By bringing together three papers on agricultural research in colonial settings the session aims to make a strong case on the importance of passing through experiment research stations to understand the Portuguese, English and American imperial ambitions in East Africa (Mozambique), India and the Pacific (Hawaii). Historians of technology have long ago identified agricultural research as a crucial tool for transforming imperial territories into machines producing sugar, rubber, and cotton. Nevertheless, the very sites of experimentation, the research stations, have yet to receive the attention they deserve as sites where imperial schemes are exported into the colonial landscape. The three papers will thus detail the interior of research institutions and  trace the relevance to the wider colonial space of the work performed inside laboratory walls and in experimental fields. The session will also address methodological concerns discussing the significance of focusing on the place of knowledge production for the more general (and ambitious) interests of historians of technology.

Organizer: Tiago Saraiva, University of Lisbon
Participants:
Prakash Kumar, Colorado State University
Donna Mehos, Eindhoven University of Technology
Tiago Saraiva, University of Lisbon