CEMS Book Club: Environmental Humanities on the Brink
What is the point of early modern studies in the midst of environmental catastrophe? The next session of KCL’s Centre for Early Modern Studies’ Book Club will seek to engage this question. To do so, we’ll be reading Vincent Bruyère’s Environmental Humanities on the Brink: The Vanitas Hypothesis (Stanford University Press, 2023).
Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Study of Race: A Workshop
Interdisciplinary workshop on race and racemaking. Join us for a discussion of theoretical texts. This is an opportunity to workshop some preliminary ideas in an interdisciplinary community of scholars seeking to tackle race and racialisation from a variety of perspectives.
Churchyard Poetics Book Launch
Join CEMS for the book launch of Dr. James Metcalf’s Churchyard Poetics.
Conference: Rethinking State and Society in Early Modern Britain
Conference on the state and society in early modern Britain.
Careers Beyond Academia
Join CEMS for a panel event on careers outside and adjacent to academia.
CfP: Rethinking State and Society in Early Modern Britain
The Centre for Early Modern Studies at KCL invites submissions for papers to be presented at a conference on 17th December 2024. The theme is ‘Rethinking State and Society in Early Modern Britain’. CfP Deadline: 15th Oct.
CEMS Welcome: Courting India Book Club
KCL’s Centre for Early Modern Studies will be kicking off the academic year with a reading group on Nandini Das’s Courting India: England, Mughal India and the Origins of Empire (Bloomsbury, 2023).
Publishing your First Academic Article
A panel and Q&A on publishing your first academic article.
First Article Workshop
A workshop aimed at helping PGRs and ECRs to develop articles for publication. This in-person session will provide participants with detailed feedback on their writing, specific guidance on navigating the relevant peer-review process, as well as the opportunity to discuss their work and ideas in a collegiate environment.
Deadline for Expressions of Interest: 26 April
Law and the Early Modern: Power, Speech, Form
An intersectional, inclusive, and explicitly interdisciplinary colloquium exploring the nexus of law, language, gender, and power in the making of the early modern world.
Ideas of Poverty in the Enlightenment
Join us for a panel discussion on conceptualisations of ‘the poor’ in the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, with Dr. Anna Plassart (Open University), Dr. Alexandra Ortolja-Baird (University of Portsmouth) and Dr. Niall O’Flaherty (King’s College London). Chaired by Dr. Robin Mills (St Andrews).
'Fictions of Consent': An Evening with Dr. Urvashi Chakravarty
We are delighted to welcome Urvashi Chakravarty to King’s College London on March 28th for a programme of events reflecting on her award-winning book Fictions of Consent.
Book Launch: Strangers Within
Join us for a roundtable discussion on Prof. Francisco Bethencourt’s forthcoming monograph, Strangers Within: The Rise and Fall of the New Christian Trading Elite (Penn, 2024).
Speakers: Prof. Miri Rubin (Queen Mary), Prof. Regina Grafe (Cambridge), and Prof. Catia Antunes (Leiden); Chair: Prof. Toby Green (King’s)
Early Modern Siege Narratives: A Reading Group
A new reading group exploring siege narratives as a mode of early modern writing. Co-organised by Dr Emily Rowe and Dr Eli Cumings.
Seventh Annual King's Gollancz Lecture: Ian Smith
“History’s Hollow Men: Manufacturing Blackness in Love’s Labour’s Lost”.
Ian Smith is Professor of English at the University of Southern California and current President of the Shakespeare Association of America.
Early Modern Projects
Elisabeth Giselbrecht (Music), Lucy Munro (English), and Hannah Murphy (History) speak about their ongoing research projects over coffee and cake.
CEMS Reading Group I
Coffee, cake, and a discussion of Caroline Dodds Pennock's On Savage Shores (Orion, 2023). The first in a new series of lunchtime reading group sessions.
Reflecting on Black Lives in the English Archives: A Workshop
A symposium reflecting on Imtiaz Habib’s foundational Black Lives in the English Archives. Presentations followed by tours of the ‘Unforgotten Lives’ Exhibition at the London Metropolitan Archives.
Preparing Your First Academic Article Workshop
A workshop aimed at helping late-stage PGRs and ECRs to develop articles for publication. Deadline for Expressions of Interest: 17 February 2023.
A Colloquium on Feminism and (Early Modern) History
A day's colloquium to think about feminism as both a practice and an object of early modern history, and history more broadly.
The Death of Nature: Environmental Humanities and the Early Modern Period
An informal workshop for the environmentally-curious reflecting on Carolyn Merchant's The Death of Nature as well as the role of the early modern in periodising the Anthropocene.
Research Networks: What Makes a Research Community?
Join us on Zoom to hear provocations, thoughts, and discussion from an interdisciplinary panel on just what it is that constitutes a research community. ECRs particularly encouraged to attend.
London's Sources for Slavery: December Workshop
A one-day workshop bringing together archivists, librarians, curators and historians, exploring London's links to the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
Women's Work in Seventeenth-Century London: Laura Gowing in conversation with Hannah Dawson and Amy Louise Erickson
Join us at King's as we celebrate Laura Gowing's extraordinary recent book, Ingenious Trade, with drinks and a discussion of women's work in seventeenth-century London.
Beginning a PhD in Early Modern Studies
Our first PGR workshop of 22/23 brings together a panel of current PhD students to discuss what they’ve learnt about the process of starting a PhD.
Online, via Zoom (registration link in event listing).
New Term, New Faculty
Faculty, PGRs, and MA students are warmly invited to join us in the River Room as we kick-off the winter term with lunchtime presentations from new colleagues in early modern studies.
Preparing Your First Academic Article: A Summer Workshop
The second in our series of workshops aimed at helping late-stage PGRs and ECRs to develop academic articles for publication.
Sixth Annual King’s Gollancz Lecture: Marisa J. Fuentes
“Buried ‘Without Care’: Social Death, Discarded Lives, and the Transatlantic Slave Trade”.
Marisa J. Fuentes is Associate Professor of Women's and Gender Studies and History; and Presidential Term Chair in African American History, 2017-2022, at Rutgers University.
Multilingual London
An interdisciplinary colloquium exploring the multilingual sites and spaces of early modern London.
Ways of Knowing the Early Modern
A workshop exploring the practicalities and craft of collaboration. How best can humanities scholars collaborate with scientists and other research partners across disciplines?
Projects presenting include: Renaissance Goo; Odeuropa; Refashioning the Renaissance; The Making and Knowing Project; and Box Office Bears.
Race and the Early Modern: New Scholars, New Scholarship
A one-day conference featuring new work by early career scholars, as well as keynotes from Nicholas R. Jones and Surekha Davies. Hosted in collaboration with ‘Medicine and the Making of Race, 1440-1720’.
Reckoning with Slavery: A Public Symposium with Jessica Morgan
A public symposium with Jennifer Morgan, Professor of History in the department of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University.
Book Launch: Marguerite de Navarre: A Critical Companion, by Emily Butterworth
A celebration of Marguerite de Navarre and the publication of Emily Butterworth’s new critical introduction to her work.
Events Image Bibliography
Beginning a PhD in Early Modern Studies: Pieter van der Heyden, after Pieter Bruegel (I). De Ezel in School. 1557. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
Book Launch: Marguerite de Navarre: A Critical Companion, by Emily Butterworth: Master of François de Rohan, ‘Marguerite de Navarre donne son ouvrage à Anne de Pisseleu, duchesse d'Etampes. Miniature tirée d'un manuscrit de La Coche ou débat d'amour’, c. 1542. Musée Condé, Ms.522, f.43v.
Book Launch: Strangers Within: Anthony van Dyck. Filips Godines. ca. 1630. Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen - Alte Pinakothek München.
Careers Beyond Academia: Cornelis Gerritsz Decker, Weaver’s Workshop, ca. 1659. Rijksmuseum.
CEMS Book Club: Philippe de Champaigne, Still-Life with Skull. ca. 1646. Wikimedia Commons.
CEMS Reading Group I: Codex Mendoza. The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, [MS. Arch. Selden. A.1, fol. 65r].
CEMS Welcome: Courting India Book Club: Front Cover. Courting India (Bloomsbury, 2023).
CEMS Winter Breakfast: Floris Claesz. van Dijck. ‘Stilleven met kazen’. ca. 1615. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
CfP: Rethinking State and Society: Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder. ‘A Fête at Bermondsey or A Marriage Feast at Bermondsey.’ (c. 1571). Wikimedia Commons.
Churchyard Poetics Book Launch: Front Cover, Churchyard Poetics (OUP, 2024).
Digital Findings: Making the Most of Online Resources: Willem van Swanenburg, after Jan Cornelis Woudanus. ‘Plate 2: The Library of the University of Leiden’. 1610. © The Trustees of the British Museum.
Early Modern Projects: Liber quindecim missarum, à præstantissimis musicis compositarum (Nuremberg, 1539), Tenor book, fol. 47v. Copy owned by Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Universitätsbibliothek, München, Cim. 44n(1 (= 4° Liturg. 448).
Early Modern Siege Narratives: Anonymous. A Briefe Declaration of the yeelding vp of Saint Denis to the French King the 29. of Iune, 1590 (London, 1590).
'Fictions of Consent’: An Evening with Urvashi Chakravarty: ‘Indenture of apprenticeship for James Holden.’ Folger Shakespeare Library, X.d.734. Taken by Urvashi Chakravarty.
First Article Workshop: Qian Gong. Gathering at the Orchid Pavilion. 1607. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
First Monographs: Thesis to Book: Jan Davidsz. de Heem. ‘Still Life with Books’. 1625 - 1630. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
Ideas of Poverty in the Enlightenment: Giacomo Ceruti. ‘Little Beggar Girl and Woman Spinning.’ 172o. Web Gallery of Art.
Institutions of Enlightenment: Education, Family, and the Public Sphere: Charles Philips. ‘The Strong Family’. 1732. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Study of Race: A Workshop: Atlantic Ocean, Wikimedia Commons, 2015.
Law and the Early Modern: Power, Speech, Form: Pieter de Bloot. The Lawyer’s Office. 1628. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
London’s Records of Slavery, I. Network: ‘Medical Patients in Sierra Leone, 1791’.
London’s Sources of Slavery Workshop: Wenceslaus Hollar, William Morgan and John Ogilby. ‘A Large and Accurate Map of the City of London’ (1677), British Library Maps Crace Port. 2.61.
Multilingual London: Georg Braun. View of London in Civitates Orbis Terrarum. 1600 - 1623. (LUNA: Folger Digital Image Collection). (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Performance in History: C. Walter Hodges. Stage Setting Design Drawings. Folger Shakespeare Library, ART Box H688, no. 1 pt. 3 (LUNA: Folger Digital Image Collection). (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Preparing Your First Academic Article: Jehan de Beau-Chesne. ‘Demonstration of the Proper Ways to Hold a Pen’ in A Booke Containing Diuers Sortes of Hands (London: Richard Field, 1602). LUNA: Folger Digital Image Collection. (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Preparing Your First Academic Article, Stage II: Summer Workshop: Ja'far Baisunghuri. "Laila and Majnun at School", Folio from a Khamsa (Quintet) of Nizami of Ganja. 1431-2. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Psychosomatic Early Modern: Rembrandt van Rijn. The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp. 1632. Mauritshuis, The Hague.
Public Sphere Reading Group: Anon. ‘Interior of a London Coffee-house’. ca. 1690-1700. © The Trustees of the British Museum.
Publishing your First Academic Article: Rechterhand met ganzenpen, Simon Frisius, after Jan van de Velde (I), 1605, Rijksmuseum.
Race and the Early Modern: New Scholars, New Scholarship: ‘Tabula Colorum’ from Richard Waller, ‘A Catalogue of Simple and Mixt Colours with a Specimen of Each Colour Prefixt Its Properties’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, vol. 6 (1688). Image from the General Research Division, The New York Public Library.
Reckoning with Slavery: A Public Symposium with Jessica Morgan: Annibale Carracci. ‘Portrait of an African Slave Woman’. ca. 1580s.
Reflecting on Black Lives in the English Archives: A Workshop: Detail from 1511 Westminster Tournament Roll, John Blanke.
Research Networks: What Makes a Research Community?: Narsingh. ‘Akbar and the Jesuits’. ca. 1600-1603. © Trustees of the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin.
Research Positions: Postdoctoral Fellowships and Opportunities: Gerrit Dou. ‘An Evening School’. ca. 1655-57. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Rethinking State and Society in EM Britain: Detail from Francis Winter’s Last Farewell (London, 1693).
Rethinking the Public Sphere: Enlightenment Messages for the Post-Covid World: Abraham Bosse, Réunion de dames. 1636.
Seventh Annual King’s Gollancz Lecture: Ian Smith: from the cover of Ian Smith, Black Shakespeare: Reading and Misreading Race (Cambridge, 2022).
Sixth Annual King’s Gollancz Lecture: Marisa J. Fuentes: Jackson Pollock. Untitled. 1949. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
The Death of Nature: Environmental Humanities and the Early Modern Period: Charles Sheeler, ‘Church Street El’. 1920. The Cleveland Museum of Art. Public Domain.
Ways of Knowing the Early Modern: 'Adrian Poll, the Apothecary’s Assistant'. 1614. From Hausbuch der Mendelschen Zwölfbrüderstiftung. Nuremberg Stadtbibliothek, MS Amb. 279.2 (Landauer I), f. 86r.
Women’s Work in Seventeenth-Century London: Laura Gowing in conversation with Hannah Dawson and Amy Louise Erickson: Geertruydt Roghman. ‘Two Women Sewing, Plate 1 from Five Feminine Occupations’. ca. 1640–57. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Ye Olde Pub Crawl: Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Peasants Making Merry outside a Tavern 'The Swan'. c. 1630. Wikimedia Commons.