Global Approaches to Enlightenment Studies

Ever since the founding of the University of Goettingen in the first half of the 18th century, scholars of the University of Goettingen have indulged in the international components of Enlightenment scholarship—they corresponded, bought books, wrote reviews, built up networks, brokered, travelled and collected objects—all at European, indeed at global levels.

The workshop will enhance current discussions at the University of Goettingen about how to study the global dimensions of the Göttingen Enlightenment. It seems vital to engage much more closely with new global approaches to Enlightenment scholarship, not just in history, but also in literature, art history, the history of the book, anthropology, cultural studies and political theory.

Monday, 2 December

09:30 – 09:45 Registration

09:45 – 10:00 Welcome greetings of the Lichtenberg-Kolleg

10:00 – 11:00 JONATHAN SCOTT (UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND):
History's Spatial Turn

11:00 – 11:30 break

11:30 – 12:30 IVAN GASKELL (BARD GRADUATE CENTER, NEW YORK):
The Life of Things

12:30 – 14:00 lunch

14:00 – 15:00 MICHAEL HARBSMEIER (ROSKILDE UNIVERSITET):
Visiting Europe from elsewhere. Towards a global history of
enlightening travels

15:00 – 16:00 VANESSA SMITH (UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY):
Enlightened Intimacies: Friendship, Exchange and the
Cook Voyages

16:00 – 16:30 break

16:30 – 17:30 RYAN TUCKER JONES (IDAHO STATE UNIVERSITY):
Where the Enlightenment First Met the Pacific: Russians,
Germans, and the World

Tuesday, 3 December

10:00 – 11:00 THOMAS AHNERT (UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH):
William Robertson’s Global History

11:00 – 11:30 break

11:30 – 12:30 SANKAR MUTHU (UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO):
Productive Resistance in Kant’s Political Thought:
Domination, Counter-Domination, and Global Unsocial Sociability

12:30 – 14:00 lunch

14:00 – 15:00 IWAN-MICHELANGELO D’APRILE (UNIVERSITÄT POTSDAM):
Global Encounters and Enlightenment Naturalisms

15:00 – 16:00 BILL BELL (UNIVERSITY OF CARDIFF):
Close Encounters of the Third Kind: Colonial History and
Postcolonial Theory

Registration is unfortunately no longer possible due to lack of space in the conference venue.