This is the first step in your semester-long collaborative research project. You will select a commodity to study and choose your analytical lens (role) within your group.
⚠️ IMPORTANT: No two students in the same group may have the same analytical lens. Coordinate with your group members before making your selection.
What you'll do on this page:
Select the commodity your group will study together
Choose your individual analytical lens/role
Define what that role means and what questions you'll investigate
Save and submit your choices to Prof. Hauselmann
STEP 1: Select Your Group's Commodity
Remember: Your entire group studies the same commodity, but each member investigates it through a different analytical lens.
STEP 2: Choose Your Analytical Lens
Your Role: Each student in your group must choose ONE of the four analytical lenses below. No two students in the same group can have the same role.
Click on a role to select it:
🌱 Production & Environment
Your focus:
Growing/extraction regions and geographical conditions
Ecological transformation caused by commodity production
Pre-imperial production systems and indigenous knowledge
Environmental consequences of intensive cultivation/extraction
⚒️ Labor & Coercion
Your focus:
Enslaved, indentured, or wage labor systems
Violence, discipline, and methods of control
Resistance, rebellion, and worker agency
Living and working conditions of laborers
🏛️ Empire, State & Corporations
Your focus:
State policies, laws, and regulations
Chartered companies and corporate power
Military or legal coercion and enforcement
Colonial administration and governance
🌍 Circulation & Consumption
Your focus:
Trade routes, shipping networks, and infrastructure
Financial systems, credit, and speculation
Global demand and marketing
Cultural meaning and consumer practices
STEP 3: Define Your Role
Reflection Prompt: Now that you've chosen your analytical lens, spend some time thinking about what this role means for your research.
Think about: What aspects of the commodity's history will you focus on? What kinds of sources will you need to find? What questions will guide your research?
These questions should be specific to your analytical lens and will guide your source selection for Component 1.
Think about what kinds of evidence would help you answer your questions. Be specific.
All lenses should connect back to the central question about capitalism, empire, and globalization—but each does so differently.