20 October 2008: From Print to Manuscript in Early Modern England: the Case of Thomas Trevelyon. For information contact Marcy North, mln14@psu.edu

30 October 2008: Graduate Student Workshop. 12:00-2:00, 102 Weaver. Public invited. Precirculated papers will be available. Lunch will be provided by CEMS.

14 November 2008: Faculty Lecture by Dr. Dan Beaver, Associate Professor of History. "Hunting and the Politics of Violence in the Early Stuart Era."

December 5, 2008. SPECIAL GUEST FOR CEMS FIRST FRIDAY.

It's F=I=R=S=T F=R=I=D=A=Y
CEMS Social Hour
Friday, December 5th, Whiskers
Festivities Start at 5:00.

SPECIAL GUEST: GREG CLINGHAM

Professor Greg Clingham will be joining us
to chat informally with grad students about the ins
and outs of academic publishing. Professor Clingham
is the author and editor of many books; and, as the
director of Bucknell University Press, the publisher
of many more.

Come and raise a stein!

6 February, 2009 - CEMS SOCIAL HOUR: SPECIAL ATTRACTION

Everyone Come!
It's F=I=R=S=T F=R=I=D=A=Y
CEMS Social Hour
Friday, February 6th, Whiskers
Festivities Start at 5:00.
Come and raise a glass!

SPECIAL GUEST: MARCY NORTH

Professor Marcy North will be joining us to chat informally with grad students about the opportunities and resources available through the Folger Library. Professor North is our liaison to the Folger. Her research bears on such topics as the history of the book; Early Modern poetry and prose; ecclesiastical debate, and satire; post-print manuscript culture, authorship, and anonymity; early women writers; and theories of the material text. Among her publications is
The Anonymous Renaissance: Cultures of Discretion in Tudor-Stuart England.

 

1 March, 2009 - JUNIOR FELLOWSHIP IN EARLY MODERN STUDIES TO BE CHOSEN THIS SEMESTER

The Committee for Early Modern Studies (CEMS) is pleased to announce the establishment of a new graduate fellowship, the Institute for the Arts and Humanities Junior Fellowship in Early Modern Studies.

This fellowship will include a full-year release from teaching responsibilities, plus a one semester residency at the Institute for the Arts and Humanities (IAH) and a stipend of $1500.00 for travel- and research-related expenses.

Doctoral students working in the humanities will be eligible. For purposes of this award, a doctoral student is one who has successfully passed comprehensive exams, constituted a dissertation committee, and won approval for a dissertation prospectus. For the purposes of this award, we take "Early Modern" to mean 1400-1800.

Nominations for this award will be made by a letter to the CEMS from the dissertation advisor -- no more than one per advisor. Nominations must include the student's C.V. and the dissertation prospectus. The deadline for nominations will be March 1st, the decision will be announced by April 15th, and the fellowship itself will begin the following academic year.

Due to the largesse of the Max Kade Institute, an ABD who is working on early modern Germany (or German-speaking Europe or diasporic German-speakers anywhere) has an additional incentive to be nominated. Should the fellowship be granted to such a recipient, the Kade Institute is willing to "fold in" an additional $4,000.00. This funding would be specifically for research involving international
travel: foreign archives, international conferences, and so on.

The Junior Fellowship award recipient will work in residence at the IAH during the designated semester. We will expect the Junior Fellow to present a scholarly talk at an appropriate conference, or similar venue, during the academic year of the award; and to present a talk as well to the IAH. The research award may also be used for travel to an appropriate library or archive.

For more details about this new fellowship, contact Clement Hawes <cch10@psu.edu> or Gregg Roeber <agr2@psu.edu>. Please submit nominations by hard copy only to Clement Hawes / Department of English / Penn State University / University Park, PA  16802.

 

15 March, 2009 - BEST EARLY MODERN PAPER CONTEST

The Committee for Early Modern Studies is sponsoring the first annual contest for the best early modern seminar paper.

1.) Penn State graduate students currently enrolled in any humanistic discipline may nominate their own papers by submitting a hard copy (to Early Modern Paper Contest, Clement Hawes, Dept. of English, Burrowes Bldg.) or an electronic copy to <cch10@psu.edu> by March 15, 2009.

2.) Only papers originating in an early modern graduate seminar on the University Park campus are eligible. For purposes of this contest, we define 'Early Modern' as dealing with some part of 1400-1800. Geography open. Please indicate on your title page which seminar, professor, and semester the paper was written for.

3). Papers must be article length: no more than 6,500 words.

4.) Prize: $500.00 plus faculty assistance in reworking the paper into a publishable essay.

CEMS is grateful to the Institute for Arts and Humanities and the Weiss family for helping to fund our prize. 

 

19 March, 2009 - Second CEMS Graduate Student Workshop

Thursday, March 19th, 12-1.30, in Weaver 102
Lunch provided by CEMS

Spencer Delbridge, History: "Placing the Pech: Sixteenth-Century Yucatec Leadership and Identity."

Mary Faulkner, History: "The Making of an Enlightenment City: Nancy and French National Identity, 1736-1800."

Greg Pierrot, English: "The End of Revenge: from Black Avenger to Mangled King in Aphra Behn's Abdelazer and Oroonoko."

Kristin Shimmin, English: "Promoting a Public Education: Rhetoric of Civic Education in Thomas Sprat's 'The History of The Royal Society of London.'"

Papers to be circulated by Sunday, March 15th

26 March, 2009 -Talk by David Loewenstein, "Burning Heretics and Fashioning Martyrs: Religious Extremism and Violence in John Foxe."

3:30pm, 102 Weaver.
Professor Loewenstein's research explores the interconnections between literature, religion, and politics in early modern England. He is the Tiefenthaler Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin (Madison).

24 April - TALK BY GREGG ROEBER

On Friday, April 24, 2009, Professor Gregg Roeber will give a talk entitled "'The Righteous Man Regardeth the Life of His Beast': Religion, Early Modern German-speakers and their Animals in North America." His talk is scheduled for noon in 102 Weaver Building. The Committee for Early Modern Studies will provide a box lunch for the event. The talk continues the theme raised by the "Visualizing Animals" conference to be held on campus on April 30-May 1, 2009. View abstract.

30 April - May 1, 2009 - VISUALIZING ANIMALS

The Committee for Early Modrern Studies is cosponsoring a conference to be held on campus on April 30-May 1, 2009: "Visualizing Animals:
Towards a Comparative History and Theory of Animals." The conference program will take place in Foster Auditorium, Pattee Library. Many early modern scholars will be on campus for this event. For a conference schedule, see http://www.visualizinganimals.psu.edu/conference.html.  The conference was organized by our own Joan Landes, who also hosts the "Visualizing Animals" reading and study group. For more about this group, visit their web site at http://www.visualizinganimals.psu.edu/.