Conference News: The Struggle for Land

The Newberry Library in Chicago is hosting what looks to be a really excellent symposium on the history and theory of property rights.  The one-day conference, entitled The Struggle for Land: Property, Territory, and Jurisdiction in Early Modern Europe and the Americas, is being organized by Tamar Herzog (Standford) and Richard Ross (Illinois) on April 8, 2011. Here's a synopsis:

The struggle to possess and control land, both as property and as jurisdictional territory, was central to the formation of early modern European societies as well as their colonial domains. This conference will look at how Europeans and indigenous peoples defined the right to land. We will examine how so-called European expansion influenced the conceptualization of property and territorial jurisdiction and the relationship between them. Conference participants may explore how notions of property and territoriality changed over time; and how colonial needs and the encounter with new cultures reshaped these notions.

The three main panel topics are (1) Religion Civility, and Debates over Property Regimes, (2) Strategies for Claiming Land, and (3) Property as a Foundation of Political Order and Political Economy.  

Attendance at the Symposium is free and open to the public.  Participants and attendees should preregister by contacting the Center for Renaissance Studies at the Newberry Library at [email protected].

Steve Clowney

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