Revolutionary cosmopolitanism. Transnational migration and political activism, 1815-1848
Friday 22 January 2021, online
In the 1820s and 1830s, several waves of revolution went through the Atlantic world, culminating into the 1848 ‘springtime of the peoples’ in large parts of Europe and beyond. The same period saw large numbers of people moving beyond state boundaries: individual political activists and revolutionaries, but also migrant workers, seamen, soldiers, colonizers and colonized. Although many of these migrant movements can be associated with political uprisings, only few connections have been made between the study of migration history and history of political thought and practices. This one-day conference aims to open a conversation between these different strands of research. How did experiences of migration and cross-boundary mobility contribute to the formation of common revolutionary cultures in the period 1815-1848? To what extent did revolutionary cosmopolitanism survive into the first half of the 19th century? What forms of interplay existed between transnational migrations, cosmopolitanism, the rise of nationalism and imperial reform movements? These are the questions this conference intends to address.
9.30-9.40 opening words, Camille Creyghton (Utrecht University)
9.45-11.00 keynote by Maurizio Isabella (Queen Mary, University of London), Crossing the Mediterranean in the Age of Revolutions: the Multiple Mobilities of the 1820s
followed by a response by Beatrice de Graaf (Utrecht University) and questions
11.30-13.00 Panel 1: Reluctant revolutionaries: Between saving old worlds and adapting to new ones
Moderator: Matthijs Lok (University of Amsterdam)
- James Morris, Crossing the Counterrevolutionary Border in Wallachia, 1848-49
- Oliver Zajac, Hotel Lambert’s Republic of Letters: František Zach’s mission in Belgrade as an example of a cosmopolitan revolutionary network
- Piotr Kuligowski, Between Lamennais and Tocqueville: Polish Democracy in Exile at a Crossroads
- Oliver Schulz, Policing immigration and migrant networks: the Swiss cantons, European politics and the question of political asylum (1815-1848)
14.00-15.30 Panel 2: (Self-)fashioning of revolutionaries and PR strategies
Moderator: Alex Drace Francis (University of Amsterdam)
- Pierre-Marie Delpu, The Transnational Community of Revolutionary Martyrs (Southern Europe, 1830-1848)
- Peter Morgan, Exilic Anglophilia and the hope of intervention: Recasting British exile in the age of revolution with Francisco de Miranda and Simón Bolívar
- Matilde Flamigni, Agostino Codazzi: A Transatlantic Life (1793-1859)
16.00-17.30 Panel 3: Large scale and/or involuntary migrations and the spread of revolutionary ideas
Moderator: René Koekkoek (Utrecht University)
- Sebastian Majstorovic, The Vagrant Threat: Political Journeymen Activism as a European Phenomenon, c. 1834-1848
- Alessandro Bonvini, La causa del Nuevo Mundo: Bonapartists in the Latin American Wars of Emancipation
- Elena Bacchin, Transportation of political prisoners: Roman detainees landing in Brazil in 1837
17.30-18.00 discussion and closing comments by Camille Creyghton
All times are in CET.
You can either register for the keynote only or for the whole of the conference. To receive a link for attending, please contact Camille Creyghton: c.m.h.g.creyghton@uu.nl
This conference is part of the Utrecht-Amsterdam Global Intellectual History seminar series, see: https://globalintellectualhistory.org/