Cécile Stehrenberger gives a working paper on 'Theorizing the “Global Hispanophone” as dynamics of (dis-)entanlgement. Suggestions from a History of Science perspective'

During the last two decades, a number of historians representing a variety of fields have advocated for or at least diagnosed a “global turn” in their respective (sub-)disciplines and areas of study. Among them were historians of science who developed conceptual thoughts on how scientific knowledge traveled, especially in the context of imperialism and colonialism, across national and regional boarders, and how it emerged as a result of such transmissions and the connection between the geographical and political areas, to which it contributed. Departing from their reflections, as well as from feminist and decolonial science and technology studies approaches, in this article, I propose an understanding of the Global Hispanophone as dynamics of (dis-)entanglement. I suggest that its scholars study how entities referred to as “Spanish” or “hispano” become entangled with others in cultural contact zones and how the resulting hybridity is concealed and purified in processes that I call disentanglement. Moreover, I argue that “Global Hispanophone” studies should analyze in what ways entanglements are being prevented in the first place. While I focus in this paper on the (dis-)entanglements of scientific knowledge, its basic assumption is that the dynamics that I elaborate on, can be explored also in regard to other forms of knowledge, and beyond the field of science.