Entangled seascapes conference reimagines the ocean as an active historical agent
An international gathering of leading academics and creative practitioners took place in Rome recently, offering new perspectives on the study of pre-modern and early modern oceanic worlds.
Hosted at the Academia Belgica, the conference, Entangled Seascapes: More-Than-Human Histories Across Oceanic Worlds, brought together around 20 participants from across Europe and beyond.
The event was co-organised by Dr Matthew Cobb of the University of Wales Trinity Saint David and Prof. Daniela De Simone of Ghent University. Its central aim was to move beyond viewing the sea as a passive backdrop to human history, instead exploring oceans as dynamic, more-than-human agents that shape, and are shaped by, human and non-human actors alike.
Reflecting on the motivations behind the conference, Dr Cobb explained:
“Too often, historical narratives treat the sea simply as the space between places. This conference was about foregrounding the sea itself as something that acts, reacts, and profoundly influences how communities understand the world, both materially and emotionally.”
Contributors challenged dominant land-based narratives of civilisation, sovereignty and encounter through approaches drawn from More-Than-Human thinking, materiality and material entanglements. Participants represented a wide range of disciplines, including history, archaeology, literary studies, anthropology and art, united by a shared engagement with the Blue Humanities. A key objective of the conference was to encourage interdisciplinary dialogue and the sharing of ideas among scholars and creatives working in traditionally distinct fields.
Prof. Daniela De Simone highlighted the importance of this interdisciplinary focus:
“Bringing together researchers and artists from different disciplines allowed us to see how deeply entangled human and oceanic worlds have always been. The conversations that emerged showed just how productive it can be to think across periods, regions and methodologies.”
Among the papers presented was a contribution by UWTSD’s Prof. Luci Attala, Listening to the Bubbles, which explored how Kogi communities in Colombia’s Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta understand water as an active agent in processes of knowledge and communication. Prof. Joshua L. Reid examined the experiences of Coast Salish nations in what is now western Washington State, focusing on their ongoing relationship with Whulge, commonly known as the Salish Sea and the challenges faced by Indigenous fishers, hunters and gatherers in maintaining cultural practices amid settler encroachment, despite protections set out in the 1855 Treaty of Point Elliott. Dr Cobb’s own paper looked further back in time, investigating how maritime communities around the Red Sea in the early first millennium CE emotionally and metaphysically experienced their surrounding seascapes, encompassing coastal shrines, vessels, aquatic environments and divine forces.
The final day of the conference was hosted at the Museo del Mare e della Navigazione Antica, thanks to its director Flavio Enei. Participants received a guided tour of the museum, followed by a screening of the short film Seaspeaker, which follows the story of Chennai fisherman Palayam Anna, accompanied by a talk from the film’s director, Parvathi Nayar.
Both organisers expressed their thanks to all those involved and noted the strong sense of intellectual synergy that characterised the papers and discussions, laying foundations for future collaborative research in the Blue Humanities.
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