2025: Imperial Dynamics, Borderlands and Resistance: Entangled Worlds of Afro-Eurasia
Cluster of Excellence EurAsian Transformations 2nd Annual Conference
17 to 20 November 2025
University of Innsbruck
Organization: Robert Rollinger (University of Innsbruck), Erich Kistler (University of Innsbruck), Ulrike Tanzer (University of Innsbruck), Bernhard Palme (University of Vienna), Melanie Malzahn (University of Vienna), Oliver Jens Schmitt (University of Vienna), Nina Mirnig (University of Vienna), Florian Schwarz (Austrian Academy of Sciences)
Starting point:
In recent years, the “imperial turn” has become a rather popular approach in humanities. However, there have also become apparent several problems and shortcomings that have so far not been considered appropriately:
– A comparative history of empires is still driven by a mainly Eurocentric perspective that conceptualizes “the world” within a Western framework and the “west” as a fulcrum and linchpin of history.
– This Western framework becomes evident by structuring world history within traditional epochs like Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and Modern history which only makes sense from a Western and Central European perspective.
– The ‘imperial turn՚ is still encumbered by a rigid center-periphery dichotomy. One of its major weaknesses is its single-sided definition of an alleged passive and inactive “periphery” that is pushed in a secondary position instead of an active exploiting center.
– Moreover, in many cases, “center” and “periphery” are not defined according to structural concepts but according to ideological mindsets that, once more, follow a Western perspective. conceptualizing the Greek World of the 6th- 4th c. BCE on the one hand, and the European Union on the other hand as “central” or “peripheral” has substantial consequences in recognizing agency and structural developments.
These obstacles considerably impair an approach that tries to evaluate the dynamics of empires and their agency in entangled worlds of the past and present. This agency gains specific momentum in the vast zones of imperial borderlands, which represent zones of transition between scaled forms of control and non-control, between claim of rule and fictitious rule, a space where different perceptions about empire and non-empire intermingle and clash with each other depending on different perspectives, either from inside the empire or from outside the empire. Seen from the center and due to imperial ideology, they are peripheral zones but nevertheless under firm control. However, seen from a structural point of view, they are not “peripheral” at all but represent a category of their own with very specific dynamics caught between forces of attraction and repulsion. They maintain close ties with the imperial center and the outside World. They are part of the empire but, at the same time, deeply connected with a world beyond the empire´s direct reach. They define an area of communication between inside and outside, linked and joint between this and the other side. This intermediate position offers a wide range of possibilities but also carries risks and dangers. This is especially true for the main historical agents, i.e. the local elites. Contact with the imperial administration and economy opens up a new world that triggers internal developments and changes local power structures. The empire can be viewed as a focal point of admiration and emulation but also a place of disgust and antithesis. New modes of legitimization become available, and transregional consciousness of identities are fostered and boosted. This ambiguity also applies to the imperial center. Expansion towards the “periphery” follows the imperial agenda and means expanding power and influence. At the same time. imperial overstretch becomes more relevant the deeper the empire expands into areas “beyond”.
Moreover, imperial expansion not only triggers local conflicts but transfers intra-peripheral struggles into an imperial agenda. Local agents must choose whether they foster their careers and ambitions by imperial backing or take an opposite stance. These dynamics can be seen in nearly all border areas, both the better and the less well documented ones. Thus, empires and their borderlands are not only power engines of ‘(proto)globalization՚ but also stimulate and foster counterreactions of separation and isolation, triggering local identities and processes of self-awareness. Recent research so far has mainly focused on the empires´ agencies in unfolding transregional dynamics of connectivity and “(proto)globalization” whereas concurrent countermovements of resilience and resistance have received far less attention.
Aims:
IMPERIAL DYNAMICS, BORDERLANDS AND RESISTANCE: ENTANGLED WORLDS OF AFRO-EURASIA” (CA. 1000 BCE – 2000 CE) aims at developing methodologically a change of paradigm in a global history of empires on a structural basis. It defines empires as main actors with agency beyond traditional epochs and frontiers. It overcomes a Eurocentric perspective by conceptualizing trans- and intercontinental frameworks of imperial agency. It focuses on structure and creates a new understanding of imperial border areas within a comparative approach. The concept of imperial “borderlands” allows new insights into the various forms of interaction between imperial core areas and the imperial margins, where the latter defines a dynamic zone of its own. It is within this zone where dynamic processes of adaption and adoption, imitation and separation, economic and social entanglement, emancipation and separation, identity-shaping and political agency occur. In particular, such processes of resilience and resistance and their structural settings within imperial margins, so far rather neglected by modern research, will be a main field of research by the initiative.
Programme
Mon, 17 November
Arrival Day
15:30-16:00 Opening and Welcome Address
University of Innsbruck: Rector Veronika Sexl
Austrian Academy of Sciences: President Heinz Faßmann
University of Vienna: Rector Sebastian Schütze
University of Innsbruck: Vice Rector for Research Gregor Weihs, Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and History Dirk Rupnow
Cluster of Excellence EurAsia: Claudia Rapp (Vienna) Robert Rollinger (Innsbruck)
Section 1: Balkans, Byzantium and the Steppe (convened by Oliver Jens Schmitt and Walter Pohl)
16:00-16:30 Katalin Szende (Central European University, Vienna)
Premodern Buda-Pest: A City between Empires?
16:30-17:00 Kata Tóth (University of Vienna)
Embracing the Mountains. The Carpathian History of the Eurasian Steppe (14th-17th Centuries)
17:00-17:30 Coffee
17:30-18:00 Mariya Kiprovska (University of Vienna)
Not quite Center, not quite Periphery: Steppe Dynamics along the Lower Danube Borderland in the Late Medieval and Early Modern Period
18:00-18:45 Keynote: Oliver Jens Schmitt (University of Vienna)
The Balkans and its Steppe - The Story of a (Non-)Relationship
Opening Buffet
Tue, 18 November
Section 2: Eastern Europe and Japan (convened by Ulrike Tanzer)
09:00-09:45 Keynote: Pieter M. Judson (European University Institute, Florence)
Resisting Resisters: Borderland Societies, Imperial Practice, and Nationalist Claims in the 19th and 20th Centuries
09:45-10:15 Christine Frank (University of Innsbruck)
Just A Further Instance of Modernisation? The Expansion of the Japanese Empire into Mainland Asia and Its Representation in the Western Press
10:15-10:45 Coffee
10:45-11:15 Larissa Cybenko (University of Vienna)
Ukrainisches Narrativ der Kulturgeschichte der Krim
Section 3: Mediterranean and Levant (convened by Erich Kistler)
11:15-12:00 Keynote: Achim Lichtenberger (University of Münster)
The Cities of Koile Syria: Perspectives on the Southern Borderlands of the Seleucid Empire
12:00-12:30 Veronika Sossau (University of Basel)
In the Midst of the Edge? Dynamic Hubs at the Northern Margins of the Ancient Mediterranean Oikumene in the Classical and Hellenistic Periods
12:30-14:00 Lunch
14:00-14:30 Jehan Hillen (University of Innsbruck)
A Rebellion from the Byzantine Borderland: Heraclius’ Rebellion and the last Roman Consuls
Section 4: Middle East and Africa (convened by Bernhard Palme)
14:30-15:15 Keynote: Adam Łajtar (University of Warsaw)
The Emergence of Nubian Kingdoms in the Nile Valley on the Southern Border of the Roman Empire, and their Christianisation (4th–6th Cent.)
15:15-15:45 Jitse Dijkstra (University of Ottawa)
Entangled Worlds on the Southern Egyptian Frontier in Late Antiquity
15:45-16:15 Coffee
16:15-16:45 Anna Dolganov (Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna)
On the Edge of Empire: Case Studies from the Roman Near East
Section 5: Early Career Researchers’ Poster Session
(convened by Mariia Golovina and Clemens Steinwender)
16:45-18:15
Amelie Jochmus (University of Innsbruck)
South Italian and Sicilian red-figured pottery between Carthage and Syracuse in the divided Sicily of the late 5th, 4th, and 3rd centuries BC
Sina Kazemirashid (University of Innsbruck)
Material Embodiment of the Image and Perception of Space in the Arsacid Empire: An Analytical Reconstruction of Nisa’s Landscape, Topography, and Architecture
Salvatore Liccardo (Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna)
Legacies of the Huns – Human Mobility, Group Identities, and Practices of Power in the Early Medieval Carpathian Basin (5th–6th Centuries)
Christopher J. Sprecher (Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna)
Westward Gazes on Eastern Rome: South Caucasus Perspectives on Byzantine Mobility
Raphael Szeider (University of Innsbruck)
Hadrianus.Augustus – Hadrian’s Legitimation and (Re)constructions of the Past
19:00 Pub Quiz
Wed, 19 November
Section 6: Central Asia and China (convened by Melanie Malzahn)
09:00-09:45 Keynote: Tomas L. Høisæter (Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Stord)
Elite Culture, Imperial Models, and Local Agency in the Tarim Basin in the 1st Millennium AD
09:45-10:15 Patrick Wertmann (University of Zurich)
Scale by Scale: Military Innovation and Technology Transfer Across Eurasia
10:15-10:45 Coffee
10:45-11:15 Milad Abedi (University of Innsbruck)
A Globulus Traveling the Globus – Tracing Ancient Iranian Contact Networks through Terms for Coriander
Section 7: Central Asia and South Asia (convened by Nina Mirnig)
11:15-12:00 Keynote: Robin Coningham (Durham University and UNESCO)
Mapping the Mauryans: Negotiating Hierarchies and Heterarchies across Early Historic South Asia
12:00-12:30 Kathrin Holz (University of Würzburg)
Epigraphic Transitions: Tracing the Shift from Buddhist to Hindu Society in Medieval Northwestern India (6th–10th c. CE)
12:30-14:00 Lunch
14:00-14:30 Viola Allegranzi (Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna)
Architectural inscriptions and the geography of power in the Ghurid Sultanate under Ghiyath al-Din Muhammad (1163–1203 CE)
Section 8: Iran and Central Asia (convened by Florian Schwarz)
14:30-15:15 Keynote: Marie Favereau Doumenjou (Paris Nanterre University)
Title tba
15:15-15:45 Paul Wordsworth (University College London)
Pathways of Resistance in the Desert Zones of Medieval Central Asia
15:45-16:15 Coffee
16:15-16:45 Clemens Steinwender (University of Innsbruck)
The Sasanians at the Caucasus. Resilience and Resistance against Imperial Politics in a Late Antique Borderland Region
Section 9: Early Career Researchers’ Workshop (convened by Boris Fonarkov)
16:45-17:15 Valentina Cambruzzi (University of Innsbruck)
Peripheries in Perspective: The Case of Arsakes in the Babylonian Astronomical Diaries
17:15-17:45 Alexander Steiner (University of Innsbruck)
Spatial Imagination of the Borderlands between Assyria and Urarṭu
19:00 Official Dinner
Thu, 20 November
Section 10: Iran and India (convened by Robert Rollinger)
09:00-09:45 Keynote: Wu Xin (Fudan University, Shanghai)
Building Empires at the Edge: Achaemenid and Han Borderland Formation
09:45-10:15 Suchandra Ghosh (University of Hyderabad)
The Local Elites of the Indo-Iranian Borderlands: Voices from Epigraphy, Archaeology and Visuals
10:15-10:45 Coffee
10:45-11:15 Ian Macgregor Morris (University of Innsbruck/Salzburg)
The King at the Borderlands: Models of Kingship across and between Cultural Traditions
17:00-19:00 Section 11: Public Panel Discussion (organisied by Ulrike Tanzer)
Kontext ‚Eurasien‘: Wie wir die Welt sehen und sahen
Mit Gudrun Harrer (österreichische Journalistin „Der Standard“ und Nahostexpertin), Franz Fischler (ehem. Bundesminister und EU-Kommissar, sowie Präsident des Europäischen Forums Alpbach) und M. Rahim Shayegan (Professor für Iranian Studies, UCLA und Direktor des UCLA Pourdavoud Institute for the Study of the Iranian World)
Moderation: Oliver Jens Schmitt (Historiker, Osteuropaexperte)
Closing Buffet
Publication:
The proceeding will be published in the new series Afro-Eurasian Transformations – Ancient Worlds and Beyond (Harrassowitz-Verlag, Wiesbaden)