MATIC: Materiality of Imperial Crossings during the age of steam (c. 1850-1950)

Projektbeschreibung

Analyse der materiellen Kultur kolonialer Reisen

Die Geschichte der Kolonialreiche wird oft anhand schriftlicher Quellen erzählt, aber was ist mit den materiellen Gegenständen, die die Reisenden begleiteten? Das über die Marie-Skłodowska-Curie-Maßnahmen unterstützte Projekt MATIC erforscht die Habseligkeiten von Personen, die an Bord von Dampfschiffen in der Zeit der britischen und französischen Kolonialreiche reisten (1850–1950). MATIC deckt die unerzählten Geschichten der kolonialen Mobilität auf. Auf diese Weise prägt es unser Verständnis der gelebten Erfahrungen von Reisenden, insbesondere derjenigen, die in schriftlichen Aufzeichnungen oft fehlen: kolonisierte Menschen, Frauen und Kinder. Mithilfe innovativer Methoden aus den Bereichen der materiellen Kultur, der Geschlechterforschung und der Oral History bietet MATIC Einblicke in die imperiale Geschichte und stellt die traditionellen Erzählungen über Weltreiche infrage, indem es beleuchtet, wie die Materialität die gelebten Erfahrungen der Kolonialreiche prägte.

Ziel

The MATIC (Materiality of Imperial Crossings during the age of steam, c. 1850-1950) project aims to deepen our understanding of modern colonial empires by exploring the material culture of maritime crossings within the British and French colonial empires during the age of steam (c. 1850-1950). This project focuses on the personal belongings of steamship travelers to explore the trade of items relevant to journeys at sea, the lived experiences of imperial maritime crossings, the ‘colonial situations’ that arose on board ships, as well as the material circulations that empires facilitated. Bridging colonial history, material culture studies, and maritime history, MATIC will go beyond the state of the art by demonstrating that materiality was a crucial dimension of imperial ‘lives in transit’, whose study illuminates the social, cultural, and political ramifications of imperial mobility, and fosters new insights into the role of materiality in the imperial archive. This project further sheds new light on how actors largely absent from written sources – colonized passengers, women, and children – intimately experienced colonial empires. To accurately capture this global and intimate history, MATIC employs an innovative and interdisciplinary methodology, integrating quantitative methods as well as theoretical perspectives from material and visual culture studies, gender studies, oral history, new mobility studies, and sociology. In addition to printed sources, it draws on a variety of archival materials from numerous repositories in England and France, surviving artefacts from museum collections, and oral history interviews. This project will significantly enhance the ER’s professional experience by further diversifying his research methodologies, enhancing his ability to work in a international environment, and enabling him to build a long-lasting international network that includes researchers, curators, and archivists.