Greetings and Welcome to the New Academic Year!
This list announces talks in the greater Boston area pertaining to the study of the early modern period ca. 1350-1800, in any discipline and with any regional specialization. We are announcing in person and online events and activities relevant to the Boston area. Please forward announcements of events, including exhibits and application deadlines for future conferences in our region. We’re planning a mailing roughly every two weeks—please therefore send notices of events at least two weeks in advance. Please forward announcements to earlymod(a)fas.harvard.edu<mailto:earlymod@fas.harvard.edu>, in the format requested at the end of this message<mailto:earlymod@fas.harvard.edu>.
For security reasons the list will not disseminate zoom links directly, but we can list an email contact to which to write for further details about attending. Alternatively, we can circulate registration information for events. All times are Boston/Eastern times.
Upcoming Events
Tuesday, September 12, 2023, 5:00pm
Sponsored by the Early Modern World Initiative, Harvard
Early Modern World Aperitivo
Basement Seminar Room, Robinson Hall, Harvard Yard
Featuring four flashtalks:
Shawon Kinew (History of Art and Architecture, Harvard), “St. Paul’s Earth and Sacred Sculpture”
Greg Given (Expository Writing, Harvard), “Fixing the Letters of Ignatius of Antioch in 17th Century England”
Alison Simmons (Philosophy, Harvard), “Our Bodies, Ourselves, Cartesian Style”
Tom Kelly (East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard), “The Ink-Maker's Mark in Early Modern China.”
Followed by a reception.
Monday, September 18, 2023, 4:30pm to 6:30pm
Annual Parry Lecture at Harvard
Cátia Antunes (Leiden University), “De-nationalizing empire: Dutch involvement in the Early Modern British, French, and Spanish empires”
CGIS South 050 (Thomas Chan-Soo Kang Room), Harvard University, 1730 Cambridge St, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Early Modern European empires are portrayed and perceived as nationally geared enterprises, as entangled spaces at the peripheries and as zones of contact. In the Netherlands, these perceptions have filtered into the public debate that seeks to define material and immaterial responsibilities for the colonial past. What the historiographical perceptions, academic portrayals and public debate seem, however, to ignore is the role played by foreigners (being non-subjects of a specific king or republic) in exploiting the empires of other countries. It is thus pertinent to enquire to how and why Dutch entrepreneurs (being those taking risks in matters of trade or production, introducing innovations, making decisions based on information that others did not possess and searching for opportunities where most perceived risk) participated in exploiting the English, French and Iberian empires, as Dutch firms are particularly prominent in the European colonial landscape. Since Dutch entrepreneurs engaged in exploiting the resources of those other countries, what is the future of the public debate in the Netherlands, and Europe at large, regarding a shared responsibility for the colonial past?
More information<https://earlymodernworld.fas.harvard.edu/event/annual-parry-lecture-harvard…>
Tuesday September 19, 5pm-6:30pm
Opening event of the Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar in History of the Book, featuring four flashtalks by:
Matt Aiello (Harvard Society of Fellows), “Material Traces of Linguistic Trauma in Twelfth-Century England”
Devin Fitzgerald (Council on East Asia Studies and Beinecke Library), “Global and/or Comparative Book Histories: The Problem of Comparing Editions”
Molly Schwartzburg (Houghton Library), “How to collect on a theme: developing Printing & Graphic Arts holdings on print in the digital age”
Jennifer Roberts (History of Art and Architecture, Harvard), “Book Launch”
Followed by a reception. Barker Center 133, 12 Quincy St, Cambridge MA.
Tuesday, October 3, 2023, 5:00pm
Early Modern Workshop in History, Medieval History Workshop, Medieval Studies, and the Medieval Studies Interdisciplinary Workshop at Harvard
Yves Coativy (Université de Bretagne Occidentale), “Contemporary interpretations of the Breton Middle Ages, from nationalism to the far left (1923-2023)”
Basement Seminar Room, Robinson Hall, Harvard Yard
Tuesday, November 14, 2023, 5:00pm
Sponsored by the Asia Center and the Early Modern Workshop in the Department of History, Harvard
Book launch and discussion featuring Joshua Ehrlich (University of Macau), author of The East India Company and the Politics of Knowledge (CUP 2023) in conversation with Alex Csiszar (History of Science, Harvard) and Rishad Choudhury (Oberlin College)
Belfer Case Study Room, CGIS S020, 1730 Cambridge St, Cambridge MA
This is a hybrid event; please register here for the zoomlink:
https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_qa_rmn8RRCqw5j6dSoUoKA
Wednesday, November 29, 2023, 5pm
Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar in History of the Book
Molly Hardy (Independent scholar), “Plant Machines: Information Ecologies from Carl Linnaeus to Asa Gray,” followed by a comment by Whitney Barlow Robles (Visiting Scholar, Dartmouth).
Barker Center 133, 12 Quicy St, Cambridge MA
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*If you would like your announcement to be posted in an upcoming Early Mod Events listing please send your event details to: earlymod(a)fas.harvard.edu<mailto:earlymod@fas.harvard.edu>
To be included in the Early Mod Events mailing, the event must take place or (in case of online events) be relevant to the greater Boston area. Announcements are posted at the discretion of the Early Mod Listserv administrator. It would be a great help if you could follow this format:
Day, date, time
Sponsor (if available)
Type of event (ex. Lecture/Symposium/Workshop), Event Title
Person giving talk (in bold), their home institution (if applicable)
Location: in-person or virtual
*If the event is virtual, please include either a Zoom registration link OR a contact email with the announcement. If your event is being held in-person, please specify this, and include location details.
Additional info (no more than a couple of sentences)
RSVP or Registration information/link
