Center for Early Modern History, University of Minnesota

Happy October! The Center for Early Modern History invites you to join us for our fall lecture series, Panic and Plague in 1720 & 2020: The View from Minnesota. In 1720, the Mississippi Company, a project of financial speculation in the Mississippi River region, collapsed. The explosion of this financial bubble coincided and was entangled with the last mass outbreak of bubonic plague in European history in Marseilles, followed shortly thereafter by a devastating outbreak of smallpox in Boston. This series brings together scholars from across disciplines and across the globe to discuss the intercutting relationships between disease and financial disaster in the early 1720s -- reflecting on parallels in the early 2020s.

In this week's newsletter we list some early modern themed TV shows. In this list we have "Turn: Washington's Spies" on AMC, "Outlander" on Starz, "Roots" from ABC, "The Tudors" from the BBC, and "Gunpowder" also from the BBC.
Do you have a favorite that didn't make the list? Let us know in the comments below!

https://mailchi.mp/ced7c69c8833/cspw-digest-16-january-3946086

Check out this week's newsletter featuring a video with 18th-century recipes for soup, stew and hash.

https://mailchi.mp/771702213c56/cspw-digest-16-january-3715537

Check out this week's news from the Center for Early Modern History! Please email [email protected] to get added to our mailing list.

CEMH updates for the week of 11/25 The 3rd Mediterranean Studies Summer Skills Seminar on the topic “Introduction to the Archive of the Crown of Aragon (documents in Latin to ca. 1350)”, organized by the Mediterranean Seminar and the CU Mediterranean Studies Group, is planned for 11–15 May 2020 at the University of Colorado Bo...

Interested in learning about our spring 2019 events and the accomplishments of our affiliated faculty, researchers, and graduate students? Follow the link to read our spring 2019 newsletter: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wzZw2q65z1QuSLQevnnDxFtJ6Ayceoc5/view?usp=sharing

CEMH Newsletter Spring 2019 PDF.pdf

Call For Papers Extended

The Mediterranean: Past, Present, and Future

Hosted by the Departments of History and Philosophy
Sponsored by the Center for Inclusive Teaching and Learning
University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point
May 3-4, 2019

Keynote: David Porreca, University of Waterloo
“Magic, The Picatrix, and Civil Discourse”
Deadline for Submissions: April 1, 2019
(EXTENDED TO APRIL 4)

Contributors are sought for sessions and workshops that focus on the Mediterranean from the Late Medieval and
Early Renaissance through the present. The focus of the conference is on the role that the historical Mediterranean
has, and continues to have, on contemporary society.

The conference is being developed out of, and in response to, questions and problems that emerged during a research and teaching symposium hosted by the National Endowment for the Humanities in the summer of 2018.

The conference will include panel discussions on both scholarship and pedagogy, as well as workshops or
roundtables focused on pedagogy. Submissions on any topic relevant to the focus of the conference and from any
disciplinary perspective are welcome. Contributions on the following topics will be particularly welcome:
-Workshop: Decolonizing your Syllabus
-Workshop: Teaching the Med outside the classroom

Those interested in participating should contact Clint Jones at [email protected]. Please provide the following
information in a separate file:
-Title of paper or proposed workshop contribution
-Abstract (ca. 150 words)
-author’s name, institutional affiliation, and email address
-Any A/V needs or ADA accommodations that will be necessary.

The organizers are not capable of providing travel support for this conference though we will be arranging for travel to and from the airport.

For further information, please contact Clint Jones at [email protected] or Edgar Francis at
[email protected].

Call For Papers
The Mediterranean: Past, Present, and Future

Hosted by the Departments of History and Philosophy
University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point
May 3-4, 2019

Keynote: David Porreca, University of Waterloo
"Magic, The Picatrix, and Civil Discourse"

Deadline for Submissions: April 1, 2019

Papers are being sought for sessions and workshops that focus on the Mediterranean from the Late Medieval and Early Renaissance through the present. The focus of the conference is on the role that the historical Mediterranean has, and continues to have, on contemporary society. The conference is being developed out of, and in response to, questions and problems that emerged during a research and teaching symposium hosted by the National Endowment for the Humanities in the summer of 2018.

The conference will include panel discussions and workshops and you may submit proposals for both, but you may not submit the same proposal for both. Please indicate in your submission what you want your proposal to be considered for. Abstracts of 500 words will be considered, but preference will be given to completed papers. Paper submission should not exceed 3,000 words and be prepared for blind review. Abstracts should also be prepared for blind review and, if accepted, should not exceed the 3,000 word limit.

Submissions can be on any topic relevant to the focus of the conference and from any disciplinary perspective. Submissions should be sent to [email protected] and include the following information in a separate file: Title of paper, 150-word abstract, author's name, institutional affiliation, and email address, and, finally, any A/V needs or ADA accommodations that will be necessary.

The organizers are not capable of providing travel support for this conference though we will be arranging for travel to and from the airport.

Submission Categories:
General Meeting Panel
Roundtable discussion of the film Dangerous Beauty
Workshop: Decolonizing your Syllabus
Workshop: Teaching the Med outside the classroom

Be sure to attend this event on Friday, March 15!

Plague Water, Anyone? A Distillery Delves Into Medieval Mixology Historians and craft liquor companies are collaborating to bring back recipes that began as medicines and ended up in punches and cocktails.

DEADLINE EXTENDED: Premodern Food Cultures Conference
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, October 17-19, 2019

We welcome proposals for panels or papers related to premodern food studies for the Premodern Food Cultures Conference at the University of Minnesota, October 17-19, 2019, organized by the Center for Medieval Studies, the Wangensteen Biomedical Library and the James Ford Bell Library.

Recent research in food studies have shown the importance of food and food culture as reflective of many aspects of life, including economic and political realities, religious and social beliefs and morés, and material culture. Food and food culture can be indicators of social and class status, it can reveal trade networks, religious belief, and environmental conditions.

Plenary speakers include:
Paul Freedman (professor of History, Yale University) author of Food, The History of Taste, Ten Restaurants that Changed America, Out of the East: Spices and the Medieval Imagination and
Theresa McCulla, brewing historian at the National Museum of American History, and author of Consumable City: Food and Race in New Orleans.

In addition to traditional panels, in which experts present 15-20 minute papers on their research, we welcome proposals for other forms of scholarly engagement and presentation, including workshops on teaching and outreach on food history, converting historical recipes, and other innovative formats (as taken from the MLA):

-Creative Conversations: These sessions may be roundtables or special sessions that feature free-form dialogues or forums between published authors or other artists and an interviewer. This might include sessions that consider single works, classics, emerging formats, films, plays, artwork, and such.
-Electronic Roundtables: These digital-demonstration sessions reconfigure the familiar poster session, allowing participants to identify and exchange findings on topics such as incorporating digital media technologies into teaching, scholarship, and administration; to use digital media to explore a particular issue such as community engagement, student research, or textual editing.
-Ignite Talks: This session format includes brief, timed presentations, such as those in the PechaKucha style. In that format, twenty images are shown for twenty seconds each, and panelists talk along with their images.
-Case-Study-Themed Sessions: These sessions can be organized around any single topic ranging from workshops on members' syllabi to conversations on new approaches to organized learning.
-Master Classes: Such sessions center on widely held member interests and might feature accomplished scholars or teachers leading how-to sessions in different presentational styles or structures (workshops, roundtables, panels).

Please send titles, abstracts for proposed panels or papers (300 word max) as well as c.v.s for all participants by March 15, 2019.

Questions should be directed to Michelle M. Hamilton, Director of the Center for Medieval Studies ([email protected]), Emily Beck, assistant curator at the Wangensteen Library ([email protected]) or Marguerite Ragnow, Director of the James Ford Bell Library ([email protected]).

The Consortium for the Study of the Premodern World (CSPW) and the Digital Arts, Sciences, & Humanities (DASH) program at the University of Minnesota recently received a grant ($95,220) from the National Endowment for the Humanities for their project An Enlightenment Print Phenomenon Unbound: Building a Digital Portal for Exploring Bernard and Picart’s Religious Ceremonies and Customs of the World.

The project will build an open source database to analyze and compare variant editions of publisher Jean-Frédéric Bernard and engraver Bernard Picart’s Céremonies et coutumes religieuses de tous les peuples du monde (Religious ceremonies and customs of all the peoples of the world). The lavish work, first published in 1723, was released in seven folio volumes of text with 250 detailed engravings. The work fascinated and outraged 18th-century Europeans upending notions of Christian orthodoxy by arranging world religions on an equal plane that suggested a new vision of religious tolerance and emerging secular values.

JB Shank (CEMH Director, CSPW Principal Investigator, and Professor of History) and Benjamin Wiggins (DASH Program Director) will serve as co-principal investigators on this project. National and international collaborators on the project will be presenting in the CEMH lecture series next academic year.

Apply to be a CEMH/CMS Graduate Assistant for Spring 2019

The Center for Medieval Studies and the Center for Early Modern History anticipate hiring one 50%-time Graduate Assistant to fulfill the tasks specified below for spring semester 2019. Candidates must be University of Minnesota graduate students who hold ABD status and qualify for the lower (post-thesis credits) tuition rate. Candidates from any department are eligible to apply.

Required qualifications include excellent organizational skills and attention to detail; ability to interact with scholars, students, and the public in a professional manner; and experience with the appropriate computing skills to fulfill the designated tasks listed below. Preferred qualifications include knowledge of the medieval and/or early modern periods (c. 500-1800); experience with event planning, publicity, and office-related email communications, and familiarity with basic financial processes, including budgeting and expense tracking. For a detailed job description, visit us at [email protected].

Interested candidates should send (1) a cover letter detailing their interest in and qualification for the position, (2) a current c.v., and (3) the names of three references to [email protected].

Application deadline: Friday, November 2, 2018.

Guaranteed to wake you up on this Monday morning, check out this incredibly cool historical and musical feature from the U's own Wangensteen Library. When you're done, head over the library to check out the book in person. https://www.continuum.umn.edu/2018/08/singyourbinding/

#SingYourBinding Soprano Victoria Fraser sings the music that was used as a book binding for the Wangensteen Library's copy of the book, "Phytognomonica" (1588). The music is likely from the 17th century. The books is included in the exhibit, "The Secret Lives of Books" at the University of Minnesota's Wangensteen H...

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Join us this Friday, March 2nd at 12:15 in 1210 Heller for our next lunchtime talk, which is also a part of the Remembering the Reformation Series! More information below...

Don't forget to join us this Friday, February 23rd at 12:15 in 1210 Heller for our next CEMH Lunchtime talk! More information below....

Don't forget to join us this Friday, February 15th at 12:15 in 1210 Heller for our next CEMH Lunchtime talk! More information below....