Concepts, Metaphors, and Time in Ibero-Atlantic History: Javier Fernández Sebastián and the Iberconceptos Research Network

AHA Session 178
Sunday, January 5, 2025: 8:30 AM-10:00 AM
Morgan Room (New York Hilton, Second Floor)
Chair:
Gabriel Paquette, University of Maine
Panel:
Martin Burke, Graduate Center, City University of New York
Javier Fernández Sebastián, Basque Country University
Noemí Goldman, University of Buenos Aires and National Council of Scientific and Technical Research
Francisco A. Ortega, National University of Colombia
Marcos Reguera, Basque Country University
Comment:
Marcos Reguera, Basque Country University

Session Abstract

The aim of this roundtable is to reflect on the historiographical experience of Iberconceptos, a transnational research network of conceptual and intellectual historians from Europe and Latin America. The roundtable will emphasize the contributions of one of its principal founder, Javier Fernández Sebastián. The global historical turn has enriched our view of historical phenomena, pluralizing the views and voices of historians and historical subjects alike. The Iberconceptos research network is a pioneering experiment that, drawing on the paradigms of conceptual and Atlantic history, seeks to pluralize the existing account of the Atlantic empires. Iberconceptos has contributed to transnational historiography by emphasizing the often neglected perspective of the Iberian Atlantic empires, focusing on their elites, their subjects, and the peoples who lived at their margins. On the other hand, Fernández Sebastián's work has focused over the last three decades on the renewal of intellectual history in an Atlantic world. He has offered new theoretical and methodological criteria in order to enhance the historian's sensitivity and respect for the mentalities and voices of the past. His most recent works, which focus on the study of concepts, metaphors, and the problem of temporality and temporal consciousness, represent major historiographical contributions, of great relevance to contemporary debates on presentism. In this round table, historians working in diverse areas who have collaborated with Professor Fernández Sebastián will discuss with him the historiographical experience of Iberconceptos and their perspective on his contribution to the field of historiography.
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