Description: How have governments used paper documents to exercise power across borders? This workshop will explore this question in the context of early modern international statecraft, through the presentation of sources on the use of paper documents in early modern policy-making and imperial governance. The workshop will proceed through each presenter briefly discussing a source that they have encountered as they worked on this problem; the challenges of researching histories of material practices and processes in statecraft; and then open the floor to a brainstorming discussion and exchange among the participants about the shared problem of making sense of paperwork in international history. The presentations will be brief (15 minutes or less) with the intention of stimulating discussion. The hope is that the community in the Columbia History department will then draw on their own research in international history in different times and places to share ideas, interpretations, strategies, and sources.

Presentation titles:

Meg Williams (Groningen), ‘Parsing Paper(work) in Early Modern Statecraft’

Asheesh Siddique (Columbia), “Asking Questions in Imperial Governance”

**Lunch will be provided.