Event Details
Empire is one of history's most enduring and contested political forms. From Rome and the Han dynasty to the Mongols, Mughals, Qing, Russian and British empires, imperial powers have shaped trade, labour, law, and belief across vast distances, while relying on conquest, hierarchy, and violence.
On October 28, two distinguished historiansโHans van de Ven, Professor at the University of Cambridge, and Dominic Lieven, Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics and Political Scienceโwill debate the uses and limits of "empire" as a framework for understanding power today and explore its past, present, and future. Drawing on different historical periods and historiographical traditions, their conversation will not simply to recall vanished realms but to ask how imperial legaciesโborders, racial categories, extractive economies, cultural hybridities, and memories of resistanceโcontinue to shape the modern world and the international order.
