Theories of the state, violence, nationalism, and social order

This seminar aims to provide a combination of broad overview and foundation intheoretical discussions relevant to state formation, empire, war and violence, thedisplacement of populations, and related issues. Needless to say such a course mustby nature be highly selective in topics and readings given the broad historical,theoretical, and interdisciplinary scope of such a combination of topics (or of any one of them). We will read a selection of classical texts in historical sociology, social and legal theory, and anthropology, as well as more recent major contributions on relevant topics. The goal of the course is to engage in discussions and reflection that will stimulate further exploration in contemporary , legal, and political theory to inform dissertations and other research initiatives. Discussing the broad range of texts in the reading list below will provide a starting point for developing interdisciplinary frameworks within which to address the kind of cross-cutting issues that make up the substance of the seminar. The following list of readings represents examples of the kinds of issues and texts the seminar will take up. In our first meeting we will consult on the list and select 9 books to read, the first of which will be selections from Weber's Economy and Society (Selections, because the whole text is approximately 1100 pages.) Two seminal texts that are not on the list, Foucault's Discipline and Punish and Bourdieu's Outline of a Theory of Practice are already familiar to many students who have expressed an interest in the seminar, so I have not included them. List of Readings: M. Weber, Economy and Society (selected sections), B. Anderson, Imagined Communities; E. Gellner, Nations and Nationalism; J. and J. Comaroff, Etnhography and the Historical Imagination; S. Malesevic, The Sociology of War and Violence; A. Giddens, The Constitution of Society; A. Sen, The Idea of Justice; J. Scott, The Art of Not Being Governed; E.P. Thompson, Whigs and Hunters; M. Herzfeld, The Social Production of Indifference; Z. Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust or Wasted Lives