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: Abstract deadlines and keynote TBA.
Undergraduate Shakespeare Conference: "Shakespeare & Play", April 27, 2024
at Clark University, 950 Main St, Worcester, MA.
We announce the return of the in-person academic conference for undergraduate students
from Greater Boston, Central Mass, and New England more broadly.
Please email ClarkShaxConference2024(a)gmail.com for more info
Upcoming Fortnight: Events
*Monday, October 2, 12-1 PM
Preparing Academic Job Application Materials: A Premodern Race Seminar Workshop (Hybrid!)
Harvard Yard, Boylston Hall 203 and on Zoom
Interdiscplinary workshop intended for graduate students and junior scholars in premodern
fields currently on the academic job market or shortly intending to be so, whose research
and/or teaching interests relate to topics of race. Participants will be expected to
precirculate and read draft materials. Please register
here<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__harvard.us11.l…
if you would like to attend. There will be a hybrid Zoom option!
*Tuesday, October 3, 2023, 5:00pm (Reception starting at 4:15pm)
Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies, Boston College
Feore Family Lecture Series
Markus Friedrich, Professor of History, Hamburg University, will receive the George E.
Ganss, S.J. Award and give the lecture: Tales of Foreign Lands: Jesuit Youth Literature
and Missionary Propaganda in the 20th Century.
Boston College, Cadigan Alumni Center, Brighton Campus, 2121 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, MA
02135, United States
RSVP<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__r20.rs6.net_tn…
Tuesday, October 3, 2023, 5:00pm to 6:30pm
CMES Sohbet-i Osmani Series
Aslıhan Gürbüzel, Assistant Professor of Ottoman history, Institute of Islamic Studies,
McGill University: "Taming the Messiah: The Formation of an Ottoman Political Public
Sphere, 1600-1700". Discussant: Hannah Marcus, John and Ruth Hazel Associate
Professor of the Social Sciences, Harvard University
CMES, Room 102, 38 Kirkland St, Cambridge, MA 02138
In the history of the Ottoman Empire, the seventeenth century has often been considered an
anomaly, characterized by political dissent and social conflict. In this book, Aslıhan
Gürbüzel shows how the early modern period was, in fact, crucial to the formation of new
kinds of political agency that challenged, negotiated with, and ultimately reshaped the
Ottoman social order. Taming the Messiah offers a new method of studying public political
life by focusing on the variety of religious visions and lifeworlds native to Ottoman
society and the ways in which they were appropriated and repurposed in the pursuit of new
forms of civic engagement.
Link:
https://cmes.fas.harvard.edu/calendar/upcoming
Contact:
elizabethflanagan@fas.harvard.edu<mailto:elizabethflanagan@fas.harvard.edu>
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
Wednesday, Oct 4, 2023 | 11:30 AM-1:00 PM
Harvard-Yenching Institute Visiting Scholar Talks, co-sponsored by the Fairbank Center for
Chinese Studies
Lecture: “Shakespeare’s Influence on Modern Chinese Literature and Culture”
Speaker: Tianhu Hao | Qiushi Distinguished Professor, Center for Medieval and Renaissance
Studies, Zhejiang University; HYI Visiting Scholar, 2023-24
Chair/Discussant: David Damrosch | Ernest Bernbaum Professor of Comparative Literature,
Harvard University
Common Room (#136), 2 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA
Shakespeare has had an important influence upon modern Chinese literature and culture
since the 1830s, which constitutes a significant part of Shakespeare’s global impact.
Based on the rich sources recently accessible in Chinese and English databases, this talk
reconsiders Shakespeare’s impact on modern China, especially in the indigenization of the
sonnet and the rise of huaju (spoken drama). The abundant, newly discovered data reveal
Shakespeare’s multi-faceted contributions to the shaping of modern Chinese literature and
culture. This is a modest effort to revise literary, theatrical, and cultural histories.
*Wednesday, Oct 4, 2023, 12-1:30pm
Center for Humanities and the Music Department, Tufts University
Book Talk with Melinda Latour about her new book, The Voice of Virtue: Moral Song and the
Practice of French Stoicism, 1574-1652
Tufts University, Varis Lecture Hall, Granoff, Room 155, 20 Talbot Avenue, Medford MA
More
information<https://humanities.tufts.edu/events/book-talk-melinda-latour…
October 4, 5pm EST
Harvard English Department Renaissance Colloquium
Leah Whittington, Professor of English at Harvard, "Spenser, Chaucer, and the
Supplemented Book."
Professor Whittington will speak to a joint Medieval-Renaissance Colloquia audience.
Location: Barker Center 211
https://sites.google.com/g.harvard.edu/harvard-eng-grad-colloquium/renaissa…
Wednesday, October 4, 5pm
Benedict S. Robinson (Stony Brook University): “The True Story of Fictionality: The Case
of Othello”
Kinney Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies, 650 East Pleasant Street
Amherst, MA 01002
Benedict S. Robinson specializes in early modern literature, with interests that include
the history of emotion, the history of literary theory, the history of science, and topics
related to race and religion. His most recent book is Passion’s Fictions from Shakespeare
to Richardson: Literature and the Sciences of Soul and
Mind<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__umass.us11.lis…
(Oxford University Press, Spring 2021).
**Wednesday, October 4, 2023, 5:30pm
Center for the Study of the Early Modern World, Brown University
Early Modern World Lecture: Maude Vanhaelen (UQUAM Montreal): Contesting Curricula: The
Hidden Revival of Plato in Sixteenth-Century Italy
Room 110, List Art Building, Brown University, 64 College St. Providence RI. Read
more<https://events.brown.edu/early-modern-world/event/264250-early-mode…am>.
Thursday, October 5, 2023 to Sunday, October 8, 2023
42nd Annual Harvard Celtic Colloquium (with many events relevant to early modern studies)
Barker Center, Harvard University, 12 Quincy Street Cambridge MA. The Thompson Room (Room
110)
Please find the program here:
https://celtic.fas.harvard.edu/colloquium-program-schedule
Friday, October 6, 2023, 5:30pm
Harvard Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Shakespearean Studies
Natasha Korda, Professor of English, Wesleyan University: ‘ Mincing Steps’ and ‘Manly
Strides’: Practicing Gendered Footwork on the Early Modern Stage
Harvard University, Barker Center, Room 133, 12 Quincy St, Cambridge MA
See also: Shakespearean
Studies<https://mahindrahumanities.fas.harvard.edu/seminars/shakespearea…
Thursday, October 12, 2023, 4:30pm
Five College Renaissance
Seminar<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.umass.e…
Eyob Derillo (Curator for the Ethiopic and Ethiopian Collections, British Library)
A Virtual Tour of the British Library's Illuminated Ethiopian Manuscripts
Virtual event on Zoom
[
register<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__umass-2Dam…]
Events later in the Semester:
October 17, 2023, TBA
MEMHS Brown University Medieval & Early Modern History Seminar
Tiraana Bains (Assistant Professor, History Department, Brown University), TBA
https://blogs.brown.edu/memhs/
October 18, 5pm EST
Harvard English Department Renaissance Colloquium
Graduate Student Presentation: Caroline Engelmayer, graduate student in English,
"'Forsake me not thus': Ovid's Heroides and Milton's Psychology
of Alienation"
Graduate Student Presentation and Workshop on the pre-circulated paper
Location: Barker Center 211
https://sites.google.com/g.harvard.edu/harvard-eng-grad-colloquium/renaissa…
Wednesday, October 18, 2023, 6pm
Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Women, Gender, and Culture in the Early Modern
World
Roundtable: “Charting a Future for Early Modern Gender Studies in a Time of Shrinking
Humanities Departments.”
Discussants:
1. Alice Dailey (Professor of English & Director of Faculty Affairs, Villanova
University)
2. Suparna Roychoudhury (Associate Professor of English & Associate Provost and
Associate Dean of Faculty, Mount Holyoke)
3. Reginald Wilburn (Associate Professor of English & Associate Provost, Texas
Christian University)
Location: Online
(Registration<https://wellesley.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMqcuyspjgqGNIY5QRFew-xwzjEnhAHadzP#/registration>)
October 20, 2023, 2:30pm - 7:30pm EDT
Center for the Study of the Early Modern World, Brown University
Early Modern World Colloquium: European Colonialism in the Americas: Consequences and
Contemporary Responses
Confirmed speakers are: Prof. Gustavo Verdesio (University of Michigan) and Prof. Kimberly
Borchard (Randolph-Macon College)
Rhode Island Hall, Room 108, Brown University
Center for the Study of the Early Modern
World<http://events.brown.edu/early-modern-world/>
Tuesday, October 24, 2023, 12:00pm to 1:15pm
Harvard Early Sciences Working Group
Sherah Bloor (Committee on the Study of Religion), “Anatomy of the Soul: Swedenborg and
Kant on the Mechanics of the Internal Senses”
Hybrid format: In-person at Science Center room 252 (SC252), Harvard University, 1 Oxford
St, Cambridge MA, 02138 and on Zoom
Email: brianabrightly@g.harvard.edu<mailto:brianabrightly@g.harvard.edu> or
analuiza_nicolae@g.harvard.edu<mailto:analuiza_nicolae@g.harvard.edu>
*Thursday, October 26, 2023, 12:00pm EST
Mahindra Humanities Center Renaissance Studies Seminar
Lecture: "Facétie et Thérapie dans les Essais de Montaigne"
Speaker: Dominique Bertrand, Université Clermont Auvergne
Location: virtual
Registration link:
https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYkdO6qrzItEtx3Y7IvRpJoKGvu0UxO2l…
November 1st, 5pm EST
Harvard English Department Renaissance Colloquium
Jessica Beckman, Assistant Professor of English at Dartmouth, "Reading the Room:
Spenser and the Space of the Text"
Location: Barker Center 211
https://sites.google.com/g.harvard.edu/harvard-eng-grad-colloquium/renaissa…
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”
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 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…
Thursday, November 16, 2023, 5:30pm
Brown University History Department
44th William Church Memorial Lecture: Jennifer Morgan (NYU); TBA
Location: TBD
More information is coming soon.
Brown University Center for the Study of the Early Modern
World<http://events.brown.edu/early-modern-world/> and MEMHS Brown University
Medieval & Early Modern History
Seminar<https://blogs.brown.edu/memhs/>
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…
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: TBA
https://blogs.brown.edu/memhs/
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
Thursday, November 30, 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…
Monday, 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 8:00pm
Robert Darnton, Harvard: Talk on his forthcoming book, The Revolutionary Temper, Paris
1748-1789
Location: Boston Athenaeum, 10½ Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02108
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, 5:30pm EST
Center for the Study of the Early Modern World, Brown University
Early Modern World Lecture: Ben Leeming (Rivers High School, Boston)
Location: TBD
More information will be coming soon.
Center for the Study of the Early Modern
World<http://events.brown.edu/early-modern-world/>
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
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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