The 121st ICREA Colloquium ‘Invisible Histories: Analytical Tools for Reading Between the Lines’

ABSTRACT

How do we study what archives do not fully preserve? Bringing together expertise in textual reconstruction, historical soundscapes, and Afro-Iberian histories, this colloquium explores the methods scholars in the Humanities use to recover traces of past lives and experiences from fragmentary, incomplete, or silent sources. By reflecting on the possibilities and limits of archival interpretation, the speakers will examine how different disciplines reconstruct historical worlds that remain partially hidden from view. This conversation highlights the shared challenges—and creative possibilities—of making the invisible historically legible.

** Santa Auta Altarpiece (ca. 1522), comissioned by Eleonor, Queen of Portugal to unknown Portuguese master. Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga in Lisbon

The image depicts the marriage of Sta Ursula and Prince Conan. Although set in a different time and place, the scene resonates with Anna Alberni’s work on courtly culture. In the background, a group of Black African musicians performs at the Portuguese court evoking Diana Berruezo-Sánchez’s work on Black cultural agents in early modern Iberia.