About Us
The Townsend Center's Early Modern Working Group, also known as the Berkeley Early Modern Organization, aims to bring together students and faculty with an interest in the "long seventeenth century" (approximately 1550-1689) in Britain, Europe, and the Americas. Our long-term goal is to create an interdepartmental scholarly community for a field in which the interdisciplinary connections between history, literature, art, and music are varied and fruitful. We aim to stimulate more extensive discussion among faculty and graduate students from all departments and to promote intellectual and social connections. In addition we aspire to foster a sense of scholarly community among the graduate students of different departments both for the evident benefits to their research and for the intellectual and emotional support that such a community provides.
Spring 2012 Schedule
Friday, February 10
Reading Group: The Knight of the Burning Pestle
6pm, Stephanie Bahr's House
Wednesday, February 15
"King Lear in BC Albion"
a seminar by Margreta de Grazia, University of Pennsylvania
5-7pm, 201 Moses Hall
(Download the pre-circulated paper)
Thursday, February 16
"Re-enchanting the English Reformation (and Shakespeare)"
a lecture by Margreta de Grazia, University of Pennsylvania
5-7pm, 300 Wheeler Hall
Wednesday, February 22
Peer Review Workshop, first session
5pm, 306 Wheeler Hall
Monday, March 12
Reading Group (French): Selections from Joachim du Bellay
5pm, 330 Wheeler Hall
Monday, March 12
"Work, Reward and Labor Discipline in late Seventeenth Century England"
a lecture by Steve Hindle, W.M. Keck Foundation Director of Research at The Huntington Library
4pm, 201 Moses Hall
Monday, March 19
"The Atheist State: Lucretius and the Politics of Materialism in the Seventeenth Century"
a lecture by Professor David Norbrook, Merton College, Oxford
12pm, 300 Wheeler Hall
Tuesday, March 20
"The Writing Shadow: Gender and Agency in Lucy Hutchinson's Memoirs"
a seminar by Professor David Norbrook, Merton College, Oxford
12pm, 201 Moses Hall
Wednesday, March 21
Back to Basics: Topics TBA
5pm, 306 Wheeler Hall
Monday, April 16
Reading Group: Walter Ong, Literacy and Orality
5pm, 330 Wheeler Hall
Thursday, April 19
"Cervantes and Censorship: Conversations with Ovid and Orwell"
a talk by Frederick de Armas, University of Chicago
5pm, 220 Stephens Hall
Tuesday, April 24
Lunch Talk: Albert Ascoli
12-1:30pm, 330 Wheeler Hall
Monday, April 30
Back to Basics: Jason Rozumalski (European Economic History) and Elizabeth Terry (Renaissance in Spain)
5pm, 306 Wheeler Hall
Tuesday, May 1
Publication Workshop: Ethan Shagan, David Landreth and Tim Hamptom
12-2pm, 306 Wheeler Hall