In January 2017, the exploratory seminar Crossroads Africa brought together scholars from Africa and Europe to examine connections between Africa, Europe, and Asia from the Medieval through the Early Modern periods. Over two days, participants explored trade, artistic exchange, and cultural interactions, from Mansa Musa’s 14th-century journey to Cairo to the role of Chinese ceramics at Great Zimbabwe, and discussed new approaches to framing these intercontinental networks. The seminar, organized in collaboration with I Tatti, the Max Planck Institute in Florence, and Harvard University, laid the groundwork for the international conference of the same name held in 2019.
