Natural Things Conference
Hamilton College | April 7-9 2019
Program
Sunday April 7
| Taylor Science Center Atrium | Registration at library with continental breakfast |
| 9:00 am | Introductory Remarks |
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9:30 am Taylor Science Center G042 |
Shireen Hamza (PhD Candidate, Harvard University) “Novelty in Ṭibb: The Origins of China Root in South Asia” |
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10:30 am Taylor Science Center G042 |
Duygu Yildirim (PhD Candidate, Stanford University) “Ways of Knowing: Quest for the Natural History of Coffee in the Seventeenth Century” |
| 11:30 am Keynote Lecture Taylor Science Center G041 |
Iris Montero (Visiting Assistant Professor of Hispanic Studies, Brown University) “Human and More-Than-Human Migrants in the Americas” |
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12:30-1:30 pm Taylor Science Center Atrium |
Lunch |
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1:30 pm Taylor Science Center 2048 |
Student Presentation “Tracking a Global Fascination: A Study of the Early Modern Bezoar Trade” |
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2:00 pm Taylor Science Center 2048 |
Mackenzie Cooley (Assistant Professor of History, Hamilton College) “The Stone in the Beast: Bezoars, Global Medicine, and Natural Order” |
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3:00 pm Wellin Museum – Overlook 201
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BREAKOUT SESSIONS Option 1: Navigating the Fog of Scientific Uncertainty Fireside Chat – Hosted by the AHA! Group on Making Scientific Knowledge Chair: Rebecca Woods (Science and Technology Studies, University of Toronto)
Option 2: Taylor Moore (PhD Candidate, Rutgers University) “The Rhinoceros Horn and the Black Eggplant: An Experiment in (Un)Natural Histories” Remote Participation
Ongoing from 3:00-5:00 pm. Open House in the Wellin Museum with Ali Zildjian ’19 Launch of Vikus Viewer Comparative Platform |
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5:00 pm Wellin Museum – Overlook 201 |
Ben Breen (Assistant Professor of History, University of Santa Cruz) “Dragon’s Blood, Mummies, and Moss: Tracing the Mistaken Identities of Drugs in the Early Modern Portuguese Empire in the Indian Ocean and Beyond” |
| 6:30 pm | Cocktail Reception at the Wellin Museum |
| 7:30 pm | Formal Dinner for Selected Guests at Dwight Lounge- Bristol Center |
Monday April 8 |
Back to Top |
| Continental Breakfast | |
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9:00 am Burke Library-Stryker All Night Reading Room |
Elaine Ayers (Postdoctoral Fellow, Princeton University) “Drowning in Her Sweet Nectar:’ Plant Carnivory, Colonial Consumption, and the Politics of Floral Flesh in Nineteenth Century Borneo” |
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10:00 am Burke Library-Stryker All Night Reading Room |
Alex Statman (Postdoctoral Fellow, Huntington Library) “Cross-Cultural Canals and the Control of Water in the Indo-Pacific” |
| Coffee Break | |
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11:15 am Burke Library-Stryker All Night Reading Room |
Student Presentation Edsel Llaurador ’19 “Agave Republic: Tlaxcalan Knowledge for the Spanish Empire” |
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12:00 pm Taylor Science Center G027 |
Introduction: Joe Shelley, Vice President for Libraries and Information Technology Nicolaas Rupke (Johnson Professor of History, Washington & Lee University) “Contested museum objects in Darwin’s century” |
| 1:15-2:00 pm | Lunch Reception |
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2:00 pm Burke Library-Stryker All Night Reading Room |
Anna Toledano (PhD Candidate, Stanford University) “Taxonomic Colonialism: The Persistence of Linguistic Hybridity in Azara’s South American Species Names” |
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3:00 pm Burke Library-Stryker All Night Reading Room |
Claire Sabel (PhD Student, University of Pennsylvania) “‘Coal, a mineral formed by vegetables:’ Plant fossils and the evolution of botanical commodities in early modern Europe” |
| Coffee Break | |
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4:00 pm Taylor Science Center 3024 |
Alan Mikhail (Professor of History, Yale University) “Food and Wood between the Mediterranean and Red Sea: Economy and Ecology in the Ottoman Empire” |
| 5:30 pm | Reception at the Library |
| 6:30 pm | Formal Dinner for Selected Guests |
Tuesday April 9 |
Back to Top |
| Continental Breakfast | |
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9:00 am Burke Library-Stryker All Night Reading Room |
Student Presentation Natural Things in Motion Presentation from students from HIST 226 “History of Ideas: Science and Revolutions” Kenan Akin ’19 “From Weaponry to Electricity: How Copper's Importance Has Shifted Over Time” Duncan Davies ’21 “Nutritional Knowledge: How Maize Influenced Legislation and the Circulation of Knowledge” Zhichun (Joy) Zhang ’22 “Recycling the Philosopher’s Stone” |
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9:30 am Burke Library-Stryker All Night Reading Room |
Student Presentation Antton de Arbeloa ’21 with Kayla Self ’21 “Digital Humanities and Indigenous Nature: Dogs and Iguanas in the Relaciones Geográficas” |
| Coffee Break | |
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10:00 am Burke Library-Stryker All Night Reading Room |
Julia Hiedeklang (PhD Candidate, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) “Writing Histories of (Medico-)Botanical Knowledge in 16th-Century Europe: Mapping Paratextual Strategies” |
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11:00 am Burke Library-Stryker All Night Reading Room |
Whitney Barlow Robles (Postdoctoral Fellow, Dartmouth Society of Fellows) “The Kitchen in the Cabinet: Natural History as Food History” Remote Presentation |
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12:00-2:00 pm Burke Library-Stryker All Night Reading Room |
Lunch |
| 1:00 pm | Walking Tour of the Root Glen with Ernest Williams |
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2:00 pm Burke Library-Stryker All Night Reading Room |
Florencia Pierri (PhD Candidate, Princeton University) “Animals in Search of a Place: Armadillos in Early Modern Europe” |
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3:00 pm Burke Library-Stryker All Night Reading Room |
Concluding Remarks Mackenzie Cooley (Hamilton College) Material Remains and New Approaches to Intellectual History |
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4:00 pm Taylor Science Center G027 |
Rebecca Woods (Assistant Professor of History of Science, University of Toronto) “Body of Animal, Body of Evidence: Frozen Pleistocene Animals and the History of Natural History” |
| Closing Reception at the Pub |