Defining Early America: Boundaries and Vastness in the Early Modern Americas

About This Event

Questions of framing, both geographic and conceptual, have long preoccupied the field of early American history. More recently, Vast Early America has emerged as a framework that provides intellectual space and coherence for a wide variety of scholars whose work brings in geographies and historical actors not previously seen as part of the traditional Anglo-Atlantic history of North America. Nearly a decade after the first articulations of Vast Early America, this conference will bring together eight prominent scholars of the early Americas, broadly defined to include Latin America, North America, and the Caribbean, to engage questions about where the field sits now. Each presenter will pre-circulate a paper, and will receive comments from a designated respondent as well as the wider group.

Featured Guests

• Dexnell Peters, University of the West Indies, Mona
• Kathryn de Luna, Georgetown University
• David Wheat, Michigan State University
• Elise Mitchell, Swarthmore College
• Noel Smyth, Vassar College
• Fabricio Prado, College of William & Mary
• Shavagne Scott, Ohio State University
• Brooke Bauer, University of Tennessee Knoxville

Co-sponsors

• Cornell University Program on Latin America and the Caribbean
• The William & Mary Quarterly