Call for Papers: Rural History 2025 Session: From exotic to local seeds. Global circulation and local impact of cultivated seeds since the 15th century

Organisers: Dulce Freire (Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal) and Alberto González Remuiñán (Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal)

Session at Rural History 2025, 9–12 September 2025, Coimbra, Portugal

Deadline for Submissions: 20 January 2025

 

Call for Papers:
From exotic to local seeds. Global circulation and local impact of cultivated seeds since the 15th century
Session S66 at Rural History 2025

 

Since the 15th century, the global circulation of cultivated seeds has transformed regional agriculture, landscapes and diets around the world. The general trends of these dynamics have been studied, making it possible to identify the regions of origin or the trajectories of plants that have become common in everyday diets on different continents (such as tomatoes, maize, wheat, potatoes, rice, oranges). However, it is still necessary to explain the environmental, genetic and social processes that allowed the local introduction and spread of each new cultivated species. How did these procedures allow, or not, that new seeds brought from other continents to be transformed from exotic to local varieties? This session calls for interdisciplinary approaches to deepen historical knowledge of the local circumstances underlying the so-called global Columbian exchange.

Papers should explore local perspectives, practices and knowledge recorded in different historical documents, namely travellers’ descriptions, scientists’ books and reports, administrative records of religious and secular powers, cookery books, memoirs and letters from various plant and food enthusiasts. These diverse and scattered testimonies can mention not only seeds and foods that became famous, but also those that were rejected or forgotten. In order to understand local practices, knowledge and dynamics related to seed cultivation and food consumption, papers focusing on any geography and chronology are welcome.

Proposals should be submitted until 20 January 2025 in the following link: https://ruralhistory2025.org/call-for-papers/. You can contact the organisers at: dulce.freire@fe.uc.pt and alberto.g.remuinan@uc.pt