Oxford’s Centre for Early Modern Studies is hosting an interdisciplinary conference on writing about rivers, oceans and navigation, bringing together scholars of early modern Europe, India, and Latin America, who are historians, literary and legal specialists. Speakers include Farid Azfar (Swarthmore); Lorna Hutson (Oxford); Katherine Ibbett (Oxford); Jemima Matthews (KCL); Jennifer Oliver (Oxford); Sebastian Sobecki (Groningen); Ivonne del Valle (Berkeley).

Lunch and refreshments are provided. Places are limited, so early registration is recommended.

Our work as early modernists has been shaped by the great eddies of sea studies which have, over decades, challenged the way we think about the national and the global, from Braudel’s Mediterranean, via John Elliott’s Atlantic, to Steve Mentz’s shipwrecks. In gathering together Neptune’s Children, we ask what might happen when we look at the world from the perspective of rather different waters: from swamps, from lakes, from rivers; from the Indian Ocean, Mexico City, or the Firth of Forth; from bluewater, brownwater and bilgewater. We bring together scholars of early modern Europe, India, and Latin America, who are historians, literary and legal specialists; and although Neptune fathers many of our watery discussions, we’re expecting that the Aztec god Tláloc might also talk back. How can we think better about early modern water, in a world in which water is once again a pressing political concern?

Further Information: neptuneschildrenconference.wordpress.com

Free registration: www.oxforduniversitystores.co.uk/product-catalogue/english-faculty/english-faculty-events/neptunes-children-early-modern-waterways-registration