Organized by Dr. Romana Radlwimmer and Dr. Adrián Masters.

Today’s world is largely shaped by the Anglo-American order. This predominance has frequently prevented us from grasping the legacies of other dynamics of European globalization. “Coloniality and Global Encounters in Romance Cultural History” is an interdisciplinary reflection on the epistemological grids which have for centuries structured information and knowledge on early globalization. Its focal point is the so-called ‘First Globalization,’ in which early-modern Romance-speaking European polities dominated many global economic, political, intellectual, literary and cultural networks. Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian, and other groups encountered local communities and understandings of the world in what we call today America, Asia, Africa and Oceania. There, Europeans variously combated, erased, integrated, or encouraged non-European practices, while local actors correspondingly resisted, accepted, or subverted such endeavors. The ensuing distant negotiations or in-person encounters, cultural and linguistic translations, exchanges, rememberings, and forgettings marked emerging world cultures, history, and forms of knowledge in ways scholars are only gradually uncovering. These processes and their legacies are the themes of the conference, whose participants hail from disciplines including literature, anthropology, theology, history, law, area studies, and beyond.
Invited speakers as well as scholars from the University of Tübingen will share their expertise on topics concerning Europe’s early modern global engagements. These will include Spanish medical cultures vis-à-vis indigenous botanical practices, knowledge transfers from China to Europe, post-colonial memories of French occupation in African literature, and reflections on the University of Tübingen’s own centuries-old entanglements with European overseas conquests and expansions.

Our Guest Speakers are (in alphabetical order):
Allison Bigelow, Associate Professor of Spanish, University of Virginia
Adma Fadul Muhana, Professor for Portuguese Literature, University of São Paulo
Mark Thurner, Professor of Latin American Studies, University of London
Roberto A. Valdeón, Professor in English Studies, University of Oviedo

This conference is part of the University of Tübingen’s Excellence Strategy Platform 4 ‘Global Encounters’, and is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and Ministry of Science Baden-Württemberg.

PROGRAM

DAY 1: October 21, 2021

08:30
WORKSHOP OPENING.
Ewald Frie (Excellence Initiative Tübingen)

09:00
TRANSLATION & EMPIRE I. Moderation: Adrian Masters (Tübingen)
Mark Thurner (London): “Lost in Translation: Enlightened Readings of the Inca and Spanish Empires.”
Respondent: Bernd Grewe (Tübingen)

Break

11:00
MEDICAL EPISTEMOLOGIES & CIRCULATIONS. Moderation: Marlen Bidwell-Steiner (Vienna)
Laura Dierksmeier (Tübingen): “Between Indigenous Knowledge and the Spanish Inquisition: Clerical Proponents of Medicinal Cannabis in Colonial Mexico.”
Fei Huang (Tübingen): “A Short Global History on the Knowledge Exchange of Medical Springs and Spa between Europe and China in the 16th and 17th Century.”

Lunch Break

14:00
MATERIAL CULTURES. Moderation: Adrian Masters (Tübingen)
Allison Bigelow (Virginia): “Mining, Refining, and the Place of Indigenous Knowledge in the Colonial Americas.”
Respondent: Simon Siemianowski (Tübingen)

Break

16:00
Round Table THEORIES AND PRACTICES.
Hanno Ehrlicher (Tübingen), Bernd Grewe (Tübingen), Birgit Weyel (Tübingen)

17:00
Discussion

DAY 2: October 22, 2021

8:45
Opening Comments

09:00
TRANSLATION & EMPIRE II. Moderation: Romana Radlwimmer (Tübingen)
Roberto Valdeón (Oviedo): “And it was agreed to put the Children to Death: Anglo-Spanish Rivalries in the Americas and Translation Practices.”
Respondent: Diana Roig Sanz (Barcelona)

Break

11:00
DE/COLONIAL TENSIONS. Moderation: Romana Radlwimmer (Tübingen)
Carina Stickel (Tübingen): “Subversion and Disruption of Colonial Memories: Picaresque Subjectivities in African French Spoken Literature.”
Carsten Gräbel (Tübingen): "Colonial Sciences at the University of Tübingen?”

Lunch Break

14:00 KNOWLEDGE TRANSFERS. Moderation: Roberto Robalinho (Tübingen)
Adma Fadul Muhana (São Paulo): “Literate Circulation between India and Brazil in the 17th and 18th Centuries.”
Respondent: Rômulo da Silva Ehalt (Frankfurt)

Break

16:00 Parting Reflections

This workshop will take place between October 21 and 22, Central European Time:
October 21 (CET) 8:30 until ~ 18:00
October 22 (CET) 8:45 until ~ 17:00

ZOOM: https://zoom.us/j/93542042805

Please direct any questions to Dr. Adrian Masters and Dr. Romana Radlwimmer: adrianmmasters@gmail.com, romana.radlwimmer@uni-tuebingen.de