This seminar will offer a critical approach to the study of states and related political forms, with special emphasis on anthropology's contributions to theorizing about the state. Drawing on temporally and spatially diverse examples of state-making, statecraft, and ideologies of the state, it will both question definitions of the state as well as engage in ethnographic exploration of past and current states. Other topics will include related political forms such as tribes, nationalist movements, empires, and multi-lateral actors.

This seminar will offer a critical approach to the study of states and related political forms, with special emphasis on anthropology's contributions to theorizing about the state. Drawing on temporally and spatially diverse examples of state-making, statecraft, and ideologies of the state, it will both question definitions of the state as well as engage in ethnographic exploration of past and current states. Other topics will include related political forms such as tribes, nationalist movements, empires, and multi-lateral actors.