This workshop aims to explore the intersection of ancient reception history (both Christian and non-Christian) and colonialism through a series of questions such as the following:
– How did classical knowledge and paradigms influence historical practices of colonization and colonialism?
– How did maps, letters, material objects, prints, pamphlets, techniques, etc., mediate between intellectual theories and colonial practice?
– Were classical paradigms used to guide, legitimize, or subvert existing colonial relations and practices?
– How can we account for the non-linear and often fragmented nature of reception, recognizing that knowledge is continually reconstructed through transmission and that our understanding of classical models is shaped by later practices?
– How can the fields of Bible reception and classical reception inform each other regarding the role of both elements in colonialism?
This workshop is part of the larger project “Settler Colonial Paradigms: Classical Receptions – Territoriality – Legality – Indigeneity” (SECOPS).
Program (please note that except for the public lecture by Dr. Sam Agbamu, this workshop is a closed event)
Tuesday 22nd
9.00-11.00 Time for reading
11.00-12.30 Introduction (Susanna de Beer and Dinah Wouters)
13.30-15.00 Anouk Vermeulen – Surveying Empire: The Evolution of Imperialist Discourse in the Corpus Agrimensorum Romanorum
15.30-17.00 Ivo Wolsing – Crusader colonialism and the classics: William of Tyre and the creation of “our Orient”
Wednesday 23rd
9.00-10.30 Time for reading
10.30-12.00 Dinah Wouters and Arthur Weststeijn – The Dutch Iron Age: War and Profit in the Poetry of Caspar Barlaeus
13.00-14.30 Tycho Maas – ‘What about Virgil and the transfer of empire, Mr. Grevenbroek?’ Exile, colonialism and the epic genre in 17th century European imaginations of Africa
15.00-16.30 Teddy R. Delwiche – The Classics in Colonial Connecticut: John Mettawan and Native American Education
17.00-19.00 Public Lecture KNIR Research Dialogue: Sam Agbamu – ‘In tears and ashes, I am undone’. The Punic Wars and Epics of Empire’. Click here for more information and to register.
Thursday 24th
9.00-10.30 Time for reading
10.30-12.00 Matthijs den Dulk – Paul’s Letter to the Galatians and the British Empire in the Victorian Era
13.00-14.30 Sam Agbamu – ‘An Epic History for a New Victory’: Petrarch’s Africa and Italian imperialism
14.30-15.30 Student presentations and feedback
16.00-17.00 Concluding discussion
© image: Ziegenhagens utopische kolonie, Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki, 1791 – Rijksmuseum
