Deadline: 13 mei 2018. Voor de volledige CfP, zie H-Net

Towards a New Political History of the Court, c. 1200-1800: Delineating Practices of Power in Gender, Culture, and Sociability

Parijs, 14-16 november 2018

Dynastic centres, or courts, played a pivotal role in the state building processes out of which developed our modern political practices and institutions. Yet, for a long time, the court was regarded primarily as the field of anecdotal ‘petite histoire’ and consequently neglected by scholarly research. In recent years, however, the exploration of the dynastic centre made considerable progress, as historians sought to build on, and go beyond, the venerable sociological models of Norbert Elias. The exploration of symbolic communication, patronage, micro-politics, gender, the body, materiality, and transculturality are only some of the innovative approaches that have been brought to bear on the subject of court history and they have produced remarkable results. We now understand that the court was a multifaceted space for innovation in the arts, and sciences, in religious and political thought, as well as a central hub for the deployment of power relationships. But how do these different aspects interact? And how do these new approaches modify our current understanding of, for instance, state-building narratives? Do they suggest new chronologies, and do we consequently have to rewrite traditional textbook narratives in order to reflect these new impulses?

Building on such questions, this conference invites its participants to reflect and discuss on how to conceptualise the political dimension of courtly culture and sociability in the context of a new political historiography of the court. (…) In our conference, we would like to bring together scholars who are working on all aspects of court history, including historians of diverse periods and regions beyond early modern Europe. Our aim is to both take stock of the recent developments in court history, as well as to reflect on its challenges and areas in need of further development.

If you would like to join us in this endeavour, please apply with an abstract of the planned presentation of no more than 250 words, as well as a short biographical note (research interests, past and current academic affiliations, major publications, 3-4 sentences) to Regine Maritz (regine.maritz@gmail.com) and Pascal Firges (pfirges@dhi-paris.fr). We intend to publish both the paper abstracts and biographical notes of all participants on our conference blog. Presentations will have a length of no more than 20 minutes. Work-in-progress is welcome. The working language is English. Depending on successful funding applications, travel costs and accommodation for participants may be covered fully or partially.

The International Synod of Dort (1618-1619): Contents, Contexts, and Effects, 17th – 21th Centuries
International Conference, Dordrecht, 14-16 November 2018

Deadline: 15 maart 2018, zie de volledige CfP

The Synod of Dordrecht was held in 1618 and 1619 on the authority of the States-General of the Dutch Republic to resolve a conflict within the Reformed Church in the Netherlands about the doctrine of predestination that had arisen at Leiden’s theological faculty in 1602. At the same time, the synod was to re-establish the unity of the young state of the United Provinces in a crucial stage of the Eighty Years’ War (1568-1648), part of the broader confrontation between Catholic and Protestant powers in Europe since the Reformation. Both goals were achieved in the presence of congenial theologians from friendly states, while other ecclesiastical questions were decided by the national assembly. The synod’s results, such as the Canons of Dort, the Church Order of Dort, and the States Bible, exerted strong influence on religious life, theological tradition, and cultural identity in the Netherlands and its overseas territories up to the present day. (…) Building further on an initial conference in 2006, and profiting from new source editions, a consortium of scholars are organizing an international conference on 14-16 November 2018, to be held, of course, in the city of Dordrecht and, as in 1618-1619, generously hosted by the local government as part of a large program of public activities in commemoration of the European summit of Calvinism four centuries ago. The conference committee invites proposals for paper presentations about any topic regarding the overall theme, based on original research of sources, fresh interpretations of debates, or new insights on the continuing reception of ‘Dort’ and its impact on recent debates.

(…)

 

Deadline for abstract: 15 March 2018. Acceptance will be notified as soon as possible upon submission. All abstracts should be sent to Fred van Lieburg (f.a.van.lieburg@vu.nl). Proposals should include a 250 word abstract and title, as well as the author’s name, address, telephone number, email address and institutional affiliation.

Deadline: 23 maart 2018

Workshop on the material cultures of urban knowledge communities, 1500-1800

Histories of early modern science and technology have been transformed in recent decades by an engagement with artefacts, materials, and diverse practitioners and sites of knowledge production.

This workshop seeks to explore the connections between scientific knowledge – broadly understood as learned natural knowledge, experimental inquiry, technical know-how, and perhaps experiential craft skills – and material cultures in early modern cities. We are interested in how the built and material environments of cities impacted upon knowledge creation, display, and dissemination, and the ways in which scientific material cultures shaped contemporary understandings of the urban or civic.

We welcome papers on urban knowledge cultures that engage with:

• material and visual cultures
• object collections
• materials and materiality
• makers/practitioners
• the material fabric of sites of epistemological production
• urban infrastructure projects and associated technologies (e.g. fortifications, bridges, river management)
• innovative methodological approaches to early modern material cultures and epistemic contexts
• approaches to teaching ‘scientific’ material cultures.

We particularly encourage contributions that enrich our understanding of urban ‘scientific’ networks of exchange, and vernacular practices and knowledge cultures.

This workshop will be held on Friday 6th July 2018 at the University of Kent, Canterbury. This event is part of the Leverhulme Trust-funded Metropolitan Science project (https://metsci.wordpress.com) in the Centre for the History of the Sciences.

To propose a twenty-minute paper, please send a title and abstract of no more than 300 words, to J.Kilburn-Toppin-551@kent.ac.uk by 23rd March 2018. Please send any queries to the same address. We intend to pre-circulate papers.

There is no registration fee for this workshop. We will offer support for travel to postgraduate students whose papers are accepted for the workshop.

Organised by Rebekah Higgitt, Noah Moxham, and Jasmine Kilburn-Toppin.

Deadline: 16 maart 2018

23-24 mei 2018, Streatham Campus, Exeter

The Centre for Early Modern Studies at the University of Exeter is pleased to announce our third annual postgraduate conference. This two-day conference will explore all aspects of spaces, places and the interfaces between them as they were experienced and represented between 1500 and 1800. We warmly welcome proposals for twenty-minute papers from postgraduate students in any humanities discipline and seek to include a wide range of research areas.

Voor meer informatie, zie de volledige CFP.

Deadline: vrijdag 19 januari 2018

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The Northern Premodern Seminar, Friday 11^th May, University of Manchester

The period spanning the years 1350-1700 saw a massive expansion in urban populations, transforming social formations. Changes and developments in medieval and early modern cities were intricately tied up with trade, migration, politics, economics, shifting possibilities for social mobility, and the growth of commodity culture; the relationships of individuals and communities to, and in, the city were frequently characterised by alienation and disorder. The early meanings of ‘strange’ as foreign or alien, and also new, wondrous, and astonishing, point towards premodern cities as sites of danger, possibility, conflict, and discovery.

Cities of Strangeness, 1350-1700 is an interdisciplinary one-day conference exploring the centrality of strangeness and estrangement in literary, artistic, and cultural representations of the premodern city. To what extent is the experience of the premodern city characterised by estrangement or alienation? How did the growth and transformation of urban spaces across the late medieval and early modern period alter social identities and formations? What were the relationships between a city and its strangers? How do literature and art respond to cities in strange ways?

We invite proposals for papers that explore any of the following, or related topics, in relation to late medieval and early modern cities:

• strange bodies, strange creatures
• the psychoanalysis of estrangement
• race, immigration, emigration, diaspora
• alienation and capitalism, class and poverty
• protests and riots
• gender, sex and sexuality
• heterotopias and liminal spaces
• uncanny, imaginary, mystical or supernatural cities
• strange languages, strange speech, strange sound

We welcome papers from scholars working in literature, visual cultures, history, religious studies, urbanism, and other related disciplines. We encourage papers that take a cross-period or interdisciplinary approach.

Confirmed plenary speakers: Adam Hansen (University of Northumbria), Anke Bernau (University of Manchester), and Matthew Dimmock (University of Sussex).

Please send 250 word abstracts for fifteen-minute papers to Annie Dickinson and Laura Swift at citiesofstrangeness@gmail.com by Friday 19^th January, 2018. Please include a brief biography.

The venue is wheelchair accessible, with accessible, gender-neutral toilets and designated parking bays. Information about prayer rooms, dietary requirements, assistance dogs, hearing loops, transport and accommodation can be found on the website (citiesofstrangeness.wordpress.com/accessibility); please contact the organisers if there is anything you would like to discuss in advance.

Lunch, refreshments, and a wine reception will be provided. Replies to all submissions will be sent in early February 2018, when registration will open.

The conference is kindly sponsored by artsmethods@manchester.

Deadline: 15 februari 2018

Middelburg, The Netherlands, 27-28 September 2018

1618 was a crucial year in what is now known as the Scientific Revolution. In September of that year the Dutch artisan, theologian, schoolmaster and natural philosopher Isaac Beeckman (1588-1637) was promoted to doctor of medicine in the French city of Caen. To his dissertation he added a number of Corrolaria in which Beeckman laid down the principles of a new and revolutionary way to account for natural phenomena, the mechanical philosophy. Then, in November 1618, Beeckman met the young military officer René Descartes in the city of Breda. In a series of highly stimulating conversations he put Descartes on the track towards his own philosophy of nature. The rest is history.

On September 27 and 28, 2018, an international conference, to be held at the premises of the University College Roosevelt in Middelburg, the Netherlands, will commemorate these pivotal moments of 1618. Beeckman was a native of Middelburg and it was in this bustling commercial city that he was groping with his revolutionary insights in the years before 1618. Here he was deeply embedded in a cosmopolitan culture, a world in which sophisticated artisanal skills, riches from the overseas trading routes, humanistic culture and the study of nature were merging into a new culture of knowledge. Our conference aims to put Beeckman in the context of this new culture of knowledge and more specifically 1) to investigate how this world interacted with Beeckman’s mechanical philosophizing in form and content, 2) to study Beeckman’s role in the shaping of the new philosophy of nature, 3) to evaluate how Beeckman’s role in the development of the mechanical philosophy was viewed, both by contemporaries like Descartes and by modern scholars, especially in France.

Keynote speakers are:

Floris H. Cohen (Utrecht University)

Sophie Roux (École Normale Supérieure, Paris)

John Schuster (University of Sydney)

Huib Zuidervaart (Huygens/ING, Amsterdam)

Proposals for papers

We welcome abstracts for papers on topics related to the theme of the conference. Please send the abstract of your proposal to: k.van.berkel@rug.nl by February 15, 2018. The abstract must be no longer than 500 words and sent as a doc or a docx file (please do not use pdf format). The author’s name and contact information (affiliation, address and professional status) should be specified in the accompanying email. If you are not sure that your proposal fits into the larger programme, feel free to contact the organizers at the above email address. Notification of acceptance of the proposal will be sent by March 1, 2018.

Conference Organization:

Klaas van Berkel (University of Groningen) (k.van.berkel@rug.nl)

Albert Clement (University College Roosevelt, Middelburg) (a.clement@ucr.nl)

Arjan van Dixhoorn (University College Roosevelt, Middelburg) (a.vandixhoorn@ucr.nl)

Deadline: 31 Januari 2018

Tijdens dit driedaags congres in oktober worden de economische aspecten van het vroegmoderne boek verkent.

“Aspects of production, distribution, and consumption have been the subject of thorough study, but analyses of the economics of the book trade remain rare, or less than comprehensive. The special status of the book, its importance for pre-industrial economy as a whole, and the limitations of the sources available seem to have prevented the undertaking of comparative, diachronic, and synchronic surveys from the economics point of view. (…) We wish to programme papers going beyond isolated cases, and including, for instance, analyses of wider synchronic or diachronic data sets, which will help to clarify essential trends and factors in the economy of the book in Early Modern Europe.”

Lees de volledige CFP.