CFP: Indigenous Exploration Panel at the Society for the History of Discoveries Meeting

A panel will be held during the Annual Meeting of the Society for the History of Discoveries, held in Milwaukee on September 22-23, 2017, on Indigenous Discovery and Exploration History. The aim of the panel is to highlight processes or acts of exploration and discovery - or travel more broadly - by non-European actors:

This thematic panel seeks to deepen scholarship on non-European, non-Western accounts of discovery and exploration while focusing on how Indigenous peoples discovered and explored other parts of the globe. Indigenous peoples across the world undertook voyages of discovery and exploration that sometimes resulted in settlement and the intermingling of different peoples and cultures. Contributions to this panel will critically examine the process, experience, and outcomes of voyages undertaken by Indigenous peoples before, during, and after the European era of 'discovery', from circumpolar travel by peoples such as the Innu, and the arduous travels of the Inca to Europe during the Spanish colonial era, to the Indigenous inhabitants of Africa and their migration to Australia.

Proposals for 20-minute presentations concerning any indigenous people and relating to any geographic context and period should be under 250 words and sent to Dr. Lauren Beck at lbeck@mta.ca by February 3, 2017. Papers accepted for this panel will subsequently be developed into article-length, peer-reviewed manuscripts and form a thematic issue of Terrae Incognitae devoted to indigenous perspectives on discovery and exploration.