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This event aims to bridge certain gaps that remain between art history and other disciplines (such as history of science, applied linguistics, etc.) to promote scholarly debate between such different fields and to engage especially post-graduate and early career scholars. Organised by ECF Carlo Avilio from the Department of Histroy of Art.

Lecture: Negotiated identity: Free people of colour and ‘passing’ in French Caribbean

In the French Caribbean during the 17th and 18th centuries, no law allowed a formal transition from the category of Free coloured people to that of White. Contemporary sources assert that some individuals nevertheless crossed the line. Jessica will examine the informal processes that enabled people to cross the colour barrier. Samples of notarial acts and the study of parish registers, more specifically in Martinique, has allowed the reconstitution of genealogies, enabling the examination of families over several generations.

• Centre for Caribbean Studies Lecture:

Negotiated identity: Free people of colour and “passing” in French Caribbean

Tuesday 13 June, 5-7pm in Oculus OC0.05

Jessica Pierre-Louis has completed a PhD in Modern History in June 2015; she is now a researcher associate at the AIHP-GEODE EA 929 laboratory and member of group Rezo working on the networks in French Antilles history. Her fields of research concern the social history of Martinique in the 17th and 18th centuries. Her interests include prejudice of colour, racial categorisation system, passing and Free Coloured people. This Summer term, she is the Transatlantic Visiting Fellow in the Centre for Caribbean Studies.