UCL Early Modern Exchanges

Old Materialism: making gold and performing money in pre-modern London and Venice
26 June 2026, 5:30pm–7:30pm
Join this 'Marxism in Culture' seminar with Alison Wright (UCL). Her paper questions the adequacy of new materialist ethics in the face of the all-too-human assertion and coercion at play in ‘making’ gold.

Old Materialism: making gold and performing money in pre-modern London and Venice Join this 'Marxism in Culture' seminar with Alison Wright (UCL). Her paper questions the adequacy of new materialist ethics in the face of the all-too-human assertion and coercion at play in ‘making’ gold.

Phantoms in the Classroom: Midwifery Training in Enlightenment Europe
18 June 2026, 1pm-2pm
Join us at Wellcome Collection for our Historical Health & The Body Reading Group for PhD, ECR & interested historical researchers.

Phantoms in the Classroom: Midwifery Training in Enlightenment Europe Join us at Wellcome Collection for our Historical Health & The Body Reading Group for PhD, ECR & interested historical researchers.

TOMORROW!!
IAS Book Launch: Body Size in Early Modern Germany
The IAS is pleased to welcome author Holly Fletcher, whose book overturns false assumptions that concern with body size is a modern phenomenon or that in earlier societies fatness simply signified wealth while thinness indicated poverty.
9 June 2026, 6pm–8pm

IAS Book Launch: Body Size in Early Modern Germany The IAS is pleased to welcome author Holly Fletcher, whose book overturns false assumptions that concern with body size is a modern phenomenon or that in earlier societies fatness simply signified wealth while thinness indicated poverty.

Coffee, Currants, and Sherbets: The ‘Exotic’ World of Cross-Cultural Food-Making in Early Modern Europe and the Middle East
19 Jun 2026, 2:30 pm to 5:30 pm
Online and at Warburg Institute, Woburn Square, London
This public event explores the relationship between migration and food history in the Renaissance and early modern period (1500-1800).

Coffee, Currants, and Sherbets: The ‘Exotic’ World of Cross-Cultural Food-Making in Early Modern Europe and the Middle East Limited funding is available towards travel expenses, enabling attendance from community groups, low-income participants, and those with childcare needs. Please book your place and apply in writing to [email protected]. 

Reading Group: Evident Tongues, Evident Bodies: Language, Sense and Proof
27 May 2026, 2:30pm–4pm
Join IAS Fellows, Rana Banna & Mary Newman, to explore how early-modern writers connected linguistic encounters with sensory encounters of seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling in the production of evidence.

IAS Reading Group: Evident Tongues, Evident Bodies: Language, Sense and Proof Join IAS Fellows, Rana Banna & Mary Newman, for their reading group, which explores how early-modern writers connected linguistic encounters with sensory encounters of seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling in the production of evidence.

The Spanish-English Translations Database, 1500 – 1640
This database records translation activity between England and Spain in the early modern period up to 1640 with detailed title page transcriptions, copy specific details, an index of dedicatees and printers to allow scholars to explore the manifold cultural translations taking place in the period. Originally published in 2005 by King’s College London, this Carnegie funded project based originally at the University of St Andrews has been ported across to UCL and is now freely accessible.

spanish-english-translation.ucl.ac.uk

Evident Tongues, Evident Bodies: Language, Sense and Proof
27 May 2026, 2:30pm-4pm
Join IAS Fellows, Rana Banna & Mary Newman, for their reading group, which explores how early-modern writers connected linguistic encounters with sensory encounters of seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling in the production of evidence.

IAS Reading Group: Evident Tongues, Evident Bodies: Language, Sense and Proof Join IAS Fellows, Rana Banna & Mary Newman, for their reading group, which explores how early-modern writers connected linguistic encounters with sensory encounters of seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling in the production of evidence.

Registration for the Medieval & Early Modern Research Network (MEMRN)'s Spring Showcase on Saturday 16th May is OPEN. This fully online, one day conference event is open to all and celebrates new research from within our extended global community.

Join between 10am and 4pm UK time to hear from the seven speakers. Feel free to attend all or part of the day! Full schedule is available on our website or via this link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eJY4RAmY-5tQX-tq62ncJekJ02b1Ra4mrROlSEneq0o/edit?usp=sharing

Register for free via Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/chase-memrn-spring-showcase-2026-tickets-1987689746539

CHASE MEMRN Spring Showcase 2026 Join us at the second annual Medieval and Early Modern Research Network (MEMRN) Spring Showcase: Online via Microsoft Teams on May 16th.

🚨 TONIGHT! 6pm 🚨
'The Radical Spanish Empire. How Paperwork Politics Remade the New World'

IAS Book Launch: The Radical Spanish Empire We are pleased to welcome back to the IAS Adrian Masters to present his new book (co-written with Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra) The Radical Spanish Empire. How Paperwork Politics Remade the New World.

IAS Book Launch: Body Size in Early Modern Germany
9 June 6-8pm
The IAS is pleased to welcome author Holly Fletcher, whose book overturns false assumptions that concern with body size is a modern phenomenon or that in earlier societies fatness simply signified wealth while thinness indicated poverty.

IAS Book Launch: Body Size in Early Modern Germany The IAS is pleased to welcome author Holly Fletcher, whose book overturns false assumptions that concern with body size is a modern phenomenon or that in earlier societies fatness simply signified wealth while thinness indicated poverty.