Mobility and Identification. New Perspectives on Imposture, Impersonation, and Passing, c. 1500–1900

Mardi 6 Octobre 2026

Salle IHMC

9 h 30 – 10 h   Introduction

Rahul Markovits et Tobias Graf

10 h – 11 h   Authenticating People, Authenticating Stories : Secretary-Interpreters and “Oriental” Passing Travellers in Eighteenth-Century Paris

Rahul Markovits (École normale supérieure, Paris)

11 h – 12 h   Identifying Individuals, Establishing the Facts : An Ecclesiastical Investigation into a Case of Bigamy (Venice, Late Sixteenth Century)

Jean-François Chauvard (IHMC, Université Paris 1)

12 h – 13 h   Policing Mobility and Identity in Early Modern Italy

Rosa Salzberg (University of Trento)

Salle DSA Séminaire

14 h – 15 h   The Forger Heinrich Schaeffer and His Alleged Travels : An Examination of Authentication Strategies in the Nineteenth Century

Alexander Hilpert (Saarland University, Saarbrücken)

15 h – 16 h   Exploiting the Prestige of Naturalists : The Media Phenomenon of Mr Spillard, the ‘Celebrated English Pedestrian Traveller’

Pascal Firges (University of Basel)

16 h – 17 h  “True” and “Virtual” Identities in the Narratives of German Servants of the Dutch East India Company (VOC)

Philip Hahn (Saarland University, Saarbrücken)

Mercredi 7 Octobre 2026

Salle Klapisch-Zuber

10 h – 11 h   Alms Collectors at Work : Revisiting Imposture among Eastern Christians in Eighteenth-Century Spain

Thomas Glesener (University of Aix-Marseille)

11 h – 12 h   Keeping up with the Ḥubayshes : “Arabian Princes” in Eighteenth-Century Germany and Their Uncertain Identities

Tobias P. Graf (FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg)