“Ahmad al-Hajarî, Worldmaker," Dr. Oumelbanine Zhiri (Professor, University of California, San Diego)

Dr. Oumelbanine Zhiri is a Professor of French Literature at the University of California, San Diego. Her talk explores the global intellectual culture of the early seventeenth century, and the participation of non-Europeans in the birth of modernity. Worldmaking, or global imagining, is a feature of early modern culture, best symbolized by the globes that became an important and prestigious production in Europe. However, intellectual world imagining extended to other continents, demonstrating an active circulation of knowledge across borders. The work of Ahmad al-Hajarî (d. ca. 1641) will help explore the global intellectual culture of the early seventeenth century, and the participation of non-Europeans in the birth of modernity.

Sponsored by the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts and the Early Modern Studies Group, Mellon Global Georgia Grant