Focus on:  Hide Contributions
Back to Conference View
Login

(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
    • 1
      Registration
    • 2
      Welcome Address
      Speaker: Dirk Rupnow (University of Innsbruck)
    • 3
      Opening Remarks
      Speakers: Elena Taddei (University of Innsbruck), Florian Ambach (University of Innsbruck)
    • Panel 1: Mediterranean (Un)Freedom
      Convener: Dirk Rupnow (University of Innsbruck)
      • 4
        Coerced labour in the 16th-century galleys: Work, (un)freedom and mobility in the early modern Mediterranean
        Speaker: Teresa Peláez-Domínguez (University of Valencia)
      • 5
        Shipwrights in Shackles: Expertise and Captivity on the Early Modern Barbary Coast
        Speaker: A. Jorge Aguilera-López (University of Helsinki)
      • 6
        Dynamics of Slave Labor in the 19th Century in the Hinterland of Izmir
        Speaker: Bulut Firdevs (University of Izmir)
    • 11:00
      Coffee Break
    • Panel 2: Imprisonment, Agency, and Escape
      • 7
        The ‘Taifa’ of the Turks and the Slave Merchants of Livorno. Agency, Labor, and Self-Ransom (17th–18th Centuries)
        Speaker: Samuele Virga (University of Verona)
      • 8
        „Like a Caged Bird“: Captivity and „Social Coma“ in 17th-Century Siberia
        Speaker: Chechesh Kudachinova (University of Berlin)
      • 9
        „Devil, I have to get out!“ Strategies of escaping imprisonment and negotiations of (un)freedom in 18th-century Vienna and Upper Austria
        Speaker: Teresa Petrik (Institut für Geschichte des ländlichen Raumes)
    • 13:00
      Lunch
    • Panel 3: Materialities
      Convener: Elena Taddei (University of Innsbruck)
      • 10
        The Technology of Captivity: Collars, Chains, and Counterinsurgency
        Speaker: Joseph L. Yannielli (University of Birmingham)
      • 11
        The Slave Pass: A Cultural History
        Speaker: Susanna Asthon (University of Clemson)
    • 15:00
      Coffee Break
    • Panel 4: (Un)Freedom in the Age of Abolition
      Convener: Levke Harders (University of Innsbruck)
      • 12
        Speaking of Rebellion: Justifying Unfreedom in the Reestablishment of Slavery in Guadeloupe, 1801–1803
        Speaker: Elyssa Gage (Wilkes-Barre)
      • 13
        Diasporic Agencies: „Time-Expired Coolies“, Negotiations and Mobilities in the Caribbean (1860–1882)
        Speaker: Elena Barattini (University of Turin)
      • 14
        She „bought negroes from jail“: White Women and the Afterlives of Slavery
        Speaker: Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers (University of Berkeley)
    • 17:00
      Break
    • Keynote
      Convener: Nils Grüne (University of Innsbruck)
      • 15
        Global histories of slavery and the self-representations of slaves
        Speaker: Michael Zeuske (Bonn/Cologne)
    • 18:15
      Dinner
  • Tuesday 4 February
    • Panel 5: (Un)Freedom and Labour in Colonial Contexts
      Convener: Marina Hilber (University of Innsbruck)
      • 16
        Colonial Labor, (Un)Freedom, and Agency in Early Modern Spanish America
        Speaker: Martin Gabriel (University of Klagenfurt)
      • 17
        Voluntary Unfreedom for Freedom‘s Sake. German(-speaking) engagés and the French Colonial Projects in Louisiana (1720) and Guiana (1763)
        Speaker: Lara-Marie Frick (Heidelberg/Paris)
      • 18
        The Unfree population of Macau in its Parish Registers
        Speaker: Philipp Huber (Amsterdam/Nijmegen)
      • 19
        Indentured Migration in the Pacific Ocean World: Global Politics and Individual Agency, ca. 1860–1900
        Speaker: Julian zur Lage (University of Hamburg)
    • 11:00
      Coffee Break
    • Panel 6: (Un)Freedom, Gender, and Family
      Convener: Ellinor Forster (University of Innsbruck)
      • 20
        Agency and Representation of Enslaved Women in the Capuchin Hospice of Kimbangu, Kingdom of Kongo (1701)
        Speaker: Johannes Gradel (University of Tübinge)
      • 21
        Agents of Change: Slaves in the Family Setting of Early Modern Crimean Khanate
        Speaker: Turkana Allahverdiyeva (University of Bonn)
      • 22
        Enslaved women and the body as resistance at the Cape Colony
        Speakers: Benjamin Crous (Stellenbosch), Kate Ekama (Stellenbosch)
    • 13:00
      Lunch
    • Panel 7: Transatlantic Reflections of (Un)Freedom and Resistance
      Convener: Eric Burton (University of Innsbruck)
      • 23
        Ports to (Un)Freedom. Capuchin Missionaries in West Central African Hubs of the Slave Trade
        Speaker: Florian Ambach (University of Innsbruck)
      • 24
        Black Unfreedom, Marronage, and Customary Rights in the Slave Society of Early New Orleans
        Speaker: Yevan Terrien (University of Lafayette)
      • 25
        Maritime bondage: The dual role of slavery and the fighting for freedom on board the slave ships
        Speaker: Diego Schibelinski (University of Bonn)
    • 26
      Closing Remarks
      Speakers: Elena Taddei, Florian Ambach (University of Innsbruck)
Powered by Indico v3.3.4