To mark the first signing of a Universal Postal Convention 150 years ago, the Universal Postal Union UPU is organising a scientific colloquium on postal history. This will take place on 1 and 2 February 2024 at the UPU headquarters in Bern in the “Heinrich von Stephan” hall. The programme promises interesting lectures:
Day 1 – Thursday, 1 February 2024
9.00–9.30 Opening ceremony
Masahiko Metoki, Director General of the UPU International Bureau
Philippe Wahl, Chairman and CEO of La Poste Group
Scientific introduction: Laborie, Léonard (CNRS, UMR Sirice, France)
9.30–11.00 Pre-1874: global traffic and postal reforms
Chair: Griset, Pascal (Sorbonne Université, UMR Sirice, France)
Presenters:
- Moreno-Cabanillas, Rocío (Universidad de Sevilla, Spain)
Governance and power in the transatlantic postal system: the organization of the postal service in the Spanish Empire in the 18th century - Muller, Charli (New York University, United States of America)
The capitalist and colonial logics of Rowland Hill’s postal reforms: terra nullius, uniform pricing, and “conveyance at the lowest rate - Goldfeder, Pérola (Ouro Preto Federal University and Minas Gerais State University, Brazil)
The throne and the world: from bilateral postal treaties to Brazil’s entry into the Universal Postal Union (1840–1877) - Avaria, Diego (Universal Postal Union, Switzerland)
The Universal Postal Union: a pioneer and template for multilateralism
11.15–12.15 The foundation of the UPU as a global organization. Strengthening or fighting back (informal) imperialism in the 19th century?
Chair: Kott, Sandrine (Université de Genève, Switzerland)
Presenters:
- Crevato-Selvaggi, Bruno (Istituto di studi storici postali “Aldo Cecchi”, Prato, Italy)
European post offices abroad: the UPU between Ottoman complaints and power politics - Yaman, Mehmet Şükrü (Turkish Post Corporation, Türkiye)
The hidden parts of historic relations: the founding of the Universal Postal Union and Türkiye’s membership - Honda, Ririko (Keio University, Japan)
Struggles with globalisation: the integration of Japan into the UPU in the late 19th century
13.45–14.30 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, 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)
14.30–15.30 Parallel workshops
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
Philately in historical perspective
Chair: Combes, Benjamin (Universal Postal Union, Switzerland)
Presenters:
- Drolet, Yves (Académie québécoise d’études philatéliques, Canada)
Philatelists: witnesses and agents of the first globalization (1860-1914) - Libera, Maria (former UPU staff member, Worldwide Philatelic Observatory, Progress Market Research, Tunisia)
Safeguarding the added value of the postage stamp within UPU’s “single postal territory - Spoelder, Yorim (Freie Universität Berlin, German/ University College London)
Beyond philately: stamps and the iconography of globalization
15.45–16.45 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)
Transnational influence on the Development of United States Parcel Post - Farkas, Mónica (Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina/ Universidad de la República, Uruguay)
Postal universalization: transformation of the space and time imaginaries in the second half of the 19th century in Argentina
16.45–18.00 Postal politics
Chair: Gillabert, Matthieu (Université de Fribourg, Switzerland)
Presenters:
- Baines, Gary (History Department, 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 (Faculty of Economics and Management, 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)
Delivering Diplomacy: The Universal Postal Union’s Role in a Post- Westphalian Global Order
Day 2 – Friday, 2 February 2024
9.00–10.30 Regionalizing postal cooperation – why and how?
Chair: Berth, Christiane (University of Graz, Austria)
Presenters:
- Godeffroy, Gabriel (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, France, and Hildesheim University, Germany)
The Central European postal union: debates around world postal unification following the collapse of Austria-Hungary (1918–1929) - Proschmann, Sabrina (Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Germany)
A replacement for the Universal Postal Union? The European Postal and Telecommunications Union of 1942 and its relations to the UPU - Vardabasso, Valentina (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, France)
Origins of the European Postal Union: the 1946 Franco-Italian postal agreement - Hadhri, Mohieddine (Université de Tunis, Tunisia)
The Arab Postal Union, three quarters of a century on from its foundation in 1952. Overview of a specialized Arab organization and its cooperative relationship with the Universal Postal Union
10.45–12.15 The UPU material world: on stamps, envelopes and electronic mail
Chairs: Sund, Kristian (Roskilde University, Denmark), and Anson, José (Universal Postal Union, Switzerland)
Presenters:
- Piazza, Daniel A. (Smithsonian Institution, National Postal Museum, Washington, D.C., United States of America)
UPU specimen stamps and the world’s postal museums: an accidental history - Richez, Sébastien (Comité pour l’histoire de La Poste (CHP), Groupe La Poste, France)
The UPU and the standardization of the envelope in the 1960s: towards a universal language of mail - Henrich-Franke, Christian (Universität Siegen, Germany)
“Nothing can replace the Post” – electronic mail and the UPU in the 1980s
12.15–13.00 Scientific conclusions
Presenters:
Le Roux, Muriel (IHMC/CNRS/ENS, France)
Laborie, Léonard (CNRS, UMR Sirice, France)
Closing ceremony
A discussion round is planned after each lecture block. There will also be coffee breaks and a lunch break on the first day.
The speakers, delegates from UPU members and a small number of other participants are invited to the face-to-face event. A live broadcast of the colloquium is planned at https://tv.upu.int/. It is not (yet) clear whether the presentations can also be accessed at a later date.
