CFP: Land, Landscape and Environment 1500-1750

Land, Landscape and Environment, 1500-1750

Early Modern Research Centre, University of Reading
14 – 16 July, 2008

Current debates over the environment – and in particular over the exploitation or management of natural resources – find their origin in early modern discourses of mastery and stewardship. Whilst a pervasive argument saw it as man’s responsibility to exploit the Earth, to what extent were those who made their living from the countryside, and those who wrote about it, ambivalent about landscape change in the name of progress and improvement, both in England, Scotland and Ireland and in the American colonies? To what extent was land, landscape and environment the subject of struggles between those who were the subjects of agrarian capitalism and those who lived off its profits at first or secondhand? How did representations of land and environment develop in this period? Landscapes are lived environments that find expression through buildings and patterns of behaviour, and bring into focus questions of belonging and the relationship between nature and civilisation. What connection can we draw between literary and visual depictions of land and environment – whether as map, image, or text – and these ideas of mastery and control? And what does the recent turn towards ‘green politics’ in early modern literary studies suggest about the usefulness of twenty-first century political imperatives for an interrogation of the early modern past?

Papers are invited on the following areas:

plantation and colonisation as civilising process; agrarian capitalism and sustainable agriculture in theory and practice; topography and poetry, pastoral and georgic, the chorographical and country-house poem; enclosure, disafforestation and drainage: their advocates, opponents, practice and consequences; law, property rights and tenure; husbandry and husbandry manuals; the country house and its landscapes; horticulture and gardens; rivers; writing the land; artistic representations of landscape; cartography, maps and signs; the country and the city; parks; urban pastoral; travel, travel-writing, walking tours and sight-seeing.

Proposals (max. 300 words) for 30 minute papers and a brief CV should be sent via email attachment by 1 February 2008 to:

Dr. Adam Smyth, School of English and American Literature, University of Reading,
a.smyth@reading.ac.uk

CFP: Science and Technology 1500-1800

Science & Technology, 1500-1800
14 March 2008
University of California, Santa Barbara

A one-day interdisciplinary conference held by the Early Modern Center of the University of California, Santa Barbara: “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”.

Deadline for proposals: 16 November 2007

Conference: Law and Governance in Britain 1350-1850

Law and Governance in Britain, 1350-1850
16-17 November 2007

Department of History,
University of Western Ontario,
London, Ontario, Canada

CFP: Concepts of creativity in 17th-century England

Concepts of creativity in 17th-century England

6-7 September 2008
School of Arts, Histories and Cultures, University of Manchester, UK

The early modern period witnessed the flowering of what, today, we would call the creative arts in England, and in recent years the social and cultural significance of such activities has come to be appreciated increasingly by scholars across a broad range of disciplines. But what exactly did it mean to form something, ‘as it were, out of nothing’ in the seventeenth century? While our modern understanding of creativity is firmly based around ideas of imagination and originality, it is far from clear that such concepts were always relevant to the production of visual art, music, plays, poetry and literature in the seventeenth century; moreover, basic tenets that we tend to take for granted – such as the primacy of the author – have been shown to be inappropriate in a number of significant studies. The aim of this interdisciplinary symposium is to explore ways in which we can seek to understand what it meant to be creative in the early modern period. Suggested themes include the following:

* Ideas of authorship and intellectual property
* Imitatio and originality
* Literacy and the function of memory
* Performance and text in music and drama; issues of improvisation
* Print and manuscript cultures; the impact of printing on creativity
* Contemporary terminology for ‘creative’ activities; ‘art’ and ’science’
* Evidence for creative processes
* Women and creativity
* The professional and the amateur

…

Proposals are invited for:

1. Individual papers of 20 minutes’ duration (10 minutes to be allowed for discussion after each paper).
2. Sessions involving three or four papers on a specified area commensurate with the theme of the conference, given by different individuals and lasting not more than one-and-a-half hours, including discussion.

Deadline: 31 January 2008

CFP: Early Modern Playing

Launching a new seminar series from Shakespeare’s Globe Research Department:
Early Modern Playing

Inviting papers from all disciplines on any aspect of Early Modern Playing including but not restricted to:

• Word play
• Stage play
• Playfulness
• Child’s play
• Work and play

Thursday December 13th 2007 – 18:30-21:00

Globe Research is launching a series of seminars aimed at the postgraduate community. We will hold a seminar at the end of each term, offering a chance for researchers from different universities to meet and discuss their work on a regular basis. We invite abstracts for papers lasting 15-20 minutes on ‘Early Modern Playing’. Abstracts should be received by 15th November. The seminar is free, refreshments will be provided and auditors are welcome. For further details and a registration form, please contact Globe Research, (globeresearch@hotmail.co.uk).

Globe Theatre
21 New Globe Walk
Bankside
London
SE1 9DT