2023 Las Casas Conference
Bartolomé de Las Casas, Transatlantic Reformer: June 2023
Come and join a rich and diverse community of scholars at the Third International Las Casas Conference, to be held at Providence College. The focus of the 2023 conference is “Las Casas: Transatlantic Reformer?”
In his provocative A Secular Age, Charles Taylor identifies Reform as a broad conviction “felt with increasing power during the Middle Ages and early modern period, that not just an élite, but as far as possible all the faithful live up to the demands of the Gospel” (104). This year’s conference seeks to put Las Casas in conversation with broader trends in sixteenth-century reformations, Christian humanism and secularization, as well as currents in theology, literature, philosophy, anthropology, and law. We will also explore Las Casas’ mark on social discipline and print culture.
This Lascasian conference coincides with the 500th anniversary of Las Casas’ 1522 entrance into a self-consciously reforming Dominican Order, itself an expression of trends in the renewal of religious life. Participants will benefit from and contribute to the rich combination of unique research interests afforded by this interdisciplinary invitation to consider Las Casas as a reformer in his own right.
Those who wish to present their work, please consult the official “Call for Papers” (English, Spanish, French) listed below for more details. Accepted papers will be eligible for inclusion in a projected double-blind peer-reviewed collection.
Wednesday, June 21, 2023
12–6 p.m.
Registration, Campus Ministry, Lower-Level St. Dominic Chapel
6–8 p.m.
Dinner, Campus Ministry, Lower-Level St. Dominic Chapel
Thursday, June 22, 2023
6:30–8 a.m.
Breakfast in Fiondella Great Room (Ruane Center)
8:10-8:25 a.m.
Welcome and opening comment
8:25-9:40 a.m.
Panel One (Las Casas and the Late Medieval Context of Christian Reformation)
Andrew Wilson, Japan Lutheran College
“The parallel lives and reforms of Martin Luther and Bartolomé de Las Casas.”
*Cristina Ríos Espinosa, Investigadora independiente, Especialista en
Estética y Hermenéutica
“El Espíritu del cristianismo primitivo en las reformas espirituales
del siglo XVI: La devotio moderna y Bartolomé de las Casas.”
Ian C. Levy, Providence College
“Conscience and Authority in the Later Middle Ages.”
Chair: John Allard, O.P., Providence College
15 minutes Q&A
Break 10 minutes
Coffee Break
9:50-11:05 a.m.
Panel Two (Was There a Lascasian School?)
Luis Andrés Bilbao Escotto, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
“Bartolomé de las Casas: ¿reformador transatlántico o falso testigo?”
Mario Ruiz Sotelo, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
“La Reforma Lascasiana.”
*Enrique Téllez Fabiani, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
“La Escuela Lascasiana y los Jesuitas.”
Chair: Dwight E. R. TenHuisen, Calvin University
15 minutes Q&A
Coffee Break
11:15 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Panel Three (Aristotelian Legacies in Las Casas’s Thought)
Thomas Eggensperger, O.P., University of Munich
“Las partes de una ‘buena y ordenada policía’: El traslado de una filosofía clásica de lo
político a la situación del mundo indígena.”
Michael Schulz, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn
“Bartolomé de Las Casas’ Transatlantic Interpretation of Aristotle’s Concept of the ethos.”
John Pollock-Parker, Boston University
“Aristotle Burns in Hell”: Bartolome Las Casas and Juan de Quevedo.”
Chair: Justin Brophy, O.P., Providence College
15 minutes Q&A
12:40 p.m.
Lunch in Fiondella Great Room (Ruane)
3 p.m.
Shuttle to, then presentation at John Carter Brown Library
4:30 p.m.
Plenary speaker, Paola Uparela, University of Florida:
“Women’s Labor Rights in Las Casas’s Projects. Reforming Working Conditions,
Procuring Healthy Pregnancies and Deliveries, Denouncing Sexual Violence.”
6–9 p.m.
Dinner on your own in Providence
9 p.m.
Shuttle back to campus from Federal Hill or Uber on your own
Friday, June 23, 2023
6:30 a.m. – 7:50 a.m.
Breakfast in Fiondella Great Room (Ruane)
8 a.m.–12:50 p.m.
Conference sessions
8-9:15 a.m.
Panel Four (Las Casas and Global Missions)
Dwight E. R. TenHuisen, Calvin University
“A Dutch Reformed Theologian Reads las Casas, Acosta and Calancha on ‘How to convert the heathens’.”
Nicole T. Hughes, Stanford University
“Las Casas and Disputed Martyrdom in La Florida.”
*Natsuko Matsumori, University of Shizuoka (Japan)
“A Legacy of Bartolomé de Las Casas in East Asia: Domingo de Salazar and the Affairs of China.”
Chair: Ian C. Levy, Providence College
15 minutes Q&A
Coffee Break
9:25-10:40 a.m.
Panel Five (Legal Reasoning in Lascasian Thought)
Matthew Cavedon, Emory University
“Las Casas’s Use of Legal Rules to Reinterpret Inter caetera (1493).”
Rady Roldan-Figueroa, Boston University
“The Analogous Positionality of Jews and Indigenous People
in Juan López de Palacios Rubios’s Libellus de Insulis Oceanis (c. 1504/1516)”
Víctor Zorrilla, Universidad de Monterrey (Mexico)
“La reforma tributaria de Fray Domingo de Salazar para las
Filipinas fundamento: filosófico e inspiración lascasiana.”
Chair: Daniel R. Brunstetter, University of California, Irvine
15 minutes Q&A
Coffee Break
10:50 a.m.-12:05 p.m.
Panel Six (Implications of Las Casas’s Legacy)
*Ramón D. Valdivia, Facultad de Teología de San Isidoro de Sevilla
“Una reforma jurídica: del privilegio religioso a la vindicación democrática.”
Mariano Delgado, University of Fribourg (Switzerland)
“La actualidad del pensamiento de Francisco de Vitoria y Bartolomé de las Casas.”
Daniel R. Brunstetter, University of California, Irvine
“The Shelf-Life of Bartolomé de Las Casas’ Political and Philosophical Activism:
A Tale of Two Enlightenment Legacies.”
Chair: Andrew Wilson, Japan Lutheran College and Seminary
15 minutes Q&A
12:15 p.m.
Lunch in Fiondella Great Room (Ruane)
2-3:15 p.m.
Panel Seven (Looking Ahead in Lascasian Research)
Jorge Abril Sánchez, University of New Hampshire-Durham
“The Reformation of the Dominican Friar through the Looking Glass of a Filmmaker.”
Lincoln Son Currie, Boston University
“El uso de Ezequiel por parte de Las Casas para la reforma transatlántica.”
Samuel Fynewever, Calvin College
“Reparations: From Las Casas’ Doce dudas to Coates’ Case.”
Chair: John Pollock-Parker, Boston University
15 minutes Q&A
Coffee Break
3:30-4:20 p.m.
Panel Eight (Literary and Textual Criticism and the Lascasian Corpus)
*Vanina M. Teglia, Universidad de Buenos Aires
“Brevísimo archivo extremo del Mal en las Indias.”
Alexsandro Menez, Brown University
“Bartolomé de Las Casas’ Reception of the Late Medieval
Crónica de Guiné by Gomes Eanes de Zurara.”
Chair: Rubén Sánchez-Godoy, Southern Methodist University
15 minutes Q&A
Coffee Break
4:10-5:45 p.m.
Panel Nine (Las Casas and Debates on Conquest, Sovereignty, and Consent)
José Villagrana, San José State University
“Spanish Messianism, Universal Dominion, and Indigenous Rights:
Motolinía’s Polemic Against Las Casas.”
Rubén Sánchez-Godoy, Southern Methodist University
“Consent and Legitimacy in Bartolomé de Las Casas’s De Theasuris (1563).”
*Gabriel Cardoso Bom, University of San Paulo (Brazil)
“Las Casas and the Politics of the Catholic Reformation:
Understanding the Concept of Sovereignty in Political and Juridical Rights.”
Chair: Matthew Cavedon, Emory University
15 minutes Q&A
6 pm
Plenary speaker, Mariano Delgado, University of Freiburg (Switzerland):
“The Form of Thinking of Bartolomé de Las Casas. Merits and Limitations”
7 p.m.
Reception and closing dinner Fiondella Great Room (Ruane)
Saturday, June 24, 2023
7–9 a.m.
Breakfast in Fiondella Great Room (Ruane)
9:30-10:30 a.m.
Participant Roundtable: Directions for Lascasian Studies
10:30 a.m.
Announcing the Society for Lascasian Studies
12 p.m.
Lunch in Fiondella Great Room (Ruane)
1 p.m.
Checkout
