1 Nov.  Jennifer Gaynor (Buffalo) and Elvan Cobb (Rice University)

4:00-5:15  Jennifer L. Gaynor “The Maritime Dynamics of pre-Westphalian Interpolity Relations in Southeast Asia” Link to Readings: (1) (2)

Jennifer L. Gaynor earned her PhD in History and Anthropology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and prior to coming to SUNY at Buffalo held fellowships at Michigan, Cornell, and the Australian National University. A scholar of Southeast Asia and its surrounding seas from the seventeenth century to the present, she is the author of Intertidal History in Island Southeast Asia: Submerged Genealogy and the Legacy of Coastal Capture (Cornell University Press, 2016).

Abstract: Historians of Southeast Asia have used a range of metaphors—mandalas, galactic polities—to describe the organization of Southeast Asian polities. Rather than invent metaphors, this talk examines the relations between port polities and their reliance on sea people to arrive at a picture of maritime dynamics in early modern interpolity relations. With deep precursors in the early history of the region, similar dynamics fed regional imperial formations, and external powers from the Cholas to the Dutch had to contend with them. Sea people, their skills, and their networks, were central to these political dynamics. Although colonial ideology cast them as pirates and sea nomads, this talk illustrates their prominent roles in expansionary states, their political and military support from autonomous amphibious hubs, and their capacity to change allegiances strategically. Analysis of these dynamics helps to clarify the mechanisms of power shifts between port polities in the coastal, archipelagic, and intraregional past.

5:30-6:45 Elvan Cobb “Camels to Railways: Locating the Global Mobilities of Izmir”

Elvan Cobb, Spatial Humanities Postdoctoral Fellow in Levantine Studies,  Ph.D. History of Architecture and Urbanism, Cornell University. Elvan is a historian of the built environment, exploring the effects of modernization projects on spatial practices. Focusing on the Ottoman Empire, the modern Middle East and the Islamic world, her work brings an interdisciplinary approach to the study of space by engaging with histories of technology, archaeology, travel, environment and the senses. Elvan serves on the editorial team of the International Journal of Islamic Architecture and she is the assistant director of a diachronic archaeological field project in Armenia.

Abstract: In the 17^th century, Izmir became a prominent port city of the eastern Mediterranean, intensifying connections between Europe and Asia.  From its roots as a productive entrepôt for the British Levant Company, Izmir increasingly gained strategic importance in the trade relationships of the Ottoman and British Empires.  The city reached its apex as a port city when concessions granted to British companies enabled the establishment of Izmir as the terminus point of a critical western Anatolian rail network.  This increased the flow of goods from the city’s fertile hinterland and from the broader trade networks of the Middle East.  Although conveyed to the port in large part by the railways, traffic also remained heavily dependent on camel caravans.  This multi-modal transportation infrastructure thus supported Izmir’s role as an active node in global networks.  This presentation examines Izmir’s place in shifting global mobilities between the 17^th and 19^th centuries.