Vol. 24 (2021): Cromohs
Historians and Their Craft

An Interview with Joan-Pau Rubiés

Giulia Iannuzzi
Birkbeck, University of London - Universities of Florence and Trieste
Bio
Cover image: Alcázar Palace, Seville: the Salón de Embajadores (Hall of the Ambassadors). Watercolour, attributed to E.S., ninetheenth century. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain
Categories

Published 2022-06-08

Keywords

  • Joan-Pau Rubiés,
  • cross-cultural encounters,
  • early modern world,
  • travel accounts,
  • ethnographic sources,
  • history of travel,
  • cross-cultural diplomacy,
  • religious missions,
  • early orientalism,
  • history of racism,
  • history of cosmopolitanism,
  • Renaissance,
  • Enlightenment
  • ...More
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Abstract

Joan-Pau Rubiés is specialised in the study of cross-cultural encounters in the early modern world, from a perspective combining the contextual analysis of travel accounts and other ethnographic sources with the intellectual history of early modern Europe. Recent work has focused on the analysis of early modern ethnography and its intellectual impact in the period 1500-1800. This has involved developing various lines of research, including the history of travel, cross-cultural diplomacy, religious missions, early orientalism, race and racism, and the history of cosmopolitanism. In recent years, he has been working on the development a global comparative perspective on these various topics (encompassing both Asia and the New World) that might help interrogate critically the Eurocentric categories of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment.