Photo Queen Kapiolani and Crown Princess Liliuokalani of Hawaii at Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee 1887, Conference Website/Hawaii State Archives
Recent rewritings of the global history of imperialism have pointed to important expressions of local and indigenous agency that survived beneath and alongside the structures of empire.
This conference seeks to further these lines of analysis by examining how non-European monarchs and paramount leaders responded to (and in part shaped) European imperialism. It looks to map how the sovereignty of non-European kings, emperors, sultans, emirs, elders and ‘tribal’ chieftains complicated, challenged and accommodated the claims to rule of the European powers. It also attempts to understand the symbolic and political role of European monarchs in dealing with extra-European, subject monarchs.
Proposals are due 30 January 2019