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Blogs

The Pirate as Conquistador: Plunder and Politics in the Making of the British Empire

by Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra | 05.06.2019

Pirate or privateer? In practice, identical, but in terms of legal and social standing, the designations were considered worlds away in the contested waters of the North Atlantic. How did sanctioned privateering transition over time to being considered lawless pirating?

New Zealand Attack: On Bridges and Walls

by Ali Shakir | 04.22.2019

In memory of the horrendous attack at the mosques in New Zealand, a defence of migrants, refugees, and a plea for moderation to confront the extremism that threatens further attacks.

Tenochtitlan Becomes Mexico: Rulers, Commoners, and the Petitioning State

by Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra | 04.09.2019

After the conquest, Tenochtitlan became Mexico, but the city remained predominantly indigenous. As a viceregal capital and global commercial hub, Mexico City underwent profound changes as ethnic newcomers from Oaxaca to Manila elbowed out the Nahua from their barrios, and Aztec systems of water management survived even as dikes and canals were modified.

Returning to Order through Realism

by Santiago Zabala | 04.03.2019

Law and Order is the familiar rallying cry for a generation of contemporary right-wing politicians from Poland and Turkey to Brazil and the USA. In the context of such a political program, difference, change, and cultural others must be avoided as disruptions of the safety that order is supposed to represent.

The Problem of Sancho's Shit

by Ricardo Padrón | 03.25.2019

Are there limits to the pursuit of realism in fiction? For Cervantes, at least, those limits are to be found somewhere in between three hundred goats and the bodily needs of Sancho Panza.

Against Hate: "Hello, Brother" (V)

by Mohammad Salama | 03.16.2019

In the wake of the massacre in New Zealand, a reflection on the need to confront hatred, to come together as one human community and to learn that our difference is the formative experience of existence on earth.

Iberia and the American Colonial State: Paperwork, Archives, and Fictional Claims

by Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra | 03.11.2019

In both the Iberian Peninsula and the New World, the archive played a central role in the creation of borders. Through the alchemy of litigation and treaty mediation, the paperwork of fictional claims was transformed into lines on the ground.

Texting Under Drone-Crossed Skies

by Ayten Tartici | 03.05.2019

How has the experience of being a refugee changed in a world of drones, 24-hour live news feeds, and text messages that zip across the globe in seconds? How does contemporary fiction capture the contradictions of being a refugee in a hyperconnected 21st century?

On Early Modern European Political Theory and African Slavery

by Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra | 02.07.2019

Offering a provocative critique of the unspoken liberal underpinning of historiography on slavery, Herman Bennett's new study is addressed to Europeanists who have ignored the centrality of slavery to early modern political theory.

The Fourth and Fifth Waves

by Eleanor Courtemanche | 01.08.2019

Is today's "fourth wave" feminist movement really a "fifth wave"? We can't understand the inclusiveness, confidence, and playful spirit of today's protest movement without appreciating the wave of community-building that took place in girls' internet fan culture starting around 2000.