Diaspora studies have made clear that the relationship between “nations” and “diasporas” is  complex and  complicated, to the extent that social scientists such as R. Brubaker have suggested to think about “diasporas” in terms of an aspiration or a claim. Reconsidering the relationship between “diasporas” and “nations” in an early modern and modern perspective invites us to revise certain common assumptions. The contributions of this special issue of the journal "Diasporas : Circulations, migrations, histoire" are supposed to establish a dialogue between specialists of the early modern and the modern periods who rarely discuss “Empires, nations and nation-states” in a long diachronic and global perspective.

Presentation 

The relationship between “diasporas” and “nations” (or diasporas as “nations in exile”) has for a long time been thought of along the line with some particular diasporas’ historical experiences. Many, such as the Greek and the Jewish diasporas, claimed for the establishment of their own nation-state, especially during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Diaspora studies, however, have made clear that the relationship between “nations” and “diasporas” is more complex and more complicated, to the extent that social scientists such as R. Brubaker have suggested to think about “diasporas” in terms of an aspiration or a claim.

Reconsidering the relationship between “diasporas” and “nations” in an early modern and modern perspective invites us to revise certain common assumptions. Indeed, in the early modern period the “nation” was both a legal and institutional term (providing certain privileges and institutions for those belonging to a “nation abroad”) as much as a “cultural” term: a “nation” shared a common origin, language, history, a culture at large. Many empires – European ones as well as non-Europeans -   “made use” of “nations abroad” or diasporas to populate their colonies. Diasporas became “agents and victims of empire” (J. Israel). With the later eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries, diasporas such as the Huguenots integrated their own histories into the national histories of their hosting societies – in England as much as in the United States or Prussia (later in Germany). From some diasporas’ perspective, they (as “foreign nations” among the hosting nations) had largely contributed to the building of the nation-state; from the e.g. Huguenots’ perspective the respective nation-state owed the French Protestants much of its rise and greatness (B. van Ruymbeke, S. Lachenicht). In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the exile of Italian or Polish nationalists in Paris or Brussels brought about international nationalist movements (M. Isabella) – which emphasizes the transnational dimension of nationalism. Finally, the New Imperial History (e.g. P. Judson, F.B. Schenk) has revised the clear dichotomy between nation-state and empires and has further complicated the “transition” from empire (or imperial state) to nation-state.

The contributions of this special issue are supposed to establish a dialogue between specialists of the early modern and the modern periods who rarely discuss “Empires, nations and nation-states” in a long diachronic and global perspective. We would like to invite contributions on the following questions and themes:

• To what extent did and do nation-states depend on “foreign nations” or diasporas for state-building and to what extent are/were nation-states also empires (or imperial states) such as the United States of America and the Soviet Union?
• Are diasporas “nations in exile” and are diasporas possible hotbeds for nationalisms?
• Which role did diasporas play in the building of nation-states in the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries?
• If nation-states are not made up of one but of several nations and if nation-states are less different from empires or imperial states than research has suggested so far, what does this mean for the relationship between empires and nations with regard to competition, identities and inclusion?

Submission Guidelines

We invite contributions in English or French drawing on European, American, African, Asian and Australian examples, for the early modern and modern periods.

Deadline for submission of proposals (CV plus paper title and 1-2 pp abstract): 31 May 2018. Contributors will be notified by 15 June 2018. We would expect a first draft paper by 30 September 2018. The final version will be due 15 January 2019.

We are planning a workshop in Bayreuth in late October 2018 to discuss the first drafts (in English).

Scientific Committee

• Susanne LACHENICHT (Universität Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany).
• Mathilde MONGE (Université Toulouse 2-Jean-Jaurès / UMR 3136-FRAMESPA, Toulouse, France).