Star­ting with Mar­cus Rediker’s and Peter Linebaugh’s Many hea­ded Hydra (2000), the past deca­des have brought a num­ber of scho­l­ar­s­hips and disci­pli­nes to ana­ly­ze the diver­se mari­ti­me working con­di­ti­ons across Time, Oce­ans, and Glo­be. The emer­ging field of Glo­bal and Mari­ti­me Histo­ry demons­tra­ted the mobi­li­ty and impor­t­ance of tho­se, who, cru­cial­ly, fil­led the ships.
Depen­ding on the pur­po­se of the voya­ge, working and living cir­cum­s­tan­ces at sea chan­ged and dif­fe­red dra­ma­ti­cal­ly. The diver­se pur­po­ses of voya­ges influ­en­ced the socia­liz­a­ti­on and con­sis­ten­cy of the crew, as they were iso­la­ted from main­land sys­tems of socie­ty, government, work, and leisure.
For several years, a pela­gic-wha­ling ship, which requi­red fre­quent sto­po­vers, had dif­fe­rent neces­si­ties as a tra­de ship. Both the com­po­si­ti­on of a crew and the hier­ar­chies of a Con­vict ship might have been dif­fe­rent, com­pa­red to a Roy­al Navy Ship. The­se dif­fe­rent cir­cum­s­tan­ces mir­ro­red in the wage-sys­tem too. Facing a several-year absence from home and fami­ly, wha­lers nee­ded a pay­ment in advan­ce to sus­tain their fami­lies. Ships on the Ame­ri­can con­ti­nent beca­me pla­ces of hope for slaves who were escaping.
The pur­po­se of this work­shop is to high­light and reve­al the­se dif­fe­rent con­di­ti­ons and to bring tog­e­ther scho­l­ars from diver­se disci­pli­nes and are­as to enga­ge in a dia­lo­gue about the results of their research.

For the pro­gram­me of the event see here: Flyer_Maritime Labour Prac­ti­ces:

Con­ta­ct and registration:
Hau­reh Hus­sein (hussein@uni-trier.de)