Dear H-net subscribers,

I am currently assembling a panel for next Spring’s OAH conference. As mentioned in the above panel title, it will revolve around publications of the Other and their role within early modern power constructs. The panel will examine European/ North American descriptive publications regarding non-Europeans during the period, and explore 1) the fictional and/or reflective elements within the publication which masquerade as fact, and/or 2) how these texts, once produced, worked to disseminate a particular kind of Other within European communities that, through the text's technologies of taxonomy and explanation, created an Other that was easier to understand, control, and/or exploit.

For my part I'll be giving a paper on the 18th-century West Indies as an "imagined geography" within Caribbean travelogues, and a second panelist will be giving a paper on the role of gender and power within New England captivity narratives. I am currently looking for a third panelist.

If interested, please contact me at I would need a 200-word abstract of your proposed paper by February 15th, which is the conference due date for panel proposals. After that I should be able to take care of the rest.