The Conference
Two days of talks and discussions on the historical archaeology of world frontiers (AD 1450-1800)
The study of frontiers and borders has received particular attention by archaeologists and heritage specialists alike in the past decade, and it remains a topical agenda in many other disciplines due to the overwhelming refugee crisis on the southern European-Mediterranean border or to the Mexican-US border, to cite two of the many on-going frontier issues.
Frontiers are intriguing milieus because they are sociocultural contact zones yet removed enough from the empire/state core as to allow the emergence of alternative and hybrid forms of life. Simultaneously, they are liminal spaces in which power and violence are deployed and/or negotiated on a daily basis, which in turn sheds light upon resistance practices, contestation, and rebellion.
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This conference, funded by the McDonald Institute Awards, brings together historical archaeologists and museum experts working on slavery, indigeneity, frontiers and borders between AD 1450-1800, and on their long-lasting consequences in the present.
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