Barbara Krauthamer, Professor of History, UMass Amherst "Liberty’s Diaspora: Black Women in the Age of the American Revolution" This presentation examines the lives of three Black women who had been enslaved in the British North American colonies at the time of the American Revolution. The presentation reflects on their lives by considering the ways historians have […]
Elizabeth Schiffler, PhD student in Theater and Performance Studies, UCLA "Snow Eggs: Situated Tastes and Partial Archives" This talk traces a history of Snow Eggs, from its inception in American gastronomic history to a contemporary Los Angeles performance. Beginning with the recipe from 18th century Chef James Hemings, enslaved to President Jefferson, a study of […]
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Alea Adigweme, MFA student in Interdisciplinary Studio Art at UCLA Zoom - Click here to register for the event.
In this presentation I explore how the dense vectors of material culture and spirit possession established in the crucible of the modern era continue to inform the decisions of millions of west Africans as they navigate everyday realities at home and abroad. In the first half of this talk, I explore emerging themes in “fetish […]
October 18, 5 pm Mario Biagioli (UCLA Law and Information Studies) (please note the later time) This paper moves from the recent findings of agnotologists (like the book Merchants of Doubt) about the post-WWII strategy by tobacco and oil companies to cast doubt about the scientific evidence concerning, respectively, the risks of tobacco smoking and the existence […]
Nov 1 Chris Willoughby (Huntington Library) "Collected without Consent: Imperialism and Enslavement in Harvard’s Medical Museum." Co-sponsored with the Atlantic field In 1847, upon his retirement, John Collins Warren gave his entire anatomical collection to Harvard’s medical school, including a collection of racial skulls that would grow to include more than 150 objects. In this […]
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Pirates which infest that coast’: Illicit Trade and Imperial Rivalry in Seventeenth-Century Western Hispaniola This presentation considers the illicit trade of tobacco and other goods from Western Hispaniola. French, Dutch, and English ships came from the 1560s to trade with the diverse groups living there—Indigenous, Spanish, and African. In response, in 1605-6, western and northwestern […]
Brett Rushforth, Associate Professor, University of Oregon “Consuming Colonialism: The Atlantic World in Sixteenth-Century France” Zoom RSVP Here
Beginning in the seventeenth-century, members of the Carmelite order adopted two ancient Ethiopian saints, Efigenia and Elesban. While their interest in ancient saints was tied to the order’s longstanding efforts to prove the antiquity of their order dating back to the Prophet Elijah, the inclusion of Ancient Ethiopia in these efforts tell a more complex […]
This talk follows Abu Bakr al-Siddiq Watara, a Timbuktu-born teenager who was enslaved in Jamaica from 1805 to 1834. Upon securing his manumission, Watara undertook a trans-Atlantic and trans-Saharan journey, in a bid to return home. A close examination of Watara’s words and writings about him, and a reconstruction of his trajectory, provides insight into […]
