Ithaca College

Ernesto Bassi, Cornell University, will present "“Captains, Sailors, and the Creation of a Trans-imperial Greater Caribbean during the Age of Revolution" in Textor 101 on October 8 at 6pm. The talk is sponsored by Latin American Studies as part of their Fall "Greater Caribbean Lecture and Events Series."

In this talk Ernesto will share with us portions of his book-in-progress Creating Spaces, Envisioning Futures: Region-Making and Geopolitical Imagination in the Transimperial Greater Caribbean during the Age of Revolutions, which examines the role of sailors in the creation of a geographic space he calls the transimperial Greater Caribbean and the way in which other, les mobile, subjects used this geographical framework to interpret the present they inhabited and to envision paths toward the future. 

While sailors created spaces, less mobile, but not necessarily sedentary, subjects envisioned futures. In particular, this talk examines the role of sailors as region-makers. Focusing on the border-crossing lives of sailors, this talk offers a reconsideration of regional configurations and region-making and invites us to interprete the sea as much more than an interval between ports bursting with history. The sea in Ernesto’s account is full of history and the sailors that crisscrossed political boundaries on a quotidian basis are not only making their own history but also their own geography. 

Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations should contact Jonathan Ablard at jablard@ithaca.edu or (607) 274-3558. We ask that requests for accommodations be made as soon as possible.