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Anne Gerritsen, "Shards for Sale: Manufacturing a Global History from Fragments?"

Thursday, February 28, 2013
12:00 AM
1014 Tisch Hall

Anne Gerritsen, University of Warwick

Lecture Abstract: This talk begins with the shard market of Jingdezhen: a weekly event in the porcelain manufacturing town of Jingdezhen (Jiangxi province, China) where shards of porcelains are bought and sold. It asks what these shards can tell us about the writing of global history. One might see these shards as evidence of the global consumers for which this site produced ceramics, but the emphasis on global consumption has tended to overshadow the local dimensions of their production. Professor Gerritsen seeks to show that local narratives have to be accommodated within global history if that global story is to carry any significant weight.

Anne Gerritsen is an associate professor in the University of Warwick’s Department of History. She gained her Ph.D. in East Asian languages and civilizations from Harvard University in 2001. She specialises in Chinese history, particularly the production of porcelain. Professor Gerritsen is also a steering committee member of the Women and Gender Network (WAGNet), a member of the Board of the Universities China Committee in London, the British Association for Chinese Studies, the American Association of Asian Studies, and the European Association of Chinese Studies.