Conference - Four Nations Commemoration, 1620-2020: The Pilgrims and the Politics of Memory

Conference – Four Nations Commemoration, 1620-2020: The Pilgrims and the Politics of Memory

The international Leiden Mayflower 400 conference at Leiden University will challenge the Anglo-American approach which has so often dominated the popular narrative of the early colonization of North America and prioritize a “four-nations” approach to include Native American and Dutch perspectives.

Taking the Mayflower anniversary as starting point and central concern, this interdisciplinary conference seeks to interrogate the myths, power-bases, mobility, and knowledge production of colonial pasts through three distinct but related strands:

• Contesting memories and commemorations
• Colonialism, migration, and indigenous impact and resistance
• The production of knowledge, print culture, and national myths

The confirmed keynote speaker is Francis J. Bremer, Professor Emeritus of History at Millersville University, and internationally-renowned Puritanism scholar and coordinator of the website New England Beginnings.