Alexander von Humboldt: Circulation of State-Knowledge in Europe and Latin America

Alexander von Humboldt’s journey through the American societies is often understood as the starting point of a new era in the transatlantic knowledge economies. Against this unidimensional perspective, this conference will embed the figure of von Humboldt within long-term developments that shaped institutions and scientific exchange between Europe and Latin America since the 18th century. It will discuss the circulation of experts and objects in the times of state reform in the different Empires, the role of state expertise and the newly founded scientific institutions for the economic development, the influence of international political shifts and of the Latin American independence. The conference presents the manifold forms of knowledge circulation, the different contexts of evolution and, finally, the entanglements of different fields of knowledge between Europe and Latin America in the 18th and 19th century.

Public Keynote Lecture on December, 4 at the IAI:
Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra (Austin, Texas): Epistemological Colonialism: from Humboldt to the present (and back again)

4.12.2019
19.00 h, Keynote Lecture
Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut, Potsdamer Str. 37, 10785 Berlin

5.12.2019
Centre Marc Bloch, Friedrichstraße 191, 10117 Berlin

6.12.2019
MPI für Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin

Partner: Freunde des Ibero-Amerikanischen Instituts e.V.