Understanding emotions in cultural borderlands: Revisiting the French and Indian War

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B - Individual entry (external attendees)

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£6.00

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The French and Indian War of 1756-1763, which took place in borderlands between French and British claimed land on the North American continent and years before the American War of Independence which has tended to overshadow it, provides a unique setting that grounds current research on the history of emotions. Ongoing debates into the extent that emotions are either universal experiences or culturally contingent have been complicated by recent literature that adheres to the cultural construction viewpoint with authorities such as Peter and Carol Stearns, Barbara Rosenwein, and William Reddy theorising that different cultural settings influence individual emotions. 

Borderlands history considers cross-cultural relationships often at the peripheries of imperial, colonial, or national control in which the physical proximity of a range of different groups necessitated interaction. In this case, a lack of mutually agreement upon borders between European powers, alongside pre-existing Native American use of the land, provided the context within which people from a plethora of backgrounds intersected. Jorgia Vilarrubi will trace what happened in an environment without social or cultural cohesion and clear cultural expectations, to understand how this impacted the ways that people emoted. Examples of ways in which emotional deportment was changed will be analysed to argue that place itself, ideas of identity, and searches for human level connections engendered a suspension of cultural guidelines, and necessitated an emotional adaptability to immediate settings.

Jorgia Vilarrubi is a PhD student at the University of Winchester where she also undertook a BA and MA in History. Her research on the French and Indian War explores the intricacies of the emotional experiences of individuals in an environment of cultural ambiguity. By aiming to understand the human navigation of this world it is recomplicated as one of people interacting in day-to-day life in a complex, malleable, environment.

Chairs: Dr Graciela Iglesias-Rogers (University of Winchester) and Prof Chris Aldous (University of Winchester)

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