“Global Commodities” Conference Program Now Available

"Global Commodities: The Material Culture of Early Modern Connections, 1400-1800" is a conference to be held at the University of Warwick on December 12-14, 2012, sponsored by the Global History and Culture Centre. The conference website now contains information about registration, accommodations, and funding, as well as the preliminary program. According to the organizers,

This conference seeks to explore how our understanding of early modern global connections changes if we consider the role material culture played in shaping such connections. In what ways did material objects participate in the development of the multiple processes often referred to as ‘globalisation’? How did objects contribute to the construction of such notions as hybridism and cosmopolitanism? What was their role in trade and migration, gifts and diplomacy, encounters and conflict? What kind of geographies did they create in the early modern world? What was their cultural value vis-à-vis their economic value? In short, we seek to explore the ways in which commodities and connections intersected in the early modern world.

 Questions may be directed to the organizers at ghcc.conferences@warwick.ac.uk.