About the project

The “Mediterranean world” and the “Atlantic” have been identified with both geographical and cultural supranational spheres where various traditions intermingle and dynamically transform each other. By contrast, the Amazon as a global intercultural space in the early modern period has received less academic attention. Emphasizing the region’s cultural diversity during the sixteen, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, this project seeks to highlight the importance of the Amazon as a site of artistic production in the period. While recognizing uneven and violent relations of power that characterized the colonial period, the project underscores innovative artistic creation as the result of the convergence, negotiation, adaptation and appropriation of local and imported knowledge, artistic traditions, materials, and objects. More important, emphasizing geographic fluidity and interconnectedness, the project aims to study the region beyond political boundaries and linguistic barriers, as a site of encounter for academics whose countries are brought together by the Amazon river and its tributaries. This seminar brings together 18 graduate students, specialists in the field and local communities with the aim of learning and exchanging ideas, while building a regional network.