PROGRAM: COMPARATIVE HISTORY WORKSHOP (MARCH 19-21, 2010)   

 

Access Papers from McMaster’s Workshop Site 

 

Friday March 19   

6:00pm Welcome Reception   

7:00pm   

1. CONCEPTULIZING THE PROBLEM: WHAT CONSTITUTES A COMPARATIVE PROJECT?   

• Introduction: Stephen Heathorn, McMaster University Speaker: Philippa Levine, University of Texas-Austin   

8:00pm   

Dinner   

Saturday March 20   

7:30am-9:00 am Breakfast   

9:00am-10:00 am   

2. COMPARATIVE HISTORY AND INTERDISCIPLINARITY   

Interlocutor: Brian Catlos, UC-Santa Cruz   

• “The Spectre of Colonial Comparisons”   
  Eric Jennings, University of Toronto   

• “The Development Myth: Comparing Canada and the United States”   
  Donald Worster, Kansas University   

10:00am-11:00am   

3. COMPARATIVE POSSIBILITIES   

A. Inter-institutional   

Interlocutor: Megan Armstrong, McMaster University   

• “The Material Culture of Protestant Worship”   
  Andrew Spicer, Oxford Brookes University   

• “Torture in Early Modern Europe: Why a Comparative Project?   
  Sara Beam, University of Victoria   

11:00-11:15am Coffee Break   

11:15am -12:30pm   

B. Colonial spaces and trans-imperialism   

Interlocutor: Virginia Aksan, McMaster University   

• “Between Venice and Istanbul: From Comparative to Trans-Imperial Histories”   
  Natalie Rothman, University of Toronto   

• “Urban space and Legal cultures in colonial America: Boston, Philadelphia, and Charleston”   
  Sally Hadden, Florida State University   

• “Cultural Negotiations and Treaty-Making in the colonial British World”   
  Bonny Ibahwoh, McMaster University   

• “Liberal Reform and Aggressive Liberalism, The Canadas and the US during the Rise of Liberal Reform, 1815-1834”   
  Taylor Spence, Harvard University   

12:30pm-1:30pm Lunch   

2:30-2:45pm   

C. Comparative Environmental   

Interlocutor: Ken Cruikshank   

• “A Comparative/Environmental Approach to Oceans (with a special plea for the Pacific)”   
  David Igler, U.C. Irvine   

• “A Comparative Approach to the Environmental History of Bovine Tuberculosis in North America”   
  Lisa Gibbs, University of Guelph   

• “Light Switch: A comparative Approach to Global Electrification”   
  Viv Nelles, McMaster University   

3:00-5:00pm   

Winery Tour   

Dinner back at Hotel   

Sunday March 21   

7:30am-8:30am Breakfast   

8:30-9:30am   

D. Diasporic   

Interlocutor: Juanita DeBarros, McMaster University   

• “Accursed, Superior Men: Comparing Ethno-religious Minorities in the Medieval Mediterranean”   
  Brian Catlos, UC-Santa Cruz   

• “Degrees of Freedom: The Case of Robert Wedderburn in Jamaica and Britain, 17621834”   
  Nadine Hunt, York University   

9:30am-10:45 am   

4. HOW TO TELL THE STORY: NARRATING COMPARATIVE HISTORIES   

Interlocutor: Sara Beam, University of Victoria   

• “Narrative Strategies in the Explication of the Slave Experience in Africa and America”   
  Paul Lovejoy, York University   

• “Narrating Coffee Frontiers: Commodities and Comparative Environmental History”   
  Stuart McCook, Guelph University   

• “The Scope of Settlement in Early Modern and Modern History”   
  John Weaver, McMaster University   

10:30-10:45am Coffee Break   

10:45am -12:00pm   

5. CONCLUDING ROUNDTABLE: NEW DIRECTIONS IN COMPARATIVE SCHOLARSHIP   

Interlocutor: Viv Nelles, McMaster University   

Speakers:   

• Raymond Grew, University of Michigan   

• Gérard Bouchard, Université de Québec-Chicoutimi   

• Timothy Brook, University of British Columbia   

12:00pm Lunch   

Departures for Airport