The New Netherland Institute hosts a zoom seminar where academics, public historians, and graduate students meet to discuss a piece of chapter or article length pre-circulated work on New Netherland and the Dutch Atlantic World. Moderated by NNI’s director, Dr. Deborah Hamer, the seminar meets four times per semester on Wednesdays from noon to 1:30 (EST). This time was selected to enable the participation of both American and European scholars.

At the seminar, participants discuss pre-circulated scholarly work of chapter or article length that is in progress. Attendees are expected to have read the work in advance of the seminar. Presenters offer a brief introduction to their papers, and the remainder of the time will be devoted to discussion. Scholars of all ranks, included graduate students, and public historians are warmly invited to attend and contribute to the discussions. As these papers are works in progress, please do not cite them outside of the seminar without first requesting the permission of the author.

Email NNI.Seminar@gmail.com to join the listserv. Papers and zoom links are circulated to the email list a week in advance of the seminar session.

2023-2024

October 18, 2023: Hilde Neus, University of Suriname

November 15, 2023: Lou Roper, SUNY New Paltz

December 13, 2023: BJ Lillis, Princeton University

January 17, 2024: Neal Dugre, University of Houston-Clear Lake

February 21, 2024: Esther Baakman, Radboud University

March 20, 2024: Stephanie Porras, Tulane University, and Aaron Hyman, Johns Hopkins University

April 17, 2024: Simon Middleton, College of William & Mary

The New Netherland Institute Seminar began in Fall 2021. Presenters and paper titles from past seminars:

Spring 2023

January 18: Joris van den Tol, Radboud University
A Network against the (first) Act of Navigation in the Anglo-Dutch Atlantic

February 22: Mark Meuwese, University of Winnipeg
The Indigenous peoples of Guyana and the Restructuring of the South Atlantic, 1645-1700

April 19: Jared Hardesty, Western Washington University
Two Sisters and a Suriname Plantation: Fairfield Estate, the Dutch Atlantic, and Rethinking New England Slavery

Fall 2022

September 14: Maeve Kane, University at Albany
The Capacious Sacrament of Necessity: Community Formation in Early American Godparentage Networks

October 19: Danny Noorlander, SUNY Oneonta
The Elephant and the Finch: A Musical History of the Early Slave Trade

November 16: Christopher Ebert, Brooklyn College, and Thiago Krause, Universidade
Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro
After the Fall (of Recife): Preserving and Recreating Dutch-Brazilian Ties in the South Atlantic, c. 1655-1730

December 14: Ayasha Guerin, University of British Columbia
Beavers and Boundaries: The Colonization of Manhattan

Spring 2022

February 16: Andrea Mosterman, University of New Orleans
Neither Enslaved nor Free: Conditional Manumissions and the Struggle for Freedom of New Netherland’s African Community

March 16: Melissa Morris University of Wyoming
Tobacco and Colonization in the mid-seventeenth century: New Netherland and beyond

April 20: Michael Oberg (SUNY Geneseo)
On Turtles Back and Ancestors

May 18: Timo McGregor MacMillan Center, Yale University
Protective Politics: Violence, Property, and Community in the Dutch Empire

Fall 2021

September 15: Evan Haefeli, Texas A&M University
Forging Peace despite the Covenant Chain: The Delaware Indian Scare of 1694

October 13: Erin Kramer, Trinity University
Brother Corlaer’s New House: Reorienting Mohawk-Dutch Spaces (1660-1686)

November 17: Mark Thompson, University of Groningen
Mattahorn's Dilemma

December 15: Wim Klooster, Clark University
A Petition to Keep New Netherland: Amsterdam’s Fear of English Ascendancy