This event aims to address the possibility of a comparative vision between empires on how, when, and where institutions of education, technical and scientific knowledge, were organized. By comparing different case studies in fields of knowledge and transformation related to the built environment - military engineering, cartography, among others - the goal is to establish a comparative framework of the political-scientific endeavor of empires, through geographies and times. The conference proposes a comparative reading between formal or informal structures of learning and individual agency skills, allowing for the understanding of transformations, influences, and intersections in different geographies of multiple spheres of knowledge and practices.

Keynote Speakers:

Emilie d’Orgeix (École Pratique des Hautes Études PSL)

An architectural historian specialized in the history of construction and techniques, Emilie d'Orgeix is a professor at the École Pratique des Hautes Études (PSL University), where she holds a chair in Cultural History of Techniques (15th-20th centuries). Her work studies cultural and technical transfers between military and civil architecture and urban planning in Europe and French colonies through a close examination of teaching contexts, graphic productions, material practices, and construction processes. Her recent publications include a book on the development of architectural and urban cartographic atlases in France during the Early Modern period (co-written with Isabelle Warmoes. Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, 2017, 400 pages) and an essay on the urban margins of the Early Modern period exploring the development of military servitudes and civilian appropriations in French fortified cities (Brussels, Mardaga, 2019, 304 pages). Currently, she is working on a book project addressing the notion of pre-planned demolition as a constructive process (16th to 19th centuries).

Karel Davids (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)

He is an Emeritus Professor of Economic and Social History at the Faculty of Arts and the School of Business and Economics at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He works on Global History, with a focus on comparative studies of the circulation of knowledge, people, and goods in the Early Modern period, Maritime History, and the History of Technology. Among other publications in English, he is the author of "Global Ocean of Knowledge, 1660-1860" (2020).

Organizing Committee

Alice Santiago Faria (CHAM)

Antonieta Reis Leite (CES, UC)

Mafalda Batista Pacheco (CHAM)

Margarida Tavares da Conceição (IHA / NOVA FCSH)

Sandra M.G. Pinto (CHAM)

 

Organization

TechNetEMPIRE - Technoscientific Networks in the construction of the built enviroment in the Portuguese Empire (1647-1871)

CHAM / NOVA FCSH