Alexander von Humboldt and the Hemisphere

Working Conference at the Vanderbilt University Nashville, Tennessee, USA

SPONSORS:

Center for the Americas + Alexander von Humboldt Foundation + Gerda Henkel Foundation + Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany, Atlanta Office + Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages at Vanderbilt + Department of History at Vanderbilt + Department of English at Vanderbilt

ORGANIZERS:

Vera Kutzinski, Vanderbilt University
Ottmar Ette, University of Potsdam
Laura Dassow Walls, University of South Carolina

THURSDAY 15 of January 2000

7 p.m. Opening Reception at Buttrick Hall Atrium

8 p.m. Welcome and Opening Remarks

Vera M. Kutzinski English and Comparative Literature, Vanderbilt, USA

Lutz Goergens Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany, Atlanta Office

Keynote by Ottmar Ette: “TransTropics: Alexander von Humboldt’s constructions of the American Hemisphere” See the video lecture on Ottmar Ette’s keynote

FRIDAY 16 of January 2009

9-10:15 a.m. PANEL ONE

Katherine Manthorne Art History, CUNY Graduate Center, New York, USA: “Humboldt as Pictorial Muse”

Respondent: Neil Safier History, University of British Columbia, Canada

10:15-11:30 a.m. PANEL TWO

Kent Mathewson Geography, Louisiana State University, USA: “Humboldt, Guano, and the Origins of U.S. Overseas Expansion”

Respondent: Michael Dettelbach History, Boston University, USA

11:30-12:45 p.m. PANEL THREE

Michael Dettelbach History, Boston University, USA: “The Last Universal Man? Humboldt’s Universalism in Relationship to the Political Imagination of the Late 18th Century?”

Respondent: Michael Zeuske History, University of Cologne, Germany

12:45-1:45 p.m. Lunch

1:45-3 p.m. PANEL FOUR

Neil Safier History, University of British Columbia, Canada: “An Absent Presence: Humboldt and Brazil”

Respondent: Kent Mathewson Geography, Louisiana State University, USA

3-4:15 p.m. PANEL FIVE

Suzanne Zeller History and Philosophy of Science, Laurier, Canada: “Manifest Destinies in Two Humboldtian Texts: Lorin Blodget’s Climatology of the United States (1857) and H.Y. Hind’s Narrative of the Canadian Red River Exploring Expedition (1860)”

Respondent: Christopher Iannini English, Rutgers, New Jersey, USA

4:15-4:30 p.m. Coffee break

4:30-5:45 p.m. PANEL SIX

Michael Zeuske History, University of Cologne, Germany: “Humboldt and Slavery”

Respondent: Vera M. Kutzinski English and Comparative Literature, Vanderbilt, USA

6:30 p.m. Dinner at Buttrick Hall Atrium

9 p.m. – on Night out at Station Inn

SATURDAY 17 of January 2009

9-10:15 p.m. PANEL SEVEN

Christopher Iannini English, Rutgers, New Jersey, USA: “‘Fatal Revolutions’: The Island of Cuba and the Natural History of Caribbean Accumulation”

Respondent: Suzanne Zeller History and Philosophy of Science, Laurier, Canada

10:30-11:30 a.m. PANEL EIGHT

Vera Kutzinski English and Comparative Literature, Vanderbilt, USA: “Translating Humboldt: The Island of Cuba”

Respondent: Laura Dassow Walls English, University of South Carolina, USA

Respondent: John Ochoa Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Comparative Literature, Pennsylvania State University, USA

11:30-12:30 p.m. Lunch

12:30-1:45 p.m. PANEL NINE

Anja Becker Center for the Americas, Vanderbilt, USA; Tobias Kraft Romance Literatures, University of Potsdam, Germany: “Textual Differences in Humboldt’s Cuba Work”

Respondent: Katherine Manthorne Art History, CUNY Graduate Center, New York, USA

1:45-3:15 p.m. PANEL TEN

Christiana Borchart de Moreno Quito, Ecuador: “Humboldt and the Quito Audiencia”

Respondent: Kenneth Andrien History, Ohio State, USA

3:15-3:30 p.m. Coffee break

3:30- 4:45 p.m. PANEL ELEVEN

Laura Dassow Walls English, University of South Carolina, USA: “Humboldt’s Passage to America”

Respondent: Ottmar Ette Romance Literatures, University of Potsdam, Germany

6:30 p.m. Wrap-up and Farewell Dinner

SUNDAY 18 of January 2009

9:30-12 p.m.

HiE project meeting (Kenneth Andrien, Anja Becker, Christiana Borchart de Moreno, Ottmar Ette, Vera Kutzinski, and Michael Zeuske)