Oxford Graduate Conference in Intellectual History

Thursday, 28 May 2026, 9am to 6pm

The Oxford Graduate Conference in Intellectual History will take place on Thursday, 28 May 2026 at The New Space, New College, University of Oxford. This year our theme is After Empire: Intellectual History in a Post-Imperial World and the keynote speech will be given by Prof. Dan-el Padilla Peralta (Princeton).

For this year’s conference, we invite reflection on intellectual life after empire. Should we think of it as a post-revolutionary cleaning up of bodies and rubble, a fundamental disorientation and dislocation of its former citizens and subjects, or a humane liberation of the many from the hands of the few? Or have empires sometimes simply withered away, disappeared by agreement, or because they carried the seeds of their own destruction within them? All of these might constitute aspects of many post-imperial moments, from Italy in the 5th century to Algeria in the 20th, from the Andes to East Asia. The world after empire might also invite examination of the true nature of empire. Were they reflections of the necessity of monopolies of force in our political communities, thus rendering any “post-imperial” world a utopian dream, or should they serve as a warning of the overreach of coercion and power ultimately embodied in more inclusive and participative structures? These and many more questions might be reflected in the papers at this year’s conference. We invite proposals that understand “empire” in the broadest possible terms, as political, social, cultural, or intellectual structures, from antiquity to our present moment, and to join us in Oxford for a wide-ranging reflection on intellectual life in a post-imperial world.

Program:

9:15 – 9:30: Welcome and Introduction by our student led conference committee

9:30 – 10:40: Panel I - Systems and Networks - Chaired by Mikayla Apicella (Reuben College, University of Oxford)

Blaine Patrick Werner, Jr. (University of Virginia), 'Revisiting Curators of the Buddha (1995): Ambivalence, Critical Agency, and the Upside of Melancholy for Living in the Shadow of Empire'

Simon Werner (European University Institute), 'Transnational knowledge networks, Cold War politics, and the making of modernization theory in late colonial Africa'

11:00 – 12:00 Keynote Speech: Dan-el Padilla Peralta (Princeton University), 'Empires and Mass Enslavement: The Challenges for Intellectual History'

12:00 – 13:30 Lunch Break

13:30-14:40: Panel II - Structures 1: Social - Chaired by Philip AI-Taiee (University College, University of Oxford)

Natalia Lanko (SciencesPo, Paris), 'The Political Economy of the Levant Company, c.1800'

Duanran Feng (The Queen's College, University of Oxford), 'Dissembling empire in the Church: Theological Difference in the Independence Movement of the West City church, Beijing, c. 1919-27'

14:40 – 15:10 Coffee Break

15:10 – 16:20: Panel III - Individuals - Chaired by Yanxuan Zheng (Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford)

Swetabja Mallik (University of Hyderabad), 'Orphaned by Empire: Intellectual Formations and Post-Imperial Displacement'

Nilakshi Das (Institute of Historical Research), 'The Commonwealth and the politics of student mobility as a post-imperial project,1950-2000'

Stefano Glenn Torrigiotti (Scuola Normale Superiore), 'Neither Ruins nor Liberation: Muhammad Iqbal’s Payām-e Mashreq and the Post-Imperial Moment (1923)'

16:30 –17:40: Panel IV - Structures 2: Political- Chaired by Robert Taylor (New College, University of Oxford)

Floris de Ruiter (Leiden), 'Aurobindo’s Theory of Violence and the Limits of India’s Post-Imperial Statist Peace'

Finian Smyth (Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford), 'Structural Dependency, Fiscal Rules, and post-Keynesianism's Global Context'

For any questions or queries, please get in touch with the convenors via oxford.ihconference@gmail.com

Speaker(s): Dan-el Padilla Peralta (Princeton)

Venue: New College - Holywell Street Oxford

Department: History (Department)

Organiser: Philip Al-Taiee, Robert Taylor, Yanxuan Zheng, Mikayla Apicella

Host: Centre for Intellectual History

Register here: https://forms.gle/3uSSfm8oQLxGgYBD7