This symposium seeks both to revive the study of the Commonwealth and to reconnect it to the history of the British Empire, and to other areas of scholarly study. It will be held at Aberdeen University, in the Humanity Manse, College bounds 009, from 8-9 June 2017.
The Commonwealth of Nations has become a chimera in history and theory.
It originated in the colonial conferences of the 1880s, became formalised as the British Commonwealth of Nations during the interwar period (centred on Britain and the so called old dominions), and transformed after the Second World War into a new, post-colonial, Commonwealth of Nations encompassing the bulk of the former empire.
The Commonwealth has been side-lined even as imperial history has flourished in recent years. Yet the Commonwealth hardly deserves this neglect. At least prior to the period of decolonisation it constituted a significant experiment in supranational cooperation.
Participants: Dr Tomahito Baji (Waseda), Dr Rachel Bright (Keele), Dr Ruth Craggs (KCL), Dr Andrew Dilley (Aberdeen), Prof. Marjory Harper (Aberdeen), Dr Harshan Kumarasingham (Max Planck Institute and Edinburgh), Dr Thomas Mohr (University College Dublin), Prof Robert Frost (Discussant)
Further details: https://www.abdn.ac.uk/sdhp/events/11574/