Gianamar Giovannetti-Singh 🍉🌻🟥
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gianamar97.bsky.social
Gianamar Giovannetti-Singh 🍉🌻🟥
@gianamar97.bsky.social
9.2K followers 3.2K following 120 posts
Assistant Prof of Colonial Environmental History & Decolonial Futures @uvahumanities.bsky.social | erstwhile JRF @MagdaleneCollege.bsky.social & ‪@leverhulme.ac.uk‬ ECF @camhistory.bsky.social | PhD Cambridge HPS | https://shorturl.at/i7kip | he | 🍉🌻🟥
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gianamar97.bsky.social
Thanks to a phone update, my alarm went off an hour late on the morning of my 1st-year geology exam. I unknowingly arrived 30 mins late, wasn't allowed to take/resit it, and my college suggested i switch to the history and philosophy of science instead :)
A comical black-and-white stick-figure drawing of a smiling person sitting at a computer desk, typing with one hand while stretching their leg across to press a pedal or lever on another surface
November 23, 2025 at 7:00 PM
gianamar97.bsky.social
Full manuscript submitted! 🙏🏽
word document showing the first three pages of my full book manuscript. all small text on a white page
November 3, 2025 at 8:23 AM
gianamar97.bsky.social
Very excited to speak about The Tartar Moment at the Italian Society for the History of Science's Early Career Conference in Padova next week!

See here for more information: www.societastoriadellascienza.it/index.php/it...
Historic circular garden plan labelled "Pianta dell'Horto dei Semplici di Padova". The design features a central circle divided into four ornate square sections, surrounded by labelled plots for different plants such as Sambuco Acquatico, Platano Orientale, and Loto Albero. The diagram includes directional markers (Levante, Ponente, Tramontana, Ostro) and the main entrance labeled "Porta Maestra" at the bottom (west direction)
August 29, 2025 at 1:29 PM
gianamar97.bsky.social
In short, the article argues that Dutch colonial activity at the Cape reveals a larger process: how contingent acts of world-making shaped understandings (and constructions of) of global natures and cultures
engraving of Canadian ginseng, characterised as identical to the Khoekhoe's medicinal plant "kanna", setting up a bridge between Canada, China, and Southern Africa
August 7, 2025 at 9:08 AM
gianamar97.bsky.social
These interactions also reshaped historical imagining.
Travellers and missionaries began reading the Cape through an Asian lens - some Jesuits even speculated that the Chinese had reached southern Africa in antiquity
Jesuit depiction of a temporary observatory set up in the Castle of Good Hope in Cape Town, imagined with distinctively Chinese features, set before a starry sky in the background
August 7, 2025 at 9:08 AM
gianamar97.bsky.social
The Khoekhoe responded in complex and diverse ways:
- Doman, after travelling to Java, learned from the Bantenese to fight the Dutch in the rain, when their guns wouldn't work
- Krotoa depicted the unencountered Namaqua people with Asian features
Statue of Doman, Khoekhoe leader of an armed resistance against the Dutch, at the Castle of Good Hope recent artistic impression of Krotoa, Cape Town Museum
August 7, 2025 at 9:08 AM
gianamar97.bsky.social
The result was a political project that made the Cape appear “Asian” in character, reinforcing European perceptions of the colony’s own material, natural, and social association with the East Indies
mural showing generations of Cape Malay family life in Bo Kaap, Cape Town's old "Malay Quarter"
August 7, 2025 at 9:08 AM
gianamar97.bsky.social
The VOC sought to remake the Cape in Asia’s image - importing plants, people, and practices from the East Indies. This wasn’t just logistical; it was ideological
from the entrance of Cape Town's Slave Lodge. The text reads: "You have entered the oldest surviving slave building in South Africa THE SLAVE LODGE. Built in 1679, this is where the Dutch East India Company slaves were confined. These slaves laboured on public works and Company outposts.
August 7, 2025 at 9:08 AM
gianamar97.bsky.social
This imaginary emerged through contingent colonial encounters and experiences, but had lasting consequences for how early modern southern Africa was governed, represented, and remembered
white Cantonese porcelain plate with a blue background. the plate shows Cape Town's city-scape, featuring Table Mountain, and an array of Dutch ships in Table Bay.
August 7, 2025 at 9:08 AM
gianamar97.bsky.social
The article explores how, in the 17th century, the Cape of Good Hope came to be understood - environmentally, historically, and culturally - as the western part of the East Indies
17th-century sea chart of the "western part of the East indies", by Pieter Goos. The map is oriented with east at the top.
August 7, 2025 at 9:08 AM
gianamar97.bsky.social
So excited to share my new article in @pastpresentsoc.bsky.social:
"Colonial World-Making and Global Knowledges at the Early Modern Cape of Good Hope" (Open access)
academic.oup.com/past/advance...
first page of the article
August 7, 2025 at 9:08 AM
gianamar97.bsky.social
I reviewed Chrislayne Alfagali's brilliant _Blacksmiths of Ilamba_ for @rsaorg.bsky.social's Renaissance Quarterly. Highly recommend Alfagali's book to anyone interested in histories of technology and early modern Africa:
doi.org/10.1017/rqx....
first paragraph of the book review
August 6, 2025 at 9:24 AM
gianamar97.bsky.social
Great to see the full special issue of Annals of Science out now, and with this remarkable front cover!

Check out my article, "Wild horses: Tartar warfare and the history of civilization" to learn more about it: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
orange journal background. title: Annals of Science. Special issue: Histories of humans and histories of nature. In the centre, a grayscale copperprint engraving of a man on a horse, holding a scimitar in one hand and a head in the other
June 26, 2025 at 9:40 AM
gianamar97.bsky.social
Very excited for this event at Cambridge HPS this Friday, co-organised with Mika Hyman, on cross-contextualisation (for more on c-c, see here: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10....)
Programme for the day 10.00-10.30 | Introductory remarks Gianamar Giovannetti-Singh & Mika Hyman 10.30-11.00 - Coffee break 11.00-11.45 | De-fossilising knowledge: can/should the lithosphere tell human stories? Siyakha Mguni & Jeremy Schneider 11.45-12.00 – Coffee break 12.00-12.45 | Giving intentionally silenced archives a voice Rabia Abba Omar & Theo di Castri 12.45-13.45 – Lunch break 13.45-14.30 | Manipulating measurements, appropriating ancient climates: the politics of environmental proxies Anna Simon-Stickley & Amelia Urry 14.30-14.45 – Coffee break 14.45-15.30 | Contesting collecting: Indigenous material cultures James Poskett & Lynette Russell 15.30-15.45 – Coffee break 15.45-16.30 | Rooted consumption: can/should plants speak Mika Hyman & Sebestian Kroupa 16.30-16.45 – Coffee break 16.45-17.30 | Afterword and open discussion: Where next from cross-contextualization? Sujit Sivasundaram
June 4, 2025 at 8:50 AM
gianamar97.bsky.social
Excited to present at @camworldhistory.bsky.social seminar tomorrow! I'll explore how Europeans came to see the Cape Colony as 'The Western Part of the East Indies' -and unpack how this imaginary shaped anti/colonial sciences and politics in southern Africa.

Hope to see many of you there!
A black slide with white text displaying the title of a presentation: “‘The Western Part of the East Indies’: Colonial Worldmaking and East Indian Cultures of Knowledge at the Cape of Good Hope, c.1650–c.1720.” Below the title, it mentions the World History Seminar, Cambridge, taking place on 6 March 2025, and the presenter's name, Gianamar Giovannetti-Singh, from the University of Amsterdam A historical Dutch maritime map titled "Nieuwe Pascaert van Oost Indien" depicting the Indian Ocean region. The map includes detailed coastlines, navigation routes, and markings for territories such as Africa, the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and Japan. The Cape of Good Hope is prominently featured as part of the mapped trade routes engraving of a Dutch fort at the Cape of Good Hope, labeled "Le Fort des Hollandois au Cap de Bonne Espérance." The image shows a Chinese-style structure near the coast with a telescope sticking out, with a boat approaching from the water and mountainous terrain and starry sky in the background. porcelain plate with gold embellishments, featuring a painted scene of Dutch ships arriving at the Cape of Good Hope. The artwork includes Table Mountain in the background, VOC ships in the harbor, and intricate floral and ornamental designs around the rim, reflecting the artistic influences of Asian ceramics.
March 5, 2025 at 6:33 PM
gianamar97.bsky.social
Great to see the full "History of Science and the 'Big Picture'" issue of BJHS Themes out. What a cover, too!

Had fun working with @feyerabender.bsky.social on our piece on crises and sciences (doi.org/10.1017/bjt....)

Read the full issue here: cambridge.org/core/journal...
@bshsnews.bsky.social
front cover of BJHS Themes volume 9 (2024), on "The History of Science and the 'Big Picture'". Image in lower half shows the Nazca lines as seen from space.
January 7, 2025 at 12:17 PM
gianamar97.bsky.social
Delighted to announce that my first book, The Tartar Moment: Crises and the Globalization of Chinese Knowledges in Early Modern Europe, is under advance contract with @uchicagopress.bsky.social!

The book argues that the Manchu conquest made China matter immensely to Europeans in times of crisis
17th-century copperplate engraving of a soldier atop a horse, holding a broadsword in his right hand and a severed head in his left. In the background, people flee the scene. Image from the 1661 Amsterdam edition Martini's History of the Tartar War (Regni Sinensis a Tartaris devastati enarratio)
December 13, 2024 at 3:54 PM
gianamar97.bsky.social
Now that everything has been signed, I'm thrilled to share that I'll be joining the University of Amsterdam in February as an Assistant Professor in Colonial Environmental History and Decolonial Futures!
The Bushuis/Oost-Indisch Huis in Amsterdam. A red-brick building by a canal, with white inlayed brick stripes. A few trees with autumnal leaves in the foreground
November 19, 2024 at 4:34 PM
gianamar97.bsky.social
Thrilled to have written about this stunning Cantonese plate from the Iziko Museums in the Castle of Good Hope
for the "The Things They Carried" exhibition on the global circulation of knowledge, organised by Ingenium, MPIWG, and the Whipple Museum.
Check it out here 👇🏾
circex.ca/s/home/item/87
a Cantonese porcelain plate from the 1740s with a view of Cape Town and several Dutch ships in Table Bay, in front of a dark blue background
August 9, 2024 at 12:14 AM
gianamar97.bsky.social
Had an amazing time talking about the global origins of the sciences at the Royal Institution last night! Thanks to everyone who attended and asked brilliant questions, as well as everyone who made this event possible!

@camhistory.bsky.social
man with glasses standing behind a wooden desk in a lecture theatre. a map is projected behind him, showing flows of information around the globe
May 14, 2024 at 11:00 AM
gianamar97.bsky.social
…aaaand it’s official! doc at last
Cambridge graduation ceremony Me, wearing a gown, a black jacket, a white shirt, white bowtie and bands, with a blue hood
April 28, 2024 at 7:09 AM
gianamar97.bsky.social
Great to see this amazing volume out at last! I had great fun thinking about contemporary approaches to global history of science with James Poskett.

Available directly from www.bloomsbury.com/uk/debating-...
Cover of new book “Debating Contemporary Approaches to the History of Science” Giovannetti-Singh, “Comment” on James Poskett’s “Global History of Science” Chapter list Chapter list (contd)
February 6, 2024 at 3:20 PM
gianamar97.bsky.social
This Thursday I'll be talking about the "Tartar Moment" - a political and environmental crisis in c17 China that reshaped sciences & politics in Europe for over a century - to
@camhistory.bsky.social's Early Modern World History Seminar at 3pm at St Catz. Do come along if you're around!
17th-century Dutch engraving of a "Tartar" soldier on horseback holding aloft a scimitar and a Chinese head.
November 7, 2023 at 11:56 AM