CFP: New Worlds, New Publics (02/01/08; 09/25/08-09/27/08)

New Worlds, New Publics: Re(con)figuring Association and the Impact of European Expansion, 1500-1700
The Newberry Library, Chicago
September 25-27, 2008
This symposium and the publication to follow from it are funded by the interdisciplinary project on Making Publics: Media, Markets and Association in Early Modern Europe, 1500-1700. Supported by a Major Collaborative Research Initiative grant from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, this project examines the various forces that shaped the emergence and evolution of “publics”: open-membership groups that coalesced around practices, interests, ideas, values and forms of publication or performance in the early modern period.
Accounts of the cultural, intellectual, social and spiritual transformations of early modern Europe have often weighed the role of new media, technologies, techniques and markets, while ignoring the impact that new geographic discoveries had on the Old World beyond the purview of politics and economics. These discoveries not only expanded the horizons of European thought but, more essentially, called into question the certainties of classical and religious teachings. The result was a twofold opportunity fraught with practical concerns and constraints: the challenge to go beyond the known, looking outward, and to look again inward with new eyes and new expectations.
This symposium proposes to examine the effects that these various
processes had upon publics in Europe and in the new domains of European expansion and influence. How did racial, ethnic and cultural differences impact upon traditional concerns, modes of thought, institutions, practices or forms of association? Did “positionality,” one’s physical location, affect the publics found there? For example, how did Puritan publics in Europe differ from those in America? Did the publics of Spanish Creoles in America differ from those of Peninsular Spaniards? Were the roles of science and the arts the same in European publics at home and abroad? And more generally: how was the creation and evolution of publics informed by European discoveries in Africa, Asia, America and elsewhere in the early modern period? How did these new publics differ, especially in the eyes of their members, from traditional bodies such as guilds, universities, congregations or parliaments?
The symposium will consist of a keynote address and four plenary sessions, with twenty to thirty 30-minute papers, between Thursday and Saturday, 25-27 September 2008. It is likely that some financial support will be available to help defray the travel and lodging expenses of those chosen to give papers.
Proposals (1-page abstracts + brief CVs) and inquiries should be sent to the symposium director, Professor David A. Boruchoff (McGill University) at: newworlds2008_at_mcgill.ca. Proposers are encouraged to consult the Making Publics website (www.makingpublics.mcgill.ca). The deadline for receipt of proposals is 1 February 2008.

CFP: ACLA ‘08: Coming up for Heir: Identities & Sexualities Let Loose in the Early Modern Age

Coming up for Heir: Identities & Sexualities Let Loose in the Early Modern Age (deadline for submission of paper abstracts: Nov. 17, 2007)
Seminar Organizers: Cheryl Goldstein, Cal State Long Beach, Nhora Serrano, Cal State Long Beach
The European Early Modern Age designates a period that spans from the Quatrocento to the Enlightenment, between the 15th and 18th centuries. Known for its rich interconnectedness between cultures and languages, it was a fertile period that witnessed monumental political and historical shifts such as the accelerated Christianization of many non-Western populations as well as the advent of the Age of Exploration. As the many kingdoms, languages and burgeoning countries (city-states) in Western Europe were reshaping and redefining their own cultural and political identities, Early Modern writers were engaging with polemics of the day asserting and confronting their own identities and sexualities within and outside the domain of the written word. Male and female writers express a fascination with a turn to the classical golden age explaining the epistemological and philosophical shift and pursuing questions of subjectivity and representation. Our panel will reflect on the nature of these variously recorded identities and their engagement with community as a cultural and visual exercise.
We welcome papers addressing cross-cultural, interdisciplinary approaches, in particular those that engage in both verbal and visual genres.
ACLA website for more information: http://www.acla.org/acla2008/
ACLA conference: April 24-27, 2008.
To submit a 250 word abstract, please go to ACLA website: http://www.acla.org/submit/

CFP: Queen Elizabeth I Society (12/1/07;3/6-8/08)

CALL FOR PAPERS
Annual Meeting of the Queen Elizabeth I Society
Suggested Topics: the Queen in relation to the art, architecture, history, literature, politics, and music of her reign
Held in conjunction with:
Exploring the Renaissance 2008: An International Conference Kansas City, 6-8 March 2008
Keynote Speakers:
Robert Bucholz
Charles Beem
Mary Ellen Lamb
Deadline: abstract of 400-500 words by 1 December 2007.

Submitting an abstract: All abstracts must be submitted on the South Central Renaissance
Conference website (http://scrc.us.com). When asked “Submit abstract to which organization,” choose QEIS from the pulldown menu, fill out the form, and click “Send.” Then send a brief email giving the title of the paper and the date you submitted the abstract to the President of QEIS, Donald Stump (stump_at_slu.edu). Papers are limited to 20 minutes.
South Central Renaissance Conference website:
http://SCRC.us.com
Queen Elizabeth I Society website:
http://www.qeis.org

Conference: Material Readings in Early Modern Culture, 1550-1700

Material Readings in Early Modern Culture, 1550-1700
A Symposium at the University of Plymouth, 11-12 April 2008
This two-day symposium held at the University of Plymouth explores the significance of the materiality of manuscript and printed texts in the early modern period. By comprehensively focussing on the material aspects of texts (both in terms of their physicality and the materiality of social practices) as a new and valuable way of reading and decoding meaning, it aims to provide a thorough reassessment of the intrinsic
natures of and developing relationships between cultures of manuscript and print from the late sixteenth century through to 1600. Avowedly interdisciplinary, a central purpose of the conference is to foster vigorous dialogues between print and manuscript studies, critical bibliography and history of the book, palaeography and diplomatics, and social and cultural history. It is intended that papers will examine a broad range of texts, both canonical and non-traditional, print and manuscript, and will treat the following key areas:

• The material, practices and processes of textual composition and production; manuscripts, drafting and editions
• The technologies and tools of writing
• Interpreting the uses of paper, quills, ink, desks, presses
• The significance of space and the design of texts; the layout of the manuscript and printed page; script and white space; type and typography; paratextual apparatus
• The space of textual production; the social context and location of writing
• The social signs, codes and cues inscribed within texts
• The distribution and dissemination of texts
• Environments of reading and reception
• Marginalia and practices of reading
• The material text as object or thing
Key Speakers include
Professor Maureen Bell (University of Birmingham)
Professor Cedric Brown (University of Reading)
Dr Christopher Burlinson (Emmanuel College, Cambridge)
Professor Victoria Burke (University of Ottawa, Canada)
Dr James Daybell (University of Plymouth)
Dr Jonathan Gibson (Royal Holloway)
Dr Peter Hinds (University of Plymouth)
Professor Mark Knights (Warwick University)
Professor Arthur F. Marotti (Wayne State University, USA)
Professor Steven N. Zwicker (Washington University, St. Louis)
For further details please email: james.daybell_at_plymouth.ac.uk, or
peter.hinds_at_plymouth.ac.uk.

CFP: The Rise of the Mercantile Economy and Early Modern Women, an interdisciplinary forum in EMWJ

Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal (EMWJ) invites scholars from diverse disciplines to explore how the rise of the mercantile economy affected early modern women. Responses to the forum prompt, available in its entirety online at http://www.emwjournal.umd.edu, should be 1300 words in length and might consider some of the following questions: What was the new ideal for the merchant’s wife in the context of the mercantile economy? How did this ideal differ from the aristocratic one? Were women involved in money lending, money changing, investments, and bills of exchange? Did the activities of the merchant’s wife and the ideal of the feminine differ
according to geography, nationality, or religious affiliation?

The deadline for forum contributions is October 31, 2007.
Please address all email queries and electronic copies to emwjournal_at_umd.edu

CFP: Affectation from the Renaissance to Today (3/1/08; MLA ‘08)

Affectation from the Renaissance to Today. (Proposed Special Session for MLA Annual Convention, San Francisco 2008.)

What makes a person seem “affected” rather than natural, and why should it matter? Since the concept of affectation became current during the Renaissance (in part thanks to texts such as Castiglione’s The Courtier) many playwrights, philosophers and novelists have tried to codify and dramatize the difference between “affected” and spontaneous or natural behavior. This distinction, however, is frequently blurred by the ambiguity of motives and gestures. Indeed, some might argue that the effort to distinguish between truthful feelings and affected ones is doomed to failure. Yet these efforts and the difficulties they encounter arguably tell us a great deal about the particular historical and cultural moments in which they occur. For instance, Shakespeare’s use of the word “affected” to mean both deeply moved, in some contexts, and insincere, in other contexts, suggests the basic instability of his concepts of emotion and sincerity. Moreover, this example is but one aspect of a long and complex debate about the idea of affectation, since the attempt to tell truth from falsehood in emotions and gestures remains fraught with political, sexual, epistemological and ontological anxiety.

All genres, traditions, periods and approaches are welcome. 1-2-page abstracts or 8-page papers by 1 March, 2008. Brad Buchanan (buchanan_at_csus.edu)

[Editor's note: I thought this might be especially interesting for those of you working on feminine virtue being/seeming etc.]

CFP: Reading and Writing Recipe Books: 1600-1800 (1/31/08; August 08)

Reading and Writing Recipe Books: 1600-1800

University of Warwick

8-9 August 2008

Keynote Speakers:
Margaret Ezell (English, Texas A&M University)

Mary Fissell (History of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University)

Gilly Lehmann (Universite de Franche-Comte)

Janet Theophano (Folklore and Folklife, University of Pennsylvania)

This international interdisciplinary conference will provide a much-needed environment that allows recipe book scholars to meet and discuss important issues such as comparative methodologies and periodization, thereby offering a key opportunity to shape the course of future research on this genre.

CALL FOR PAPERS:

Proposals for 20 minute papers on any aspect of recipe book studies are welcome, though we particularly encourage papers on the following topics:

• Methodological essays from the disciplines of history of medicine, literature, material culture, culinary history, etc.
• Periodization of generic conventions
• Possibilities of new scholarly directions (e.g. recipe books as life-writing sources)
• Editing recipe books for modern audiences
• Evidence of larger cultural influences, such as gender, social status, and geography
• How manuscript and printed recipe collections relate to one another

Please send your 300 word proposal to one of the co-organisers:

Michelle DiMeo (m.m.dimeo_at_warwick.ac.uk) or Sara Pennell (s.pennell@_at_oehampton.ac.uk)

The deadline for submission is 31 January 2008.

For more information, please see www.warwick.ac.uk/go/recipebooksconference

Details on travel bursaries for students and junior faculty will be updated on the website.

CFP: Performing Pedagogy: Gender and Instruction in Early Modern England

CALL FOR PAPERS
Performing Pedagogy: Gender and Instruction in Early Modern England
Editors seek articles of 5000-7000 words, including notes, for a proposed book-length collection entitled Performing Pedagogy: Gender and Instruction in Early Modern England.
We seek essays discussing models of childhood (particularly girlhood) educability as they were applied in domestic, religious and school settings and as they were rehearsed in the dramas of Shakespeare and his contemporaries.
Articles may address questions such as
* How is the instruction of children gendered?
* What effects result from the gender of the parent/teacher and the gender of the child?
* How do early modern educational theories and practices intersect with popular ideas about gender, class and national identity?
* In what ways is the cultural narrative of parental schooling under pressure during the Tudor and Stuart era?
* How did women understand their own educational experiences and how did they imagine their roles in the education of their children, particularly their daughters?
* What is the relationship amongst non-literary texts and the representation of pedagogy on the early modern stage?
* With regard to dramatic representation, how is pedagogy performative and how it is performed on stage?
Send detailed proposals or finished articles along with a 1-2 page curriculum vitae by December 1, 2007 to both editors, preferably electronically:
Professor Kate Moncrief, Department of English, 300 Washington Avenue, Washington College, Chestertown, MD 21620. kmoncrief2_at_washcoll.edu Professor Kate McPherson, Department of English, Mailcode 153, Utah Valley State College, 800 West University Parkway, Orem, UT 84058.

mcpherka_at_uvsc.edu

CFP: Science and Technology

“Science and Technology, 1500-1800″
March 14, 2008
University of California, Santa Barbara
The Early Modern Center (EMC), in collaboration with the Transcriptions Project, at the University of California, Santa Barbara invites paper proposals for “Science and Technology, 1500-1800,” an interdisciplinary conference that will take place at UCSB on Friday, March 14, 2008. This one-day conference will be a forum to explore the interrelated fields of science and technology in the early modern period. We conceive of science and technology as a broad range of social and cultural practices, cultural and historical formations, and epistemological perspectives. How and why were systems of knowledge created and proliferated? What particular scientific developments participated in the exploration of the body, the mind, time, and space? How were individuals, communities, and nations impacted by new systems of knowledge, particular objects or
hardware, or advanced procedures to accomplish tasks?
We invite proposals from across the disciplines that use a variety of thematic and methodological approaches. Papers ranging from specific case studies to broad explorations within the fields of science and technology are welcome. Possible topics might include, but are not limited to, discussions of horticulture, botany, engineering, automata, stage machinery, navigation, cartography, anatomy, medicine, alchemy, the occult, taxonomy, archiving, printing, and information science. Since both the Early Modern Center and the Transcriptions Project undertake initiatives that bridge the study of digital media and the humanities, we are also interested in proposals that apply the perspectives of new media study to the cultural formations of the early modern period.
The program will consist of nine panelists representing a variety of disciplines, as well as talks by three keynote speakers (TBA).
Abstracts (300 words or less) for 15-minute minute papers should be sent to EMCConference_at_gmail.com by Friday, November 16, 2007. We hope to notify participants by December 1, 2007.
Please visit our website at http://emc.english.ucsb.edu/conferences/2007-2008/Science&Technology1500-1800/ to learn more about the conference, the Early Modern Center, and the Transcriptions Project at UCSB.

Early Modern Women Journal Now Available

Subscribe now to receive Volume II of Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal. For information and an order form, visit: http://www.emwjournal.umd.edu/subscribe.shtml

Subscriptions are only $25. To view the complete table of contents, please visit the journal’s website: http://www.emwjournal.umd.edu/index.shtml

Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal is the only journal devoted to the interdisciplinary and global study of women and gender during the years 1400 to 1700.

Volume II, now in print, includes essays by Christopher Martin, Grace Fong, Anne Dunlop, Katherine R. Larson, Elizabeth S. Cohen, and Suzanne Cusick. It also includes an extensive bibliography of publications in English in Early Modern Women’s Studies from 2004 through 2006, and a review, by Marjorie Och, of the “Italian Women Artists from Renaissance to Baroque” exhibition at the National Museum for Women in the Arts.

We look forward to hearing from you soon!!
The Editors