International Conference “CROSSING HISTORIES AND ETHNOGRAPHIES: ANTHROPOLOGY AND THE COLONIAL ARCHIVE IN TIMOR-LESTE” – Lisbon – ICS-UL 1-2 July 2013

Conference POSTER click here
Conference PROGRAM click here

On 1-2 July 2013, it took place at the Institute of Social of the University of Lisbon (ICS-UL) and at Cinemateca Portuguesa, the closing international conference of our project. Participants included Elizabeth Traube as keynote speaker, Claudine Friedberg and David Hicks as special speakers; and it offered papers by Gonçalo Antunes, Judith Bovensiepen, Rui Feijó, Andrew McWilliam, Ricardo Roque, Frederico Delgado Rosa, and Susana de Matos Viegas.
“Crossing Histories and Ethnographies” was envisaged as an interdisciplinary event that brings together historians and social anthropologists who work on the history and anthropology of Timor Leste. The rich and complex colonial and post-colonial history of anthropology in East Timor will be used as a laboratory for a wider reflection on both the virtues and vices of the connections and equivocations, continuities and discontinuities, between colonialism, post-colonialism, and ethnography. The conference thus aimed at exploring the past and present of ethnographic research in East Timor, in relation to their colonial past as well as their contemporary post-colonial significance.
Contributors crossed historical with ethnographic approaches to documentation and/or oral materials and field data, with a view to address the dis/connections between ethnographic knowledge produced in the Portuguese colonial period and ethnographic knowledge stemming from the recent renewal of anthropological interest in East Timorese societies. In engaging critically with the colonial archives of East Timor, the conference expects to illuminate far more than just past anthropological understandings and encounters. It expects especially to consider how former colonial encounters and ethnographies may, or may not, continue to shape current scholarly understandings, and thereby impact more widely upon the creation of a post-colonial moment for the history and anthropology of Timor-Leste.

An edited volume is currently in preparation as an output of this conference.

The conference was sponsored by FCT, ICS-UL, REGS – Race and Ethnicity in the Global South Laureate Program (University of Sydney), and Cinemateca Portuguesa.

YOU CAN WATCH THE VIDEOS OF THE CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS ONLINE through the ICS-UL youtube channel Click here: http://www.youtube.com/instcienciassociais

or – FOLLOW THE LINKS BELOW:

Crossing Histories and Ethnographies – Keynote address by Elizabeth G. Traube
 
Crossing Histories and Ethnographies – Panel I – COLONIAL ETHNOGRAPHIES, COLONIAL HISTORIES
 
Crossing Histories and Ethnographies – Panel II: ETHNOGRAPHY AND THE COLONIAL ARCHIVE
 
Crossing Histories and Ethnographies – Panel II – pt2: ETHNOGRAPHY AND THE COLONIAL ARCHIVE

Crossing Histories and Ethnographies – Round-table: ANTHROPOLOGY IN “PORTUGUESE TIMOR”: PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE
 

TIMOR LESTE: MEMÓRIAS E HISTÓRIAS DA ANTROPOLOGIA
Auditorio da Universidade Nacional de Timor Lorosa’e (UNTL)
Dili, 4 August 2012

In August 2012 the research team visited Timor Leste on a field trip. With a view to present current research and foster dialogue with the Timorese community we have co-organized a one-day conference around the project topics, in collaboration with our East Timorese colleagues from UNTL. This conference brought together researchers from Portugal and from Timor Leste and it was widely attended by East Timorese university students and scholars as well as by Portuguese and Brazilian teachers and researchers who currently work and live in Timor Leste. This was a rewarding occasion for our team as it provided an unique opportunity for discussing the history and anthropology of Timor in situ, thus benefiting from the valuable input of the scholarly community in East Timor.
The conference included also the launching of the book Ita maun alin… O livro do irmão mais novo, edited by Kelly Silva and Lucio Sousa (Colibri 2011).
The event was sponsored by UNTL, Fundação Oriente, Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, and ICS-UL.

DOWNLOAD the conference program here.

TIMOR-LESTE NO ESPAÇO DE ENCRUZILHADAS CULTURAIS
Biblioteca Espaço por Timor
Lisboa, 1 February 2013

The one-day conference Timor Leste no Espaço de Encruzilhadas Culturais was an initiative of a group of East Timorese scholars in association with the project and it was meant to provide an occasion for debate on the past and present of cultural pluralism in Timor Leste. Portuguese and East Timorese historians, humanities scholars and anthropologists offered their views on the subject at the Biblioteca Espaço por Timor, in Lisbon, a meeting-point for everyone interested in Timor Leste.
The event was sponsored by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, ICS-UL, UNTL and Bibliotecas Municipais de Lisboa.

Image: Postcard Timor c. 1966. Fonte: IICT.

DOWNLOAD the conference program here.

TIMOR LESTE: QUINHENTOS ANOS EM CONTACTO COM O MUNDO
Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa – Anfiteatro III
Lisboa, 24 and 25 October 2012

In collaboration with humanities scholars based at the Faculdade de Letras of the University of Lisbon, we have co-organized the symposium Timor Leste: Quinhentos Anos em Contacto com o Mundo . This was intended as an occasion to reflect upon the manifold complexities of intercultural interactions between Timor Leste and the wider world. Portuguese and Timorese scholars from the humanities, history and social sciences participated in this event, which was attended by a varied audience of students, researchers, and non-academics.
The event was sponsored by Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa, Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, ICS-UL, Sapo TL, UNTL and CLEPUL /FL-UL.

DOWNLOAD the conference program here.

TIMOR LESTE: 10 ANOS DE ESTUDOS E TESES. REFLETIR E DEVOLVER
Biblioteca – Espaço Por Timor
Lisbon, 17 & 18 May 2012

Timor Leste has received growing attention from Portuguese scholars since the referendum of 1999. At Portuguese universities, a number of humanities’ and social sciences’ works were produced in the course of the last ten years, including many Master and PhD theses. Many of these, however, have not been published, and thus they have little or no impact beyond academic circles. On the occasion of celebrating 10 years of Timor Leste’s restauration of Independence, the conference Timor Leste: 10 anos de estudos e teses. Reflectir e devolver (Timor Leste: 10 years of studies and theses. Reflecting and giving back) was held in Lisbon on 17 and 18 May 2012, with the purpose of bringing Portuguese academic research about Timor Leste into dialogue with the wider community. The meeting was widely attended by both academics and non-academics, and benefited from the strong presence of Timorese people resident in Lisbon.
The conference opened with a Keynote address by the Timorese philosopher, Professor Father João Inocêncio Piedade, reflecting about cultural changes in Timorese society in the last 10 years. The closing sessions included a roundtable debate, with Pedro Rosa Mendes and Ricardo Roque, who – from either historical or literary perspectives — reflected about two of the most significant recent books written in Portuguese about East Timor: José Mattoso’s A Dignidade and Luís Cardoso’s Crónica de uma travessia. The viewing of short vídeos about the Independence in 2002 and the launch of the book Ita Maun Alin… O livro do Irmão mais novo, a collection of anthropological essays on East Timor edited by Kelly Silva and Lúcio Sousa, closed the intensive two days of conversations and debate.
This event was sponsored by Câmara Municipal de Lisboa, CEMRI – Univ. Aberta, Embaixada de Timor em Portugal, Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, ICS-Univ. de Lisboa, and IELT – Univ. Nova de Lisboa.

VIEW here the VÍDEO with all the conference presentations and discussions online. We thank MemoriaMedia for support in making this vídeo available and Atompark Software for organising email newsletter distribution informing about this event using their own emailing tool.

DOWNLOAD the conference program here.

TIMOR: SCIENTIFIC MISSIONS AND COLONIAL ANTHROPOLOGY
Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino – Pompeia Room
24 & 25 May 2011

On 24 and 25 May 2011 the Conference Timor: Scientific Missions and Colonial Anthropology was held at the Overseas Historical Archives, in Lisbon. This two-day conference was aimed at showcasing the historical collections of East Timor available in Portugal, and at presenting recent historical research on the Portuguese natural, biological and human knowledge about East Timor in the last 100 years. It brought together historians, biologists, geographers, archaeologists, museum curators, and anthropologists based in Portugal or in Timor Leste, and currently working on past and present issues associated with the culture and nature Timor-Leste. The conference was held in conjunction with the exhibition Timor: Science and Knowledge through the Collections of the IICT, in which a variety of rich primary documentation held at the IICT archives was displayed to the visitors.

The meeting opened with a conference by the State Secretary of Culture of Timor-Leste, Virgilio Smith. This conference resulted from a partnership with a research team based at the IICT (Scientific Tropical Research Institute) that is currently working on the legacies of Portuguese colonial scientific expeditions to the tropics.

To see the conference poster click here.

The conference program (including a list of sponsors) is available here.

You may also read and download the papers presented at this conference through this website – please go to Conference proceedings

For a summary presentation of the conference by the IICT co-organizers (including photos) click here.