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(Un)Freedom in Global Perspective. Actors – Perceptions – Agencies

→ Europe/Vienna
University of Innsbruck

University of Innsbruck
Description


Copyright: Agostino Brunias, Linen Market, Dominica, c. 1780. Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection,
Acc. No. B1981.25.76

 

The conference (Un)Freedom in Global Perspective. Actors – Perceptions – Agencies explores individuals and communities characterized as unfree, such as in slavery, captivity, serfdom, and imprisonment. The aim is to challenge static and binary concepts of freedom and unfreedom, analyzing the nuances of agency across local, regional, and global frameworks of the early modern and modern period. How were forms of (un)freedom perceived? What strategies did individuals and communities employ to resist, escape, or redefine unfreedom? How did transitions between freedom and unfreedom shape personal and collective identities?


Bringing together diverse case studies, the conference seeks to identify overarching trends and their manifestations across various spaces and contexts. By examining nuanced experiences of (un)freedom, it aims to foster comparative perspectives and to offer new insights into the historical continuities, transformations, and experiences of (un)freedom.

 

Un_Freedom_in_Global_Perspective_Folder_A3_2025.pdf
Un_Freedom_ in_Global_Perspective_Poster_A2_2025.pdf
Contact
  • Monday 3 February
    • 08:30 → 09:00
      Registration 30m
    • 09:00 → 09:10
      Welcome Address 10m
      Speaker: Dirk Rupnow (University of Innsbruck)
    • 09:10 → 09:30
      Opening Remarks 20m
      Speakers: Elena Taddei (University of Innsbruck), Florian Ambach (University of Innsbruck)
    • 09:30 → 11:00
      Panel 1: Mediterranean (Un)Freedom
      Convener: Dirk Rupnow (University of Innsbruck)
      • 09:30
        Coerced labour in the 16th-century galleys: Work, (un)freedom and mobility in the early modern Mediterranean 30m
        Speaker: Teresa Peláez-Domínguez (University of Valencia)
      • 10:00
        Shipwrights in Shackles: Expertise and Captivity on the Early Modern Barbary Coast 30m
        Speaker: A. Jorge Aguilera-López (University of Helsinki)
      • 10:30
        Dynamics of Slave Labor in the 19th Century in the Hinterland of Izmir 30m
        Speaker: Bulut Firdevs (University of Izmir)
    • 11:00 → 11:30
      Coffee Break 30m
    • 11:30 → 13:00
      Panel 2: Imprisonment, Agency, and Escape
      • 11:30
        The ‘Taifa’ of the Turks and the Slave Merchants of Livorno. Agency, Labor, and Self-Ransom (17th–18th Centuries) 30m
        Speaker: Samuele Virga (University of Verona)
      • 12:00
        „Like a Caged Bird“: Captivity and „Social Coma“ in 17th-Century Siberia 30m
        Speaker: Chechesh Kudachinova (University of Berlin)
      • 12:30
        „Devil, I have to get out!“ Strategies of escaping imprisonment and negotiations of (un)freedom in 18th-century Vienna and Upper Austria 30m
        Speaker: Teresa Petrik (Institut für Geschichte des ländlichen Raumes)
    • 13:00 → 14:00
      Lunch 1h
    • 14:00 → 15:00
      Panel 3: Materialities
      Convener: Elena Taddei (University of Innsbruck)
      • 14:00
        The Technology of Captivity: Collars, Chains, and Counterinsurgency 30m
        Speaker: Joseph L. Yannielli (University of Birmingham)
      • 14:30
        The Slave Pass: A Cultural History 30m
        Speaker: Susanna Asthon (University of Clemson)
    • 15:00 → 15:30
      Coffee Break 30m
    • 15:30 → 17:00
      Panel 4: (Un)Freedom in the Age of Abolition
      Convener: Levke Harders (University of Innsbruck)
      • 15:30
        Speaking of Rebellion: Justifying Unfreedom in the Reestablishment of Slavery in Guadeloupe, 1801–1803 30m
        Speaker: Elyssa Gage (Wilkes-Barre)
      • 16:00
        Diasporic Agencies: „Time-Expired Coolies“, Negotiations and Mobilities in the Caribbean (1860–1882) 30m
        Speaker: Elena Barattini (University of Turin)
      • 16:30
        She „bought negroes from jail“: White Women and the Afterlives of Slavery 30m
        Speaker: Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers (University of Berkeley)
    • 17:00 → 17:15
      Break 15m
    • 17:15 → 18:15
      Keynote
      Convener: Nils Grüne (University of Innsbruck)
      • 17:15
        Global histories of slavery and the self-representations of slaves 1h
        Speaker: Michael Zeuske (Bonn/Cologne)
    • 18:15 → 19:15
      Dinner 1h
  • Tuesday 4 February
    • 09:00 → 11:00
      Panel 5: (Un)Freedom and Labour in Colonial Contexts
      Convener: Marina Hilber (University of Innsbruck)
      • 09:00
        Colonial Labor, (Un)Freedom, and Agency in Early Modern Spanish America 30m
        Speaker: Martin Gabriel (University of Klagenfurt)
      • 09:30
        Voluntary Unfreedom for Freedom‘s Sake. German(-speaking) engagés and the French Colonial Projects in Louisiana (1720) and Guiana (1763) 30m
        Speaker: Lara-Marie Frick (Heidelberg/Paris)
      • 10:00
        The Unfree population of Macau in its Parish Registers 30m
        Speaker: Philipp Huber (Amsterdam/Nijmegen)
      • 10:30
        Indentured Migration in the Pacific Ocean World: Global Politics and Individual Agency, ca. 1860–1900 30m
        Speaker: Julian zur Lage (University of Hamburg)
    • 11:00 → 11:30
      Coffee Break 30m
    • 11:30 → 13:00
      Panel 6: (Un)Freedom, Gender, and Family
      Convener: Ellinor Forster (University of Innsbruck)
      • 11:30
        Agency and Representation of Enslaved Women in the Capuchin Hospice of Kimbangu, Kingdom of Kongo (1701) 30m
        Speaker: Johannes Gradel (University of Tübinge)
      • 12:00
        Agents of Change: Slaves in the Family Setting of Early Modern Crimean Khanate 30m
        Speaker: Turkana Allahverdiyeva (University of Bonn)
      • 12:30
        Enslaved women and the body as resistance at the Cape Colony 30m
        Speakers: Benjamin Crous (Stellenbosch), Kate Ekama (Stellenbosch)
    • 13:00 → 14:00
      Lunch 1h
    • 14:00 → 15:30
      Panel 7: Transatlantic Reflections of (Un)Freedom and Resistance
      Convener: Eric Burton (University of Innsbruck)
      • 14:00
        Ports to (Un)Freedom. Capuchin Missionaries in West Central African Hubs of the Slave Trade 30m
        Speaker: Florian Ambach (University of Innsbruck)
      • 14:30
        Black Unfreedom, Marronage, and Customary Rights in the Slave Society of Early New Orleans 30m
        Speaker: Yevan Terrien (University of Lafayette)
      • 15:00
        Maritime bondage: The dual role of slavery and the fighting for freedom on board the slave ships 30m
        Speaker: Diego Schibelinski (University of Bonn)
    • 15:30 → 16:00
      Closing Remarks 30m
      Speakers: Elena Taddei, Florian Ambach (University of Innsbruck)
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