Violent Encounters: Conflict, Resistance and Memory in the Medieval and Early Modern Iberian World

On 14th June 2019, Oxford’s Reading Group in Iberian History held its second graduate workshop, convened by Laurence McKellar and Ana Struillou, in Exeter College’s Cohen Quad. The title of this year’s meeting was “Violent Encounters. Conflict, Resistance and Memory in the Medieval and Early Modern Iberian World”. The purpose of the workshop was to provide a forum for the presentation and discussion of the work of Oxford’s many graduate students working on topics relating to the Iberian World. It aimed to range widely in geographical and chronological terms, and to bring together different disciplinary approaches which often remain distinct.

The audience, composed of graduate students and academic staff from within and beyond the community of Iberian history in Oxford, heard a selection of papers ranging from the medieval peninsula to the revolutionary Brazilian River Plate. It was particularly pleasing to see so many disciplinary approaches represented, with literary and art historical methodologies tackling the theme of violence and producing a truly inter-disciplinary discussion. Collectively, the papers demonstrated the variety of practices and interpretations of violence in history, from legal and literary discussions through to slavery, inquisition, death and revolution, and highlighted the need to bring these to the forefront of Iberian historiographical discussion at a time when it is in danger of becoming overly sanitised. The participants had the opportunity to continue the conversation over lunch, and after the graduate presentations Professor  Zoltán Biedermann (UCL) gave a keynote speech entitled “Inglorious Possessions: Global Connected Histories and the Problem of Violence”.