Daily Archives: 4 September 2016

ANZAMEMS 2017: CFP (Extended Until Sept. 16 ) / Applications for Philippa Maddern Travel Bursaries (Now due Oct. 1)

The Call For Papers for the 2017 ANZAMEMS conference which will be held at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, on 7-10 February 2017, has been extended until September 16. Please see the conference website for all details: https://anzamems2017.wordpress.com

Please note that the deadline for applications for the Philippa Maddern Travel Bursaries (generously funded by the ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions) to attend 2017 ANZAMEMS conference has also been extended until 1 October. Full details here: https://anzamems2017.wordpress.com/bursaries-prizes

Ships, Clocks & Stars: The Quest for Longitude Exhibition @ Australia National Maritime Museum

Ships, Clocks & Stars: The Quest for Longitude
Australia National Maritime Museum, Sydney
5 May–30 October 2016

More info and tickets: http://www.anmm.gov.au/longitude

Discover the extraordinary nautical instruments that led to maritime history’s greatest scientific breakthrough.

For hundreds of years, European merchants staked their fortunes on long-distance voyages. Travel at sea was dangerous and safe passage relied on fair weather and effective navigation. Unlike on land, the sea has no fixed points to help seamen determine their position. This could lead to unnecessarily long voyages or the loss of ships, cargo and life.

Travelling from the National Maritime Museum, London, this award-winning exhibition tells the story of the search for better ways of navigating by finding longitude – distance east and west. It was a problem that had frustrated the greatest minds since the late 1400s. Three hundred years ago the first Longitude Act offered life-changing rewards for workable solutions. Eventually two emerged – using clocks and stars – which cracked the longitude problem and helped re-shape our understanding of the world.

The Emotional Object: Seminar/Workshop of Interest @ The University of Western Australia

“The Emotional Object: The Materiality of Friendship, Longing and Trust Among Dutch Migrants in Denmark and Beyond”, Dr Jette Linaa (Moesgaard Museum, Denmark)

Date: Monday 12 September, 2016
Time: 2:00-4:00pm
Venue: Philippa Maddern Seminar Room, Arts 1.33, The University of Western Australia
Registration: This is a free event but places are limited due to the venue. Please RSVP to Pam Bond if you wish to attend.

This seminar/workshop is organised by the ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions, in conjunction with the Discipline of Archeology at The University of Western Australia, with objects kindly supplied by the Western Australian Museum.

The presence of foreign material culture is abundantly documented in many Danish archaeological publications, and written sources speak clearly of large and influential diaspora communities, mainly of German and Dutch origin, occupying elite positions in many Scandinavian urban centers. Especially the 16th century saw a marked increase, and up to one third of the citizens of the larger cities were of foreign origin around 1600.

Nevertheless, foreign objects (books, paintings and prints and porcelain cups as well as Italian and Spanish majolica plates and jars) have rarely been seen in an ethnic/cultural framework as representing evidence of the emotions of these foreigners, negotiation feelings of loss, community, friendship and trust through the use and exchange of objects. In Danish historical archaeology these objects have seen as evidence of trade; the presence of immigrants has barely been investigated and the emotional significance of these objects are so far under researched. This seminar challenges this by focusing on the emotional value of these objects as tokens of friendship, longing and trust based on the following research questions:

  • Who possessed the objects?
  • What were the emotional value of these objects?
  • How did the emotional value formed over time and how is this mirrored in the material culture that we know from history and archaeology?
  • How did the emotional objects negotiate feelings of longing, friendship and trust in the migrant worldview?

Dr. Jette Linaa is a curator in Historical Archaeology at Moesgaard Museum, Denmark and a lecturer at the Department of Archaeology, University of Aarhus and at the Department of Maritime Archaeology at the University of Southern Denmark. She is currently the head of the Danish Council for Independent Research/Humanities project: Urban Diaspora: Diaspora Communities and Materiality in Early Modern Urban centres (2014-2017). This cross-national and cross-disciplinary research project unites 14 archaeologists, historians and scientists from 10 universities and museum in Denmark, Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands in the first large-scale effort to explore the materiality of migration in Scandinavia and beyond 1400-1700.