This initiative aims to promote study of the cultures of the Ibero-American World through their material artifacts, across space, time, media and methodology and irrespective of institutional and national divisions. A series of projects bringing together scholars from around the world, whether independent or based in universities, museums, institutes, cultural institutions or business, aims to illuminate and shape the history of the Ibero-American material world, from pre-contact to the present.

October 12, 5–8 pm
Symposium

Miruna Achim
Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Cuajimalpa
Mexican antiquities for mounted birds (Or, how to build a National Museum, Mexico City, ca 1828)

Irina Podgorny
Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Berlin
The Mighty Skeletons and the Cultural Geography of the Americas”\

Stefanie Gänger
History Faculty, Cambridge University
Relics of the Past. The Collecting and Study of Incan Artefacts in Cuzco, 1830s-1900

Alessandra Russo
Department of Latin American and Iberian Cultures, Columbia University
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October 13, 12–1:30 pm
Lunchtime Talks

Miruna Achim
Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Cuajimalpa
Of Signs and Stones: The Origins of Mexican Antiquarianism, Mexico City, 1792

Irina Podgorny
Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Berlin
Things that Travel: Mummies, Manuscripts, and Traveling Museums (in the 19th Century)

October 14, 12–1:30 pm
Luncthime Talks

Stefanie Gänger
History Faculty, Cambridge University
Recent Trends on the History of Archaeology in Latin America

Roundtable: What is Material Culture from the Americas?