LIAS Workshop: "Black Presence and Influence In Europe Before the Atlantic Slavery

The workshop brings together scholars working on Black diasporic histories across prehistoric, classical, and medieval Europe, with the aim of broadening the field by deepening research on early African–European entanglements before the Atlantic slavery. By drawing on rigorous empirical research and decolonial methodologies, it seeks to correct long-standing historiographical gaps that have marginalized these early interactions. In addition to paper presentations, the workshop features an interdisciplinary panel bringing together scholars, artists, activists, and practitioners engaged with the historiography of Black presence in Europe. This panel will reflect on the methodological, archival, and epistemic challenges of researching early Black histories and explore how these can be addressed through collaborative, artistic, and community-centred approaches. A key outcome of the workshop is the formation of an emerging network of researchers committed to advancing scholarship on early African–European entanglements and expanding Black diasporic studies beyond the Atlantic paradigm. The keynote lecture will be delivered by Paul Kaplan, a leading scholar in early African–European studies.

21 January 

10–10:30 a.m.
Temitope Fagunwa, LIAS Fellow, Leuphana University Lüneburg (introduction)

Panel 1: Reflections on Blackness and Europe I

10:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Olusegun Morakinyo, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland: “An Afrikological overview of Moorish scholarship in Contemporary Europe”
Eric Martone, Mercy University, New York, USA: “Reconsidering the Black Presence in Europe before the Atlantic Slave Trade”

Panel 2: Reflections on Blackness and Europe II

1:30–30 p.m.
Araba Evelyn Johnston-Arthur, University of Vienna, Austria, “On the Centrality of Antiblackness in the Violent Making of Europe in the Middle Ages”
Maghan Keita, Villanova University, USA: “Reflections on Africa and the Construction of Medieval European Identity”

Panel 3: Researching Black Histories: Archives, Silences, and New Methodologies

4 p.m.–5:30 p.m. 
Chair: Brigitte Reinwald, Centre for Atlantic and Global Studies (CEAGS) Leibniz University Hannover
Paul Kaplan, State University of New York, USA
Araba Evelyn Johnston-Arthur, University of Vienna, Austria
Vera-Simone Schulz, Leuphana University Lüneburg

6–7:30 p.m., Lecture Hall 4
Lecture Paul Kaplan, State University of New York, USA: “Revising the Rise of the Black Magus: Reflections on New Evidence”
Vera-Simone Schulz, Leuphana University Lüneburg (introduction and moderation)

22 January 

Panel 4: Visibility and Presence of Black People in Medieval Europe

10 a.m.–1 p.m. 
Oliseh Kadishi, University of Ibadan, Nigeria: “Reclaiming Black Presence in Prehistoric Europe: A Critical Analysis of Archaeological and Historical Evidence in Uncovering Black Experiences and Contributions in Europe up to 15th Century”
Inès Limam, Aix Marseille University, France & Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium: “Holy Blackness, White Icons: (In)Visibility in the medieval Hagiographies of Saint Maurice and Saint Mary of Egypt”
Ramón Santonja Alarcón, University of Alicante, Spain: “Black Lives before the Atlantic: African Presences in Late Medieval Valencia through the Records of the Real Audiencia (1496–1498)”

Panel 5: Early Modern Iberian Peninsula

2–4 p.m.
Diana Berruezo-Sanchez, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain: “The Cultural History of the Black African Diaspora in Early Modern Spain, an ERC project”
Nuno Vila-Santa, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain: “A silent and almost “invisible” change? The impact of the Black African Diaspora in Portuguese culture and society (15th-17th centuries)”

Panel 6: Blacks in Church History

4:30–6:30 p.m.
Enoch Joseph Aboi, Africana Studies, Cornell University, USA: ”Beyond Ecumenical Unity: Mika’el And Luther in Reformation Historiography and Modernity’s Metanarrative”
Samuel Umoh, Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic: ”African Churches in Czech as living Repositories of African Migrant History and Visibility”

6:30–6:45 p.m.
Temitope Fagunwa (Closing Remarks)