About the Lecture

“European expansion into the non-western world at the end of the 15^th century represents a landmark in global history. Indigenous societies were suddenly and dramatically transformed. People responded to the colonial encounters in various ways and attempted to negotiate, sometimes successfully, interactions with Europe. Yet indigenous voices often remain marginalized in colonial and post-colonial historiographies, overwritten by narratives of conquest and hegemony. The archaeological record is perfectly suited to provide completely novel insights into these infamous histories by uncovering the indigenous perspectives hitherto biased by still dominant Eurocentric viewpoints. On the basis of my ongoing trans-disciplinary research in the Caribbean, I aim to develop a comparative approach by looking at the deep histories of West Africa, and the Pacific where similar processes of exploitation, domination and neglect have taken place. I am also particularly interested in how the study of indigenous histories can contribute to a more sophisticated awareness in the present, and how can it speak to multiple and perhaps competing stakeholders at local, regional, pan-regional, and global scales?”

About Corinne Hofman

Corinne Hofman is Professor of Caribbean Archaeology at Leiden University and has been Dean of the Faculty of Archaeology since 2013. She recently published The Caribbean before Columbus (Oxford University Press). In 2013 Hofman received the KNAW-Merian prize and in 2014 the Spinoza prize. She is currently working on a major exhibition about the Caribbean in the context of her prestigious NEXUS1492 project, an international and trans-disciplinary research project funded by the European Research Council. The exhibition will be on display on ten different islands in the Caribbean and the Netherlands in 2019.

Programme

16.00: Arrival, coffee and tea
16.30: Welcome by Jan Willem Duyvendak, Director of NIAS
16.40: Talk by Corinne Hofman “Intersecting Worlds: Interplay of Cultures and Technologies”
17.10: Presentation of the Distinguished Lorentz Fellowship Award by Sijbolt Noorda, Chair of the NIAS-Lorentz Advisory Board
17.30 – 18.30: Reception

About the DLF Award

The Distinguished Lorentz Fellowship (DLF) is awarded to a leading scientist working on research that brings together perspectives from the Humanities, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, and Technological Sciences. It was set up by the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS-KNAW) and the Lorentz Center Leiden. The award consists of a residential fellowship at NIAS, an international workshop at the Lorentz Center and a personal prize of €10,000.

Previous DLF's

Previous DLF’s include biologist Franjo Weissing, law and technology expert Bert-Jaap Koops, mathematical economist Cars Hommes, and musicologist Henkjan Honing.