Keynote Lecture I

This lecture will present the concept of cosmohistory as an alternative tool for understanding the interaction between different historical worlds in the arena of what we usually call global history. It rejects the conception of world history as a singular process, a common history of the human species, a conception which frequently reflects the ethnocentric conceptions of Western societies and falls into teleological and tautological traps. According to this cosmohistorical perspective different human communities with their respective life worlds can coexist, collide, interact, even dominate each other without being fully absorbed into a single process or into a singular causal chain. The principles of relativity can be used to understand the interactions between different temporalities and cosmopolitical perspectives. The example of the interaction between Indigenous, Afrodiasporic and Western histories in the Americas will show how cosmohistory can lead to better understandings of processes such as colonialism, genocide and the so-called anthropocene, than traditional evolutionary unilinear frameworks.

Bio

Federico/Fe Navarrete is a historian, writer, and professor at the Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). A non-binary scholar, Fe has spent over three decades researching the European colonization of the Americas and the responses of Indigenous and Afroamerican communities.
Navarrete is the author of numerous books, including ¿Quién conquistó México? (2019) and Malintzin, o la conquista como traducción (2021), which offer new perspectives on the so-called conquest of Mexico. A specialist in Indigenous visual histories (codices), Fe analyzes how Amerindian authors interpreted colonization and integrated Western elements into their historical narratives. In 2021, Navarrete participated in the first German edition of the Codex Mendoza.
Their research also explores the history of racism in Mexico and Latin America. The widely read essays México racista (2016) and Alfabeto del racismo mexicano (2017) have influenced national debates. Fe’s non-binary identity has deepened their focus on the intersection of racism and gender, and on deconstructing male-centered colonial narratives. Navarrete is a member of Poder Prieto, an intersectional anti-racist collective of Mexican artists and actors.
Fe is active in public history, leading projects such as Noticonquista, Pintar el Lienzo de Tlaxcala, and El racismo en el cuerpo y en el mundo. Navarrete has taught in Costa Rica, Brazil, Germany, and the United States, and is currently affiliated with the International Graduate College Temporalities of Future.
In 2022–2023, Fe was awarded the prestigious Simón Bolívar Chair at the University of Cambridge. During that time, Navarrete explored how colonial and national regimes in the Americas have relied on racialized and gendered violence, focusing on figures such as Simón Bolívar.
Fe’s latest monograph, Historia pública: El diálogo entre memorias sociales (UNAM, 2024), reflects a commitment to bridging academic research and public memory.