Historians' Colloquium - Part 2
Channel: Universal Postal Union
Date: 2024-02-28

The UPU launched its 150th anniversary celebrations on 1-2 February 2024  by delving into the rich history of postal services and the UPU through a historical colloquium, organized in close partnership with La Poste Groupe, La Poste Historical Committee (CHP) and SIRICE laboratory.

More about the event: https://www.upu.int/en/events/historians-colloquium-celebrating-upus-150th-anniversary

In this video:

Session 2 (cont.) – The foundation of the UPU as a global organization. Strengthening or fighting back (infor-mal) imperialism in the 19th century?
Chair: Giuntini, Andrea (Università degli studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Italy)

Presenters:
- Harris, J. Lane (Furman University, United States of America)
“The comity of nations”: the Chinese Post Office, the Universal Postal Union, and the abolition of “alien post offices”, 1843–1923

- Avrillas, Camille (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, France)
Between a desire for cooperation and imperial rivalry: the German, Indo-British and French post offices in Zanzibar (1875–1904)
 
Workshop 1 – The UPU’s past: what comes next? Sources and methodologies
Chair: Le Roux, Muriel (IHMC/CNRS/ENS, France)

Presenters:
- Batzeli, Anna, and Davis, Luke (Archives Portal Europe)
The traces left behind: an appraisal of the archival heritage of the Universal Postal Union in the European archives

- Reinalda, Bob (Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands) 
The Directors(-General) of the Universal Postal Union 1874-2024

Session 3 – The transnational making of national postal services
Chair: Godelier, Éric (École Polytechnique, Université Paris-Saclay, France)

Presenters:
- John, Richard R. (Columbia University, United States of America)
How the Universal Postal Union shaped postal policy in the United States, 1874–1913

- Kochersperger, Stephen A. (United States Postal Service, United States of America) presenting remotely
Transnational influence on the Development of United States Parcel Post

- Farkas, Mónica (Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina/ Universidad de la República, Uruguay) presenting remotely
Postal universalization: transformation of the space and time imaginaries in the second half of the 19th century in Argentina

Session 4 – Postal politics
Chair: Gillabert, Matthieu (Université de Fribourg, Switzerland)

Presenters:
- Baines, Gary (Rhodes University, South Africa)
Decolonization and postal politics: the UPU and sanctions against secessionist states and illegal regimes in sub-Saharan Africa, c.1961–1980

- Sato, Hideki (Kanazawa University, Japan/ The London School of Economics and Political Science) 
Macro-, micro- and long-term perspectives to the UPU: the three dimensions for international harmonisation

- Morales, Etienne (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3, UMR CREDA, France) 
Airmail in revolutionary Cuba: between embargo and bypass routes (1960s and 1970s) 

- Venugopal, Rajeev (Canada Post Corporation, Canada) presenting remotely
Delivering Diplomacy: The Universal Postal Union's Role in a Post- Westphalian Global Order