Faculty Research Forum: Colonial Rule with Adria Lawrence

Professor Adria Lawrence presents recent research in conversation with Professor Dipali Mukhopadhyay, with an introduction by Vice Dean for Faculty Affairs Peter M. Lewis.

What's So Colonial About Colonial Rule? Imperial Strategies in French North Africa and Beyond

How did France and Great Britain rule their colonies in Africa? The common answer is that they governed by collecting local knowledge, manipulating identities, and applying direct or indirect rule. This talk argues that while colonial powers aspired to use these strategies, they often failed to do so and turned to force instead. A better understanding of the limits of colonial strategies can help explain why the United States has struggled with state-building in Iraq, Afghanistan, and beyond.

Adria Lawrence is the Aronson Associate Professor of International Studies and Political Science at Johns Hopkins University, a joint appointment by the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and the Political Science Department at the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences (KSAS). She is a scholar of Middle Eastern and North African politics. She studies colonialism, nationalism, conflict, and collective action.

Dipali Mukhopadhyay is Associate Professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. She is the author of Warlords, Strongman Governors, and the State in Afghanistan (Cambridge University Press, 2014), which was short-listed for the biennial Central Eurasian Studies Society Book Award in the Social Sciences, and, with Kimberly Howe, Good Rebel Governance: Revolutionary Politics and Western Intervention in Syria (Cambridge University Press, 2023).

Peter Lewis is the Vice Dean for Faculty Affairs and Warren Weinstein Chair of African Studies at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Lewis, who served as SAIS Associate Dean for Academic and Faculty Affairs from 2015 to 2018, has directed the school's Africa Studies program since joining Johns Hopkins SAIS in 2006.

A light lunch will be provided.