Religion in Empire

This seminar explores religious difference in imperial states. It does so by comparing multiple theories of imperial rule through case studies from the Russian and Chinese Qing empires. The empirical focus of this course is accordingly on the interface between communities of religious practice and state institutions, rather than these communities on their own terms. After introducing several approaches to studying empire, and examining each empire’s state religion and institutions of religious governance, much of the remainder of the course will be devoted to the Muslim and Buddhist minorities who inhabited both empires. Through these and other examples this course seeks to understand religion’s place in the social fabric of empire, as well as its role in their collapse.