{"id":3,"date":"2017-10-28T03:06:50","date_gmt":"2017-10-28T03:06:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/box5163.temp.domains\/~ulasince\/home\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T14:37:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T14:37:08","slug":"home","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ulasince.com\/home\/","title":{"rendered":"Home"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I am an Associate Professor of Political Theory<\/a> at SOAS University of London<\/span>. In 2024, I was awarded a British Academy\/Leverhulme Senior Research Fellowship<\/a> and The Britain and Ireland Association for Political Thought Mid-Career Prize.<\/a> My research has further received the 2020 Spitz Prize<\/a> by the International Conference for the Study of Political Thought and honorable mentions from the Canadian Political Science Association for the 2020 C. B. Macpherson Prize and from the American Political Science Association for the 2025 Outstanding Article Award in International History and Politics.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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My research<\/a> stands at the intersection of political theory, global political economy, history of capitalism, and history of imperial and international thought. I investigate how the imperial constitution of global capitalism has been theorized in the discourse of political economy since the early modern period.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My award-winning first book, Colonial Capitalism and the Dilemmas of Liberalism<\/em><\/a> (Oxford UP, 2018), argues that the ideational parameters of liberalism were forged in the crucible of colonial expropriation and exploitation that gave birth to the capitalist world economy. The book challenges the scholarly penchant to critique the justifications of European colonialism through the lens of universalism, cultural difference, and representations of the colonized. Parting ways with culturalist approaches prevalent in political theory and postcolonial studies, the framework of colonial capitalism discloses how imperial economic agendas and the pressures of early-modern global capitalism mediated European constructions of colonial difference<\/span> (introduction and table of contents available here<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I have also published a dozen peer-reviewed articles <\/a>on political theory of capitalism and intellectual history of empire. These have appeared in\u00a0American Political Science Review<\/em>,\u00a0The Journal of Politics,<\/i> Political Theory,<\/em>\u00a0New Political Economy, History<\/em> of Political Thought, <\/i>and International Relations<\/em>, among others<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I recently finished writing my second book, \u201cBefore the Color Line: Capital, Empire, and Race in Asia,\u201d<\/a> which will be published by Oxford University Press (expected 2027). The book locates the \u201cprehistory\u201d of late-nineteenth century racial categories in the entwined discourses of political economy and Enlightenment ethnography that stamped the heyday of liberal imperialism. It demonstrates the emergence of proto-racial conceptions from the ideological matrix of civilization and savagery that was keyed to the subordination of land, labor, and social (re)production to capital. <\/span>By centering analysis on British colonial capitalism in Asia<\/span>, the analysis challenges the \u201cmethodological Atlanticism\u201d of the recent scholarship on \u201cracial capitalism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I outline the book\u2019s arguments in \u201cDeprovincializing Racial Capitalism: John Crawfurd and Settler Colonialism in India<\/a>,\u201d <\/span>and \u201cFrom \u2018Chinese Colonist\u2019 to \u2018Yellow Peril\u2019: Capitalist Racialization in the British Empire<\/a>,\u201d both published in the American Political Science Review<\/em>.<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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I am currently working on my next monograph, tentatively entitled, \u201cBetween Commerce and Empire: Capitalism and the Limits of Liberal Anti-Imperialism.\u201d<\/a> This study <\/span>reappraises the Enlightenment critique of European colonialism. It is argued that the Enlightenment thinkers\u2019 denunciation of European empires was ultimately constrained by their commitment to commercial and capitalist expansion. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Preliminary findings of this project have been published in two articles: \u201cDavid Hume, Colonial Slavery, and Commercial Incivility<\/a>\u201d (History of Political Thought<\/em>), and \u201cAdam Smith, Settler Colonialism, and Limits of Liberal Anti-Imperialism<\/a>\u201d (Journal of Politics<\/em>).<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before joining SOAS, I held permanent faculty positions in Singapore and Istanbul as well as fellowships at Princeton University, Brown University, and the National University of Singapore.<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am an Associate Professor of Political Theory at SOAS University of London. In 2024, I was awarded a British Academy\/Leverhulme Senior Research Fellowship and The Britain and Ireland Association for Political Thought Mid-Career Prize. My research has further received the 2020 Spitz Prize by the International Conference for the Study of Political Thought and … Continue reading “Home”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nHome - Onur Ulas Ince<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ulasince.com\/home\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Home - Onur Ulas Ince\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I am an Associate Professor of Political Theory at SOAS University of London. In 2024, I was awarded a British Academy\/Leverhulme Senior Research Fellowship and The Britain and Ireland Association for Political Thought Mid-Career Prize. 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In 2024, I was awarded a British Academy\/Leverhulme Senior Research Fellowship and The Britain and Ireland Association for Political Thought Mid-Career Prize. My research has further received the 2020 Spitz Prize by the International Conference for the Study of Political Thought and … Continue reading \"Home\"","og_url":"https:\/\/www.ulasince.com\/home\/","og_site_name":"Onur Ulas Ince","article_modified_time":"2026-02-02T14:37:08+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.ulasince.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Profile-pic-SOAS-Sepia-edited-5.jpeg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ulasince.com\/home\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ulasince.com\/home\/","name":"Home - Onur Ulas Ince","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ulasince.com\/home\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ulasince.com\/home\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ulasince.com\/home\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.ulasince.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Profile-pic-SOAS-Sepia-edited-5.jpeg","datePublished":"2017-10-28T03:06:50+00:00","dateModified":"2026-02-02T14:37:08+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ulasince.com\/home\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ulasince.com\/home\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ulasince.com\/home\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.ulasince.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Profile-pic-SOAS-Sepia-edited-5.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.ulasince.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Profile-pic-SOAS-Sepia-edited-5.jpeg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.ulasince.com\/home\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.ulasince.com\/home\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Home"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ulasince.com\/home\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ulasince.com\/home\/","name":"Onur Ulas Ince","description":"Associate Professor of Political Theory, SOAS University of London","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ulasince.com\/home\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P9k8Zi-3","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":29,"url":"https:\/\/www.ulasince.com\/home\/invited-talks-and-conference-presentations\/","url_meta":{"origin":3,"position":0},"title":"Invited talks","author":"admin","date":"October 28, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cCapitalism and Race in Imperial Perspective: Beyond Methodological Atlanticism,\u201d King\u2019s College London (January 2024, London) \u201cFrom \u2018Civilization\u2019 to \u2018Race\u2019: The Political Economy of Imperial Subjecthood,\u201d University of Oxford, Political Theory Workshop (October 2023, Oxford);\u00a0 University College Dublin and Australian Catholic University, Subjecthood in the Nineteenth-Century Anglosphere Workshop (August 2023, Rome)\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13,"url":"https:\/\/www.ulasince.com\/home\/book-colonial-capitalism-and-the-dilemmas-of-liberalism\/","url_meta":{"origin":3,"position":1},"title":"Colonial Capitalism and the Dilemmas of Liberalism (Oxford UP, 2018)","author":"admin","date":"October 28, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Colonial Capitalism and the Dilemmas of Liberalism (Oxford University Press, 2018) Winner of the 2020 David and Elaine Spitz Prize, International Conference for the Study of Political Thought Finalist for the 2020 C. B. Macpherson Prize, Canadian Political Science Association (Introduction and the table of contents available for download here)\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ulasince.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Comp_R2_ColonialCapitalism_Ince-674x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":32,"url":"https:\/\/www.ulasince.com\/home\/teaching\/","url_meta":{"origin":3,"position":2},"title":"Teaching","author":"admin","date":"October 28, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Current Political Theory, Race, and Empire (PG) International Political Economy (PG) Introduction to Political Theory (UG) Introduction to Global History (UG) Previous \u201cGraduate Seminar in Political Theory\u201d (PG) \u201cGlobal Political Economy\u201d (UG) \u201cPolitical Theory\u201d (UG) \u201cIntroduction to Political Science\u201d (UG) \u201cHistory of Political Economy\u201d (UG) \u201cThinking About the Economy\u201d (UG)","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":45,"url":"https:\/\/www.ulasince.com\/home\/book-reviews-and-review-essays\/","url_meta":{"origin":3,"position":3},"title":"Book reviews and review essays","author":"admin","date":"October 28, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cImperial Pasts, Imperial Presents\u201d (review article), Jeanne Morefield, Empires Without Imperialism (Oxford University Press, 2014); Andrew Fitzmaurice, Sovereignty, Property, and Empire (Cambridge University Press, 2014).\u00a0European Journal of Political Theory\u00a016:4 (2017): 470-480. Daniel O\u2019Neill, Edmund Burke and the Conservative Logic of Empire (Oakland: University of California Press, 2016).\u00a0Review of Politics (November\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18,"url":"https:\/\/www.ulasince.com\/home\/peer-reviewed-articles\/","url_meta":{"origin":3,"position":4},"title":"Journal articles","author":"admin","date":"October 28, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Click on the title to access the full text in PDF. From 'Chinese Colonist' to 'Yellow Peril': Capitalist Racialization in the British Empire, American Political Science Review, (November 2023). Open Access. Literature on \u201cracial capitalism\u201d exhibits a tension between the term\u2019s evocative power and its conceptual imprecision. This article navigates\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ulasince.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Ince-2023-From-Chinese-Colonist-to-Yellow-Peril.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ulasince.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Ince-2023-From-Chinese-Colonist-to-Yellow-Peril.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ulasince.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Ince-2023-From-Chinese-Colonist-to-Yellow-Peril.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":236,"url":"https:\/\/www.ulasince.com\/home\/between-commerce-and-empire-capitalism-and-the-limits-of-anti-imperial-critique-book-manuscript-in-progress\/","url_meta":{"origin":3,"position":5},"title":"Between Global Commerce and Empire: Capitalism and the Limits of Liberal Anti-Imperialism (in progress)","author":"admin","date":"October 24, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Between Global Commerce and Empire furthers the arguments of my first book, Colonial Capitalism and the Dilemmas of Liberalism.\u00a0At the heart of both books is the contradictory and constitutive relationship between capitalism, liberalism, and empire in British international thought. While Colonial Capitalism examines this contradiction in liberal defenses of empire,\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ulasince.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ulasince.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ulasince.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ulasince.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ulasince.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ulasince.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1548,"href":"https:\/\/www.ulasince.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3\/revisions\/1548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ulasince.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}