University of Minnesota
Center for Early Modern History
cemh@umn.edu
612-625-6303


CEMH's home page.

News & Events

Spring 2012

As usual, CEMH has an extremely busy spring schedule, starting with presentations by Sam White (Oberlin) and Brett Walker (Japanese History at Montana State) that explore environmental history within the early modern period around the globe. Several workshops will help build the early modernist community in Minnesota beyond the University campus. We have collaborated with Carleton College to bring Brendan Kane (University of Connecticut), who will share on both campuses his recent work on Queen Elizabeth and rebellion. We are co-sponsoring a TEMS work-in- progress session where Ernesto Capello of Macalester College will discuss a French Geodesic Mission to Ecuador. And Andrew Fisher of the history faculty at Carleton will present at a Friday workshop from his new project on the history of emotions in colonial Mexico. Fisher’s presentation, as well as CEMH’s co-sponsorship of a visit from Art Historian Carolyn Dean (UC-Santa Cruz) who will speak at the Weisman from her recent book on Inka Rockwork, will also be tied into the interdisciplinary seminar in Early Modern Studies that Angélica Afanador Pujol and Center Director Sarah Chambers will be co-teaching on Colonial Cultures and Identities in Latin America. We are also looking forward to a visit in person from the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Early Modern History, Simon Ditchfield (University of York), who is currently writing a book on the making of Roman Catholicism as a world religion.

In addition to these workshops, CEMH is pleased to be hosting, with the James Ford Bell Library, the ninth biennial Conference of the Forum for European Expansion and Global Interaction. On the evening before the conference (April 19), we have invited back distinguished alumnus Kris Lane (Tulane University) to provide a keynote. After this lecture, we hope that many of you will be able tojoin us for a reception to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Union Pacific Endowment, the primary source of funding for CEMH’s many activities.

 

Fall 2011

This fall the Center for Early Modern History will begin sharing space and staff with the Center for Medieval Studies. Although each Center is retaining its own identity and programs, we are looking forward to being able to increase our intellectual collaborations as well. This semester's programming will include workshops and lectures by Carla Rahn Phillips, Alan Taylor, Nabil Matar, Olivia Weisser, Merry Wiesner-Hanks, and Katherine French. We will also be planning for the 2012 conference of The Forum on European Expansion and Global Interaction (FEEGI), which will be held at the University of Minnesota the weekend of April 20, 2012.

Spring 2011

This Spring the Center for Early Modern History is hosting a wide variety of events related to the early modern period. With the support of the James P. Geiss Foundation, the Center will host the conference "History with Chinese Characteristics: From Ming to Globalization" in honor of Professor Ted Farmer's retirement. CEMH also is co-sponsoring two conferences on the UMN campus: "Shared Cultural Spaces: Islam and the West in Arts and Sciences" and "Identity in the Mediterranean World: From the Middle Ages to Today." This semester will also feature lectures from Stephen Blake, JIANG Yonglin, Steven Ostrow, Eric Otremba, Eric Dursteler, Matthew Hunter and Daniela Bleichmar. Music also finds it way into this semester's events with concerts by the Rose Ensemble and ¡Sacabuche!. You can find clips of ¡Sacabuche! here.

 

Fall 2010

Titlepage from an edition of Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac

Title page from an edition of Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac

This Fall 2010 semester, the Center for Early Modern History is sponsoring a range of talks, colloquia, and workshops on the early modern period. Presenters from the University of Minnesota as well as invited guests will speak on a variety of early modern topics spanning the globe.


To coordinate with the James Ford Bell Trust's acquisition of the rare Ricci world map, the Center for Early Modern History will host a series of events in the fall semester of 2010 centered on the theme of “Maps and Missionaries.” The 1602 map is the result of collaboration between Jesuit Matteo Ricci, Zhong Wentao and other Chinese scholars. One of only six surviving copies in the world, and the only copy in North America, the Ricci map was on exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts from May 15 to August 29, 2010, and then will be on display at the Bell Library during the fall semester. (For more information on the map and its exhibitions see the Bell Library website). Thus far, the Center for Early Modern History has confirmed the participation of the following scholars: Florence Hsia, Associate Professor in the History of Science at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and author of Sojourners in a Strange Land: Jesuits and Their Scientific Missions in Late Imperial China (University of Chicago Press, 2009); Dana Leibsohn, Professor of Art History at Smith College whose research focuses on indigenous visual culture in colonial Latin America, in particular on maps and modes of literacy; Michael Witgen, Assistant Professor of History at Michigan State University who is writing a book on Jesuits, mapping and native sovereignty in the Great Lakes region; and Ulrike Strasser of the University of California, Irvine whose current work explores how the publications of German Jesuits in the 17th and 18th centuries played a crucial role in shaping European knowledge and images of Pacific spaces.

In addition to the talks officially sponsored by CEMH, other centers and departments across the University of Minnesota will be hosting a variety of events related to the early modern period. A listing of these events can be found in the links provided on the left.

Please take time to read the Center's recent newsletters, which contain more detailed information about events and the latest updates from many of the University of Minnesota's early modern faculty.