Greetings!
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, in the format requested at the end of this message, to:
earlymod@fas.harvard.edu<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.
CFP for Local Conferences
**CFP:
https://shakespeareconference.com/; deadline Feb 29, 2024.
Undergraduate Shakespeare Conference: "Shakespeare & Play", an in-person
academic conference for undergraduate students from Greater Boston, Central Mass, and New
England more broadly.
Keynote speaker: David Sterling Brown, PhD (Assoc. Prof of English, Trinity College).
Conference Date: April 27, 2024 at Clark University, 950 Main St, Worcester, MA.
Please see the website (above) for submissions or email ClarkShaxConference2024(a)gmail.com
for more info
Upcoming Fortnight: Events
November 3, 2023, all day
Harvard History of Science
Workshop: "Creating an Ordered World in Disordered Times: The Pope Orrery"
Location: Harvard Science Center • Room 469 • 1 Oxford Street • Cambridge, MA
This public workshop will gather specialists—historians of science, furniture, labor, and
politics, as well as horologists, and conservators—around the Pope Orrery (built 1776-1787
in Boston) to interpret it from their diverse vantage points. Together we will use the
Pope Orrery as a mise-en-scène for an examination of Boston and the British world during
the American Revolution, as witnessed by the labor, technology, economics, and politics of
its production and sale, the social classes involved, and its use as a spectacle, prestige
item, and model for teaching natural philosophy and religion. The program and list of
speakers can be found
here<https://chsi.harvard.edu/sites/projects.iq.harvard.edu/files/chsi/f…df>.
**Tuesday, November 7, 2023, 12:00pm to 1:15pm
Harvard Early Sciences Working Group
Hannah Kaemmer (Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Planning, Harvard),
“Engineers as Imperial Agents in 17th-Century England”
Professor Joyce Chaplin will be responding to Hannah Kaemmer's paper.
The meeting will be held in hybrid format, both on Zoom and in person in Science Center
room 252 (SC252). Email:
brianabrightly@g.harvard.edu<mailto:brianabrightly@g.harvard.edu> or
analuiza_nicolae@g.harvard.edu<mailto:analuiza_nicolae@g.harvard.edu>
*Tuesday, November 7, 2023, 5:00pm to 6:30pm
Weatherhead Research Cluster on Identity Politics Inaugural Event
Ben Kaplan (UCL): The Many Meanings of Freedom of Conscience in Early Modern Europe
(Lecture)
Location: Bowie-Vernon Room, K262, at CGIS Knafel, 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA
02138
More
information<https://history.fas.harvard.edu/sites/projects.iq.harvard.ed…
Tuesday, November 7, 6pm
Harvard Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Eighteenth-Century Studies
Tara Menon, Harvard: Talking like a Heroine: The Case of Mansfield Park’s Fanny Price
Barker Center, Room 133, 12 Quincy St., Cambridge MA
Tuesday, November 14, 2023, 4:30-6:15 PM
Wesleyan Renaissance Seminar
Colby Gordon, Assistant Professor of Literatures in English, Bryn Mawr College: “A Pound
of Flesh: Antonio’s Cut and the Trans Debate”
Wesleyan University, Boger Hall 110, 41 Wyllys Ave, Middletown, CT 06459
The seminar meetings are entirely devoted to discussion of previously circulated papers.
For a copy of the paper, please contact Serena Plage at
splage@wesleyan.edu<mailto:splage@wesleyan.edu> or Jesse Torgerson at
jtorgerson@wesleyan.edu<mailto:jtorgerson@wesleyan.edu> .
More information:
http://rensem.site.wesleyan.edu/<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/ur…Np_k0Es0OXXACDXVrYM&e=>.
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 15, 5pm EST
Harvard English Department Renaissance Colloquium
Catherine Nicholson, Professor of English at Yale, "Reforming the Alphabet: The
Renaissance Before Reading"
Location: Barker Center 211
https://sites.google.com/g.harvard.edu/harvard-eng-grad-colloquium/renaissa…
Wednesday, November 15, 2023, 6pm
Sponsor: Mahindra Humanities Center on American Literature and Culture
Christy Pottroff, Boston College, and Donald Slater, Phillips Academy Andover: „Finding
Anne Bradstreet: An Archaeological Study of the Poet’s North Andover Homes“
Respondent: Elizabeth Maddock Dillon, Northeastern University
Location: Harvard Barker Center, Room 133, 12 Quincy St., Cambridge MA
More Information:
https://mahindrahumanities.fas.harvard.edu/event/christy-pottroff-tba
Thursday, November 16, 2023, 4:30pm
Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures, Harvard
Jerry Hunter, Bangor University (Wales): Informal Introduction to Early Modern Welsh
Literature (open for all)
(Further date on November 30).
Kates Room, Room 201, Warren House, Harvard Yard
No RSVP required.
Thursday, November 16, 2023, 5:30pm
Brown University History Department
44th William Church Memorial Lecture: Jennifer Morgan (NYU): “On Race and Reinscription:
Writing Enslaved Women into the Early Modern Archive”
Location: Smith-Buonanno Hall, Room 106, Brown University Campus, Providence, RI 02912
Brown University Center for the Study of the Early Modern
World<https://events.brown.edu/early-modern-world/event/265712-44th-will…
and MEMHS Brown University Medieval & Early Modern History
Seminar<https://www.brownmemhs.com/william-church-memorial-lecture>
In this talk, Jennifer L. Morgan uses the history of three black women from the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries to explore questions of methodology and archives in the early
history of the Black Atlantic. Through evidence from visual art, law, and commerce, Morgan
considers the challenges and possibilities of crafting a social-historical study of women
whose voices are so often absent from the archival record, but whose lives and
perspectives have proven to be essential for comprehending the origins of racial
capitalism.
*Friday, November 17, 2023, 3:30 pm
Center for European Studies, Dissertation Workshop
Ashley Gonik (History, Harvard), "Generating New Insight or Perpetuating Old
Narratives? Printed Historical Tables in Early Modern Europe"
Location: Hoffmann Room, Adolphus Busch Hall, Harvard University
https://ces.fas.harvard.edu/events/2023/11/generating-new-insight-or-perpet…
Friday, November 17, 2023, 5:30pm
Harvard Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Shakespearean Studies
Yu Jin Ko, Professor of English, Wellesley College: Consent and Animation in A Midsummer
Night’s Dream: The Korean Madang as a New Green World
Harvard University, Barker Center, Room 133, 12 Quincy St, Cambridge MA
See also: Shakespearean
Studies<https://mahindrahumanities.fas.harvard.edu/seminars/shakespearea…
Events later in the Semester:
Tuesday, November 28, 2023, 2:30pm
Harvard Mahindra Humanities Center Seminars on Cartography and Renaissance Studies
Workshop: Chet Van Duzer, University of Rochester: “Looking Slowly at Early Modern Maps”
Location: Lamont Library, Harvard Yard, Forum Room
Chet Van Duzer will discuss several early modern maps to demonstrate the value of applying
patient contemplation to cartography, provide ideas about the types of conclusions that
can be reached through slow looking, and show the richness of early maps as objects for
study. More
Information<https://mahindrahumanities.fas.harvard.edu/event/looking-slo…
Tuesday, November 28, 2023, 3:00pm
Harvard Early Sciences Working Group and Philosophy Department
Gideon Manning (Associate Professor of History of Medicine and Humanities at the
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and Director of the Cedars-Sinai Program in the History of
Medicine): “Descartes, Images, and the Iconography of Actions"
Robbins Library, Emerson Hall 211, Harvard Yard
Email:brianabrightly@g.harvard.edu<mailto:brianabrightly@g.harvard.edu> or
analuiza_nicolae@g.harvard.edu<mailto:analuiza_nicolae@g.harvard.edu>
Tuesday, November 28 (Due to the Thanksgiving Break, MEMHS is moved forward to November
28), 4:30 PM
MEMHS Brown University Medieval & Early Modern History Seminar
Gershon D. Hundert (Leanor Segal Professor of Jewish Studies, McGill University. (This is
a joint event, MEMHS & Judaic Studies, Brown University).
Location: Pavilion Room at the Brown History Department, Providence RI
https://www.brownmemhs.com/upcoming-events
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 Quincy St, Cambridge MA
Thursday, November 30, 2023, 4:30pm
Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures, Harvard
Jerry Hunter, Bangor University (Wales): Informal Introduction to Early Modern Welsh
Literature (open for all)
Kates Room, Room 201, Warren House, Harvard Yard
No RSVP required.
Thursday, November 30, 5pm EST
Harvard English Department Renaissance Colloquium
James Simpson, the Donald P. and Katherine B. Loker Professor Emeritus of English at
Harvard, "Modernity's Selfhood and the Desacralization of Images; or, Being an
Early Modern Image Hurts"
Professor Simpson will speak to a joint Medieval-Renaissance Colloquia audience.
Location: TBA
https://sites.google.com/g.harvard.edu/harvard-eng-grad-colloquium/renaissa…
Thursday, November 30, 6pm
Harvard Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Women, Gender, and Culture in the Early
Modern World
Stephen Spiess (Department of English, Babson College): “Confounding Intersections:
Gender, Sexuality, and the Politics of Glossing in Pericles and Edward II”
The Barker Center, Room 133, Harvard University, 12 Quincy St, Cambridge, MA
Monday, December 4, 2023 6:00pm
Robert Darnton, Harvard: Talk on his forthcoming book, The Revolutionary Temper, Paris
1748-1789
Location: Boston Athenaeum, 10½ Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02108
More
information<https://community.bostonathenaeum.org/s/events?event=a2K8a00…
Tuesday, December 5, 2023, 12:00pm to 1:15pm
Harvard Early Sciences Working Group
Ori Ben-Shalom (History of Science, Harvard), “With Armed Eyes: Plague, the Perplexities
of the Microscope, and the Struggle over History”
Location:
Hybrid format: In-person at Science Center room 252 (SC252), Harvard University, 1 Oxford
St, Cambridge MA, 02138 and on Zoom (see event details)
The meeting will be held in hybrid format, both on Zoom and in person in Science Center
room 252 (SC252). Email:
brianabrightly@g.harvard.edu<mailto:brianabrightly@g.harvard.edu> or
analuiza_nicolae@g.harvard.edu<mailto:analuiza_nicolae@g.harvard.edu>
December 6, 2023, 12:00-1:15pm
Tufts Center for the Humanities
Diego Javier Luis, Department of History, Department of Studies in Race, Colonialism, and
Diaspora, Tufts University: “Devouring the Pacific: How the Repartimientos Made Acapulco
an Afro-Mexican Port”
Location TBA
December 6, 3pm EST
Harvard English Department Renaissance Colloquium
MFA Visit: "Strong Women in Renaissance Italy"
Please join us for a visit to and self-guided group tour of the MFA's Special
Exhibition, "Strong Women in Renaissance Italy." More info on the exhibition can
be found
here<https://www.mfa.org/exhibition/strong-women-in-renaissance-italy#fi…96>.
Location: Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave, Boston
https://sites.google.com/g.harvard.edu/harvard-eng-grad-colloquium/renaissa…
**December 6, 6pm EST
Center for the Study of the Early Modern World, Brown University
Early Modern World Lecture: Ben Leeming (Rivers High School, Boston): “From Son of God to
Sun God: The Advent and Christmas Sermons of Fray Bernardino de Sahagún”
Location: Brown University, Rhode Island Hall, 108.
Center for the Study of the Early Modern
World<https://events.brown.edu/early-modern-world/event/264251-from-son-…
Wednesday, December 13, 2023, 6pm
Robert Darnton, Harvard: Talk on his forthcoming book, The Revolutionary Temper, Paris
1748-1789, in conversation with Ann Blair, Harvard
Location: French Library, 53 Marlborough St., Boston, MA 02116
***
*If you would like your announcement to be posted in an upcoming Early Mod Events listing
please send your event details to:
earlymod@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