In recent years, there has been a growing interest in studying objects from a historical perspective. While art historians have traditionally paid close attention to the materiality of things, the material turn is more a recent approach for historians. This workshop at the German Historical Institute in Rome aims to foster a reflection on the methodological approaches developed by both disciplines. Particular attention will be paid to objects related to European colonialisms, whether in museum collections or private households. Going beyond the question of provenance and restitution, the focus is on the material culture that permeated a historical moment and its aftermath. How can the study of objects and their materiality contribute to an understanding of the past? In particular, what do objects add to the knowledge and interpretation of the colonial past?
Programme
9.30 Carmen Belmonte | Roma Nicola Camilleri | Roma Laura Moure Cecchini | Padova Bianca Gaudenzi | Bolzano - Cambridge
Welcome and Introduction
I Material Culture Methodologies
10.00 Susan E. Reid | Durham
Global Assemblages in Soviet Homes
10.30 Eva Maria Troelenberg | Düsseldorf
The Impasse of a Ship and the Speed of Images. The Ever Given Incident as an ObjectLesson for Narratives of Past and Present
11.00 Coffee break
11.30 Discussion
12.00 Lunch
II - Colonialism and Material Culture
13.30 Chris Jeppesen | Cambridge
The Elephant not in the Room. Nostalgia, Absence and the Memory of Empire
14.00 Sarah Laurenson | Edinburgh (online)
Stories of Stone. Exploring Colonial Histories in Nineteenth-Century Scottish Jewellery
14.30 Richard Hölzl | München (online)
Fascist Colonial Collaborations. Acquisitions of Cultural Assets from the Italian Colony East Africa (Ethiopia, Eritrea) by the Ethnological Museum Munich, 1937–1941
15.00 Coffee break
15.30 Discussion
16.00 Concluding Remarks