The UBC History Empires and (Post-)Colonialisms in the Asia-Pacific Cluster features local non-UBC scholars who have recently published monographs to have informal discussions about a chapter or two of their book. We invite all faculty and graduate students with interests in modern Asia/-Pacific (broadly defined) and the themes of empire, colonialism, or postcolonialism/decolonization to join, regardless of discipline or department.
The UBC History Empires and (Post-)Colonialisms in the Asia-Pacific Cluster is pleased to invite you to a seminar with Dr. Andrea Geiger on her latest monograph Converging Empires: Citizens and Subjects in the North Pacific Borderlands, 1867-1945. This seminar will be held on Thursday, March 7th, 3:00-4:30 pm in Buchanan Tower 1133. Refreshments will be provided.
Dr. Andrea Geiger is a Professor Emerita in the Department of History of Simon Fraser University. Her work focuses on the ways in which law was historically used to create and maintain racial boundaries, and her previous publications include Subverting Exclusion Transpacific Encounters with Race, Caste, and Borders, 1885-1928. In Converging Empires, Geiger:
“examines the role the North Pacific borderlands played in the construction of race and citizenship, from 1867, when the United States acquired Russia’s interests in Alaska, through to the end of World War II. Imperial, national, provincial, territorial, reserve, and municipal borders worked together to create a dynamic legal landscape that both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people negotiated in myriad ways. As they crossed from one jurisdiction to another, on both sides of the British Columbia–Alaska border, adventurers, prospectors, laborers, and settlers from Europe, Canada, the United States, Latin America, and Asia made and remade themselves.”
Interested participants should read the Introduction, Chapter 4 “Borders at Sea,” and the Conclusion of Converging Empires. A PDF version of these chapters will be emailed to those on the cluster mailing list, and will also be provided upon email request.
If you are interested in joining the cluster, please contact Quinton Huang (qhuang98@student.ubc.ca) to be added to the mailing list, and please direct other inquiries to Ryan Sun (rchsun29@student.ubc.ca).
