Mapping the World, Writing the Self: Desire, Identity, & Global Imagination in Jesuit Missions

Name: Mapping the World, Writing the Self: Desire, Identity, & Global Imagination in Jesuit Missions
Start: 2026-04-20T18:00:00-05:00
End: 2026-04-20T19:00:00-05:00
Location: UNO’s Milo Bail Student Center (Room 228/226)

April 20 @ 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm CDT

Image of an old map with drawings of what appears to be Native American daily activity. Text reads University of Nebraska at Omaha Medieval / Renaissance Studies, Mapping the World, Writing the Self: Desire, Identity, & Global Imagination in Jesuit Missions

What does it mean to long for a distant world so intensely that you petition, in writing, to leave everything behind? How do people learn to narrate themselves? This lecture explores the 25,000 handwritten letters composed between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries by Jesuit novices and priests to their Superior General in Rome, seeking assignment to overseas missions.

Registration is required.

Dr. Emanuele Colombo, Professor at Boston College and director of the Digital Indipetae Database project, will discuss how this unique collection is transforming our understanding of aspiration, identity, and global connection in the Jesuit world.

MBSC 228, Milo Bail Student Center, Omaha
Free and open to the public | Free parking with registration

Sponsored by UNO History Department & the College of Arts & Sciences