The study of ‘cross-cultural contact’ in the past is hindered by incomplete efforts at cross-disciplinary contact in the present. In this workshop, we aim to explore the ways in which encounters and exchanges were experienced in both the near and distant past. Despite the recent proliferation of frameworks for understanding contact and the exchange of goods, ideas and biota that accompanied it, contact is rarely considered from a truly global perspective that spans millennia, continents, and disciplines.

We hope to bring together postgraduate and early career researchers working on encounters and exchanges from prehistoric to modern times, from the Levant to the Arafura and from perspectives as diverse as history and archaeology to geography, music, literature and translation.

We welcome interdisciplinary submissions relating to exchanges across time and space. We are particularly interested in submissions on: *The infrastructure that underlay encounters and exchanges, such as technology and ideology *Multi-scalar interaction *The role of translation in contact *The environmental history of encounters and exchanges *The value of disciplinary terms such as ‘excavating’ and ‘archives’ *The usefulness of interdisciplinary collaboration

Sessions will consist of three 20 minute papers with time for questions and discussion.

More information/booking link to come.