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

Descrizione del progetto

Scoprire la cultura materiale dei viaggi coloniali

La storia degli imperi coloniali è spesso raccontata attraverso fonti scritte, ma che dire degli oggetti materiali che accompagnavano i viaggiatori? Sostenuto dal programma di azioni Marie Skłodowska-Curie, il progetto MATIC analizza gli effetti personali dei passeggeri a bordo dei piroscafi dell’impero coloniale britannico e francese (1850-1950). MATIC svela le storie non raccontate della mobilità coloniale. In quanto tale, dà forma alla nostra comprensione delle esperienze vissute dei viaggiatori, in particolare di quelli spesso assenti dai documenti scritti: individui colonizzati, donne e bambini. Utilizzando metodi innovativi della cultura materiale, degli studi di genere e della storia orale, MATIC offre approfondimenti sulle storie imperiali e sfida le narrazioni tradizionali dell’impero, facendo luce su come la materialità abbia plasmato le esperienze vissute degli imperi coloniali.

Obiettivo

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.