HESCAH Symposium | Creative Commodities: Art, Ecology, and the Spanish Empire

This two day symposium brings together twelve scholars of colonial Latin America at the University of Florida to explore the intersections of art, environment, materiality, and colonialism. The invitees work across disciplines including art history, history, and Spanish literature and language. This HESCAH event will feature two days of panels plus a keynote roundtable discussion to conclude the event, titled “Beyond the Beautiful: Lessons from the Ecocritical Study of Spanish Colonial Art and Culture” at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 17.

Schedule: Friday, October 16

9:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.
Coffee and Conversation

9:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.
Welcome and Opening Remarks
Derek Burdette, Associate Professor of Art History, University of Florida

10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. | Panel 1

“Mapping the Liquid Landscape of Early Colonial Mexico”
Savannah Esquivel, Assistant Professor of Art History, University of California, Riverside

“Las raíces humanas de los colorantes novohispanos: productores de grana cochinilla en Oaxaca, siglo XVIII.”
Huemac Escalona Lüttig, Associate Researcher, Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas, Universidad Nacional de México (UNAM), Unidad Oaxaca
Talk to be delivered in Spanish

“Tecali in Translation: The Place of Stone in Colonial Mexico”
Brendan McMahon, Assistant Professor of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, University of Michigan

11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Lunch

1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. | Panel 2

“Cotton to Feather: Palampore Aesthetics in Amazonia”
Juliana Fagua Arias, Ph.D. Candidate in the History of Art, Cornell University

“Highlands of Ruin and Remedy: Plants, Agency, and Subaltern Ecologies in Caribbean Coffee Landscapes”
Paul Niell, Associate Professor of Art History, Florida State University

“Gather to Burn: Working Wax in the Colonial Philippines”
Dana Leibsohn, Alice Pratt Brown Professor of Art, Smith College

2:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Coffee Break

3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. | Panel 3

“A Matter of Taste: Salt, Ritual, and Ceremony in Colonial Mexico”
Paul Ramírez, Associate Professor of History, Northwestern University

“Salt, Sicily, and the Colonial Waterscape”
Elizabeth Kassler-Taub, Assistant Professor of Art History, Dartmouth College

Schedule: Saturday, October 17

10:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
Coffee

10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. | Panel 4

“Capitalist Logic and Artistic Production in the Villa Imperial de Potosí”
Maya Stanfield-Mazzi, Professor of Art History, University of Florida

“The Art of Logistics in the Global Spanish Empire”
Daniel Nemser, Associate Professor of Spanish, University of Michigan

“Captured Spanish Sea Charts as English Imperial Commodities”
Juliet Wiersema, Professor, Art and Art History, University of Texas, San Antonio

12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Lunch

2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. | Keynote Conversation

“Beyond the Beautiful: Lessons from the Ecocritical Study of Spanish Colonial Art and Culture”
A moderated conversation between all invited speakers

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