Lecture by Isa Blumi on the rise of post-colonial empires in the eastern Mediterranean at the beginning of the 19th century.

Settling Aftermath Regimes:

Percolations of a post- Ottoman/Habsburg/Romanov World, 1800-1917

Isa Blumi (Stockholm University)

At the start of a transitional 19th century, the Eastern Mediterranean became the center of emerging Great Powers’ intrigues. Bookended by the rise and fall of Napoleon and several powerful Ottoman-appointed governors (ayan)—most notably Ali Pasha of Tepelena and Muhammad Ali of Egypt—what had once been a stable arena for trade throughout the Ottoman domains turned volatile zones of temporary administration and would-be successor states. Starting with the creation of the Septinsular Republics (1800-1807) and subsequent break away of Morea/Peloponnese’s Greco-Albanian communities, a century long period of political change uprooted large polyglot, religiously diverse communities. The resulting reconfiguration of these dispersed communities took place under the administrative oversight of what I call aftermath regimes, the reactionary foreign funded operations that often is misleadingly associated with the “age of revolution.”  As argued in this lecture, the temporary rise of these post-imperial governments and the ideological framing of the resulting violence signaled a key juncture in the modern state building period forever changing the Eastern Mediterranean. At the heart of these tensions were the organized, rapidly shifting, and thus often contradictory, responses by various indigenous communities who changed forever the Habsburg/Ottoman/Romanov empires.

About the speaker:
Isa Blumi is an Associate Professor at the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Stockholm University. He holds a PhD in History and Middle Eastern/Islamic Studies from New York University (NYU-2005) and a Master of  Political Science and Historical Studies (1995) from The New School for Social Research, New York. Author of seven monographs, he researches societies in the throes of social, economic, and political transformation. He compares how Austro-Hungarian, Russian, Italian, British, Dutch, Spanish, and French imperialist projects in the Islamic world intersected with, and were thus informed by, events within the Ottoman Empire. His latest work covers the late Ottoman period and successor regimes, arguing that events in the Balkans and Middle East are the engines of change in the larger world. This in turn informs the story of the Atlantic world, especially the emergence of modern European imperialism and the Americas.

Discussant: Pablo Sánchez León (CHAM — NOVA FCSH)

Picture: Detail of the Serio-comic war map for the year 1877, by Fred. W. Rose

Seminar with IHC’s 2023 Visiting Scholar Sue Onslow, on her experience as an Oral History practitioner, namely interviewing actors in the Zimbabwe independence process.

Oral History Practice & Methodologies

Sue Onslow, a leading scholar in the field of Cold War studies and decolonization, will speak about her experience as an Oral History practitioner and share some of her knowledge on interviewing actors in the Zimbabwe independence process, and the history of the Commonwealth since the 1960s.

Professor Sue Onslow is IHC’s 2023 Visiting Scholar.
She lectured and taught at the London School of Economics (1994-2012) and in the Department of War Studies, King’s College London. From 2012 – 2023 she worked at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, in the School of Advanced Study, University of London, where she worked as Deputy Director (2015-2020), then Director (2022-23).
She was the lead interviewer on a major oral history project, ‘An Oral History of the Modern Commonwealth’ (1965-2012). Her publications include Co-editor (with Anna-Mart Van Wyk): Southern Africa in the Cold War post-1974 (Cold War International History Project, Woodrow Wilson Center, 2013). ‘The Commonwealth, Neutralism and Non-Alignment’, International Historical Journal, July 2015; Robert Mugabe (with Martin Plaut) (Ohio University Press, 2018); ‘Tanzania, non-alignment and the Non-Aligned Movement’ in Dimitrijevic & Cavoski, The 60th Anniversary of the Non-Aligned Movement (Belgrade, 2021); and ed. (with Lori Maguire) Consuls in the Cold War (Brill Publishers, 2023).
She is a frequent media commentator on the Commonwealth, and Zimbabwe. She is preparing a monograph The Commonwealth in the Cold War Era (Hurst Publishers).

Moderator: Rui Lopes (IHC — FCSH / Birkbeck, University of London)

ATTENDANCE IS FREE

Fourth edition of the meeting De Famalicão para o Mundo [from Famalicão to the world], organised by several national institutions and, this year, gathering specialists on Historical Education.

IV Encontro De Famalicão para o Mundo:

A Educação Histórica e as Heranças Transgeracionais

Numa linha de continuidade com os Encontros De Famalicão para o Mundo, iniciados no ano de 2021, nos quais se tem vindo a estreitar as relações entre a História Local num contexto nacional e global, este IV Encontro visa a divulgação e debate sobre matérias relacionadas com a Educação Histórica e as heranças transgeracionais, assim como perscrutar a possibilidade de nos acercarmos ao conhecimento das práticas artísticas nestas condições.

O Encontro, num formato presencial, decorrerá em duas tardes e uma manhã, com sessões plenárias procurando, assim, promover um espaço de partilha e reflexão interdisciplinar e comparada através do debate em torno de problemas, abordagem, metodologias e práticas de investigação, tendo em vista o intercâmbio entre investigadores e professores.

Formação acreditada para professores dos grupos disciplinares 200, 210, 220, 240, 290, 300, 400, 410, 420, 530, 600 (13h / CCPFC/ACC-120633/23).

🔗 Inscrição obrigatória neste link.

>> 📎 Programa (PDF) <<

>> 📎 Livro de resumos (PDF) <<

Coordenação científica

• Arminda Ferreira (CMVNF)
• Luís Alberto Alves (CITCEM — FLUP)
• Cláudia Ninhos (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST / Fundação Aristides de Sousa Mendes)
• Filipa Sousa Lopes (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
• Cristina Clímaco (LER – Universidade Paris 8)
• António Gonçalves (Galeria Municipal Ala da Frente)
• Isabel Barca (CITCEM — FLUP)
• Miguel Barros (APH)
• Aurora Marques (CFAEVNF)

Seventh José Medeiros Ferreira Lecture, marking the beginning of the school year for the PhD Course in History at NOVA FCSH, with Sue Onslow, IHC Visiting Scholar 2023.

The Monarchy and the Commonwealth

Sue Onslow (King’s College London)

The United Kingdom is unusual in having an ‘international monarch’. Unlike his European counter-parts, the King is head of state of 14 other countries across the globe, known as Commonwealth Realms. The British monarch is also ceremonial head of the international organisation, the Commonwealth. (The overwhelming majority of these countries are former colonial dependencies of the UK.)

These institutional relationships are facing multiple pressures – these include the rise of republicanism; demands for reparations, heightened by monarchy’s past role in the political economy of slavery; and the evident paradox of a modern international organisation having the latest incumbent of a 1000-year-old hereditary institution as its ceremonial head. Despite its progressive past, the Commonwealth continues to be labelled ‘Empire 2.0, but with better PR.’ and struggles for perceived relevance.

Looking at the relationship between monarch and Commonwealth gives us a lens into the evolution of a unique post-colonial multilateral association, and contemporary dilemmas confronting modern British foreign policy. Whereas the Queen was a very long-lived royal diplomat who championed the Commonwealth in public and in private, the King has fewer options and time is not on his side. His decision to support publicly human rights and values across the Commonwealth is placing him at odds with member governments who see the organisation as simply conferring legitimacy, the opportunity to improve trade relations. The King’s known advocacy on issues around climate change also contrasts with the policies of the ‘big emitters’ in the Commonwealth, such as India. Is monarchy key to the survival of the Commonwealth, or increasingly ‘the kiss of death’? What does all this mean for British foreign policy which has repeatedly stressed the salience of the Commonwealth since BREXIT?

About the lecturer:
Professor Sue Onslow is IHC’s 2023 Visiting Scholar.
She lectured and taught at the London School of Economics (1994-2012) and in the Department of War Studies, King’s College London. From 2012 – 2023 she worked at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, in the School of Advanced Study, University of London, where she worked as Deputy Director (2015-2020), then Director (2022-23).
She was the lead interviewer on a major oral history project, ‘An Oral History of the Modern Commonwealth’ (1965-2012). Her publications include Co-editor (with Anna-Mart Van Wyk): Southern Africa in the Cold War post-1974 (Cold War International History Project, Woodrow Wilson Center, 2013). ‘The Commonwealth, Neutralism and Non-Alignment’, International Historical Journal, July 2015; Robert Mugabe (with Martin Plaut) (Ohio University Press, 2018); ‘Tanzania, non-alignment and the Non-Aligned Movement’ in Dimitrijevic & Cavoski, The 60th Anniversary of the Non-Aligned Movement (Belgrade, 2021); and ed. (with Lori Maguire) Consuls in the Cold War (Brill Publishers, 2023).
She is a frequent media commentator on the Commonwealth, and Zimbabwe. She is preparing a monograph The Commonwealth in the Cold War Era (Hurst Publishers).

>> 📎 Flyer of the lecture (PDF)

Picture in the poster: 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards Flag Bearers displaying flags from Cmmonwealth nations in the forecourt of Buckingham Palace during the 2014 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Credit: © Crown Copyright 2014; photographer: PO(Phot)Owen Cooban).