The Americas Before 1900 Working Group fosters comparative and transnational approaches to the cultures and histories of the early Americas in both research and teaching. Conceptualizing connections across the hemisphere’s cultures and languages is especially crucial for understanding the kinds of colonial encounters and transitions to modernity that proliferate from the pre-Columbian era to the advent of industrialization.
They bring historians and literary scholars of both Latin America and Anglo-America together to discuss hemispheric questions such as how narratives across cultures address the legacy of slavery; how colonial encounters influence modern forms of jurisprudence; and how systems of quantification develop across different imperial spaces. Convening in Spring 2013, they anticipate broadening these questions as we create a space for ongoing dialogue about the interconnectedness of the Americas to each other and the rest of the globe.
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