The Role of Travelers in World History

Travelers’ tales are older than writing itself and have lost little of their popularity over time. For historians, travelers offer unique insights into cross-cultural exchange, as well as interpretive challenges.

This armchair journey with area scholars considered the role travelers have played in understanding history from ancient Rome to modern Pakistan. A panel of k-12 educators also shared ways this theme could be employed to engage students.

Presentation Summaries

Written by Stephen Pitcher

Partition: Recording untold stories of forced displacement from the creation of India and Pakistan, Guneeta Bhalla

Big History Perspective, Cynthia Brown

Smiling through Tears?: Jewish Humor in the Diaspora, Erich Gruen

Discovering Global Blackness: African Diaspora World Travelers, Sean Hanratta

Contested Travelogues of Conquest: Bernal Diaz del Castillo and the fall of the Aztecs, Alex Saragoza

Roma/Gypsies: Stereotypes and Realities, Carol Silverman

Double Agents and Strategic Deception in the Second World War, Bruce Thompson