Jim Jarrett in the Tritonia diving suit during the Expedition to the wreck of the RMS Lusitania in 1935

Network Meetings

2-4 December 2021, 1st Network Meeting, Technische Universität Braunschweig
Guests: Matthias Heymann (Aarhus, Denmark), Martin Thomas (Kings College, London & ANU, Australia), and Beatrice Bijon (King’s College & ANU, Australia). We will screen Beatrice’s and Martin’s film Etched in Bone on 2 December 16:30 at Universum Cinema, Braunschweig.
Hosts: Christian Kehrt, Eike-Christian Heine

23-25 June 2022, 2nd meeting, Forschungskolleg Transkulturelle Studien/Sammlung Perthes
Guests: Helene Blais (ENS Paris), Jeremy Vetter (University of Arizona),
Host: Iris Schröder

12-14 January 2023 3rd meeting, Deutsches Museum, Kerschensteiner Kolleg, München
Guests: Kärin Nickelsen (LMU München), Suzanne Marchand (Louisiana State University),
Host: Helmuth Trischler

15-17 June 2023, 4th meeting, Schifffahrtsmuseum/Leibniz Institute of Maritime History, Bremerhaven
Guests: Helen Rozwadowski (University of Connecticut), Michael Robinson (University of Hartford),
Host: Ruth Schilling

The history of expeditions

We are a network of mainly historians who are interested in expeditions. From December 2021 to June 2023, we will meet in four workshops to share and discuss our insight about the politics, the actors, and the epistemology of expeditions during Modernity and Contemporary History. We aim to tackle several questions. Some of these are: 

How should we research and tell the story of an expedition? Where does an expedition start, and where does it end? How do politics shape expeditions? How do they change politics in turn? Who are the people who went on an expedition, and why? Which narratives about nation, empire, race, gender, or nature do they tell themselves and the public? How does the media portray these travelers and the people they met? How is nature represented? What and who do these stories written from the view of the metropole leave out? How can we bring left-out accounts and people back into the story? How is knowledge produced on an expedition? How are things collected or represented in the field? How is data processed, stored, used, or forgotten? What role does technology play? On which infrastructures do expeditions rely? And how do all these things change over time? Is there anything specific about expeditions that challenges or underpins periodizations such as Early Modern History, Modern History, High Modernity, Cold War History, or Contemporary History?

This blog will document our activities and provide material for further reading.

The network is made possible by funding from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG. If you have questions or comments, please contact our coordinator Eike-Christian Heine.