Early Modern History

Sir Thomas Fairfax 400th Anniversary Conference at the University of Leicester

2012-01-27T16:44:00.002Z

The Fairfax 400 Anniversary Conference

30th June - 1st July, 2012.

This conference will investigate the impact of Sir Thomas Fairfax (1612–1671) upon his time and contemporaries. It will combine the approaches of historians and literary scholars to examine afresh his multiple roles as a general, politician, landowner, husband and literary figure. His memory, image and reputation in art, literature, media and film will also be assessed. For details of the programme and conference registration please see the document attached.

URL: http://www.le.ac.uk/elh/
Fairfax_400_Programme.docOrganiser(s): Dr Andrew Hopper and Dr Philip Major
Event Location:
Centre for English Local HIstory, University of Leicester
Marc Fitch House, 5 Salisbury Rd
Leicester
LE17QR
United Kingdom.

Registration deadline: 1 June 2012
http://www.le.ac.uk/elh/
£40

Pasted.

Birkbeck College's Early Modern Society paper on John Milton

2012-01-27T07:47:00.001Z

Friday, 23rd March, 2012.

Dr Laura Jacobs, ‘Writing about Blindness in Early Modern England: the case of John Milton (1608-1674)’.

Room to be confirmed.

Conference call for papers: Renaissance Old Worlds: English Encounters from the Levant to the Far East

2012-01-27T07:41:00.002Z

Renaissance Old Worlds: English Encounters from the Levant to the Far East

29th June, 2012 - 1st July, 2012.

The early modern period saw England establishing its first colonies in the New World, but its ideas and expectations about foreign nations, travel and its identity as a political and economic power on the global stage were influenced largely by its experiences in other distant but familiar nations. This conference will investigate English interactions with the ‘old worlds’ of the Middle East, South Asia and the Far East. It will ask how such cross-encounters may have shaped not only the literature, art and cultures of England and the host nations, but also a broad range of intellectual, political, cultural, religious and economic determinants of England’s relationship with the wider world.

Overarching questions to be investigated by the conference include:

(1) How did English cultural memories of the Old World, from art, literature and political events such as conflicts in the Islamic Mediterranean, influence actual travel encounters?

(2) How did information and expertise about distant places circulate, and who were the agents of such circulation (from missionaries, merchants, administrators, and indigenous informants, to artisans and scholars)?

(3) What form did the information take (from maps and texts to material artefacts)?

(4) How did religion inflect political and social negotiations? (How is anxiety about piracy in the Islamic Mediterranean and North Africa, for instance, connected to anxieties about conversion between Christianity and Islam?)

(5) What role did trading companies, both those established by the English and their European trading competitors, play in determining structures of knowledge and cross-cultural encounters?

URL: www.liv.ac.uk/row
Organiser(s): The University of Liverpool and the British Library
Event Location:
The British Library Conference Centre
London
United Kingdom

Call for papers deadline: 1st March, 2012.

Proposals are invited for complete panels of three or four papers, as well as individual papers on one of the following themes:

•Interplay between ‘old worlds’ and ‘new’
•Circulation networks
•Visual and material culture (art, cartography, crafts)
•Trade, diplomacy, piracy
•Gift-exchange
•Religion and conversion
•Translation and transformation

Please send abstracts (250 words for individual papers and 500 words for complete panels) and a brief biographical statement (if proposing a panel, one for each participant) to Nandini Das at row@liverpool.ac.uk by 1 March 2012. Papers should take between 15–20 minutes to present, and panels should last no longer than 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Contact details
Dr Nandini Das
row@liverpool.ac.uk

Pasted.

Keith Wrightson 14. Witchcraft and magic

2012-01-27T07:33:00.002Z

University of Western Australia Conference: Medieval and Early Modern Cultural Appropriations: call for papers

2012-01-26T11:22:00.001Z

UWA Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies
Perth Medieval and Renaissance Group
XVIIIth Annual Conference

“Receptions: Medieval and Early Modern Cultural Appropriations”
St Catherine’s College, The University of Western Australia, Perth
17–18 August 2012

This conference will explore cultural appropriations in, by and of the medieval and early modern world, across a range of disciplines. Three sub-themes are envisaged. They are:

1.The appropriation of earlier cultures by the medieval or early modern world;
2.Cultural exchanges and frontier encounters within the medieval and early modern world; and
3.The reception or appropriation of the medieval or early modern by later periods.

Within these fields, paper proposals on any relevant subject and from any relevant areas of study are welcome. Possible approaches and themes may include, but are not limited to:

•medievalism
•medieval and early modern classicism
•cultural legacies and/or lasting traditions
•conquest & warfare
•migration & settlement
•cultural re-appropriations
•reception of historical and archaeological discoveries
•interactions between different cultural groups, geographically or chronologically
•cultural assimilation
•literary and intellectual appropriations

Plenary speakers
Professor David Konstan (Brown University)
Professor Jacqueline Van Gent (The University of Western Australia)
Associate Professor Louise D’Arcens (The University of Wollongong)

CALL FOR PAPERS
Abstracts of c.300 words for 20-minute papers addressing one or more of the conference sub-themes are encouraged. Proposals for panels are also welcome. Abstracts and a brief 2-3 sentence bio should be emailed to Andrew Lynch or Joanne McEwan by 16 March 2012.

Postgraduate travel bursaries
A limited number of bursaries are available on a competitive basis to honours students, postgraduate students and unwaged early career researchers who will be presenting papers at the Conference. The bursaries are intended to partially reimburse costs associated with attending the Conference. Bursaries of up to AUS$500 may be awarded, on the basis that the applicant is:

•an Honours student currently enrolled at a recognised institution OR
•a Postgraduate student currently enrolled at a recognised institution OR
•an unwaged Early Career Researcher; AND
•is in particular need of funding; AND
•has submitted a paper proposal for the “Receptions: Medieval and Early Modern Cultural Appropriations” conference with this application.
Please see the Bursary Application Form for more information, or to apply.

Registration and accommodation
Registration and accommodation information coming soon. Watch this space.

Public lecture
A free public lecture by Professor David Konstan, sponsored by the Institute for
Advanced Studies, will be presented on 16 August 2012. Please visit the IAS
website for more details.

Sponsors
The Perth Medieval and Renaissance Group
The UWA Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, and
The Institute for Advanced Studies, The University of Western Australia

Enquiries
Please email Andrew Lynch or Joanne McEwan.

Pasted.

Princeton Conference on Renaissance Borders 13-14 April, 2012

2012-01-26T09:42:00.000Z

Renaissance Borders,
Annual Princeton Renaissance Studies Graduate Conference,
Princeton University,
13th – 14th April 2012.
Keynote Speaker: Professor Nigel Smith, Princeton University

From the beginning, conceptualizations of the Renaissance have been concerned with borders: between the classical past and the modern present; between pagan and Christian; between the civilized and the barbarous. Even as the idea of the Renaissance has endured various critiques over the past half century, this attention to borders has only intensified. In current debates about secularization and periodization in Renaissance studies, the boundaries between past and present and between the sacred and the profane have taken on a newly charged intensity. And these period-specific border disputes relate to more general questions in the humanities today: the future of interdisciplinarity; the role of material culture in the study of art; political theology and the development of the liberal state; and Jacques Ranciere’s reading of aesthetics as a “distribution of the sensible.”

Conference organisers invite graduate students from across the disciplines to submit abstracts addressing the issue of borders in the Renaissance, broadly conceived. Topics of interest might include:

■National territory, identity, and art
■Marginalia
■Relations between the disciplines
■Levels of style, genre, and class
■Periodization
■Secularization
■City and country
■Economic, political, and aesthetic distribution
■Citizen, human, creature
■Exceptions and emergencies
Please submit an abstract of no more than 250 words to renaissanceborders@gmail.com by February 1, 2012.

Pasted.

Reading Publics in 15th and 16th-century Europe: Warwick -Newberry Library Workshop

2012-01-26T09:35:00.001Z

Warwick-Newberry Summer Workshop: Reading Publics in Fifteenth- and Sixteenth-Century Renaissance Europe
Vernacular Literature, Platonism, Philosophy, and Medicine
Held at the University of Warwick, Coventry, England

Workshop dates: Monday, July 9, to Friday, July 20, 2012
Application deadline: Friday, March 9

Directed by Simon Gilson, David Lines, and Maude Vanhaelen, University of Warwick

Participants will consider the role of reading in fostering networks, developing ideas, and forging ideological beliefs; the differences and similarities between print and manuscript cultures; and comparisons between reading practices and networks in Italy and other European countries.

Eligibility: Open to advanced graduate students and early postdoctoral scholars in any relevant discipline. Limited enrollment by competitive application; applicants from Center for Renaissance Studies consortium institutions have priority.

Funding: Non-local participants receive housing, meals, and travel expenses.

To apply: Application materials will be uploaded online; see the website above for a link to the application page. If you have questions, please contact renaissance@warwick.ac.uk.

Please forward this message to others who may be interested.

This is one of a series of collaborative programs between the University of Warwick Centre for the Study of the Renaissance and the Newberry Center for Renaissance Studies, funded by a generous grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Newberry Center for Renaissance Studies
60 W. Walton St.
Chicago, IL 60610
312-255-3514

Email: renaissance@newberry.org
Visit the website at http://www.newberry.org/07092012-warwick-newberry-summer-workshop-reading-publics-fifteenth-and-sixteenth-century

Pasted.

Early Modern News Networks meeting in Paris

2012-01-26T09:32:00.002Z

The Early Modern News Networks, which is, in part, organised by Joad Raymond (University of East Anglia), will b eholding a meeting in Paris between 9th and 11th May. Further details can be found here.

Seminar at the Institute of Historical Research today

2012-01-26T09:30:00.000Z

Society, Culture & Belief, 1500-1800 seminar.

Mark Greengrass (Research Fellow, Albert-Ludwigs Universität Freiburg)

The experiential world of Jean Bodin

Venue: Athlone Room 102, Senate House, South block, 1st floor

5.30-7.30 p.m.

Keith Wrightson 13. A Polarizing Society 1560-1640

2012-01-26T09:22:00.002Z

Teaching Fellow in European History 1650-1800 at University College, London University

2012-01-25T09:59:00.002Z

Teaching Fellow in Early Modern European History, 1650-1800.

University College London - History.

Full Time : The appointment will be on UCL Grade 7. The salary range will be £35,557-£38,594 per annum, inclusive of London Allowance.

UCL History Department, which is committed to research-led teaching and attracts highly able and motivated students, is seeking a Teaching Fellow to cover undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and assessment, plus the associated administrative and tutorial duties, while a member of staff is away on a research fellowship.

This is a 10 month fixed term appointment from 1 September 2012.

The successful candidate will have a PhD in early modern European history; the expertise required to teach the courses specified in the job description; experience of teaching in a university department or equivalent;.

For further details about the vacancy and how to apply on line please go to http://www.ucl.ac.uk/hr/jobs/ and search on Reference Number 1229973. For enquiries about the application process, contact Claire M or ley: Claire.mor ey@ucl.ac.uk. For inf or mal academic enquiries contact the Head of Department, Prof. Nicola Miller: nicola.miller@ucl.ac.uk

Closing Date: 17/2/2012
Interview Date: Tuesday 6 March 2012

Pasted.

Sixteenth-Century Society Conference: call for papers

2012-01-25T08:17:00.002Z

The Sixteenth-Century Society Conference will be held in Cincinnati, Ohio between
25th and 28th October. The Society's call for papers can be found here.

Matthew Lyons on Simon Forman's fantasies about Queen Elizabeth I

2012-01-25T08:11:00.001Z

This engaging post can be read here.

University College, Cork seminar

2012-01-25T08:10:00.001Z

1st February 2012.

Wednesday, 4-5pm, ORB_255

Jason Harris, UCC School of History, St Brigid in Paris, 1620: An emblem of Catholic revival.

Pasted.

Keith Wrightson 12. Economic expansion 1560-1640

2012-01-25T07:58:00.002Z

Conference on 'News in Early Modern Europe': call for papers

2012-01-24T18:15:00.001Z

News in Early Modern Europe.

Papers of 20 minutes or proposals for panels of up to three speakers are invited on any aspect of the theme 'news in early modern Europe', for a multi-disciplinary postgraduate conference to be hosted by the Centre for Early Modern Studies at the University of Sussex, 5th-7th June 2012.

Possible topics include (but are not limited to):

News in print; manuscript news; the changes in news reporting across the period; reading the news; politics in the news; religion in the news; censorship and regulation; news and the state; sermons and the delivery of news; news and the stage; news ballads; news from capital to provinces / from city to country; the international exchange of news; the reporting of new ideas and discoveries; sensational news; the consumption of news across genders; specialist news; coteries and news networks; secrecy vs sharing; private vs public; current events in literature; news and credit; the relationship between news and history; digital approaches to working with early modern news.

Please send abstracts of papers (max. 200 words) or panel theme with list of speakers and abstracts to Simon Davies by 31st January 2012.

Pasted.

Associate Research Fellow (Early Stuart period), University of Exeter

2012-01-24T13:11:00.001Z

Associate Research Fellow
Department of English
University of Exeter - College of Humanities
(Ref: R10961/P42913)

Salary: £24,520 - £25,251 per annum on grade E

The College wishes to recruit an Associate Research Fellow to support the work of Professor Andrew McRae. This AHRC-funded post is available on a fixed term basis from 1 April 2012 to 31 March 2015. The successful applicant will support work on 'The Stuart Successions Project', assuming a central position within the project team. This project, for which the Co-Investigator is Dr. Paulina Kewes (University of Oxford), and which will also include two PhD students, aims to revitalize debates about political literature and values across the Stuart era by focusing on writing produced at moments of succession. It will produce an online database, cataloguing the field of succession literature, and generate a range of editorial and analytical work.

The post will include:

•principal responsibility for compiling a database cataloguing items of 'succession literature' produced in response to the accession of each of the six Stuart monarchs (this work is expected to take c.50% of the appointee's time);
•co-editing a volume of primary material;
•writing a single-authored essay for publication in a co-edited volume of essays;
•writing one co-authored journal article;
•presenting work at conferences and colloquia;
•organization of colloquia and public events;
•management of the project website.
The successful applicant will be able to present information on research progress and outcomes, communicate complex information, orally, in writing and electronically.

Applicants will possess a relevant PhD (preferably, though not necessarily, in English), or have a doctorate close to completion, and be able to demonstrate excellent knowledge in the discipline and of research methods and techniques to work within established research programmes. Applicants will be able to demonstrate bibliographical skills and high-level analytical skills. Experience in editing primary texts and/or language-skills (esp. Latin) would be an advantage.

For further information please contact Andrew McRae, e-mail a.mcrae@exeter.ac.uk or telephone (01392) 724258.

The starting salary will be from £24,520 to £25,251 on Grade E, depending on qualifications and experience.

To view further details and apply online please click here.

The closing date for completed applications is 16 February 2012. Interviews are expected to take place on 1st March 2012.

The University of Exeter is an equal opportunity employer which is 'Positive About Disabled People': if you have a disability, you should mention this in your application. Whilst all applicants will be judged on merit alone, we particularly welcome applications from groups currently underrepresented in the workforce.

HOW TO APPLY FOR THIS POSITION:
Please send your CV, covering letter and the details of three referees to, to the College of Humanities Dean's Office (humanities-deans-office@exeter.ac.uk) quoting the job reference R10961/P42913.

Pasted.

Assistant Professor in Early Modern History, Montclair State University, New Jersey, USA

2012-01-24T13:10:00.002Z

Montclair State is New Jersey's second largest university. It offers the advantages of a large university - a broad undergraduate curriculum with a global focus, a wide variety of superior graduate programs through the doctoral level, and a diverse faculty and student body - combined with a small college's attention to students.

Department: History

Division: Academic Affairs

Job Description:

Subject to Available Funding

Expertise in the history of the Mediterranean region during the early modern era (15th-18th centuries. The department welcomes applications from scholars specializing in the social, cultural, economic, environmental and/or political history of any one or more of the Mediterranean’s constitutive regions, including but not limited to the Maghreb, the Levant, and the Balkans, as well as the Anatolian, Aegean, Italian, and Iberian peninsulas. Successful candidate should also be able to contribute to intradepartmental collaborations and to work in existing interdepartmental college- and university-wide programs. Excellent teaching skills and an active research agenda required. Involvement with off-campus institutions and organizations desirable. Evidence of grant seeking ability highly desirable.

Qualifications & Requirements

Earned Ph.D. required at the time of appointment. Excellence in teaching at the undergraduate and graduate levels and an active research agenda required. Willingness to provide service to the department, the university and the profession expected.

Anticipated Start Date : 09/01/2012

Salary Range:

Salary dependent on qualifications.

Apply By: Screening will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled.

Send cover letter and resume to:

Dr. James Woodard, Search Chair
Montclair State University
Box C316- V-F13
Montclair, NJ 07043

Pasted.

Keith Wrightson 11. The Elizabethan 'Monarchical Republic'

2012-01-24T12:07:00.003Z

Religious History of Britain 1500-1800 seminar at the Institute of Historical Research tomorrow

2012-01-23T10:22:00.001Z

24th January, 2012 at 5 p.m.

Peter MacCullogh (Oxford University)

Lancelot Andrewes Reading History

Room ST275, Stewart House, 2nd floor

Brett Parker reviews Takashi Yoshinaka's book on Marvell

2012-01-23T09:05:00.002Z

Takashi Yoshinaka's book, Marvell's Ambivalence: Religion and the Politics of Imagination in Mid-Seventeenth-Century England, has been reviewed by Brett F.Parker for H-Albion. The review can be read here.

Keith Wrightson 10. The Elizabethan Confessional State

2012-01-23T08:45:00.000Z

Keith Wrightson 9. Commodity and Commonweal 1520-1560

2012-01-22T08:44:00.002Z

Lectureship in Early Modern European History at Sheffield University

2012-01-21T10:59:00.002Z

Lecturer in the History of Early Modern Europe
Faculty of Arts and Humanities
University of Sheffield - Department of History

Contract Type: Fixed term for 3 years

Salary: Grade 8: £37,012- £44,166 per annum. Potential to progress to £49,689 per annum through sustained exceptional contribution.

Closing Date: 16 February 2012

Summary:

The Department of History wishes to appoint a Lecturer in the History of Early Modern Europe.

We are one of the most active centres for historical research in the country with a distinguished record of internationally outstanding and innovative historical research. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercises (RAE) we were ranked tied 2nd in the UK for our world-leading research. We also have a vibrant postgraduate research culture, with around 60 research students and our expertise in applying digital technology to historical research informs scholarship and teaching at every level. We teach the history of all periods from late antiquity to the present day, taking in Europe, Africa, America and beyond, and attract highly qualified undergraduate and MA students.

The University of Sheffield has been named UK University of the Year in the 2011 Times Higher Education Awards. We've won this prestigious award because we're a world-class university in a unique city. We are a community true to our civic roots and our straightforward approach informs everything we do, both close to home and around the world.

This is an ideal opportunity for an early career scholar with the potential to achieve an outstanding publication record and excellent teaching ability to join one of the major centres for historical research in the United Kingdom. You will design and deliver research-led teaching on the history of early modern continental and will develop the Department's research profile through the production of high quality publications and attracting external research funding. Post-holders will be expected to contribute to the Department's presence within the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, the wider University and, through outreach and knowledge exchange, in Sheffield and beyond. You will also carry out appropriate administrative duties to a high standard.

You will have a PhD in History or a related subject area (or have equivalent experience), proven teaching ability and the capacity to carry out high quality research and disseminate research findings. The ability to communicate to a variety of audiences is also essential for this position.

The post is fixed term for three years.

For further information, please refer to the departmental website: www.shef.ac.uk/history

To apply for this job please click here and search for the job using the reference number provided or to view current vacancies and apply online please go to: www.sheffield.ac.uk/jobs.

Pasted.

Robert Peake's portrait of Prince Charles (later King) c.1611

2012-01-21T06:34:00.001Z

UCLA: Cross-Cultural Dialogues in Early Modern Europe

2012-01-21T06:23:00.002Z

Cross-Cultural Dialogues in Early Modern Europe

Thursday, February 2, 2012

4:00 pm - 6:00 pm, Royce Hall - Room 314

A Textual Seminar

Admission
Pre-registration is required. Please email cjsrsvp@humnet.ucla.edu or call (310) 267-5327 to RSVP.

Contact
UCLA Center for Jewish Studies
(310) 267-5327
cjsrsvp@humnet.ucla.edu

There are several dialogues at stake here simultaneously: A dialogue between long-standing friends and colleagues; a dialogue with antiquity in the spirit of the "Renaissance," a dialogue between contemporary readers and pre-modern texts, and finally a dialogue between Christians and Jews in early modern Europe.

Texts under discussion will include those of the Italian Jews Judah Messer Leon (c. 1420-c. 1497) and Simone Luzzatto (1583-1663), and those of the Protestants Johannes Buxtorf (1564-1629) and Joseph Scaliger (1540-1609).

About the speakers:

•Anthony Grafton is the Henry Putnam University Professor of History and the Humanities at Princeton. His books include Joseph Scaliger: A Study in the History of Classical Scholarship (Oxford, 1983-93); Christianity and the Transformation of the Book (Harvard, 2006); and Worlds Made by Words (Harvard, 2008). He is currently at work on a study of histories of Christianity in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe and (with Joanna Weinberg) on a study of Isaac Casaubon's Judaic studies.
•David B. Ruderman is the Joseph Meyerhoff Professor of Modern Jewish History and the Ella Darivoff Director of the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of many books including, Kabbalah, Magic, and Science: The Cultural Universe of a Sixteenth-Century Jewish Physician (Harvard UP, 1988); Connecting the Covenants: Judaism and the Search for Christian Identity in Eighteenth-Century England (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007) and Early Modern Jewry: A New Cultural History (Princeton, 2010).

Sponsored by the UCLA Center for Jewish Studies. Cosponsored by the UCLA Department of History and UCLA Center for European and Eurasian Studies.

Pasted.

Keith Wrightson 8. Reformation and Division 1530-1558

2012-01-21T06:06:00.000Z

Matthew Lyons on 'State Terror in Early Modern Ireland'

2012-01-20T06:38:00.004Z

Matthew Lyons has a new post on the activities of Sir Humphrey Gilbert in Elizabethan Ireland and on how he gained his reputation for subduing the Irish. It can be read here.

North American Conference on British Studies: call for papers for its annual conference in November, 2012

2012-01-20T06:37:00.002Z

NORTH AMERICAN CONFERENCE ON
BRITISH STUDIES
ANNUAL MEETING
Montreal, Quebec
NOVEMBER 9-11, 2012

The NACBS and its Northeastern affiliate, the Northeast Conference on British Studies, seek participation by scholars in all areas of British Studies for the 2012 meeting. We will meet in Montreal, Quebec, from November 9-11. We solicit proposals for panels on Britain, the British Empire and the British world. Our interests range from the medieval to the modern. We welcome participation by scholars across the humanities and social sciences.

We invite panel proposals addressing selected themes, methodology, and pedagogy, as well as roundtable discussions of topical and thematic interest, including conversations among authors of recent books and reflections on landmark scholarship. We are particularly interested in submissions that have a broad chronological focus and/or interdisciplinary breadth. North American scholars, international scholars and Ph.D. students are all encouraged to submit proposals for consideration. Complete panel or roundtable proposals that consider a common theme are more likely than individual papers to be successful. Panels typically include three papers and a comment; roundtables customarily have four presentations. Individual paper proposals will also be considered, but we urge those with single paper submissions to search for additional panelists on lists such as H-Albion or at venues such as the NACBS Facebook page. Applicants may also write to the Program Chair for suggestions (nacbsprogram@gmail.com).

All scholars working in the field of British Studies are encouraged to apply for the 2012 conference, though we particularly welcome submissions from those who did not appear on the 2011 program. Panels that include both emerging and established scholars are encouraged: we welcome the participation of junior scholars and Ph.D. candidates beyond the qualifying stage. To foster intellectual interchange, we ask applicants to compose panels that feature participation from multiple institutions. No participant will be permitted to take part in more than one session and no more than one proposal will be considered from each applicant.

Submissions will be taken at www.nacbs.org/conferences.html from late January through March 1, 2011.

If you have questions about the submission process or suggestions for program development, please contact
Susan D. Amussen
NACBS Program Chair
Professor of History
University of California, Merced

Pasted.

Keith Wrightson 7. Late Medieval Religion and its critics

2012-01-20T06:26:00.002Z

With my thanks to Yale University and YouTube.

Courtauld Institute of Art: lecture on Melchior Lorck's Prospect of Constantinople (1559)

2012-01-19T10:19:00.001Z

Lecture on 'Inscription and the Horizon in the Early Modern Mediterranean: Melchior Lorck’s Prospect of Constantinople (1559)'

24th January, 2012.

Bronwen Wilson (Associate Professor, Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory, University of British Columbia, Vancouver)

In 1554 the Danish artist Melchior Lorck was ordered by the Holy Roman Emperor to accompany his ambassador, Augier Ghiselin de Busbecq, to Suleyman’s court. There in Istanbul Lorck began his immense prospect of the ancient city that he drew from Galata, the international suburb across the Golden Horn. In the center foreground Lorck has depicted himself in the act of drawing the scroll. While this is a topos in early modern city views, the flourish of his pen, extended in his right hand, encourages association of the numerous inscriptions that he has written on the surface of the drawing with the calligraphic lines of the sails of the vessels that animate the Golden Horn. Lorck was also clearly attentive to the frontier—to the extent of what could be seen from the eight vantage points that would constitute the prospect as a whole. Inscription and the horizon, Bronwen Wilson proposes, are pictorial forms that reference two different ways of engaging with the world: the embodied experience of mark making with its material traces of, or claims to, the artist’s presence, and anticipation about what lies adumbrated in the distance. Yet these two modes of visualizing the near and the far are not mutually exclusive. Embodied temporality often comes up against the durational character of the horizon, a temporal concept that resonates with early modern usage of the term prospect to refer to an “outlook, aspect, exposure” as well as to “expectation”.

Open to all, free admission, 17.30 - 18.30, Kenneth Clark Lecture Theatre

The Courtauld Institute of Art
Somerset House Strand
London WC2R 0RN
United Kingdom

Pasted.

Keith Wrightson 6. The Structures of Power

2012-01-19T09:53:00.001Z

Today at the Institute of Historical Research

2012-01-18T07:31:00.001Z

Torrington Room (104) at 5 p.m.

History of Political Ideas Seminar/Seminar B

Lynda Lockyer (Warburg)

Polemic, propaganda, and political thought in the book In Defence of the Holy Emperor Charles (1527)

Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship competition: Keele University, U.K.

2012-01-18T07:29:00.000Z

Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship 2012 competition.

Keele University - Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.

The Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Keele University has committed resources to support two applications to the 2012 Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship competition. We invite expressions of interest from eligible candidates in any of our research strengths.

For details of these areas please see http://www.keele.ac.uk/risocsci/ or http://www.keele.ac.uk/rihums/

Early Career Fellowships aim to provide career development opportunities within the United Kingdom for those who are at a relatively early stage of their academic careers but with a proven record of research.

Decisions about which applications will be supported in the 2012 round will be made by an academic panel comprising the Dean of the Faculty, Research Institute Director and Heads of Research Centres.

The deadline for submission is 12pm on Monday 13th February 2012

How to apply:

If you are interested in applying please:

•Read the full details for the scheme at the Leverhulme Trust's website and ensure that you are eligible to apply: http://www.leverhulme.ac.uk/funding/ECF/ECF.cfm
•Discuss your application with Professor Ann Hughes, the Director of the Research Institutes for the Humanities and Social Sciences: a.l.hughes@his.keele.ac.uk, or the relevant Head of Centre (see the Research Institute web pages for further details http://www.keele.ac.uk/risocsci/ or http://www.keele.ac.uk/rihums/)
Application guidance and further details:

www.keele.ac.uk/risocsci/newsandevents/leverhulmeearlycareerfellowship2012/

Pasted.

Non-Stipendiary Research Fellowships at Wolfson College, Oxford

2012-01-18T07:28:00.001Z

Non-Stipendiary Research Fellowships In Humanities & Social Studies 2012
Wolfson College, Oxford.

The College proposes to elect up to 12 non-stipendiary Research Fellows in Humanities and Social Studies, if candidates of sufficient merit present themselves, without limitation of subject, from 1 October 2012. Candidates will be required to be engaged in research work within an Oxford University Department or Faculty, and to spend the greater part of the academic year in Oxford.

These Research Fellowships are intended equally for those with limited research experience (who have recently completed or are shortly about to complete a doctorate), and for those who are becoming established scholars in their field.

All Fellowships carry Common Table rights (currently up to £40.00 a week for Fellow's meals in Hall), and other benefits, and are open to both men and women. Preference will be given to candidates who have not already held a Fellowship at the same level at another College.

Tenure and Renewal

Research Fellows will be elected for three years in the first instance, and may apply for renewal for a further four years (to a maximum of seven years). Renewal, which is not automatic, is subject to approval by the Governing Body and is considered on the basis of satisfactory progress in research, evidence of adequate financial support for the further term, and good standing in the College. (The completion of a doctorate will be necessary in order to apply for renewal.)

Funding

The Fellowships are non-stipendiary. Candidates are asked to demonstrate their financial independence with evidence of their means of support. Where funds are applied for but not confirmed, any offer will be conditional on proof of funding being provided before the start of the Fellowship.

References

Candidates should themselves write directly to three referees asking them without further request to send a confidential reference to the President's PA by the closing date (Monday 5 March 2012). No more than 3 references will be accepted. E-mailed references are preferred, but may be faxed to the President's PA.

Applications

Applications, typed or clearly printed, including a completed application form, a full curriculum vitae (including a full list of publications), and the names of three referees, should be sent to the President's PA, Wolfson College, Oxford OX2 6UD, by 9.00 a.m. Monday 5 March 2012. Candidates should also include details of past research and of the research they will be doing in Oxford. Any additional information relevant to the application should be included in the covering letter. Please send applications by hard copy, and not by email (without prior consultation with the President's PA).

Research Fellows are not ipso facto members of the Governing Body of the College, but they are eligible to sit on nearly all College committees, and may be elected as representative members of the Governing Body.

TIMETABLE

Application forms available at the College Lodge and on the College website: http://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/fellowships/ or from the President's PA, Wolfson College, Oxford OX2 6UD

Closing Date: Friday 2 MARCH 2012 - 4.00 p.m.

Typed or clearly printed applications should reach the President's PA by the closing date.

The College reserves the right not to accept applications received after the closing date.

Candidates notified: During week: MONDAY 23 APRIL - FRIDAY 27 APRIL 2012

Short-listed candidates will be notified during this week, normally by e-mail or telephone

Interview Date: THURSDAY, 3 MAY 2012 - all day

No alternative interview date will be offered, but it may be possible to make different interview arrangements for overseas or long distance candidates.

N.B. The College regrets that it is unable to offer financial assistance towards travelling expenses.

ENQUIRIES: The President's PA, Wolfson College, Oxford OX2 6UD

Tel: (01865) 274102

Fax: (01865) 274136

e-mail: sue.hales@wolfson.ox.ac.uk

Pasted.

Lectureship in Shakespeare and Early Modern Drama at the University of Nottingham, U.K.

2012-01-18T07:26:00.001Z

Shakespeare & Early Modern Drama
University of Nottingham - School of English
Salary: £32,751 - £44,016 per annum, depending on skills and experience, salary progression beyond this scale is subject to performance.

Please quote ref: CE/06740A.

Closing date: 10 February 2012.

Interview date: Friday 27 April 2012.

The School of English is seeking to appoint a lecturer to undertake teaching and research in Early Modern Drama and Performance. The successful candidate will cover undergraduate teaching on core and optional team-taught first- and second-year modules as well as providing specialist option modules in drama and literature for third year students in the area of Shakespeare and Early Modern Drama. Postgraduate teaching responsibilities will include team teaching on a planned new collaborative Masters programme with the School of Education, an MA in Creative and Professional Practice in Arts and Education, as well as on distance learning programmes. In addition to contributing to the recruitment, supervision, and examination of doctoral students, it is expected that the successful candidate will assist with the development of short courses as part of the School's work in the area of continuing and professional development.

Candidates should have a PhD, or equivalent in a relevant area of English or Drama/Performance.

This post will be offered on a full time, permanent contract.

Informal enquiries may be addressed to Professor Julie Sanders, Head of School,
tel: 0115 846 7040 or email: julie.sanders@nottingham.ac.uk. Please note applications sent directly to this email address will not be accepted. Further information about the School is available at: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/english.

For more details and/or to apply on-line please access: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/Jobs/CurrentVacancies/ref/CE06740A. If you are unable to apply on-line please contact the Human Resources Department, tel: 0115 951 5206. Please quote ref. CE/06740A. Closing date: 10 February 2012. Interview date: Friday 27 April 2012.

For all our vacancies and more about working at the University of Nottingham see: http://jobs.nottingham.a

Pasted.

Keith Wrightson 5. "Countries" and Nation

2012-01-18T07:16:00.001Z

Centre for Reformation and Early Modern Studies at Birmingham University: promotional video

2012-01-17T07:52:00.002Z

Keith Wrightson 4. Communities

2012-01-17T07:51:00.002Z

Keith Wrightson. 3. Households: structures, etc.

2012-01-16T11:18:00.001Z

Tomorrow's seminar at the Institute of Historical Research

2012-01-16T10:51:00.001Z

17th January.

Professor Richard Cust (Birmingham)

The House of Lords 1640-42 (title to be confirmed)

This seminar will take place in ST273 (previously, ST274)

Alexander Cowan

2012-01-16T10:44:00.001Z

Alexander Cowan, the historian of early modern towns, has died. The Guardian carries an obituary here.

Interdisciplinary French 17th-century Studies Conference: call for papers

2012-01-16T10:42:00.003Z

Society for Interdisciplinary French 17th-Century Studies

31st Annual Conference, Wellesley College Wellesley, MA, USA November 8-10, http://se

Organizer/ Présidente du colloque: Hélène E. Bilis, Wellesley College hbilis@wellesley.edu

Scholars from all disciplines are invited to submit abstracts of 300 words maximum (in English or French) for papers related to the topics listed below. Abstracts should be sent by email directly to the session chairs by May 4, 2012. Papers are limited to twenty minutes. 1. Conversion and Belief / Conversion et croyance Chair / président : Meredith Martin, Wellesley College mmartin@wellesley.edu 2. Honor and Shame / L’ Honneur et la honte Chair/ président: Elizabeth Goldsmith, Boston University ecg@bu.edu 3. Scandals and Quarrels/ Scandales et querelles Chair/ président: Mathilde Bombart, Université Lyon 3 mathilde.bombart@univ-lyon3.fr 4. Dreams / Les Rêves Chair/ président: Michael Meere, College of the Holy Cross meere.michael@gmail.com 5. Queer seventeenth century/ Le dix-septième siècle queer Chair/ président: Guillaume Peureux, Université Rennes 2 gpeureux@hotmail.com 6. Censorship / La Censure Chair / président : Jeffrey Ravel, Massachusetts Institute of Technology ravel@mit.edu Pedagogy Panel / Séance Pédagogique: Chair / président: Hélène Vissentin, Smith College hvisenti@smith.edu 1. Teaching the seventeenth-century from a comparative perspective / Enseigner le dix-septième siècle dans une approche comparée 2. Open topic / Séance ouverte

Pasted.

Wallace Notestein

2012-01-15T14:53:00.004Z

From the Bain Collection in the Library of Congress.

John Wincop and the Pilgrim Fathers

2012-01-15T11:11:00.003Z

John Wincop is best known to historians of New England as the recipient of the patent granted in the summer of 1619 (Records of the Virginia Company, Volume I, Pp.221, 228) for the use of the Pilgrim Fathers, who later settled at New Plymouth. William Bradford's text describes Wincop as a gentleman belonging to the Countess of Lincoln, in other words, the wife of the 3rd Earl of Lincoln. Some sources describe him as a clergyman while others give less definite information. I am interested in Wincop because his appearance in this context may throw a little reflected light on the religious views of the household of the 3rd Earl of Lincoln and, by implication, on the religious background in which the 4th Earl grew up.

It is possible that John Wincop or Wincuppe is the figure identified in the Exchequer papers in the National Archives at Kew who moved to the town of Boston in Lincolnshire in the mid-1620s. These entries can be found in the catalogue of the TNA:

E 115/416/56 Certificate of residence showing John Wincope (or the variant surname: Wincupp) to be liable for taxation in Lincoln, and not in the wapentakes of Elloe, etc, Lincolnshire, the previous area of tax liability. (Any information not given in this certificate comes from its old pouch, no 1765. 1623-1624.)

E 115/428/84 Certificate of residence showing John Wincope (or the variant surname: Wincupp) to be liable for taxation in Lincoln, and not in the wapentake of Kirton, etc, Lincolnshire, the previous area of tax liability. (Any information not given in this certificate comes from its old pouch, no 2648. 1625-1626.)

This identification is plausible but not certain. However, a John Wyncupp can also be found in proceedings in the House of Lords early in June, 1628 as a witness in a dispute over property in Lincolnshire between the 4th Earl of Lincoln and Sir Henry Fines. The House of Lords ruled in the 4th Earl's favour after it had heard evidence from Wyncupp, who was the Earl's tenant. This material can be found in Volume 5 of the Yale edition of Parliamentary Proceedings for 1628 and in House of Lords Record Office HL/PO/JO/10/1/36. I am more inclined to think, on the balance of probabilities, that this may refer to the patentee of 1619 but a greater degree of certainty remains to be achieved.

Copyright: Christopher Thompson

Keith Wrightson's lectures: Part 2 on the Social Order in Early Modern England

2012-01-15T07:40:00.001Z

Pasted from Youtube from the original posted by Yale University.

Keith Wrightson's General Introduction to Early Modern English history

2012-01-14T11:43:00.001Z

This is Part 1 of a series of lectures given by Keith Wrightson (Yale University).

Steven Pincus (Yale university) on '1688: the first modern revolution'

2012-01-14T07:56:00.002Z

Deadline today for Lectureships in Early Modern History at the University of Manchester

2012-01-13T08:21:00.001Z

Lecturers or Senior Lecturers in Early Modern History
The University of Manchester - School of Arts, Histories and Cultures
Closing date : 13/01/2012
Faculty / Organisational unit : Humanities
Salary : £32,751 to £55,758
Reference : HUM-00424

Note that these posts were previously advertised as Lecturer level only. Due to increased investment it is now possible to [offer] appointment at Lecturer or Senior Lecturer level.

The University of Manchester invites applications for three Lectureships/Senior Lectureships in Early Modern History. You will contribute to established courses but also have the opportunity to devise, agree and offer your own courses at UG and MA level, and supervise doctoral students.

You will have both research and teaching interests focused in the History of Britain and/or Europe between 1500 and 1815. Candidates with an interest in the relations between Europe and wider world will also be considered. Level 1 teaching will include contributing to the core course, 'History in Practice', and to a broad survey course in Early Modern History that includes both Continental and British topics. At Level 2 you will contribute to a more advanced course in Early Modern History. At Level 3 and MA level, you will devise and teach your own specialist courses.

The posts will be available from 1 September 2012.

Informal enquiries

Informal enquiries can be made to Professor Daniel Szechi (email: daniel.szechi@manchester,.ac.uk, tel: 0161 275 3081) or Professor Paul Fouracre (email: paul.j.fouracre@manchester.ac.uk, tel: 0161 275 3086)

The University of Manchester values a diverse workforce and welcomes applications from all sections of the community.

Click here for Employer Profile

Pasted.

Conrad Russell (September, 2003)

2012-01-13T08:06:00.001Z

Nigel Jones's review of Hugh Trevor-Roper's Wartime Journals

2012-01-12T19:41:00.002Z

This relatively short review can be found by following the link here.

Call for Papers: Les Ministres et les arts sous Louis XIV

2012-01-12T19:36:00.002Z

CFP: Les ministres et les arts. Les ministres et les arts sous Louis XV

Deadline: 29th February, 2012.

Tours and Blois, France

3-4 July 2012

L’exposition organisée sous le patronage du Conseil général du Loir-et-Cher Le naturel exalté. Marigny, ministre des arts au château de Menars (du 30 juin au 22 septembre 2012) est l’occasion pour la communauté scientifique de s’intéresser à la part que les ministres de Louis XV ont prise dans l’évolution des arts, qu’il s’agisse de politique publique ou à l’échelle individuelle, du goût et du mécénat.

C’est sous le règne de Louis XIV qu’on atteint le point culminant d’une instrumentalisation des arts au service du pouvoir, dont Versailles et ses collections d’œuvres d’art sont sans doute l’illustration la plus spectaculaire. Louis XV, malgré la transformation de la Surintendance des bâtiments du roi en Direction générale (moins prestigieuse), conserve l’attachement de son aïeul aux académies dont il accepte d’être le « Protecteur ». Afin d’égaler la gloire de Louis le Grand, Louis XV se sert à son tour des arts, poursuit « la folie de la bâtisse », continue de commander peintures, sculptures, et objets d’art pour marquer son règne.

Cette continuité politique est néanmoins marquée par une rupture esthétique au tournant du XVIIe siècle et vers 1750, la France, sous l’impulsion de la Direction des Bâtiments du roi, passe du règne de la rocaille à l’empire du goût à la grecque. Si le marquis de Marigny reste le personnage clé de cette mutation, s’arrêter à cette seule figure serait par trop restrictif car cette remarquable évolution s’inscrit dans un mouvement continu des arts tout au long du règne. Il convient ainsi de s’intéresser également à l’œuvre conduite par les prédécesseurs et les successeurs de Marigny sous le règne de Louis XV : le duc d’Antin, Philibert Orry, Charles-François Le Normant de Tournehem, l’abbé Terray, sans oublier également, dans une certaine mesure, les autres ministres.

Fait remarquable l’abbé Terray et Philibert Orry furent également surintendants des finances. Ainsi, à deux reprises au cours du règne, deux des axes majeurs de la politique de Louis XV sont-ils rassemblés sur la tête d’un même ministre. Dans quel but, avec quels résultats ? Au-delà de cette situation conjoncturelle, on se demandera si la politique des arts influe ou non sur la commande des ministres, si ces derniers sont porteurs d’un message régnicole ou s’ils se comportent « comme de simples particuliers » lorsqu’ils commandent pour eux-mêmes bâtiments et œuvres d’art. À cet égard, les artistes choisis révèlent des partis pris, un goût, des réseaux qu’il conviendra également d’étudier. Enfin, ce colloque se propose d’étudier également la réception de la commande ministérielle.

Axes de recherche du colloque

•Architecture et pouvoir ministériel
•Quand les arts s’unissent à la finance
•Les frontières entre actions publiques et commandes privées
•« Grand goût », goût du luxe et collections chez les ministres
•Ministres et politique des arts au crible du public
Comité Scientifique

Christian Michel (professeur, université de Lausanne)
Véronique Moreau (conservateur au musée des Beaux-arts de Tours)
Monique Mosser (ingénieur d’étude CNRS-université Paris 4-Sorbonne)
Daniel Rabreau (professeur émérite, université Paris 1)
Anne-Cécile Tizon-Germe (conservateur des Archives départementales du Loir-et-Cher)
Michel Verger-Franceschi (professeur, université de Tours)

Modalités pratiques

Les propositions de communication, sous forme d’un résumé n’excédant pas 2 000 signes, sont à envoyer avant le 30 février 2012 au comité scientifique à l’adresse suivante :

Christophe.Morin@univ-tours.fr

Colloque organisé par l’Équipe d’accueil InTRu Interactions, transferts, ruptures artistiques et culturels avec le soutien de l’association GHAMU, du Conseil général du Loir-et-Cher et du Conseil scientifique de l’université François-Rabelais de Tours

Pasted.

Part Two of Keith Thomas interviewed by Alan MacFarlane

2012-01-12T19:34:00.001Z

Keith Thomas interviewed by Alan MacFarlane: Part One

2012-01-12T07:29:00.001Z

Early Modern Literature seminar at Oxford University

2012-01-12T07:26:00.001Z

Early Modern Literature Graduate Seminar.

5 pm; Breakfast Room, Merton College

Tuesday 17 January:
Raphael Lyne (University of Cambridge):
'Attention, Performance, and the Early Modern Stage Ghost'

Tuesday 31 January:
Martin Dzelzainis (University of Leicester):
'Marlowe's Massacre at Paris: inside the "royal cabinet"'

Tuesday 14 February:
Discussion of Stephen Greenblatt, The Swerve: How the Renaissance Began
(in anticipation of CEMS conference with Professor Greenblatt, 15-16 May)

Tuesday 28 February:
Victoria Moul (King’s College London):
‘Some Horatian odes in early modern England’

All interested are welcome. Drinks will be served after the seminar.
Sharon Achinstein, Paulina Kewes, David Norbrook, Emma Smith, Bart van Es

Seventeenth-Century Natural History, Medicine and the 'New Science' Conference

2012-01-12T07:20:00.001Z

History Comes to Life: Seventeenth-Century Natural History, Medicine and the 'New Science'

27th April, 2012.

The day conference 'History Comes to Life: Seventeenth-Century Natural History, Medicine and the "New Science"' will be held on Friday, 27 April 2012, 9 a.m. to 5:30p.m. at the Royal Society, London.

This conference considers the interrelationships between medicine and the endeavour of natural history in the seventeenth-century. It will be held to commemorate the 300th anniversary of Martin Lister (1639-1712), Royal Physician and the first arachnologist and conchologist. The meeting will not only address Lister's work but will consider to what extent practices and technologies of natural history changed between the Renaissance and the seventeenth century. We will also explore how acquisition of natural history knowledge and new schemes of taxonomy affected perception and treatment of animals for medical and experimental use.

Speakers and session chairs include: 

•Prof. Tim Birkhead FRS, University of Sheffield;
•Dr Isabelle Charmantier, University of Exeter; 
•Prof. Anita Guerrini, Oregon State University; 
•Dr Sachiko Kusukawa, Trinity College, Cambridge; 
•Dr Gillian Lewis, St. Anne's College, Oxford; 
•Dr Dániel Margócsy, Hunter College; 
•Dr Brian Ogilvie, University of Massachusetts, Amherst;
•Dr Anna Marie Roos, University of Oxford;
•Dr Charlotte Sleigh, University of Kent;
•Dr Alexander Wragge-Morley, University College, London.
The conference is organised by Dr Anna Marie Roos and sponsored by Cultures of Knowledge, University of Oxford, and the Mellon Foundation; The Fell Fund; The British Society for the History of Science; the Royal Society; and the Wellcome Trust.

The conference fee is £40 (full fee), or £30 (student/retired/unemployed). The conference fee includes lunch and refreshments. An optional conference dinner will be organised at an extra cost of £35. There are a limited number of student bursaries available to assist with conference fees and other expenses.

Registration for this event is now open online at:

http://royalsociety.org/events/2012/history-comes-to-life/

Please email Felicity Henderson (felicity.henderson@royalsociety.org) with any queries about this event.

Pasted.

Early Modern theories of the soul: University College, London seminar

2012-01-12T07:17:00.001Z

UCL Centre for Early Modern Exchanges: Seminar

Richard Serjeantson (Cambridge): The soul and the human sciences before the Enlightenment

Guido Giglioni (Warburg): Bacon on the soul

4.30pm, Wednesday, 18th January, Foster Court Room 114.

Matthew Lyons on John Callis, Elizabethan pirate

2012-01-12T07:11:00.002Z

Matthew Lyons has just put up an interesting post on the attitude of the Elizabethan uathorities to the activities of the pirate, John Callis. It can be read here.

Conference in honour of Jenny Wormald on 28th January

2012-01-11T10:37:00.001Z

Kings, Lords and Men in Scotland and Britain, 1400-1625: A Tribute to the Work of Jenny Wormald.

One Day Conference, Saturday, 28th January, 2012.

In a career that has taken her from Glasgow to Edinburgh, via two decades in Oxford, Jenny Wormald has been one of the most prolific and influential historians of late medieval and early modern Scotland and Britain. This conference in Jenny's honour has been organised by her Edinburgh colleagues Steve Boardman and Julian Goodare. It brings together a number of her friends and fellow-scholars to debate and advance some of the themes that Jenny has brought to the fore in her own work.

In Jenny’s celebrated early paper ‘Taming the Magnates?’, and in other works, she revolutionised the study of fifteenth-century Scotland. She later went on to bring fresh insights to the sixteenth century as well, providing a framework for the study of ‘lordship’ that has been followed by all others since. The title of the conference echoes that of her influential monograph, Lords and Men in Scotland: Bonds of Manrent, 1442-1603 (Edinburgh: John Donald, 1985). Jenny’s work also extends beyond Scotland, and we are pleased that some English scholars have accepted the invitation to look at some Anglo-Scottish themes.

The breadth of Jenny's Scottish interests appears in her recently-edited textbook Scotland: a History (Oxford: OUP, 2005). Her British interests are exemplified in her most recent edited book, The Seventeenth Century (Oxford: OUP, 2008), in the series The Short Oxford History of the British Isles. She is about to publish The Oxford Handbook of Modern Scottish History (Oxford: OUP, 2012), co-edited with T. M. Devine.

One overarching theme for the conference is the nature of the transition from the late medieval to the early modern periods. Few scholars work both on the fifteenth century and on the sixteenth century, and even fewer are equally at home in either - but Jenny is one of those who bridges this divide. By bringing together a group of late medieval and early modern scholars, we hope to be able to take stock of the continuities and contrasts between these two adjacent periods, and learn from one another about where we should go from here.

Pasted.

Early Modern European History post at Randolph-Macon College, Virginia, USA

2012-01-11T10:20:00.002Z

Randolph-Macon College seeks candidates for an entry level tenure-track appointment in the Department of History, beginning September 2012. Ph.D. required; teaching experience preferred. Will require the ability to teach major courses on Early modern England; training in the following would be valued: Early Modern France, Reformation, Renaissance, Women’s History.

Randolph-Macon College seeks candidates for an entry level tenure-track appointment in the Department of History, beginning September 2012. Ph.D. required; teaching experience preferred. The successful applicant will have an understanding of, and a sympathy for, a coeducational, collegial, undergraduate, liberal arts environment. The annual seven course teaching load (4 in general education, 3 in major) will require the ability to teach major courses on Early modern England; training in the following would be valued: Early Modern France, Reformation, Renaissance, Women’s History. Information about the History Department, its curriculum, and faculty can be found at http://www.rmc.edu/academics/history.aspx. Interested candidates should submit electronically a cover letter addressing teaching philosophy and research interests, curriculum vitae, statement of teaching philosophy, statement of research interests, unofficial graduate transcripts, and three letters of recommendation to Ms. Susan Timberlake (stimberl@rmc.edu), subject line European History. If possible, please submit as one attachment titled with the candidate’s last name and first initial.

Review of applications will begin in mid-January & continue until the position is filled. Women and minorities are strongly encouraged to apply. EOE

Pasted.

Keith Thomas on 'The Ends of Life'

2012-01-11T08:24:00.001Z

IHR seminar on Friday

2012-01-11T08:19:00.002Z

The History of Gardens and Landscapes seminar at 5.30 p.m.

Malcolm Thick

The Perfect Gentleman’s Estate in the work of John Smith and other seventeenth-century writers.

Court Room, Senate House, South block, 1st floor.

Lectureship in History (any period) at Nottingham Trent University

2012-01-11T08:05:00.001Z

Lecturer in History
Nottingham Trent University - School of Arts and Humanities
College of Arts and Science

Post Ref No: M2577

£29,972 - £33,734 per annum
Grade: H

Campus: Clifton campus

Additional info - Fixed term contract for 23 months

Based in the School of Arts and Humanities, Clifton campus, this is a fixed-term appointment for 23 months with the possibility of renewal or transfer to a permanent contract. Research in the School is rich and diverse; with staff conducting internationally recognised and world leading research. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, 80% of research within the School was judged to be of international quality.

Researchers in the School work in collaboration with a range of scholars from across the academic community in Britain and Ireland, continental Europe, North America, Australia and the Far East. This has the benefit of creating a varied and dynamic research community with links throughout the world that enhance research and the experience of research students from around the world as well as feeding in to undergraduate and postgraduate curricula at Nottingham Trent University.

Applications are sought from candidates with research and teaching interests within any field of History.

Candidates with developed research plans and a publication profile are especially encouraged to apply. Applicants should have a strong research background with evidence of the ability to publish in top international journals and should have the aptitude to teach to the highest standards at both undergraduate and master's levels. Potential applicants are encouraged to visit the School's website in order to ascertain current teaching areas and research strengths.

If you have any specific queries in relation to this position, please contact:

•Professor Nahem Yousaf via e-mail: nahem.yousaf@ntu.ac.uk
Closing date: Thursday 09 February 2012

Further application details are available at www.ntu.ac.uk/vacancies. If you require documentation in alternative formats (e.g. Braille, large print) please contact us at job.vacancies@ntu.ac.uk

Please quote appropriate Post No. when applying or in the event of a query.

CVs will only be accepted when submitted with a fully completed application form.

Nottingham Trent University is committed to promoting equality and valuing diversity and we seek people who share those values.

www.ntu.ac.uk

Applications from candidates who require Tier 2 sponsorship to work in the UK will be considered alongside other applications. However, candidates who require sponsorship will not be appointed if a suitably qualified, experienced and skilled settled worker is available as it is unlikely that Nottingham Trent University can demonstrate the UK Border Agency requirements for sponsorship have been met. For further information on this please visit the UK Border Agency website.

Pasted.

Mark Stoyle on Witchcraft in Exeter 1558-1660

2012-01-10T09:30:00.000Z

Friends of RAMM spring lecture: Witchcraft in Exeter 1558-1660

Using new research, Mark Stoyle, Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Southampton, will tell the story of some of the unfortunate Exeter men and women who were accused of witchcraft by their neighbours during the late 16th and early 17th centuries and shows that executions of supposed witches in the city began more than a hundred years earlier than the history books suggest.

7pm £5 tickets available from 16 January by post from Friends Ticket Sales, RAMM, Queen Street, Exeter EX4 3RX (cheques made payable to Exeter City Council; please enclose a stamped addressed envelope) or from RAMM’s receptions.

Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Queen Street, Exeter Devon EX3 4RX
Thursday 29 Mar 2012

Pasted.

Today at the Institute of Historical Research

2012-01-10T09:20:00.000Z

Religious History of Britain 1500-1800 seminar.

Paul Cavill (Leeds University)

'De heretico forisfaciendo: Felony forfeiture and the punishment of heresy'.

Venue: Room ST275, Stewart House, 2nd floor

Alan MacFarlane (King's College, Cambridge) interviewed in 2008

2012-01-09T10:27:00.001Z

Alan MacFarlane's 2008 interview with Clarinda Still (LSE) can be seen here. Macfarlane studied witchcraft in Essex and the early modern community of Earls Colne before becoming an anthropologist.

Assistant Professor in History (1450-1750) at Trinity College, Dublin: deadline for applications at noon on Friday

2012-01-09T10:06:00.002Z

Assistant Professor in History between c.1450 and c.1750.

University of Dublin, Trinity College - Department of History, School of Histories and Humanities.

Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.

3-year contract

Main Campus

Salary: The appointment will be made on the Department of Education and Skills approved Lecturer salary scale in line with current government policy

Closing Date: 12 Noon on Friday 13th January, 2012

The School of Histories and Humanities seeks to make a temporary appointment in History. The post will be located in the Department of History. Applicants will be expected to possess a doctorate and a sound research profile in an aspect of the period between c.1450 and c.1750. Applicants with any research specialism in this period are encouraged to apply, and we would particularly welcome those with an interest in either later fifteenth and/or sixteenth-century Ireland/Britain OR in colonial American history.

In the first semester of appointment, the successful applicant will contribute to first and second-year teaching and thereafter to develop Honours modules, and to contribute to all levels of teaching and supervision undertaken by the department: extramural, undergraduate and taught postgraduate.

We are, in short, seeking an individual with vision and enthusiasm, a genuine commitment to the vital role of teaching at all levels, and flair for innovation in module design and teaching methods. Interested applicants will have an established record of research and show clear potential for future research accomplishment. Candidates will also show an appreciation for other research activities represented in both the Department, and the School of Histories and Humanities. The post-holder will be required to undertake administrative responsibilities as directed by the Head of Department.

The post is tenable for three years from 16 January 2012.

Informal enquiries are welcome and may be made to the Head of Department:

Dr David Ditchburn (ditchbud@tcd.ie)

Telephone: +353 1 896 2399

Further information and full applications details are available on www.tcd.ie/vacancies

Applications can only be made by e-Recruitment.

Trinity College Dublin is an equal opportunities employer.

Pasted.

Irish Rebellion of 1641 and the Depositions Project

2012-01-08T16:05:00.001Z

I am most grateful to Keith Livesey for helping me to make the link to this video and to embed it here. His blog, The Trumpet of Sedition, has more of the papers at the conference in Trinity College, Dublin held on 22nd October last year.

Deadline on Call for Papers for Reading University's Early Modern Conference is tomorrow

2012-01-08T11:23:00.002Z

Reading Early Modern Conference
e
12th July - 14th July, 2012.

The Reading Early Modern Conference continues to establish itself as the place where early modernists meet each July for stimulation, conversation and debate. As in previous years, proposals of individual papers and panels are invited on research in any aspect of early modern studies relating to Britain, Europe and the wider world. This year, the plenary speakers are Professor Paul Yachnin (McGill), director of the ‘Making Publics’ project, and Professor John Morrill (Cambridge).

We would welcome proposals for individual papers and panels on any aspect of early modern literature, history, art, music and culture. Panels have been proposed on the following themes and further panels or individual papers are also invited on these topics or any other aspect of early modern studies:• Making publics• Gathered texts: print and manuscript• Politics and Biblical Interpretation• Negotiating early modern women’s writing• Passionate bodies, passionate minds• Prince Henry: role, rite, and rhetoric.

Proposals for panels should consist of a minimum of two and a maximum of four papers. Each panel proposal should contain the names of the session chair, the names and affiliations of the speakers and short abstracts (200 word abstracts) of the papers together with email contacts for all participants. A proposal for an individual paper should consist of a 200 word abstract of the paper with brief details of affiliation and career.Proposals for either papers or panels should be sent by email to the chairman of the Conference Committee, Dr. Chloë Houston, by 9 January 2012.

Proposals are especially welcome from postgraduates. The conference hopes to make some money available for postgraduate bursaries. Anyone for whom some financial assistance is a sine qua non for their attendance should mention this when submitting their proposal.

URL: http://www.reading.ac.uk/emrc/conferences/emrc-conference.aspx

Organiser: Dr Chloe Houston

University of Reading, Reading, Berkshire RG6 6AA

Call for papers deadline: 9 January 2012
c.houston@reading.ac.uk

Chloe Houston
c.houston@reading.ac.uk

Pasted.

The Oxford Historian Issue IX 2011

2012-01-07T19:18:00.002Z

THE OXFORD HISTORIAN: ISSUE IX 2011

Every now and again, the latest edition of The Oxford Historian drops through my letterbox. It is a very well produced publication which aims to bring former undergraduates who read history for their first degrees at the University as well as ex-postgraduates and dons up to date with developments in the History Faculty. There is always a report from the Chairman of the History Faculty Board, currently Chris Wickham, as well as articles from retired dons and serving ones giving insights into their activities, interests, research and writing. The one that came this weekend contained the usual eclectic mixture, some of it new, some of it old.

Cliff Davies (better known as C.S.L.Davies of Wadham College until his retirement in 2001) offers a reprise of his sceptical views about the Tudor dynasty first aired in the pages of The Times Literary Supplement in 2009. He argues that English and Welsh people living between 1485 and 1603 would not have recognised themselves as the subjects of the Tudors, a term rarely if ever used, let alone as existing in the post-medieval period. Historians inevitably use inappropriate terms and cannot explain the lives of people in the past using only the terminology of the time. But, provided they recognise these difficulties and do not impose them without thinking through the implications, it is possible to employ them sensibly.

I enjoyed Lyndal Roper’s account of her work in writing a biography of Martin Luther, the first, so she thinks, by a female social and cultural historian. Her task is complicated not just by the bulk of Luther’s writings – 67 volumes in all – but also by the legacy of the post-1945 division of Germany in the crumbling buildings of Wittenberg outside its centre and in the relative paucity of studies of the towns of the East, the heartland of post-1517 Lutheran influence.

There was, however, an even more interesting account from Norman Davies of his intellectual journey from being an undergraduate at Magdalen College to becoming a teacher of French by accident at St Paul’s School in London and onwards to language studies in Cambridge and Brighton. A chance encounter with a Polish poet and his wife on the promenade at Brighton turned his attention to Poland itself where he went to study at Jagiellonian University. There he found several historians who were surviving under the puppet regime installed by the Soviet Union and its Communist Party stooges. Three years behind the Iron Curtain gave Davies the impetus to start writing on the history or histories of Eastern Europe. He has not stopped doing so to all our benefits.

It is to the Oxford Historian’s credit that it includes two pieces by Natalia Nowakowska and Jonathan Jarrett on their blogging activities as historians. What is more alarming is the account by Chris Wickham of a new venture to establish a Global History Centre in Oxford: this Centre will be charged with instituting a new dialogue between imperial, transnational and comparative histories, exploring the meanings of the concept ‘global’ (sic), constructing a global history of rights, studying the development of economic interdependence and its non-linear relation to technological transfer and scientific interchange, the movement of peoples as against the movement of ideas and practices, the roles of lingua francas in history, and a history of the world that both decentres Europe and includes it as part of the collective development of the world’s peoples. The mangled expressions and over-stretched syntax of this scheme, which has the support of the University, testifies to its origins in political correctness. Robert Evans, whose valedictory Dacre lecture is also reprinted, chose as his subject the humour of history and the history of humour: naturally enough, he cited Hugh Trevor-Roper’s remarks on more than one occasion. Trevor-Roper would have known exactly how to describe this ill-conceived exercise.

North American Conference on British Studies 9-11th November, 2012: call for papers

2012-01-07T10:44:00.002Z

NORTH AMERICAN CONFERENCE ON BRITISH STUDIES ANNUAL MEETING

(Montreal, Quebec.)

NOVEMBER 9-11th, 2012

The NACBS and its Northeastern affiliate, the Northeast Conference on British Studies, seek participation by scholars in all areas of British Studies for the 2012 meeting. We will meet in Montreal, Quebec, from November 9-11. We solicit proposals for panels on Britain, the British Empire and the British world. Our interests range from the medieval to the modern. We welcome participation by scholars across the humanities and social sciences.

We invite panel proposals addressing selected themes, methodology, and pedagogy, as well as roundtable discussions of topical and thematic interest, including conversations among authors of recent books and reflections on landmark scholarship. We are particularly interested in submissions that have a broad chronological focus and/or interdisciplinary breadth. North American scholars, international scholars and Ph.D. students are all encouraged to submit proposals for consideration. Complete panel or roundtable proposals that consider a common theme are more likely than individual papers to be successful. Panels typically include three papers and a comment; roundtables customarily have four presentations. Individual paper proposals will also be considered, but we urge those with single paper submissions to search for additional panelists on lists such as H-Albion or at venues such as the NACBS Facebook page. Applicants may also write to the Program Chair for suggestions (nacbsprogram@gmail.com).

All scholars working in the field of British Studies are encouraged to apply for the 2012 conference, though we particularly welcome submissions from those who did not appear on the 2011 program. Panels that include both emerging and established scholars are encouraged: we welcome the participation of junior scholars and Ph.D. candidates beyond the qualifying stage. To foster intellectual interchange, we ask applicants to compose panels that feature participation from multiple institutions. No participant will be permitted to take part in more than one session and no more than one proposal will be considered from each applicant.

Submissions will be taken at www.nacbs.org/conferences.html from late January through March 1, 2011.

If you have questions about the submission process or suggestions for program development, please contact
Susan D. Amussen
NACBS Program Chair
Professor of History
University of California, Merced
nacbsprogram@gmail.com

Pasted.

Next week's seminars at the Institute of Historical Research

2012-01-07T10:33:00.003Z

Reigious History of Britain seminar.

Tuesday, 10th January at 5.15 p.m.

Paul Cavill (Leeds University)

De heretico forisfaciendo: Felony forfeiture and the punishment of heresy

Venue: Room ST275, Stewart House, 2nd floor

Cardinal Mazarin by Bouchart

2012-01-06T10:05:00.000Z

The Execution of Charles I outside the Banqueting House in Whitehall

2012-01-06T10:03:00.001Z

Siobhan Talbott (Manchester University)

2012-01-06T10:01:00.000Z

Lecture on Reformation and Regency in 16th-century Scotland at Rice University, Texas on 2nd February, 2012.

2012-01-05T14:10:00.002Z

Reformation & Regency in Sixteenth-Century Scotland by
Amy Blakeway (Fulbright-Robertson Visiting Professor of British History
Westminster College, Missouri).

Thursday, 2nd February, 2012.5:00 p.m.to 6:30 p.m. in a location to be announced at
Rice University, 6100 Main St, Houston, Texas, USA.

Dr. Blakeway is an historian of early modern Scotland and her current research focuses on the role of regents in the political and religious culture of the 16th century. For more information contact Aysha Pollnitz (aysha.pollnitz@rice.edu) or 713-348-3526.

Pasted.

Patrick Collinson's last volume of essays reviewed

2012-01-05T13:54:00.002Z

Patrick Collinson's last volume of essays entitled This England: Essays on the English Nation and Commonwealth in the Sixteenth Century has been reviewed by Sarah Waurechen (McGill University) for the Institute of Historical Research. The review can be read here.

H-Albion's new book review editor for 1540-1688

2012-01-05T10:53:00.001Z

Siobhan Talbott (University of Manchester) is H-Albion's new book review editor for the 1540-1688 period. Further details can be found here.

Folger Shakespeare Library exhibition on the King James Bible: last ten days

2012-01-05T10:51:00.001Z

Folger Exhibitions: The King James Bible

Manifold Greatness, which tells the story of the creation of the King James Bible and the book's ongoing cultural influence closes at the Folger this month. Explore the dynamic history of the King James Bible, from its roots in earlier English translations to its appearance in popular culture. Plus, exhibition curator Hannibal Hamlin dispells some famous King James Bible myths, and the interactive Read the Book feature allows you to read the text, listen to commentary, or hear recordings of selected passages.

A traveling exhibition of Manifold Greatness will be on tour throughout the U.S. until 2013. Check the tour schedule to see if it's coming to a city near you.

Exhibition closes at the Folger Jan 16!
Open Daily
10am to 5pm, Monday to Saturday
12pm to 5pm, Sunday

Pasted.

Richard Cust at the Institute of Historical Research

2012-01-04T09:34:00.001Z

17th January, 2012.

Professor Richard Cust (University of Birmingham)

The House of Lords 1640-42 (title to be confirmed)

Please note: this session takes place in ST273, i.e. in the South Tower of Senate House.

Statue of Oliver Cromwell outside the Houses of Parliament

2012-01-02T10:24:00.000Z

12th June: Canterbury Cathedral Library in the 17th-century

2012-01-02T10:20:00.001Z

Tuesday, June 12th (5.30pm-7.30pm).

Guard Room at Lambeth Palace.

Seminar on the History of Libraries (2011-12) - Dr. David Shaw (Canterbury):

Interpreting the Benefactors’ Book: a documentary and bibliographical account of Canterbury Cathedral Library in the seventeenth century.

Seminar on Matthew Parker (3rd April, 2012)

2012-01-01T10:18:00.001Z

Tuesday April 3 (5.30pm-7.30pm)
Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU.

Seminar on the History of Libraries (2011-12).

Elizabeth Evenden (Newnham College, Cambridge): Selectivity and Survival: Matthew Parker and the Role of the Codex in Early Modern England

Roger Williams reviewed

2011-12-31T11:14:00.008Z

The New York Times carried a review yesterday by Joyce E.Chaplin of John M.Barry's biography of "Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul". It can be read via the link here. One of her comments struck me with particular force, namely, the observation that the first one-third of the book is devoted to Williams's life in England. This appears to imply that so much coverage is unnecessary in a book devoted to a man who settled in North America from 1630 onwards. I have no doubt that it took considerable courage for Roger Williams like other migrants from England to cross the Atlantic to make their lives in the fledgling colonies of New England (and the Chesapeake). They had left what was, with the exception of the United Provinces, the most advanced country in Europe with highly sophisticated political mechanisms, cultural, intellectual and religious practices for exile in what appeared to many English people to be an uncultivated wilderness. But Williams remained an Englishman (rather than becoming an American in embryo) as did his fellow migrants. They depended to a greater or lesser degree on links with their home country for trade and the sustenance of their culture. Barry's decision was right: it is Chaplin's comment that is historically odd.

Diarmaid MacCulloch knighted

2011-12-31T10:57:00.001Z

Diarmaid MacCulloch, the Professor of Church History at the University of Oxford, is to be knighted for his services to scholarship. The announcement was made in today's New Year's Honours List.

Bibliographical Society Lecture: The English private Library in the 17th-century

2011-12-30T11:06:00.001Z

Tuesday February 21 (6pm) (University College, Gower Street, London) Bibliographical Society - (Pearson Lecture Theatre; Tea in the North Cloisters)

The Presidential Address: David Pearson: The English private library in the seventeenth century

Nicholas Tyacke

2011-12-30T11:00:00.000Z

Emeritus Professor at University College, London.

Thomas More's reputation

2011-12-30T10:59:00.001Z

Marie Stirling of the University of Sheffield has a short essay on Sir Thomas More's reputation on its History Department's blog. It can be found here.

The Journal of Sir Roger Wilbraham goes missing

2011-12-29T20:22:00.002Z

I have been giving a lot of attention over the last few days to Conrad Russell's work on Jacobean Parliaments. As I expected, he was not acquainted with the considerable body of work to be found in thesis form covering the Parliaments of 1604-1610 and 1610 - those of Angela Britton, Lindquist and Munden spring readily to mind. More surprisingly, he did not use the Journal of Sir Roger Wilbraham for the first of these although he did employ it for the Addled Parliament. This is a curious omission. I just wonder if the Trevelyan Lectures given in early 1995 at Cambridge were hurriedly written.

Princeton University Graduate Conference on Renaissance Borders in April, 2012

2011-12-28T12:03:00.001Z

Renaissance Borders: Annual Princeton Renaissance Studies Graduate

Deadline: 1 February 2012

Princeton University, USA

13-14 April 2012

From the beginning, conceptualizations of the Renaissance have been concerned with borders: between the classical past and the modern present; between pagan and Christian; between the civilized and the barbarous. Even as the idea of the Renaissance has endured various critiques over the past half century, this attention to borders has only intensified. In current debates about secularization and periodization in Renaissance studies, the boundaries between past and present and between the sacred and the profane have taken on a newly charged intensity. And these period-specific border disputes relate to more general questions in the humanities today: the future of interdisciplinarity; the role of material culture in the study of art; political theology and the development of the liberal state; and Jacques Ranciere’s reading of aesthetics as a “distribution of the sensible.”

We invite graduate students from across the disciplines to submit abstracts addressing the issue of borders in the Renaissance, broadly conceived. Topics of interest might include:
- National territory, identity, and art

- Marginalia

- Relations between the disciplines

- Levels of style, genre, and class

- Periodization

- Secularization

- City and country

- Economic, political, and aesthetic distribution

- Citizen, human, creature

- Exceptions and emergencies

Please submit an abstract of no more than 250 words to renaissanceborders@gmail.com by February 1, 2012.

Pasted.

Conrad Russell's Trevelyan Lectures

2011-12-26T12:08:00.002Z

The Journal of British Studies for January, 2012 is now available and has a two page review by David L.Smith (of Selwyn College, Cambridge) of Conrad Russell's last work, King James VI & I and his English Parliaments edited by Richard Cust and Andrew Thrush. I shall be interested to see this review, especially since I shall be seeing one of my former tutors who evidently has this work for review early in January to discuss it. I do, however, wonder if a review of two pages is long enough to do justice to the issues raised by this work.

Off the beaten track

2011-12-26T12:07:00.000Z

The Comanche Empire

Occasionally, one reads book reviews that offer strong encouragement to buy and devour the work under review itself. Much more rarely, the review induces a strong desire to read another book altogether. That is certainly the case for me now that I have read Roger Hodge’s assessment in the London Review of Books (15 December. Pages 28-30) of S.C.Gwynne, Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanche Tribe. Hodge finds Gwynne’s account of the ordeal of the Parker family at the hands of the Comanches and of the fall of the Comanche empire highly entertaining but lacking a coherent historical thesis. He prefers the work of Pekka Hamalainen, The Comanche Empire, which traces the origins of the Comanche people to the migration out of the Sierra Nevadas and the Great Basin of Numic peoples in the early part of the second millennium: their descendants became the Shoshones, the parent group of the Comanches. The other great body of migrants speaking Uto-Aztecan languages moved south eventually founding the Aztec empire. By the sixteenth-century, the Shoshone had reached the Great Plains of North America where they developed advanced hunting techniques as a transhumant people. An offshoot of the Shoshone - the Comanche - moved south a century or more later to search for game and ponies. It was this movement that brought the Comanches into contact with European traders and the horses that transformed their fortunes. They became mounted raiders terrorising the settled Spanish-speaking peoples of New Mexico and pueblo Indians like the Apache and Navajo. By the mid-1720s, the Arkansas Valley had fallen under Comanche control and the tribe was engaged in trading relationships with the English and French colonists as well as with the Spanish-controlled borderlands of Texas and New Mexico. The research of Hamalainen and others like Thomas Kavanagh has shown how the Comanches developed sophisticated, decentralised politics that depended on the alliances of local groups, on kinship and trade links to protect and promote their interests. As long as it suited them, the Comanches abided by treaties with their neighbours, whether native or colonial, although there were persistent tensions with the Apache and Osage peoples and continuing temptations to raid along the Rio Grande river and into New Mexico’s north-eastern provinces. For a time, in the 1780s until 1821, the Spanish authorities in Texas and New Mexico succeeded in establishing relatively stable relationships with the Comanche but that situation terminated with the end of the Spanish Empire. The Comanches themselves probably reached the apogee of their power stretching from the Rio Grande Valley to the Mississipi and Missouri rivers in the early part of the nineteenth century: they dictated terms by then to their neighbours rather than the other way around. But the Comanche were not the environmentally friendly occupants of their land that romantic figures in recent decades have sometimes supposed: they killed far more buffalo than they needed for subsistence and over-exploited their hides. When drought came in the mid-1840s, demographic decline and military failure followed. Surrender became inevitable. Ironically, by raiding the frontiers of New Mexico and Texas so ruthlessly for over a century, they had helped to prepare the way for American conquests. All this is tantalisingly paraded in front of readers of Hodge’s review. What is of great interest to me concerns the evidence upon which Hamalainen and others have rested their analyses. Some of it must be based on the written archives of the Spanish rulers of central America and on the records of English and French settlers and their local administrations. There must be archaeological evidence and linguistic material too. I suspect that the work of anthropologists and of ethnographic historians figures as well. It has all been assembled to offer a sophisticated account of a tribe one might, in ignorance, have supposed to be beyond the reach of conventional history. I am most impressed and my order for Hamalainen’s book will be on its way.

Keith Thomas on 'Universities under Attack'

2011-12-25T09:33:00.003Z

This month's edition of the London Review of Books carries an article - originally a talk given by him at a conference at King's College, London on 26th November - by Keith Thomas about the problems facing universities in this country. His observations are set against the background of his own experience as a Fellow of St John's College, Oxford from 1957 when he was free, like his colleagues, to teach as he thought fit, to investigate what he thought appropriate as research topics and to express his views as a university teacher without fear of professional retribution from any faculty bureaucrat or external administrator. Admittedly, Oxford colleges like the university itself were special places if only because they had funds of their own, were largely self-governing and subjected to little outside interference. Indeed, the whole university sector was subject to a light-touch regime administered by the University Grants Committee which distributed the Treasury's grants for the support of capital projects, research and teaching. This benign regime oversaw the creation of the 'new' universities of the 1960s with their novel curriculums. Since then, however, the relentless expansion in the number of students, the creation of polytechnics - universities themselves since 1992 - and the development of systems of micro-management at university level and above has destroyed the virtues of the older system without creating anything better in its place. The introduction of tuition fees for students, the conversion of research councils into little more than government agencies, the misguided Research Assessment Exercises - now known as the Research Excellence Framework - which attempts to measure the productivity of university teachers and the impact of their work, all have proved retrograde steps. Keith Thomas calls for changes to the Research Excellence Framework to enhance recognition of quality rather than quantity, for longer gaps between each round of assessment, and for the extrusion of institutions only engaged in vocational training and conducting no research from the university sector. He also believes that lobbying via the House of Lords and mobilising a wider public constituency in the country may help to relieve the current predicament facing universities. I have to say that I am a little disappointed by his prescription. It has been clear for many decades that, if the State funds universities, it will call the financial and administrative tune. There is nothing civil servants and politicians like more than extending their reach, introducing new 'reforms' and calling for universities to contribute more directly to economic growth, thus providing extra resources for governments to spend. What was Keith Thomas advocating in the 1960s, 1970s and later when the current apparatus was being put in place? What this country needs is a more diverse university system, with more private funding and non-State sources of finance. It also needs its leading universities - Oxford and Cambridge - to bid farewell to government funding and to set themselves free from State interference. Keith Thomas is still an Oxford don. I look forward to him arguing such a case in Congregation, the university's governing body.

Patrick Wallis (LSE) on Apprenticeship and Training in Pre-Modern England

2011-12-24T18:59:00.003Z

Patrick Wallis's paper on this subject can be found here.

Nations and Empires of the Early Modern Period: conference call for papers

2011-12-24T14:12:00.001Z

Early Modern Colloquium of the University of Michigan

Nations and Empires of the Early Modern Period

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

March 9-10 2012

Keynote Speakers: Joyce MacDonald, University of Kentucky, and Daniel Vitkus, Florida State University

The Early Modern Colloquium, a graduate interdisciplinary group at the University of Michigan, is seeking submissions for a conference on the construction of nations and empires in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe. This conference will engage with the idea of emerging and changing national identities in this period. More specifically, it will investigate the particular social dynamics that characterize negotiations between categories such as the foreign and the domestic or the individual and the state. How is the status of the nation and its inhabitants defined? How does the cultural production of nation engage with shifting political realities? Do changes in geographical borders or ideologies produce new discourses of difference in terms of race, religion, gender, sexuality, class, and/or disability?

We welcome papers that examine how early modern writers, collectives, and cultures grappled with these questions within a series of interrelated realms—e.g., academic, artistic, economic, epistemological, geographical, legal, medical, occult, philosophical, private, public, religious, scientific, and theatrical. Potential topics might include radical religious dissent, the rise of Protestantism and/or the Counter-Reformation, colonialism and expansion in the Americas, the beginnings of the slave trade, the shift from monarchy to commonwealth in seventeenth-century England, relations between the East and West, or European interactions with the Ottoman Empire.

Please send a 250-word abstract to Cordelia Zukerman (czukerma@umich.edu) and Leila Watkins (lrwatkin@umich.edu) by January 15, 2012.

Pasted.

Lyndal Roper (Regius Professor of Modern History, University of Oxford)

2011-12-23T09:43:00.000Z

Keith Wrightson (Yale University)

2011-12-23T09:39:00.000Z

Workshop on Inventories and Courtly Spaces 1400-1700 in Lisbon 12-14th January, 2012

2011-12-22T11:58:00.002Z

Inventories and Courtly Spaces, 1400-1700

Workshop 12th-14th January, 2012.

Inventories constitute a fundamental source for the study of courtly life and the spaces in which it took place. Plans and the buildings that have survived allow us to study the materiality of the spaces and their organization. Descriptions of ceremonies, banquets and receptions can be combined with the knowledge of those spaces to complete it and provide a more thorough understanding of their functioning. Inventories add an additional layer to complete the picture. They are fundamental for reconstructions of the interior decoration of palaces on special, celebratory occasions, as well as in everyday life situations. They can provide information on the types of objects, the terminology used, their materials and colours, their shapes and their values, their location inside the palace, their function, and sometimes even about who offered them and on which occasion. Inventories can be a priceless source for the construction of historical knowledge.

This workshop focuses on the methodological problems raised by inventories as sources for the analysis of space in courtly contexts between 1400 and 1700. Keynote speakers are David Starkey (London School of Economics) and Fernando Checa (Universidad Complutense de Madrid). Attendance is free but registration is required. The workshop is organized by the Bragança research project "All His Worldly Possessions" within the framework of the European Science Foundation Research Networking Programme "PALATIUM. Court Residences as Places of Exchange in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe (1400-1700)".

Organiser(s): Nuno Senos and Jessica Hallet (CHAM Universidade Nova de Lisboa & Universidade dos Açores, Portugal)

Location: Fundação Gulbenkian (Lisbon) & Palácio Nacional (Sintra)
Lisbon - Sintra
Portugal.

Registration details
Registration deadline: 9 January 2012
http://www.cham.fcsh.unl.pt/teodosio.html

Contact details
Nuno Senos
nuno.senos@gmail.com
Pieter Martens
pieter.martens@asro.kuleuven.be .

Pasted.

Fernand Braudel

2011-12-21T20:04:00.001Z