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Society for Renaissance Studies
@srsrensoc.bsky.social
5.3K followers 270 following 460 posts
SRS, the main academic organisation in UK & Ireland dedicated to the promotion of the study of the Renaissance. Hatched in 1967. 🐥 🔥 🐣 🐦‍🔥
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It's the annual opening of our mentoring scheme together with the the Early Modern Scholars of Colour Network!

Applications for mentors and mentees open now. Apply by 30th November 2025.
all info: www.rensoc.org.uk/education-ou... #EarlyModern #SkyStorians
November 5, 2025 at 7:03 PM
srsrensoc.bsky.social
CFP: Tolerance and Dissent

Deadline for abstracts 15 January 2026
Conference: 24-26 June 2026, University of Fribourg
Travel grants available for graduate students
#EarlyModern #SkyStorians
all info: www.rensoc.org.uk/event/tolera...
Tolerance and Dissent University of Fribourg (Switzerland), June 24, 2026 - June 26, 2026 Deadline for submission/application: January 15, 2026 9th biennial conference of the Swiss Association of Medieval and Early Modern English Studies We are inviting abstracts for 20-min papers or complete panels in the field of medieval and early modern English studies or adjacent disciplines for the 9th biennial conference of the Swiss Association of Medieval and Early Modern English Studies (SAMEMES), which will be dedicated to the topic of ”Tolerance and Dissent.” The conference will take place at the University of Fribourg, from 24-26 June 2026. The deadline for the submission of abstracts (c. 250 words + a short bionote of max. 100 words) is 15 January 2026. Please send your abstract, or any other conference-related query, to the following email address: samemes2026[at]unifr.ch. Select papers presented at this conference will be published in the open-access and peer-reviewed Swiss Papers in English Language and Literature (SPELL) in 2027. More information on the conference, travel recommendations, travel grants, etc. is available under www.samemes2026.com. Please send your abstract, or any other conference-related query, to samemes2026[at]unifr.ch. We would be delighted to welcome you to Fribourg in June 2026!
November 2, 2025 at 11:48 AM
srsrensoc.bsky.social
The Modern Humanities Research Association is looking for a second postgraduate editor for its journal MHRA Working Papers in the Humanities.

Deadline: 10 November
Position: from December 2025 to November 2027

all info: www.rensoc.org.uk/event/mhra-p...
MHRA – PG Editor for Working Papers in the Humanities Deadline for submission/application: November 10, 2025 The MHRA (Modern Humanities Research Association) is looking for a second postgraduate editor for its journal MHRA Working Papers in the Humanities (https://www.mhra.org.uk/journals/WPH). Working Papers was launched in 2006 and is aimed at early-career researchers and postgraduates. The successful applicant will serve as a second postgraduate representative to the MHRA Executive Committee, attending three committee meetings per year in London or online, and advising on postgraduate matters. Travel and subsistence costs for meetings are covered. For further information about the work of the MHRA see www.mhra.org.uk. This position starts formally in December 2025, and ends in November 2027. Whilst unpaid, it offers invaluable experience in the world of academic publishing, as well as representing a chance to work constructively for the future of the Humanities more broadly. Applications are welcome from UK-based postgraduates in their first or second year of doctoral study working in any of the ‘modern humanities’, defined as relating to the modern and medieval European languages (including English and the Slavonic languages), their literatures and cultures both within Europe and worldwide. Applicants should send a CV and cover letter (in a single Word file, please), together with a letter of support from their supervisor, as email attachments to Dr Barbara Burns (Barbara.burns@mhra.org.uk), by 5 p.m. on 10 November 2025. Informal enquiries are welcome and may be addressed to the current representatives at postgrads@mhra.org.uk.
November 2, 2025 at 11:42 AM
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CFP: Gender, Violence and the Early Moderns

Confirmed keynote speaker: @jddavies66.bsky.social

Deadline: 20 December 2025
Conference: 22 May 2026, European University Institute, Florence
all info: www.rensoc.org.uk/event/gender... #EarlyModern #SkyStorians
Gender, Violence and the Early Moderns European University Institute, Florence, May 22, 2026 - May 22, 2026 Deadline for submission/application: December 20, 2025 Call for Papers Organiser: Dr Giada Pizzoni Keynote Speaker: Dr Jonathan Davies (Warwick) Violence puts the gender roles in a society firmly on records. Although we can never fully grasp the motives behind past acts of violence, through them we can gauge what was tolerated or sanctioned in any given society. Historical violence can suggest which meaning early modern people had of assault and abuse, whether physical, verbal or psychological. This brings us to the fundamental methodological question of how modern categories can capture past social realities. In this regard, the aim of the workshop is to offer a more precise picture of gender violence, with a quantitative study on survivors, their witnesses, and the negotiating process. This gathering aims to promote a discussion on how to defy certain stereotypes around gender-based violence by investigating how women and men in the past viewed and talked about their roles within the abusive act. While some treated the violence suffered as an intimate matter, charged with shame and danger and therefore difficult to articulate, others saw it as a matter to be publicly outed and put into words. This workshop invites proposals for short papers (4,000-5,000 words) on any aspect of gender and violence in early modernity. Papers that investigate the possibility to offer significant input for the study of what we would regard as psychological/physical trauma; dynamics of power; for understanding responses to assault; to investigate the status and forms of victims and perpetrators. The past can share its feelings as violent acts are always initially expressed through language and shaped by specific social and cultural norms.
November 2, 2025 at 11:39 AM
srsrensoc.bsky.social
THIS WEEK! Join via MS Teams (or still make your way to Florence! which we can recommend) for two days of brilliant conversations about Historicism and Anachronism in the Study of Art

6-7 NOV in Florence
all info: www.rensoc.org.uk/event/the-ch... #EarlyModern #SkyStorians #ArtHistory
The Challenge of Historical Distance: Historicism and Anachronism in the Study of Art Nederlands Interuniversitair Kunsthistorisch Instituut (NIKI), Florence, Italy, November 6, 2025 - November 7, 2025 In-person/online International Conference 6-7 November 2025 Nederlands Interuniversitair Kunsthistorisch Instituut (NIKI), Florence, Italy View the programme here Click here to register for online attendance via Teams. Click here to register for in-person attendance at the NIKI, located at Viale Evangelista Torricelli 5 in Florence. How can art historians explore, understand, or even ‘feel’ the material evidence of the past? How can we approach the problem of historical distance, of our anachronistic nostalgia and our intellectual desire for pre-modern periods and artefacts? Can we inhabit the time of past artworks, or do artworks constantly re-construct their own times? And what role do contemporary concerns play in our interpretations of the ancient, medieval, and early modern periods? Numerous recent publications have explored the study of the past through different lenses. They have complicated the idea of ‘historical contexts’ by showing the ability of artworks to simultaneously refer to various time periods. They have also encouraged cross-temporal and sometimes ahistorical interpretations of premodern artefacts in the light of modern theories and concerns. This conference will bridge the ‘historicist’ and ‘anachronist’ camp in an attempt to theorise the thorny issue of time which sits at the core of both history and art history.
November 2, 2025 at 11:28 AM
srsrensoc.bsky.social
CFP: Reading the Practical in #EarlyModern Literature

University of Sheffield, 16-17 April 2026
Deadline for submissions: 24 November 2025
All info: www.rensoc.org.uk/event/readin...
#SkyStorians #EarlyModernEvents @sheffieldcems.bsky.social
Call for Papers This two-day interdisciplinary symposium will invite scholars to re-consider practical texts written between c. 1558 and 1642 as productive sources for literary criticism. In a period best known today for its poetry and drama, practical texts such as Gervase Markham’s The English Husbandman were ‘almost literally read to pieces’, Thomas Tusser’s Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry ‘led the market’ as ‘a Tudor best-seller’, and cookery books enjoyed a staggering 70% reprint rate. That these texts occupied such a prominent position in the publishing industry is testament to their importance in early modern life. Yet despite this, literary criticism has been slow to embrace such texts as more than merely contextual sources for canonical texts by poets and dramatists such as Shakespeare and Spenser. Critics continue to frame Tusser’s work as an agricultural manual or almanack rather than a book of poetry, for example, while literary scholars tend to note his significance in the same breath as they denigrate the quality of his verse: an ‘agrarian book of jingles’ or ‘collection of doggerel’. Other practical texts such as receipt books and surveying texts have been interrogated primarily as a means of understanding early modern culture and society. Less common are studies of practical texts as works of literature, studies that centre the practical text rather than positioning it as context for the work of more canonical writers. This symposium seeks to address this gap, and invites contributors to consider how studying non-traditionally canonical texts can help scholars to reassess established positions. It is designed to lead to an edited collection, provisionally aimed at Routledge’s Studies in Renaissance and Early Modern Worlds of Knowledge series, so speakers are encouraged to propose papers suitable for extension into a 6000-8000 word chapter. Recent scholarship by Katarzyna Lecky, Jessica Rosenberg, and Kyla Tompkins has begun to demonstrate
September 8, 2025 at 6:42 AM
srsrensoc.bsky.social
SYMPOSIUM with the brilliant team of the Early Modern Scholars of Colour Network. Join us for an afternoon of exciting research papers as well as discussion of academia beyond the academy.

11 September, 12:45-17:15, Liverpool John Moores Uni
All info & programme: www.rensoc.org.uk/event/emsoc-...
Early Modern Scholars of Colour mentoring scheme with the Society of Renaissance Studies. Graphic with plumb, mint green and off-white.
August 30, 2025 at 9:35 AM
srsrensoc.bsky.social
POSTDOCTORAL SHOWCASE!

Come and hear all about the exciting work our post-doctoral fellows have done this past year! Starring @claireturner.bsky.social & Jean David Eynard.

25 September, 5-6pm, Crowdcast. Register here: www.crowdcast.io/c/postdoctor... #EarlyModern #SkyStorians
postdoctoral showcase Jean David Eynard, ‘Hearing Colours, Seeing Noises: Sensory Disability & Synaesthesia in Seventeenth-Century England’ Claire Turner, ‘Cancer, Identity, & the Senses in Early Modern England, c.1583-1699’
August 30, 2025 at 9:22 AM
srsrensoc.bsky.social
CFP: Stilled Lives: Living Materials and their Architectural Afterlives in Premodern Buildings

University of Aarhus, 17-21 June 2026
Deadline for submission: 19 September 2025

all info: www.rensoc.org.uk/event/stille... #EarlyModern #SkyStorians
Ecocritical and post-anthropocentric studies have challenged the long-established dualism between nature and culture. Proposing new ways of understanding such relations, from “vibrant matter” (Bennet 2010) to “naturalism” and “animism” (Descola 2005), such research urges a reconsideration of the historical entanglements between human and nonhuman dimensions. This panel wishes to engage with these debates by foregrounding the architectural traces of such interconnection: where life becomes form, and ecosystems are refigured as structures. Building as a form of human manipulation participated in a process of material as well as conceptual conversion: it turned animate, ecologically embedded life-forms into static, structural components of human spaces. Architectural structures thus emerge as hybrid entities, natureculture bodies that resonate with memories of the former lives of their natural materials. We invite papers exploring these and related questions across all geographic areas during the premodern period (from antiquity to ca. 1750). Papers may investigate the architectural “afterlife” of living materials, with particular attention to how such transformations were understood, represented, or ritualized in historical contexts. What were the ecological, spiritual, or symbolic implications of turning the natural environment into the built “environment”? How did premodern societies conceptualize or mediate the shift from life to lifelessness, from ecological actor to architectural object? And how might examining these material histories illuminate broader understandings of human-nature entanglements in the premodern world? We particularly encourage contributions considering multiple materials or contexts from a micro-historical or comparative perspective. Further topics may include: The architectural use and symbolic transformation of wood, coral, leather, bone, shell, stone or other once-living (or understood-to-be-living) substances;
August 30, 2025 at 9:15 AM
srsrensoc.bsky.social
NEW PUBLICATION: (re) meet Catherine of Braganza, Charles II's queen, who somehow hasn't had as much attention to her as his mistresses have...

New biography by @susanabernethy2.bsky.social
all info: www.rensoc.org.uk/event/charle...
#EarlyModern #SkyStorians
Charles II’s Portuguese Queen: The Legacy of Catherine of Braganza Announcing the debut of Charles II’s Portuguese Queen: The Legacy of Catherine of Braganza. Restores Catherine of Braganza to prominence, revealing her political influence, cultural patronage, and enduring legacy in both England and Portugal. Catherine of Braganza has regularly been referred to as ‘the forgotten queen’ and there is much truth in this statement. Following her death in 1705, a fully detailed biography in English remained unwritten until 1915. The last major bio published about her was in Portuguese in 1941 and it has never been translated into English. Despite her sheltered and religious upbringing, she made a spectacular marriage that was plagued by the infidelities of her husbands. Readers can readily find published biographies of Charles II’s many glamourous mistresses, but curiously, little on his wife. This new work presents more comprehensive information on Catherine’s life in Portugal than previous biographies and integrates new scholarship regarding Catherine’s practice of queenship and patronage of Catholic Baroque culture in an effort to carve out a prominent role at the Stuart court and to compete with her rivals. Readers familiar with Catherine’s story may learn some delightful new details about her life. Catherine has never been forgotten in Portugal. She considered herself Portuguese at heart and during her reign as Queen of England, she persistently looked out for Portuguese interests. In her own words, she considered her marriage a personal sacrifice to what was best for her home country. She is one of the few dowager queens in history to return to her homeland where she acted as regent for her brother. This biography places Catherine within the context of the history of Portugal and their seaborne empire, and the strong political and commercial ties between England and Portugal dating to the mid-fourteenth century which played a key role in the culmination of
August 30, 2025 at 9:14 AM
srsrensoc.bsky.social
The Old Science of Sound: 450 Years of Tallis & Byrd’s ‘Cantiones Sacrae’ (1575)

An evening of music, readings, and discussion of English Catholic music

National Centre for Early Music, York, 28 October 2025, 19:30
All info www.rensoc.org.uk/event/the-ol... #EarlyMusic #RecusantsBaby #EarlyModern
2025 marks the 450th anniversary of Cantiones, quae ab argumento sacrae vocantur — a bold and enigmatic collection of Latin motets by William Byrd and Thomas Tallis, and the first of its kind to be published in England. Issued under a planned 21-year royal monopoly on music printing, the volume reflects the hidden pressures faced by recusant Catholics in Elizabethan England. Surfacing only four years after the Catholic Ridolfi plot to depose Elizabeth I, its precise purpose remains a subject of ongoing scholarly debate. Brand-new vocal ensemble Catterwall presents an evening of music and discussion exploring this turbulent chapter in England’s religious history. Alongside motets from Cantiones, the programme includes newly reconstructed works from the fragmentary Baldwin Partbooks and readings from contemporary English Catholic literature, including texts from the English College in Rome. An accompanying exhibition will be held at the York Minster Library and Archives (Old Palace), showcasing original copies of the 1575 Cantiones, the unique first edition of Byrd’s 1605 Gradualia, and other rare books and musical manuscripts. The display runs from 28th October to 30th November during regular opening hours.
August 6, 2025 at 8:23 AM
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CFP: Speech/less in the Early Modern World
Keynote speakers: Rosamund Oates

Emmanuel College, Cambridge, 23 April 2026
Deadline: 26 September 2025

All info: www.rensoc.org.uk/event/speech... #EarlyModern #SkyStorians #DisabilityHistory #HistDisability
The articulation of rational speech has been privileged throughout history as the best evidence for humanness, reason, and even emotion. Yet speechlessness was a common part of early modern life. All human infants were born without speech and, throughout the life cycle, speech could be impeded or even silenced, temporarily or permanently, by deafness, illness, disability, enslavement and other forms of oppression, as well as various other events, like demonic possession, drunkenness, and cross-lingual encounters. Histories of the body have established the centrality and dynamism of the body and of the senses to early modern experience. However, the condition of speechlessness (in its multiple forms), and the myriad ways in which early modern bodies experienced, sensed, and circumvented speechlessness, have escaped direct historical attention. This workshop asks what it meant to be speechless in the early modern world. It will draw out the power of ‘speechless’ people to communicate (social, political, emotional) meanings, generate knowledge, and affect others, and will highlight the potential for non-verbal sounds and gestures to act as alternative ‘speech’ forms. In doing so, Speech/less in the Early Modern World will complicate the way speechlessness continues to be equated, all too easily, with historical silence and lack of knowledge or agency.
August 6, 2025 at 8:16 AM
srsrensoc.bsky.social
CFP: @rebpaf.bsky.social’s “Re-mediating the Early Book: Pasts and Futures” With keynote speakers @wynkenhimself.bsky.social @renskehoff.bsky.social and Aditi Nafde

Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, 23-25 June 2026
Deadline: 15 December 2025

All info: www.rensoc.org.uk/event/re-med...
Re-mediating the Early Book: Pasts and Futures (REBPAF) is a Marie Curie Doctoral Training Network coordinated by the University of Galway, which focuses on the ways in which 15th- and 16th-century book producers (scribes, printers, entrepreneurs) negotiated the dynamic relations between the manuscript and the printed book and adapted to the evolving challenges of the market. It also explores the continuing relevance of these cultural and economic negotiations to the modern world. The network will be hosting an international conference at the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin from 23-25 June 2026. We invite papers or posters on late medieval and early modern book culture, broadly conceived. Selection. What shapes a book producer’s choices in form or language? How do physical features reflect meaning or ideology? How do design and content choices reveal cultural values—and how are these reimagined in modern editions? Value. What determines the cultural or monetary value of certain texts over others? How do producers, sellers, and collectors influence these shifting values? How can citation, adaptation, or performance reshape a book’s worth? What is the role of canonicity, and how has it changed? Why and how do we reevaluate texts over time? Accessibility. How does changing a text’s medium—manuscript, print, or digital—affect its reading? How do material or linguistic changes interact with content? How does greater access reshape how readers interpret texts? What are the ethical issues around accessibility and cultural ownership? Can re-mediation serve as critique or recovery? How can we open historical texts to new audiences? Survival. Why do some texts survive while others do not? How do past choices shape their transmission today? What meanings are tied to survival, loss, or rediscovery? How do texts respond to fragility? What roles do preservation or adaptation play in ensuring their future?
August 6, 2025 at 8:11 AM
srsrensoc.bsky.social
Evenin' Campers! We're hosting a #SRSlyGood book launch on 10 Sept 2025, 17.00BST/12.00EDT/18.00CEST. Join former SRS Postdoctoral Fellow, @hnewsome-chandler.bsky.social in conversation ŵ @ewoodacre.bsky.social to celebrate "The Holograph Letters of Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scots" shorturl.at/Z6zfN
Banner: Book Launch: "The Holograph Letters of Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scots (1489-1541), Author Helen Newsome-Chandler in Conversation with Elena Woodacre, 10 September 2025, 12.00EDT, 17.00BST, 18.00CEST https://www.crowdcast.io/c/holograph-letters Burnt red background, white text. Book cover to the left of the text, phoenix logo below.
July 28, 2025 at 6:57 PM
srsrensoc.bsky.social
Congratulations to @nicolemaceira.bsky.social and @serinquinn.bsky.social, SRS Postdoctoral Fellows 2025-2026! We look forward to working with you in the coming year 💫 🎉 🙌🎉 💫

www.rensoc.org.uk/srs-postdoct... #SRSlyGood #Skystorians
'SRS Postdoctoral Fellowships' in Fell type with extreme ligatures to the right of the SRS Phoenix logo.
July 25, 2025 at 3:34 PM
srsrensoc.bsky.social
'Extra-Illustrations and Annotated Illustrations in Early Modern Books', a new digital exhibition, curated by Hannah Yip and @thejohnrylands.bsky.social #EarlyModernVirtualEvents #Skystorians www.rensoc.org.uk/event/extra-...
Extra-Illustrations and Annotated Illustrations in Early Modern Books Why did readers write on, or alter, printed images? What does this tell us about the enduring appeal of early modern texts? A new digital exhibition curated by Hannah Yip (University of Manchester), ’Extra-Illustrations and Annotated Illustrations in Early Modern Books’, explores how readers engaged visually with their books. The exhibition includes a range of works from the literary canon to ephemeral pamphlets held today at the John Rylands Library, each uniquely transformed by the people who owned them. These objects ask us to reconsider how books and images were read, repurposed, and reimagined across time. Extra-Illustrations and Annotated Illustrations in Early Modern Books Location: The John Rylands Research Institute and Library (online) Ticket Price: Free Website: https://www.digitalexhibitions.manchester.ac.uk/s/extra-illustrated-books/page/introduction
July 25, 2025 at 2:59 PM
srsrensoc.bsky.social
#JobKlaxon: One year fixed-term lectureship in Shakespeare Studies @cemskcl.bsky.social (1 Sept 2025-31 August 2026. Apply by 27th July 2025. #Skystorians #Shax

www.rensoc.org.uk/event/fixed-...
Fixed Term Lecturer in Shakespeare Studies King's College London, September 1, 2025 - August 31, 2026 Deadline for submission/application: July 27, 2025 The English department at King’s College London wishes to appoint a full-time Lecturer in Shakespeare Studies on a fixed-term basis from 1 September 2025 to 31 August 2026. The role will be on our AEP pathway, with an emphasis on teaching and educational scholarship. The successful candidate will have proven experience of university teaching, a record of published research appropriate to their career-stage, and also be able to undertake administrative and pastoral duties. They will be able to teach on a range of undergraduate and postgraduate modules. These may include the level 4 modules Early Modern Literary Culture and the introductory first-year module Reading Poetry; the level 5 module The Film of the Play; and the level 6 module Shakespeare’s London (co-taught with our colleagues at Shakespeare’s Globe). They may also be asked to supervise MA dissertations for students on our MAs in Shakespeare Studies and Early Modern Literature: Books That Matter, as well as BA dissertations. The postholder will contribute, as personal tutor, to the pastoral care of students. They will be expected to undertake departmental administration as required. They will be responsible to the Head of Department. Further details are available here: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/jobs/120046-lecturer-in-shakespeare-studies. The deadline for applications is 27th July 2025.
July 21, 2025 at 5:52 PM
srsrensoc.bsky.social
#CfP: Conflict, War and Violence in the Early Modern World

Exeter, 30-31 October 31, 2025. Abstracts by September 5, 2025 @earlymodernwar.bsky.social #Skystorians #EarlyModernEvents #MiseryOfCivilWar

www.rensoc.org.uk/event/confli...
Conflict, War and Violence in the Early Modern World University of Exeter, October 30, 2025 - October 31, 2025 Deadline for submission/application: September 5, 2025 Call for Papers We are exploring early modern conflict in all its forms. We particularly seek to unpack the interactions between the more traditional aspects of conflict, such as the political, tactical and strategic, with the more human side of it, including sociocultural approaches that explore experiences, representations and impacts of violence. As such, we particularly welcome proposals that look beyond purely military history and break chronological, geographical and disciplinary boundaries. We welcome proposals for individual papers of up to 20 minutes, or full panels of three to four papers, on any aspect of conflict, war and violence in the early modern period. Speakers might consider, but are not limited to, the following themes: • Physical, tactical, operational and strategic aspects of warfare. • Martial identities, values and motivations. • Notions of gender, race, class and religion. • Remembering, (re)imagining and representing violence and/or conflict. • The experience of violence, its impact and the everyday at war. • Popular allegiance in early modern conflict. • Maritime violence and naval warfare. • The bureaucracy of conflict, finance and the law. Abstracts of up to 300 words, along with a biographical note, should be sent to earlymodernwar@gmail.com by Friday 5th September.
July 21, 2025 at 4:18 PM
srsrensoc.bsky.social
British Library Doctoral Open Days

British Library and Online, October 16, 2025 and various other dates

#Skystorians #YayArchives

www.rensoc.org.uk/event/britis...
Interested in conducting research with the British Library? Get your research started with the BL's free introductory webinar on Thursday 16 October. Find out how to register as a reader, learn how to use the catalogue and hear about the BL's postgraduate development opportunities. Join the in-person Doctoral Open Days to learn about specific areas of the BL's collections, get expert advice from curators and reference specialists and meet researchers with similar interests. Find out more about the series: https://events.bl.uk/whats-on/doctoral-open-days
July 21, 2025 at 4:16 PM
srsrensoc.bsky.social
Worship in Transition: Liturgical Change, Continuity and Adaptation in Sixteenth-Century Europe

Lille, France, September 15-17, 2025

Plenary Speakers: Professor Marjorie E. Plummer; Professor Magnus Williamson

#Skystorians #Reformazing

www.rensoc.org.uk/event/worshi...
Worship in Transition: Liturgical Change, Continuity and Adaptation in Sixteenth-Century Europe Lille, France, September 15, 2025 - September 17, 2025 Of all the changes entailed by the European Reformations, it was the evolution of worship practices that most impacted the lives of all members of the community — from prince to peasant. Far from being unidirectional, religious policy was subjected to fits and starts; the religious identity of a territory might change through dynastic succession, military conquest, or even variations in preference of local church or municipal leaders. Responses to state-mandated change varied widely in pace, with both compliance and resistance manifesting through liturgical practice. Focusing on communal worship at ground level enables us to envisage the Reformation as a gradual process of transition from one faith to another (and sometimes back) as well as tracking evolutions within confessions as religious boundaries and identities settled progressively. The purpose of this conference is to encourage cross-disciplinary approaches to worship practices in the contexts of both inter-confessional and intra-confessional transitions in Europe during the long Reformation (1500-1650). Worship has recently come under renewed scholarly scrutiny as liturgical sources are mined for clues about how early modern faith and beliefs were forged, perceived and validated. Indeed, as worship was intensely communal and transcended the elite/popular and clergy/laity divides, it is generally understood that rituals are key to understanding the lived experience of religion.
July 21, 2025 at 3:23 PM
srsrensoc.bsky.social
#CfP: Poetry & Science, From the Renaissance to Enlightenment
York, June 26-27 2026. Abstracts Sept 30 2025

Keynote: @manymanyplies.bsky.social. Confirmed speakers: @medrenliza.bsky.social, @titachico.bsky.social, Jonathan Sawday, @wordsmith.bsky.social Lizzie Swann #Skystorians
shorturl.at/rYg7H
Call for Papers: Poetry and Science, From the Renaissance to Enlightenment University of York, June 26, 2026 - June 27, 2026 Deadline for submission/application: September 30, 2025 Keynote: Katie Murphy Confirmed Speakers include: Liza Blake, Tita Chico, Jonathan Sawday, Helen Smith, Lizzie Swann We invite proposals for the final conference of the AHRC-DFG project, ‘Scientific Poetry and Poetics in Britain and Germany, from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, 1580-1750’. From the late 16th and on into the first half of the 18th century, a large body of poetic writing addressed scientific subject matter. The conference explores this mass of scientific poetry – and a corresponding poetics of science – that reveals a vibrant facet of Renaissance, Restoration, and Enlightenment culture: the production not only of ideas, but of new, technical vocabularies and fast-paced neologizing, all forged in the particular demands of poetic form. Poetry, the era believed, did not function as mere ornament, but to reveal deep structures in the created world. This potential was theorized by the period’s emerging literary criticism, a practice that developed in demonstrable parallel with modern ‘science’.
July 21, 2025 at 3:02 PM
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CfP for 6-6500 word articles for publication in "Shakespeare’s 21C/The 21 Century’s Shakespeare", the first issue of "Shakespeare Quarterly" under editorial leadership of Vanessa I Corredera, Arthur L Little, Jr., & @davidmcinnis.bsky.social Deadline: October 3 2025 www.rensoc.org.uk/event/shakes...
Shakespeare’s Twenty-First Century / The Twenty-First Century’s Shakespeare Deadline for submission/application: October 3, 2025 Authors are invited to submit articles for publication in the first issue of the Shakespeare Quarterly under the editorial leadership of Vanessa I. Corredera, Arthur L. Little, Jr., and David McInnis. What conversations are we having, should we be having, in Shakespeare studies? We are particularly interested in essays working at the intersection of different theoretical models as well as essays that seek to push us toward Shakespeare’s historical futures or futuristic histories. Given the realities of not just the decline of the humanities but the assault on them, what are the implications for how we imagine Shakespeare in the humanities? What’s the place of Shakespeare in an embattled or reformed Shakespeare? What ethical, philological, and political challenges face twenty-first century Shakespeare? How do we begin to carry out and privilege Shakespeare work that seeks awareness of the real-world implication of the “knowledge” it produces? Whether one’s scholarship focuses on book history, (dis)ability, the environment, film, gender, intellectual history, medicine, neurodiversity, race, sex, textual editing, trans studies, just to name a few, we seek to publish essays focused on an emergent Shakespeare, perhaps a Shakespeare that is or is not caught up in a state of emergency. In the hopes of including a variety of perspectives in this issue, we aim to publish six to eight essays and thus invite submissions between 6000 and 6500 words. Completed articles should be sent to the journal via Editorial Manager and should indicate they are being submitted for consideration for this special issue.
July 13, 2025 at 2:31 PM
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The Department of History at Texas State University invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the History of Science & Technology with a focus on Western Europe and/or its empires, starting August 16 2026. Apply by October 1, 2025 www.rensoc.org.uk/event/search... #Skystorians
Search for an Assistant Professor in the History of Science & Technology with a Focus on Western Europe and/or its Empires San Marcos, Texas, August 16, 2026 - Deadline for submission/application: October 1, 2025 Position Description: The Department of History at Texas State University invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the History of Science & Technology with a focus on Western Europe and/or its empires (period specialization open). Preference will be given to candidates with experience in Applied History/Digital Humanities. The successful candidate will be expected to teach survey courses in Western/world civilizations and specialized undergraduate and graduate courses in the History of Science & Technology, to direct graduate theses and serve on graduate committees, and to participate actively in departmental programs, service, and governance. This position is part of a cluster hire in the History of Science & Technology. Required Qualifications: A PhD in History or a related field (e.g., History of Science and Technology or European Studies) is required by the time of appointment. Candidates must demonstrate an active research agenda in the History of Science & Technology with a focus on Western Europe and/or its empires. Preferred Qualifications: Preference will be given to candidates with experience in Applied History/Digital Humanities and to those who demonstrate an active research agenda with a scholarship record that complements the existing strengths of the History Department.
July 12, 2025 at 9:53 PM
srsrensoc.bsky.social
RANGER'S HOUSE* IS REOPENING!!!!
After a period of closure, they're showing their marvelous collection of #MedievalSky & #EarlyModern decorative arts again.

Opening on 24 July www.rensoc.org.uk/event/ranger...

*Yup. From Bridgerton.
Ranger’s House – The Wernher Collection: opening to the public on 24th July 2025 Ranger’s House, Chesterfield Walk, Greenwich, London, SE10 8QX, July 24, 2025 - September 6, 2025 Managed by English Heritage, Ranger’s House will re-open to the public on 24th July 2025 following a period of closure. Ranger’s House is a magnificent Georgian villa located on the edge of Greenwich Park, home to the impressive Wernher Collection. Assembled by 19th-century diamond magnate Sir Julius Wernher, the collection is one of finest collections of Medieval and Early Modern decorative arts in the UK. It includes over 700 works of art, from Renaissance paintings, jewellery and sculpture to 18th century furniture, tapestries, and Sèvres porcelain. Be sure to check the website for daily spotlight talks and house tours, which provide deeper insight into the house and its remarkable collection.
July 7, 2025 at 9:50 AM
srsrensoc.bsky.social
CFP: Fifteenth Annual REFORC Conference on Early Modern Christianity

The fab REFORC (who aren't here yet 😭) is inviting short paper proposals for their conference in Wrocław 19-21 May 2026. The keynotes are on the topic of #Earlymodern Christian materiality.
Info: www.rensoc.org.uk/event/fiftee...
July 7, 2025 at 9:46 AM