Runaways: Desertion and Mobility in Global Labor History, c. 1650-1850
International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam, Netherlands
October 22-23, 2015

Early modern globalization depended on the mobility and work of millions of workers who were crucial to production, transport, protection, and warfare. Bound by contract, slavery or otherwise, most of the labour relations through which sailors, soldiers, craftsmen, convicts and slaves were mobilized and employed contained elements in which withdrawal from the labour relation was a punishable offence. Though the lives of the working people were ordained by powerful trading companies and state structures, these workers often tried to pursue their own social and economic interests. Walking away from work, often breaching contract or law, was a widespread phenomenon that had a crucial role in this early stage of globalization.

‘Desertion’ – as understood by authorities – was absence from work: a breach of a labor contract or an act of defiance. For this conference, we define desertion broadly (and is thus not limited to the military sphere) as ‘walking away from work where this was a punishable offence in labour relations underpinned by contracts, obligations or coercion’. It will compare different types of workers. The conference will also explicitly engage with perspectives ‘from below’. Walking away from work was perhaps the most common of all forms of quotidian acts of disobedience amongst the early modern workforce. The study of desertion provides information on the workers’ perception of economic opportunity, conditions of work, strategies of revolt and finally, how these practices among workers shaped the (much larger) history of empire and capitalism in the early modern period.

Desertion of workers thus provides an interesting perspective on early global connections. The mobility and boldness of deserting workers is not surprising. Throughout the world, a vast majority of them were often migrants. From this perspective, desertion can be related to the work place, labour conditions and workers strategies, but also to the opportunities offered by economic and political environments, varying from ‘open’ and ‘empty’ landscapes offering opportunities for settlement and freedom, to ‘urban’ and economically developed areas providing opportunities for (new) work, but also anonymity and shelter.

This conference aims to investigate the phenomenon of desertion from a comparative and global (labour) history perspective. In an earlier meeting, some first lines of the history of desertion in the Dutch empire have been explored, comparing cases from Europe, the Atlantic and Asian realms. This conference aims to broaden the perspective. Therefore, we invite (comparative) case-studies from different regions over the world in order to test findings and to uncover new connections. We invite studies related to workers and communities from European and non-European histories. Examples of such cases could relate to:

• Desertion in the British, French, Spanish, Portuguese and other empires;
• Desertion in European, Asian or other armies;
• Desertion from labour contracts in Europe, Asia and the America’s by contracted wage workers such as sailors, soldiers, maids, crafts men or others;
• Escape from coerced labour services, such servants (Europe), herendiensten (Java) or oeliam services (Ceylon, present-day Sri Lanka);
• Escape by convicts from work camps and prisons;
• Escape by slaves from slave ships, plantations, households in the Atlantic and Asian world;
• Escape by slaves, servants, sailors, and other workers in (West-)Africa;
• Histories of maroon communities;
• Individual desertions or mass desertions

The conference aims to bring together excellent and innovative scholars working on the history of labour and social history, but will also be open to economic and cultural historians who can provide interesting case studies and perspectives. Covering European, Atlantic and Asian environments, it encourages case studies that focus on one or multiple groups of workers engaged in the global economy. In doing so, this conference will trace and compare acts and patterns of desertion across empires, economic systems, regions and types of workers.

In order to study desertion comparatively, we encourage participants to focus on the common research theme. The aim of the conference is to investigate the patterns of desertion and mobility as both economic and political responses to the processes at play in the early modern worlds of work and globalization. In order to engage with these patterns of desertion systematically, participants are invited to consider the impact of variables such as the labour relations involved; the definitions of ‘desertion’ for different types of work and workers by authorities, employers and workers; the quantitative evidence for the incidence of desertion (and where possible, to reconstruct ‘desertion rates’); general patterns of work and mobility; mechanisms of control; the economic and political interests at stake for authorities, employers and workers.

Abstracts of maximum 500 words, indicating the proposed topic, sources and research methods, can be sent to desertion2015@gmail.com before 15 April 2015.

“Blood, Tears, Sweat: Corporeality in Medieval and Early Modern Worlds”
UWA Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies & Perth Medieval and Renaissance Group 21st Annual Conference
The University of Western Australia
11-12 September, 2015

The ‘material turn’ has increasingly drawn the attention of scholars interested in the art, history, literatures, and cultures of pre-modern Europe. This one-day conference will explore aspects of embodiment and corporeality in medieval and early modern worlds, both within Europe and between European and non-European cultures. We expect the conference to focus on analysing the interactions, meanings, and symbolism of three key bodily substances: blood, sweat, and tears. Existing scholarship has laid the foundation for work on bodies and disciplines, gendered bodies, medieval and early modern anatomy, the bodies of saints, and the body of Christ, but fruitful new lines of enquiry still wait to be investigated. Papers that probe the boundaries and intersections between the cultural history of violence, medical humanities, and theories and practices of affectivity are especially welcome.

We invite proposals for twenty-minute papers or ninety-minute panels on the following themes:

• Cultural exchanges and conflict, particularly their material dimensions and repercussions as meetings and mixings of bodies and bloods;
• Social, theological, ethnic, and physiological definitions of bodies and bloods;
• The formation of metaphorical bodies through affective discourses and discourses of violence;
• Boundaries: Bodily integrity, dismemberment, and contagion;
• Somatic expressions of emotion – the force of tears, sweat and blood as tangible emotion;
• Intersections between medical theories and practices relating to humours and effluvia.

Submissions for individual papers should include a paper title, a c.300-word abstract, participant’s name, affiliation (if any), email address, and audio/visual requirements.

Submissions for panels should include a panel title and brief description, the name and affiliation of the panel chair (if one is being provided), paper titles, 300-word abstracts, participants’ names, affiliations and contact details for individual papers within the panel, and audio/visual requirements.

Please send submissions to: joanne.mcewan@uwa.edu.au

Deadline for Submissions: 1 July 2015

A limited number of travel bursaries will be available for Honours students, postgraduates and unwaged early career researchers giving papers. Further details will be provided on the PMRG website (http://www.pmrg.org.au/).

Compassion in Early Modern Culture (1550-1700)
VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands
18-19 September, 2015

This two‐day international conference aims to bring together literary scholars, art historians,
musicologists, and cultural historians to explore thinking about the experience as well as the
social and political impact of compassion in early modern European culture. It seeks to
combine two current approaches to the early modern passions: historical phenomenology on
the one hand and the analysis of the role of compassion in the public sphere on the other.
Sir Philip Sidney famously claimed political impact for the experience of compassion when
he wrote that that the feelings of pity and fear aroused by tragedy could mollify the hearts of
tyrants. Participants are invited to discuss which views on the experience of compassion
existed in early modern Europe, and how the arousal of compassion in literature, theatres, art,
sermons, music, and elsewhere was thought to impact ‐ or did impact ‐ the public sphere.

Keynote speakers:

• Katherine Ibbett (University College London)
• Bruce R. Smith (University of Southern California)

Proposals are invited for 20‐minute papers that explore questions such as:

• What did it feel like to experience compassion in the early modern period?
• What is the relation between passion and reason, body and mind, body and self in the
  experience of compassion?
• What is the relation between compassion and other passions in early modern culture?
• Which techniques existed for rousing compassion in art, sermons, or everyday
  encounters?
• How was the experience of compassion thought to impact the public sphere?
• Which historical sources can we use to explore the social roles of compassion?
• How did the terms used to refer to compassion shift in the early modern period, and how
  do these shifts relate to changes in the historical phenomenology and/or the social roles
  of compassion?
• How did compassion function to shape communities through shared suffering in
  different European countries?
• Where can we see early modern limits of compassion: who or which groups were (on the
  verge of being) excluded from compassion?
• How was the experience and practice of compassion impacted by cultural‐historical
  faultlines such as the Reformation, and how did these changes affect the social roles of
  compassion?
• How do early modern ideas on the experience and role of compassion contribute to a
  critical assessment of current theories of empathy, compassion and social emotions?

Please submit an abstract (c. 300 words) and a brief bio to the conference organizer, Kristine
Steenbergh, k.steenbergh@vu.nl, before 1 May 2015.

One of the aims of the seminar is to submit a proposal for a volume on compassion in early
modern culture with Palgrave’s book series Studies in the History of Emotions.
The seminar is part of a research project on early modern compassion funded by the
Netherlands Organisation for ScientiWic Research (NWO) and is co‐hosted by ACCESS, the
Amsterdam Centre for Cross‐Disciplinary Emotion and Sensory Studies and the Faculty of
Humanities of VU University, Amsterdam.

Turning the Page: Bibliographical Innovation and the Legacy of Aldus Manutius
The University of Melbourne, Australia
26- 27 November, 2015

2015 marks the quincentenary of the death of the great printer and publisher Aldus Manutius (c. 1451–1515). Aldus was an innovator in a number of ways, from his development and use of the first italic typeface and publishing of small octavo editions, to printing many first editions of classical Greek authors and the production of one of the most beautifully designed and illustrated books of the fifteenth century, the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili.

To honour Aldus’s life and afterlife, the Society invites papers exploring innovation or design in the printed book in any period from the time of Aldus to the modern day. Paper topics can relate to any aspect of the history of the book, from printing and publishing to the transmission from print to digital format and the reading experience.

Enquiries and proposals of 250 words for papers of 20 to 25 minutes should be sent to Anthony Tedeschi (atedeschi@unimelb.edu.au), Curator, Rare Books, Baillieu Library, The University of Melbourne. The deadline for paper proposals is Monday 29 June 2015. Students undertaking higher degree research are encouraged to submit offers of ‘work in progress’ papers; some travel bursaries will be available.

Details will be made available on the BSANZ Inc. website: http://www.bsanz.org.