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The Global Paradox: Legacies and Liabilities of Early Modern Worldmaking
01 May 2024, 6:00 pm–8:30 pm
Europeans, Africans, Americans and Asians all contributed to the making of the globalized world we inhabit. Can we build on this shared legacy to imagine a fair and balanced global future?
This event is free.
Event Information
Open to
- All
Availability
- Yes
Cost
- Free
Organiser
-
SELCS
Location
-
Gustave Tuck Lecture TheatreUCL Main BuildingGower StreetLondonWC1E 6BT
People across the Americas, Africa, and Asia-Oceania shaped Europe’s first overseas empires. But many of their contributions were erased from our collective memories. The more non-European people contributed, the less their worldmaking capabilities were acknowledged. Today, as we live in a globalized world but still struggle to see the globe as a single, shared home for all humans, we must revisit the legacies of Early Modernity and ask: how may historical insights contribute to a new kind of worldmaking that benefits the many, and not just the few?
About the Speaker
Professor Zoltán Biedermann
Professor of Early Modern History at UCL
Zoltán Biedermann trained as a historian, archaeologist and cultural anthropologist in Portugal, Germany, France and the US before coming to the UK to develop his work on Early Modern global connections and, crucially, disconnections. His studies on the Portuguese Empire in Asia, cross-cultural diplomacy, cartography, and travel literature have been at the forefront of efforts to reinvigorate Global History writing through an emphasis on the violent logics and legacies of Early Modernity.
More about Professor Zoltán Biedermann