“Edges of Transatlantic Commerce in the Eighteenth Century” 

It has been over fifteen years since David Armitage has famously stated, “We are all Atlanticists now.“ This panel invites papers that continue to examine and challenge the boundaries of the Atlantic in the Eighteenth-century context, with a particular focus on commerce. Commerce encompasses a wide range of documented and undocumented encounters that invoke topics such as shared or conflicting ideas of value, affective experiences of the emerging global system, and the development of national economies and their opponents. To ground this inquiry in a more material dimension, we may also ask, what is being exchanged, sold, or communicated across the Atlantic? Or, what is being embargoed, concealed, or eschewed in the Eighteenth-century transatlantic world? A dramatic increase in the Transatlantic commerce, as well as voluntary and forced migration, create myriads of conundrums that cannot be captured in mere numbers. Given the colonial histories that shape and reflect the modes of thinking and structures of feeling during this period, how can we reassess the “value” of things, knowledge, and even people? Which aspects of the Atlantic has been neglected or pushed away in recent scholarship? Papers that address these questions from multiple contexts and disciplinary perspectives are particularly welcome.

Please send a 250 word abstract and a short bio to seohyon.jung@tufts.edu by September 15th.

ASECS will hold its anniversary meeting in Denver, Colorado, 21-23 March 2019. For more on ASECS 2019, visit https://asecsoffice.wixsite.com/asecsoffice/news