Enlightenments

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This talk provides an overview of a manuscript in progress surveying the history concept of the indigenous. The indigenous is an artifact of the upheavals of early modern European philosophical developments. Between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, the concept emerged as a means of negotiating identity and difference in the fermenting nationalist and imperialist discourses of western Europe. This talk will explore how the indigenous became a legal-political, theological, and ultimately racialized concept, with particular connotations of and relevance to the original inhabitants of the Americas and enslaved African peoples there, during this period.

Timothy Vasko is Assistant Professor of Religion and Human Rights at Barnard College. An historian of international political thought, his work focuses on the intersections between religion, law, and empire in the early modern Americas. He has published essays in History of the Human Sciences, Critical Research on Religion, and Modern Intellectual History. His first book, Making All the World America: Native Information and the Doctrine of Discovery, is published by University of Pennsylvania Press.

The Rendez-Vous de l’Institut Series is generously supported by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation.

This event will be recorded and may be broadcast as part of our SNF Rendez-vous de l’Institut podcast series. By participating and asking questions, you consent to the use of your voice in this context.