Project title: Implications of Ancient Empire-building and City-State Formation on Modern Development
Project description: What factors contributed to or constrained ancient empire-building? Which strategies or institutions correlated to comparative “success”, and what role did cyclical trapping mechanisms play in comparative “failures”? By returning to the genesis of urban civilization and exploring these questions throughout successive centuries, we can inform decisions making around modern development. This research seeks to investigate patterns in the formation and development of civilizations from the Bronze through Middle Ages, spanning antiquity through medieval times. By analyzing key strategies in empires’ and city-states’ formation of political and economic systems, collective memory, urban plans, and religions, I intend to create a framework and computational model to explain civilizational development overall. Leaning on a strong theoretical foundation, this project calls for a multidisciplinary approach. I intend to approach this project by compiling historical data from selected case studies and evaluating how each civilization’s context was shaped by and in turn affected its development. Both hard and soft infrastructure are of particular interest for this project, and methods from economic, political, and anthropological fields are necessary to provide breadth. By determining patterns that point to key aspects of development that contributed or constrained overall comparative ‘success’, I intend to provide historical context and applicable frameworks for the field of modern developmental economics.
Most important achievement: I believe my most important achievement is yet to come.
Reflections on the College Scholar Program: I am incredibly grateful to the College Scholars program for the opportunity to delve into a multitude of academic disciplines. Setting forth my own research project and selecting classes towards an honours thesis has allowed me to work at the intersection of countless fields, push the boundaries of scholarship– and, of course, to have fun along the way.