
  • Friday 09.11. 13:00 - 15:00 (ehem. Seminarraum Internationale Entwicklung Afrikawissenschaften UniCampus Hof 5 2Q-EG-05)
  • Friday 16.11. 13:00 - 15:00 (ehem. Seminarraum Internationale Entwicklung Afrikawissenschaften UniCampus Hof 5 2Q-EG-05)
  • Friday 23.11. 13:00 - 15:00 (ehem. Seminarraum Internationale Entwicklung Afrikawissenschaften UniCampus Hof 5 2Q-EG-05)
  • Friday 30.11. 13:00 - 15:00 (ehem. Seminarraum Internationale Entwicklung Afrikawissenschaften UniCampus Hof 5 2Q-EG-05)
  • Friday 07.12. 13:00 - 15:00 (ehem. Seminarraum Internationale Entwicklung Afrikawissenschaften UniCampus Hof 5 2Q-EG-05)
  • Friday 14.12. 13:00 - 15:00 (ehem. Seminarraum Internationale Entwicklung Afrikawissenschaften UniCampus Hof 5 2Q-EG-05)
  • Friday 25.01. 13:00 - 18:00 (ehem. Seminarraum Internationale Entwicklung Afrikawissenschaften UniCampus Hof 5 2Q-EG-05)

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

Throughout human history drugs have played a major role in the political economy and culture of empires. Their production, trade and consumption have been important constituents of the relations between centres and peripheries within empires and a major source of the extraction and accumulation of value. The seminar intends to investigate this relationship between the production, distribution and consumption of drugs and the constitution of empires on a global scale in a wide historical perspective spanning from antiquity to the present.

We define drugs as naturally occurring substances that have been consumed by almost every society in history for their mind- or mood-altering properties. This broad definition thus not only includes narcotics like opium, cocaine or heroin, but all kinds of alcohol as well as tobacco, sugar, tea, cacao and coffee. Empires are seen as polities with political and military dominion of populations who are culturally and ethnically distinct from the imperial ethnic group and its culture. They extend relations of hegemony over territorial spaces for the purpose of extracting and centralizing value. This definition includes formal as well as informal empires.

After several sessions of intense reading and input, students are required to deliver a research proposal by mid-term. The final paper is due mid-June. The seminar ends with a full-day workshop where students present their papers.

Possible research topics include (among others):

- Greek colonization of the Mediterranean area and the diffusion of viticulture
- Wine and the Roman Empire
- Beer and the merchant empire of the Hansa
- Coffee and Islamic Empires
- Sugar and the Atlantic plantation complex
- Tobacco and the Atlantic plantation complex
- Brandy and the Castilian Empire
- Vodka and the Russian Empire
- Tea and the British Empire
- Opium and the British Empire
- Cacao and the colonization of Africa
- Cocaine and US imperialism in Latin America
- Heroin in Afghanistan, the Golden Triangle and War in Southeast Asia
- War on Drugs and the informal US empire

Assessment and permitted materials

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

Grading:

1) Active participation
2) Oral Presentation
3) Regular written assignments
4) Final Seminar paper, 15 pages

Examination topics

Reading list

Schedule:

Week 1: Introduction

Week 2: Drugs. The Big Three: Alcohol, Tobacco and Caffeine.
David Courtwright, Forces of Habit. Drugs and the Making of the Modern World. Harvard University Press (2001).
Kenneth Pomeranz and Steven Topik, The World That Trade Created: Society, Culture, and the World Economy, 1400 to the Present. M.E. Sharpe (1999).

Week 3: Drugs. The Little Three: Opium, Cannabis and Coca.
David Courtwright, Forces of Habit. Drugs and the Making of the Modern World. Harvard University Press (2001).
Kenneth Pomeranz and Steven Topik, The World That Trade Created: Society, Culture, and the World Economy, 1400 to the Present. M.E. Sharpe (1999).

Week 4: Empires
Stephen Howe, Empire. A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press (2002).

Week 5: Commodity Chains – a conceptual tool
Immanuel Wallerstein and Terence K. Hopkins, ‘Commodity Chains in the World-Economy Prior to 1800’, in: Immanuel Wallerstein, The Essential Wallerstein. The New Press (2000).
Steven Topik, ‘Historicizing Commodity chains. Five Hundred Years of the Global Coffee Commodity Chain.’, in: Jeniffer Bair (ed.), Frontiers of Commodity Chain Research. Stanford University Press (2009).

Week 6: An example: Sugar (1985)
Sidney Mintz, Sweetness and Power. The Place of Sugar in Modern History. Penguin Books (1986/1985).

Week 7: Finding and debating individual research topics

Week 8: Finding and debating individual research topics

Week 9: Individual Consultations: Discussing written proposals and bibliography

Week 10: How to write a seminar paper
Umberto Eco, How to Write a Thesis. The MIT Press (2015/1977).

Week 11: No class

Week 12: No class

Week 13: Trouble Shooting

Week 14: Full-day workshop (9:00–17:00)

Association in the course directory

VM5 / VM2

Last modified: We 21.04.2021 13:34