Research has shown that the practice of comparing is determined more by the actors doing the comparing than by the phenomena being compared. In this video, focusing on Cuba in the long nineteenth century, ANGELIKA EPPLE explores how comparisons based on race and skin color evolved in parallel with the changing makeup of that society. With contemporary discourse witnessing an upsurge in race-based comparisons keen to present themselves as natural, Epple’s work importantly foregrounds the fact that they are, in reality, historical and constructed.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21036/LTPUB10771

Researcher

Angelika Epple is a Professor of History and Vice-Rector for International Affairs and Diversity at Bielefeld University. A spokesperson for the Collaborative Research Center, Practices of Comparing: Ordering and Changing the World, Epple’s main areas of interest include the history of globalizations, the Americas as space of entanglement(s) and the theory of history. Epple has held numerous advisory and editorial roles including at the journals Neue Politische Literatur (NPL) and Localities, based in Busan, South Korea.

Original publication

Practices of Comparing. A New Research Agenda Between Typological and Historical Approaches

Epple Angelika and Erhart Walter
Practices of Comparing. Towards a New Understanding of a Fundamental Human Practice
Published in 2020

Calling for a Practice Turn in Global History: Practices as Drivers of Globalization/s

Epple Angelika
History and Theory
Published in 2018

Die Welt beobachten - Praktiken des Vergleichens

Epple Angelika and Erhart Walter
Die Welt beobachten - Praktiken des Vergleichens
Published in 2015

Beyond