Something new in the west
What do missionaries, traders and mercenaries have in common? They are all colonial actors in the research of the new Professor of Early Modern History at the Institute of History: Stefano Saracino.
While Stefano Saracino's habilitation dealt with migrations and mobility from the Ottoman Empire to the German-speaking territories, his current research is now focussing on the West. In two new research projects, he is focussing on colonial actors of the early modern period in Spanish America.
Hierarchy of skin colours
In the project "Skin colour and practices of domination by colonial actors in the early modern period", a cooperation project with the Chair of Early Modern Studies at the University of Jena, Saracino takes a look at German-speaking actors who came to Spanish America from the Habsburg region, but also from the Holy Roman Empire. Although the Old Empire had no overseas colonies, it often provided the personnel: mercenaries, traders and missionaries; the latter have left behind a particularly large number of sources. In these sources, one can also read about discussions on the subject of "skin colour". Among other things, colonial actors were concerned with what the colour of a person's skin would say about their moral or physical abilities. Skin colour became an instrument for establishing hierarchies, legitimising distinctions or justifying the status of slaves. Even if there was no formal segregation, this way of thinking established a "pigmentocracy" in Spanish America.
Renaissance as a cultural export
How were ceremonies - such as the arrival of governors celebrated as triumphal processions - and other cultural practices - such as rhetoric, historiography and cartography - brought back from early modern Europe by conquistadors, missionaries or traders, implemented in the colonies? And how were these cultural formats, with their strong references to antiquity, adapted by an indigenous elite in order to assert their own cultural traditions against the colonial rulers? Stefano Saracino poses these questions in another research project: "Global History of the Renaissance. From the European origins to the global impact of the Renaissance". He sees the Renaissance as a cultural export in the global early modern period and the colonial areas of Spanish America.
Not a monologue
Research-based teaching is a particular concern of Stefano Saracino. He enjoys immersing himself and his students in projects that are only just beginning; he works intensively with sources in order to delve even deeper into the subject matter. They experiment, test things out and search for answers together. Even in lectures, Saracino does not favour monologues, but invites students to discuss what they have just heard.
Stefano Saracino completed his doctorate in 2011 on "Tyrannis and Tyrannicide in Machiavelli" at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. With a postdoctoral scholarship, he went on to Goethe University Frankfurt before completing his habilitation at LMU Munich in 2021 ("Ottoman Greeks in the Holy Roman Empire: Migration and its significance in the history of knowledge") after stops in Vienna, Hamburg, Erfurt and Halle. After his habilitation, Stefano Saracino conducted research in Zurich, Paris and Jena before following his call to Graz in 2024.