RIVER-SCAPES: Politics of Mobility in Colonial Iberian Waterways (1750-1840)

Project Information

RIVER-SCAPES

Grant agreement ID: 101206067

DOI

10.3030/101206067

Project terminated on 21 July 2025

EC signature date 25 February 2025

Start date 1 April 2025

End date 31 March 2027

Funded under

• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)

Total cost

No data

EU contribution

€ 207 183,12

Coordinated by

UNIVERSIDADE NOVA DE LISBOA
Portugal

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - RIVER-SCAPES (RIVER-SCAPES: Politics of Mobility in Colonial Iberian Waterways (1750-1840))

Reporting period: 2025-04-01 to 2027-03-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

RIVER-SCAPES: Politics of Mobility in Colonial Iberian Waterways (1750–1840) is a postdoctoral research project funded by the European Commission under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01). It aims to examine the politics of mobility in two significant, yet understudied, colonial river regions: the Mississippi River, under Spanish imperial rule, and the Zambezi River, under Portuguese colonial governance. The project focuses on the period between 1750 and 1840, a time marked by both the intensification of imperial reforms and the destabilising effects of global revolutionary movements.

The project seeks to historicise mobility regimes prior to the advent of the liberal nation-state by analysing how access to movement was managed, negotiated, and restricted in these riverine borderlands. Through the comparative study of these two riverscapes, RIVER-SCAPES explores the interactions between empire, ecology, and subaltern agency, with particular attention to enslaved and Afrodescendant populations, indigenous actors, and imperial authorities. Its interdisciplinary approach combines historical methods with insights from mobility studies and the blue humanities, aiming to reframe rivers not merely as geographical features but as political and social actors in their own right.

The overarching objectives of the project include:
- Analysing the differentiated experiences of mobility and immobility in colonial river regions.
- Investigating how institutions, individuals, and communities produced and contested mobility regimes.
- Contributing to broader European debates on colonial legacies, mobility justice, and ecological governance.
- Creating an open-access dataset that documents historical cases of mobility control, resistance, and adaptation along the Mississippi and Zambezi rivers.

During the first four months of implementation, the focus was placed on integration into the host institution (CHAM – Centro de Humanidades, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa), engagement with scholarly networks, and the preparation of the empirical and methodological framework. These initial steps were crucial in establishing the foundation for future research activities, particularly in terms of building collaborative ties and identifying relevant archival collections. However, shortly after the project began, the researcher was offered a Tenure Track position at the Universidad Pablo de Olavide (Seville), a significant opportunity for long-term academic development that could not be postponed beyond late July 2025. This development inevitably impacted the continuation of the project in its originally planned form and will be formally addressed in future communications with the European Commission and the host institution.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Despite the abbreviated timeframe, the activities carried out during this period successfully launched the project's core lines of enquiry and created the conditions for future research on colonial mobility regimes, riverscapes, and the entangled histories of the Iberian empires.

a) Archival Research
- Visits to the Arquivo Historico Ultramarino, Torre do Tombo and Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, included in WP2, "Collection & Analysis of Sources." MS1
- Visit to the Archivo General de Indias, in Seville, included in WP2, MS2


b) Dissemination
- A podcast episode about ‘mobilities’ for the season 2025-2026 of CHAM TALKS, Um podcast para ouvir ciência.
- Creation of o a BlueSky account https://bsky.app/profile/river-scapes.bsky.social
- Presentation at the CHAM Researchers’ Forum, contributing to internal knowledge exchange at the host centre.
- Participation in an online seminar "Proyectos cruzados: Espacialidad, redes, trabajo y movilidad en la Edad Moderna" based in Seville, facilitating comparative discussions and cross-project dialogue.
- Organisation and Contribution to the roundtable “Movilidades interurbanas en el gran Atlántico ibérico” at the XXI Congreso Internacional de Americanistas, enhancing the international visibility of the project and its conceptual underpinnings.Deliverable 9 of WP5


c) Institutional Engagement and Integration
- Active participation in seminars and research activities coordinated by Prof. Pedro Cardim and the EDGES network, strengthening interdisciplinary and transregional perspectives on colonial governance and mobility.
- Contact and informal dialogue with scholars specialising in colonial Mozambique, including Bárbara Direito, Davide Henneforth, and Eugénia Rodrigues, which opened promising avenues for the Zambezi river case study.
-Joined the organising committee for the IV Biennial CHAM Conference, focused on mobilities and transculturality, reinforcing institutional synergies and contributing to the centre’s international outreach.


d) Data Infrastructure
- Preliminary structuring of the dataset began, focused on the extraction and standardisation of archival data related to mobility actors and territorial control along Iberian waterways.
- Initiated the creation of the project dataset by establishing a ZENODO account, in collaboration with CHAM and ROSSIO’s IT services, ensuring compliance with Open Science requirements and FAIR principles.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

While no publications were produced during this initial phase, the activities undertaken successfully anticipated several key milestones. Between April and July, RIVER-SCAPES explored multicultural contexts in which colonial pasts are contested, laying the groundwork for a series of academic publications related to the Mississippi and Louisiana regions. These are expected to be published in the coming months.

During this period, I co-authored an article with Professor Cosme Jesús Gómez-Carrasco on the circulation of revolutionary ideas across the Mississippi River during the 1790s. The article has been accepted for publication in Historia Crítica (Q1), an Open Access academic journal, and will appear in the October issue. This publication fully adheres to the Open Science principles required by the MSCA. In parallel, and also in collaboration with Professor Gómez-Carrasco, we have been working on a monograph focusing on Afrodescendant populations in the Mississippi Valley and their role within the Spanish colonial order during the late eighteenth century. Both outputs contribute directly to the scientific impact goals of RIVER-SCAPES by re-centring African agency and rethinking rivers as active historical and political actors within the colonial dynamics of mobility and governance. Additionally, I assumed responsibility for drafting an article on the politics of mobility restrictions imposed on Afrodescendant communities in the Mississippi region during the 1790s. This article has been submitted to IBEROAMERICANA. América Latina – España – Portugal (Q2), a peer-reviewed Open Access journal. The piece directly addresses Milestone 5 of Work Package 4 (Mobility (In)Justice) and will be published as one of the official scientific outputs of the project.