Working Groups

Speaker
Prof. Gracyelle Costa Ferreira
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ)
Learn more: Prof. Gracyelle Costa Ferreira - GPSankofa
Presentation:
Details coming soon
Suggested Readings:

 
Methods in the Material Histories of South Asia: Snapshot-presentations and Discussion
 
Join us for a special meeting! We invite you to use an object or an image to introduce your work in the material history of South Asia in a snapshot presentation. These presentations will be a springboard into a discussion on methods in the Material Histories of South Asia. Pre-circulated readings TBD.
 

E. M. Nielsen, Brown University

Ahmed Ragab

Andrea Gaytan Cuesta and Anne Pfister - University of North Florida will present: Nocheztli & Chapulines: Insect Imaginaries and Commodification in Oaxaca, Mexico followed by a discussion.

Elena Schaa - "Heisenberg's Experience of the Matrix Mechanics on Helgoland." 

Philip Scranton, Rutgers, "The Auto Parts Maze in the US and the USSR, 1946-1980" 

Please join us for discussion of a chapter of Prof. Scranton's book manuscript Spare Parts: A Global History of a Modern Problem, forthcoming from Johns Hopkins in 2026. We expect to post the chapter early in May, hot off the ether from Phil.

While we await the chapter from Prof. Scranton, he has graciously offered to let us read his working introduction to the book. It is posted below.

Catarina Madruga (Museum für Naturkunde Berlin), Archival collections and specimens from German “Kamerun" in the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin 

Grant Writing Master Class

Topics: Think big questions and frame them well; crafting your grant; personal experience.

Speakers:  Gerardo Ienna is postdoctoral researcher at the University of Verona, Italy, and a Marie Curie global fellow (Grant Number 101026146). Simone Turchetti is Professor in history of science and technology at the Manchester University, UK, and PI of the ERC research project “Neworldata”.

Concluding Reflections & Outlook

Topics: What was good and what could be changed; take-homes; networking opportunities.

Discussants: everyone, please join us one last time!

Jean-Philippe Martinez - "The Fock-Infeld Dispute: An Illustration of the Renaissance of General Relativity in the Soviet Union"
Guest Expert: Jean-Philippe Martinez

On the Multivalent Nature of Colors
                          Or ... what can Prussian blue tell us about color in the world?
Prussian blue has a winding history and a myriad of uses. Since discovery of the pigment in the early 18th century it has been improved, converted, adapted, substituted, and traded within a variety of platforms. It has been called the quintessential inorganic pigment. Its chemistry and physics were long misunderstood.

Tiago Silva Alves Muniz (Universidade Federal de Goiás): The Struggle for Natural Rubber Species: Local Processes and Global Stories Moved (Around) the World

Dominik Hünniger (German Port Museum Hamburg)
&
Anita Guerrini (Horning Professor in the Humanities Emerita at Oregon State University)
 
Title: Collection Ecologies Endeavour Special Issue Work-in-Progress Sesssion

Charlotte Ribeyrol (Sorbonne Université and Ashmolean Museum, Oxford) on 'the Colourful Literary Imagination of the Victorian architect William Burges (1827-1881)'

Charlotte Ribeyrol is Professor of 19th-century British literature at the Sorbonne, Honorary Curator at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford and head of the CHROMOTOPE project.

Organizer: Elizabeth Savage

Tuli Mekondjo (Windhoek): Oimbodi Yedu: Herbs of the Soil

Banji Chona (Lusaka): Weeds to Who? An Ecological Reimagining of Zambezian Plants

Romuald Tchibozo (Université d'Abomey-Calavi): Plants in Contemporary Art: The Case of Meschac Gaba in Benin

Edwin Coomasaru (London): Plantation Ecologies in Sri Lankan Art: Gender, Sexuality and Environmental Aesthetics