Call for Book Chapters: "Contact Before Columbus"

Vernon Press invites book chapter proposals to be included in a forthcoming scholarly volume on “Contact Before Columbus.”

At some point in our distant past, Earth’s two major continental groups--the so-called “old” and “New” worlds-- lost contact with one another, and would not restore that contact for some ten thousand years. Since then, much has been said about the alleged “discovery” of the New World, with a clear image of who got here first yet to emerge.

What can easily be said is that the arrival of explorers from Italy, First Vespucci, and then Columbus, would become the most impactful and most permanent. However, from at least the 11th century CE, Norse peoples had prolonged contact with the original peoples of Greenland, Labrador, Newfoundland, and the Canadian arctic islands. From the mid-20th-century onward, increasingly more information has emerged about these early relationships.

We invite chapter proposals that explore the interactions between America and Europe before the arrival of Columbus and subsequent colonization. We invite papers dealing with early contact with a particular focus on Norse studies. We welcome proposals dealing with the Norse settlement of Greenland as well as that of L’Anse aux Meadows, but also papers on non-mainstream hypotheses of trade and settlement before 1492.

Papers on archeology, history, literature are welcome, as well as different perspectives and approaches.

Please send a 300-word abstract and a brief bio (in English) to Jack C Wiegand (jcwiegand2@wisc.edu) by August 31, 2021.