Scholars of the Caribbean have long understood that people moved between islands and empires in the early modern Caribbean. Living in fragile societies, marked by racial slavery, enslaved Africans, free people of color, and Europeans depended on and gained vital resources from crossing the short sea routes to their neighbors in English, French, Dutch, Spanish, Danish, and Swedish colonies.
In order to explore these inter-island connections, the ERC-funded In the Same Sea project is organizing a workshop based on pre-circulated papers, to be held on the 25th and 26th of April 2024, hosted by the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. We aim to facilitate conversations between both early career and established scholars, to uncover new approaches and insights and to explore how the islands of the Lesser Antilles were shaped by inter-island connections that transformed separate islands into a common world of slavery and freedom.
We are particularly interested in papers that generate conversations about connectivity and mobility within the Lesser Antilles, across islands but also across imperial borders. We welcome proposals that focus on questions including – but not limited to:
- information circulation
- trade
- sailors
- print culture
- marronage
- family ties
- networks (i.e. familial, friend, or economic)
An edited volume or special issue will be planned after the workshop.
Proposals for individual papers should be sent to Heather Freund at hefr@hum.ku.dk no later than January 8, 2024. All submissions should include a 350 word proposal and a two page c.v. We recognize the importance of pursuing a multilinguistic approach to research. However, for this workshop, we ask proposals and papers be in English. Accepted papers of no more than 20 pages should be sent to the above e-mail address by April 10.
To support the participation of early career scholars and scholars without institutional resources, some funds will be available to offset costs of travel and lodging.