Aquatic Mobilities / Littoral Cultures

The workshop aimed to foster research into the historical interplay between mobility, cultural techniques, and material culture within maritime and coastal contexts. By examining how cultures, cultural techniques, and nature have historically shaped life, work, and travel at sea, we sought to develop new research questions that can lead to future grant applications. Through interdisciplinary collaboration, participants explored themes such as maritime technologies, littoral knowledge production, and the material manifestations of aquatic and coastal communities. Special attention was given to the concept of »Störungen« (disruptions) and their influence on practices and objects, like environmental challenges, to border regimes, and shipping accidents. This workshop provided a platform for investigating the dynamic interactions between human practices and maritime environments, emphasizing the unique cultural techniques, and material cultures that emerge in littoral and marine settings.

The workshop was organized by Cluster members Alwin Cubasch and Christian Kassung.

Program:

9:45–10:00 am

• Get Together

10:00–11:00 am

• Julia Erdogan (HU Berlin): Depths of Danger: Challenges of Shipwreck Salvages and The Perils of Diving.

11:00–12:00 am

• Sarah Pickmann (Independent Scholar): In Search of Lost Mint Cakes: Tracing Cargo and Mishaps in Expedition Archives

12:00–01:00 pm

• Lunch Break

01:00–02:00 pm

• Julia Zons (Universität Stuttgart): What does Ceuta tell us about Littoral Cultures? Aquatic Mobilities at the »most heavily guarded border of the world«

02:00–03:00 pm

• Wilko von Hardenberg (HU Berlin): The Adriatic as a Borderspace: Knowledge Mobilities and Environmental Disruptions in a Marginal Sea

03:00–04:00 pm

• Coffee, Final Discussion, and Future Developments