Atlantic Crossings: Forms of Temporary Labour Migration around 1900

The purpose of this workshop is to promote the study of temporary transatlantic migrations in a global historical perspective.

Thursday, 19 October 2023

09:00   Opening – Christof Dejung (Universität Bern)

09:10  Introduction – Agnes Gehbald / Philipp Horn / Rea Vogt (Universität Bern)

09:30 – 12:15 Panel I                                              

Repeated Crossings and Temporary Stays: Beyond a Linear Understanding of Labour Migration in the Atlantic World
Chair: Manon-Julie Borel (Social Anthropology, Universität Bern)

09:30   Patrick Romuald Jie Jie (Université de Bertoua ENS)
Temporary Migration of Baptist Missionary Workers from Jamaica to Cameroon (1841–1886)

10:15   Coffee break

10:45  Annemarie Steidl (Universität Wien)
Return to Europe: Transatlantic Temporary Movements from the Habsburg Empire to the United States of America, 1890s to 1914

11:30  Agnes Gehbald (Universität Bern)
Earning and Returning: Migrant Statistics in the Americas, 1857–1911

14:00 – 16:45 Panel II                                                          

Between Hinge Joints and Conflict Zones: Atlantic Spaces of Labour Migration
Chair: Laura Rowitz (Middle Eastern Studies, Universität Bern)

14:00  Giota Tourgeli (Panteion University, Athens)
Greek Ports and the Commerce of Transatlantic Movement

14:45   Philipp Horn (Universität Bern)
A Lawyer from Cotonou and the Job at the Edge of the World: Labour Migration and Black Solidarity in the French Speaking Atlantic around 1900

15:30   Coffee break

16:00  Darold Cuba (University of Cambridge)
Labour Migration & Crisis of Identities in the Colonized Trans-Atlantic World: Freedmen, Africans, Europeans & Temporary Immigrants – (Post?) Colonial Tensions of Racialized Migrations and Socio-Economic Constructs

Friday, 20 October 2023

9:15 – 12:00 Panel III                                               

Business People on the Move: Workers, Goods, and Capital across the Atlantic
Chair: Derya Bozat (Eastern European History, Universität Bern)

9:15    William Blakemore Lyon (Universität Zürich)
Before Ponzi, There was Zarossi: The Origins of the Modern Racket via Italian Migrants in Colonial Namibia and Canada

10:00  Stacy D. Fahrenthold (UC Davis)
Fase Siria: The Improvised Syrian American Textile Industry on Madeira Island

10:45  Coffee break

11:15  Rea Vogt (Universität Bern)
“An Emigration of Going and Coming”: Transatlantic Trajectories of Lebanese Yerba Mate Merchants, 1910–1950

14:00 – 16:45 Panel IV                                                        

Mobile Memories: Narratives of Migration and Transgenerational Crossings in the Atlantic
Chair: Elize Mazadiego (World Art History, Universität Bern)

14:00  Willy Didié Foga Konefon (University of Douala)
Rereading the History of Africa across the Atlantic: From Forced Migrations to the Ideas of Emancipation and Autonomy of the Black World Africa

14:45   Coffee break

15:15  Stefano Gallo (ISMed / CNR Naples)
The Production of a Narrative of Migration: The “Golondrinas” between Italy and Argentina

16:00  Julia Harnoncourt (University of Luxembourg)
Transgenerational Atlantic Crossings: Labour Migration from Brazil in the Beginning of 20th Century

16:45   Coffee break

17:00   Closing Remarks & Final Discussion – Agnes Gehbald / Philipp Horn / Rea Vogt