This workshop aims to centre our thinking on Ilha de Moçambique while setting broader questions of the global and oceanic South in circulation. We are interested in comparative conversations between different islands and oceans, between the sea and the land, between material culture and new materialisms. Ilha de Moçambique is characterised by a rich submarine heritage, surrounded by submerged shipwrecks that speak to lesser-known histories of East African slavery, and characterised by unique submarine ecologies. How do we understand this place differently in relation to new ways of thinking oceanically across the South, and how can we convene a globally-oriented set of questions around a rich engagement with the local? How does thinking in and with Ilha speak to our own research on other oceans and their islands? How can we submerge our thinking about trade routes, slavery, heritage, food, literature, music, history and architecture?

Papers will bring wider questions pertaining to the oceanic humanities into conversation with Ilha de Moçambique and its specialist researchers. Participants working directly on Ilha and Mozambique will have the opportunity to situate that work in a global context through comparative links with other island or oceanic contexts, including the Caribbean, India and South Africa; participants coming from those places will be expected to make links between their research and this small global island. The workshop and activities will provide the opportunity to make these connections.