Event Archive

Waldemar Deluga: Gothic Art in Ukraine

Waldemar Deluga is Professor of Art History at the University of Ostrava, Czechia. He specializes in Ukrainian art, particularly on its influences and transformations from the medieval period onwards. In 2019, he published Ukrainian Painting Between the Byzantine and Latin Traditions. Deluga also runs the journal Series Byzantina on Byzantine...

English and Polish Seventeenth-Century Almanacs as a Source for a History of Every Day Life

In this lecture, Professor Jakub Basista from the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland, will combine his research on popular culture, book history and early modern piety in the Polish and English public spheres.

What to do with images? Visual culture and early modern British History

The speaker is Dr Adam Morton (Newcastle). His AHRC-funded project 'Integrating the Image' will relaunch the "British Printed Images to 1700" database.

The Afterlives of Hugo Grotius (1583-1645): The Leiden Internationalists, the League of Nations , 1917-1945

This talk focuses on the Grotius Forschung of Dutch jurists who either worked at or graduated from the University of Leiden during the Interbellum. In various capacities, they shaped Dutch foreign policy, particularly towards the League of Nations. They were also involved with Dutch NGOs closely associated with the...

"The Forbes family trade network in the Ruthenian Voivodeship in the late 17th century."

Khrystyna Baziuk works at the Medieval History Department at the Krypyakevych Institute and is a specialist of urban history, trade, migration and the history of L’viv. She is part of a team of specialists on Ukraine who put together resources for the study of Ukrainian history and culture, led by...

CEMS Research Seminar: Harry McCarthy (Exeter) 'Not He, the Queen': Boyed Blackness and Queer Race on the Early Modern Stage'

Join the Centre for Early Modern Studies for this interesting seminar led by Dr Harry McCarthy.

A Portraitist in Europe: Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun

Join us for this seminar (in French and in English) with Geneviève Haroche-Bouzinac, co-hosted by the Centre for Modern Languages Research (CMLR) and the Centre for Early Modern Studies (CEMS).

Professor Wayne Te Brake (Purchase College, State University of New York): The Hidden History of Religious Peace

NB: Due to the UCU strike, this seminar will now take place on Tuesday 14 March at 5 pm in CB009 (in person and online)

Dr Stefan Hanss (University of Manchester): Medicine, Material Culture and Hair in Early Modern Germany

Online and in Room MR 303

The Burn excursion 17-19 February 2023

A postgraduate training weekend across Arts and Humanities Disciplines for PGR and PGT students, 17-19 February 2023 at the Burn in Edzell

Dr Jaroslaw Pietrzak, "A History of Polish-Scottish contacts in the early modern period" - Please note change of time and venue due to UCU strike!

Dr Pietrzak is an Erasmus exchange guest at Aberdeen/CEMS from the Jagiellonian University Kraków.

CEMS Research Seminar. Dr Lubaaba Al-Azami (Liverpool) 'An Early Anglo-Indian: The Case of Maryam Khan'.

1-2 pm, MacRobert Rm 303, and live online.

CEMS Global Conversations: Diana Barnes (University of New England), 'The Contested Bubble in Early Modern Writing'

Please join us for this live in person, and live online event in CEMS Global Conversations series, featuring Dr Diana Barnes. This event will also be available live via Microsoft Teams - to register for online attendance, please use the link below.

Dr Suzanna Ivanič (Kent): Material Connections across Central and Eastern Europe, 1500-1700: The Case of Chalcedony

Online seminar, link will be sent out nearer the time

Dr Meha Priyadarshini (Edinburgh) "The China, the Manola, and the María Clara: Dress and Identity in the Spanish Empire"

This project ranges across early modern and nineteenth century materials. It explores how “national types” were created in the nineteenth century whose costumes were made from foreign textiles introduced via early modern global trade. Meha Priyadarshini is Lecturer of Early Modern History at University of Edinburgh. She studies connections between colonial Latin...

Northern Networks, Aberdeen: Astronomical and Medical Knowledge from the Baltic to East Central Europe, 1550-1750

A workshop on 28-29 October 2022, supported by the AHRC Research Networking Scheme brought to Aberdeen by Cassie Gorman (Anglia Ruskin University) and Stefano Gulizia (University of Miland and Polish Institute of Advanced Studies, Warsaw), in cooperation with the Museum and Special Collections, University of Aberdeen

Natural Law, Religious Conflict, and the problem of War and Peace in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Europe

Two-day symposium organised by the Centre for Polish-Lithuanian Studies with the support of the Centre of Early Modern Studies and the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Edinburgh.

Dr Joanne Anderson (Aberdeen) - Slow Art: an experiential study of art in its late medieval landscape - CEMS Research Seminar

The Centre for Early Modern Studies at the University of Aberdeen welcomes Dr Joanne Anderson for this CEMS Research Seminar. She will speak on 'Slow Art: an experiential study of art in its late medieval landscape.’

Urvashi Chakravarty (Toronto) - The Stain of Slavery in Early Modern England - CEMS Research Seminar

This talk explores the ideologies of slavery in early modern England, in a moment which preceded the development of an organized trade in enslaved persons. Despite the persistent fiction that England was innocent of racialized slavery, I argue that the ideologies of slavery were seeded in the quotidian spaces of early...

Dr Toby Wikström (Iceland) - 'Before Sentimental Empire: Slavery, Genre and Emotion on the Seventeenth-Century French Stage - Joint CEMS and CMLR Research Seminar

The University of Aberdeen welcomes Dr Toby Wikström (University of Iceland) for this seminar: 'Before Sentimental Empire: Slavery, Genre and Emotion on the Seventeenth-Century French Stage' with

Julia Pohlmann (Aberdeen) - Israel married Judah: The imagined Jew and Israel in Eighteenth-Century Scottish Covenant theology - CEMS Research Seminar

The Centre for Early Modern Studies at the University of Aberdeen welcomes Julia Pohlmann to this week's lunchtime seminar, entitled: 'Israel married Judah: The imagined Jew and Israel in Eighteenth-Century Scottish Covenant theology'.

CEMS Research Seminar: The Contested Bubble in Early Modern Writing - *EVENT POSTPONED*

All are welcome to this evening event, the first in our Global Conversations series, connecting CEMS across continents and timezones. We welcome Dr Diana G. Barnes (UNE, Australia), whose topic is 'The Contested Bubble in Early Modern Writing'.

CEMS Research Seminar: Thomas Coryate and the Histories of "Tourism"

We welcome Dr Natalya Din-Kariuki (Warwick) whose paper is entitled 'Thomas Coryate and the Histories of "Tourism". All are welcome to this online meeting of the CEMS Research Seminar.

CEMS Research Seminar: Taking Licences: Shakespeare, Forgery & Early Modern Rogue Culture

Derek Dunne is a lecturer in English literature at Cardiff University. His current research project is on ‘Shakespeare’s Licence’, examining the power of paperwork in early modern England and how this makes its presence felt in the drama of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. His first monograph, Shakespeare, Revenge Tragedy, and Early...

CEMS Research Seminar: Municipal Play and the Home Fans (A Leisure Complex in Congleton)

What can a council leisure centre from the 16th and 17th centuries tell us about the early modern English playhouse?  And what connections does it reveal between recreation and community identity? I address these questions by sharing a draft case study from the forthcoming book, What is a Playhouse? England at Play, 1520-1620 (Routledge...

CEMS Research Seminar: Welcome

A welcome event open to all staff, PGRs, and PGT students with research interest in Late medieval, Renaissance and Early Modern studies across all disciplines.

31st March: Dr Clare Egan (Lancaster) 'Upon that text dilate I coulde, durst I with betters to be boulde': Performing Libel in Early Modern England

 On 31st March, at 1pm Centre for Early Modern Studies will host Dr Clare Egan (Lancaster), via MS Teams. Please register for the meeting here. The CEMS Research Seminar welcome Dr Clare Egan (Lancaster) for the final research seminar of the term. All Welcome. Dr Clare Egan (Lancaster) ‘Upon that text dilate I coulde,...

24th March: "The Salvage Imaginary: Gender and Objects in The Taming of the Shrew."

On March 24th, at 1pm Centre for Early Modern Studies will host Dr McKenna Rose (Georgia IT), via MS Teams. Please register for the meeting here The Taming of the Shrew stages the ways that laying waste to domestic material commodities produces an idealized division of the sexes. The broken glasses and...

17th March: 'Dispossession in Lace: Jacobean Ruffs and Early English Colonialism'

Wed 17th March   If you wish to attend this seminar please register here. Dr Lauren Working (TIDE Project, Oxford):    'Dispossession in Lace: Jacobean Ruffs and Early English Colonialism'     Three thousand miles from London, amidst tobacco leaves and animal bones, archaeologists in Jamestown have unearthed five goffering irons – the tools used to shape...

Friday 12th March CEMS Research Symposium: Print and Prints in the Early Modern World

This CEMS symposium presents new research into early modern print culture, in both textual and visual contexts. Each paper consists of twenty minutes for the speaker, and a further ten minutes for questions.

3rd March: 'Itching ears: Desire for news in the 1620s'

Wed 3rd March  If you wish to attend the seminar please register here. Dr Kirsty Rolfe (Leiden),     'Itching ears: Desire for news in the 1620s'  In the early 1620s, a flood of foreign news entered England, dealing with the war in Bohemia and Germany (the beginnings of the conflict that would later become...

Tuesday 23rd February, 4 pm: 'James VI and I and his empire of islands: the view from the periphery'

On February 23rd (Tuesday) at 4pm Centre for Early Modern Studies, in collaboration with RIISS will host Dr Ali Carthcart (Striling), via MS Teams. Details on how to get access to the meeting will be updated soon.   If you require help please contact zuzanna.muszynska@abdn.ac.uk    

17th February: REED project, '"A playe in the hall": civic performance, c.1560-90'

On February 17th at 1pm Centre for Early Modern Studies will host Prof Tracey Hill (Bath Spa), via MS Teams. To gain acces to this event please register here.   If you require help please contact zuzanna.muszynska@abdn.ac.uk

10th February: 'The Sportswoman's Paradox: Medicalising the Athletic Female Body in Early Modern Europe'

On February 10th at 1pm Centre for Early Modern Studies will host Dr Valerio Zanetti from St Johns, Cambridge, via MS Teams. To gain acces to this event please register here.     If you require help please contact zuzanna.muszynska@abdn.ac.uk  

Bill Naphy: Expert and Forensic Witnesses in Genevan Trials, c. 1540-1640

To download the full programme click here. Wednesday 9 December 2020,  1-2 pm, via Microsoft Teams Bill Naphy (History, University of Aberdeen) In cooperation with the Centre for History and Philosophy of Science, Technology and Medicine (CHPSTM) Expert and Forensic Witnesses in Genevan Trials, c. 1540-1640 This talk will look at the critical role of experts...

Bradford Bow: The Wise Club in the Aberdeen Enlightenment

To download the full programme click here. Wednesday 25 November 2020, 1pm Bradford Bow (History/RIISS, University of Aberdeen) The Wise Club in the Aberdeen Enlightenment Please note that to get the information regarding the Zoom meeting you must register for the seminar here.

Rebecca Gill on Virtual Veronese

We welcome you to Rebecca Gill's talk on Virtual Veronese taking place November 25th. "Virtual Veronese is a research and development (R&D) project looking at how we can share research with a wider audience by using immersive technologies to explore new ways of telling stories. The project will enable us to...

Divine Ascent by Dr Joanna W Anderson

11th November 2020 at 19:30 GMT on Zoom "Mary Magdalen was popular in the late medieval Alps. Across the central European arc, images of the saint graced the walls, altars and glass windows of numerous parish and pilgrimage churches, functioning as indexical markers of faith but also crucially as evidence of...

Michael Tworek: A (Dis)entangled History of Early Modern Cannibalism

A (Dis)entangled History of Early Modern Cannibalism: Theory and Practice in Global History

Hans Hönes: Aesthetic Hypotheses. Winckelmann in the museum (c. 1761)

  To download the full programme click here. Wednesday 21 October 2020, 1 pm Hans Hönes (History of Art, University of Aberdeen) Aesthetic Hypotheses. Winckelmann in the museum (c. 1761) In order to get the access link to this seminar please register here.  

Andrew Gordon and Alasdair Hunter present "A Merry Note"

Andrew Gordon and Alasdair Hunter present "A Merry Note”, an online performance exploring correspondence in times of separation, isolation and absence, as explored through the lens of Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost and other contemporary sources. This virtual event will be the first screening of a performance made with Scottish actors under lockdown and will be followed...

'The Wise Club in the Aberdeen Enlightenment' -- cancelled --!!

'The Wise Club in the Aberdeen Enlightenment'

CEMS Annual Lecture

This event was cancelled

Brian Cummings - 'Petrarch and the Arts of Memory'

Miranda Anderson: 'Early Modern Distributed Cognition'

Miranda Anderson's new book, Distributed Cognition in Medieval and Renaissance Culture draws out what was distinctive about medieval and Renaissance insights into (and superstitions about) the cognitive roles of the body and environment and examines how humanities topics are affected by new insights from the cognitive sciences.

Union and Its Legacies. Poland-Lithuania since 1386 A Symposium to mark the 450th anniversary of the Union of Lublin

Union and Its Legacies. Poland-Lithuania since 1386 A Symposium to mark the 450th anniversary of the Union of Lublin  Programme Friday 31 January 5:30pm Introduction (Robert Frost) 5:45: Formal Opening of the Centre (speeches from ambassadors) 6:15 pm Keynote Public Lecture Chair: Robert Frost (Aberdeen) Norman Davies (Oxford) ‘Polish’ Studies: Past, Present & Future. Reception and Buffet Saturday 1 February Keynote Lecture 9:30-10:30 Chair: Michael Brown (Aberdeen) Robert...

CEMS Research Seminar - Paul Botley (Warwick), 'Johannes Woverius of Hamburg (1574-1612) and the Idea of the Scholar'

Wednesday 6th November 1-2 pm. MacRobert 266 (and live broadcast via Blackboard Collaborate) Paul Botley (Warwick),  ‘Johannes Woverius of Hamburg (1574-1612) and the Idea of the Scholar’ Paul Botley is Associate Professor (Reader) in the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies at Warwick University. He has published widely on aspects of Renaissance...

CEMS Research Seminar - Chloe Preedy (Exeter), 'The Mists of Error': Predicting Disaster on the Early Modern Stage'

Wednesday 16th October 1-2 pm. MacRobert 266 (and live broadcast via Blackboard Collaborate) Chloe Preedy (Exeter), 'The Mists of Error': Predicting Disaster on the Early Modern Stage'   In early modern England, moral and medical understandings of pollution often converged. As a result, errors in judgment or character might be figured through references to...

Newberry joint conference.

On 10-11 October 2019, a joint conference will be held at the Newberry Library Chicago.  The event is a follow up to the Reading the Ministry event, held at the University of Aberdeen in November 2018.

"Shakespeare on the Surface" - Liz Oakley-Brown

A CEMS Research Seminar and live broadcast via Blackboard Collaborate

CEMS at the RSA

In March 2019 CEMS is hosting a series of panels at the Renaissance Society of America annual meeting in Toronto.

Conference "Reading the Ministry, 1520-1848"

Call for Papers - Deadline 31 July 2018 The Centre for Early Modern Studies and the Special Collection Archives at the University of Aberdeen, in cooperation with the Newberry Library's Center for Renaissance Studies in Chicago, are inviting papers on the theme of "Reading the Ministry, 1520-1848".

New Perspectives on Magic and Witchcraft: Early Modern Scotland, Poland and Russia

A one-day symposium with Val Kivelson, Julian Goodare and Michael Müller

Scottish Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy

SSEMP IX is the 9th edition of a yearly event that brings together established scholars, young researchers and advanced graduate students working in the field of Early Modern Philosophy. The aim is to foster scholarly exchange among the different generations of academics in the UK and to strengthen international collaboration.

What is an Archive?

What is an Archive?  The Archives Concept in Central European Legal Writings during the Sixteenth and seventeenth centuries

Moving the Renaissance - A Symposium on Early Modern Travels

CEMS invites Moving the Renaissance - A Symposium on Early Modern Travels

Shakespearean Surfaces

CEMS Lunchtime Seminar

Adam Smith on the Natural History of Religion and the Moral Sentiments

CEMS Lunchtime seminar

Sir Thomas Roe & India

Cems lunchtime seminar

Masculinity, Dynastic Thinking, and the Messiah

  Cems lunchtime seminar  

Images of the first woman: Eve in Islamic Fal-nama paintings

  Cems lunchtime seminar  

"Advance on us like Mad Men!". The Scottish Highland Warrior

CEMS Lunchtime seminar

Martin Luther: Manhood and Pugilism

Please register via Eventbrite: Professor Roper's recent book on Martin Luther provides a critical reassessment of the German Reformer during the anniversary of his alleged 'posting of the 95 theses' on a church door in Wittenberg - which most probably did not even happen. Luther, not the 'deus ex machina', and...

Polemical Laughter in Thomas Middleton's A Game at Chess

Cems lunchtime seminar

The Turk, the Moor and the Egyptian: Exotic visitors in entertainments at the court of James VI

CEMS lunchtime seminar

King James VI and the Beheading Game

CEMS Public Lecture in Assoiation with the Friends of the Library

Sources of Early Modern History of Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire

Paper by Dr Barry Robertson on sources that can be found on Early Modern History in the Aberdeen City Archives. Strongly recommended to postgrad students in medieval and early modern history an culture.

The African mirror. Monkey theatre in ancien-régime Paris

Lunchtime seminar

Masculinity, Dynastic Thinking, and the Messiah

CEMS lunchtime seminar

CEMS Research Seminar. 'Rethinking Medieval Masculinity in Light of the Male Body' Jacqueline Murray (Guelph)

CEMS Research Seminar Professor Jacqueline Murray (Guelph) ‘Rethinking Medieval Masculinity in Light of the Male Body’

CEMS Research Seminar. 'Women's access to the law in fourteenth-century York' Frederik Pedersen (History)

CEMS Research Seminar. Frederik Pedersen (History) ‘Women’s access to the law in fourteenth-century York’

CEMS Research Seminar. 'Laughter and Crime' Lena Liapi (History)

Dr Lena Liapi is teaching fellow in History.

CEMS Research Seminar. 'Are you talking to me? Myths and readers in early modern English literature' Dr Katherine Heavey (Glasgow)

Katherine Heavey is a lecturer in early modern English Literature at the University of Glasgow. Her research interests are primarily focused on classical adaptation and translation in early modern English literature. Her book, The Early Modern Medea: Medea in English Literature 1558-1688, was published by Palgrave in 2015. She is...

War and Diplomacy in East Central Europe - Launch of Patrick Gordon's Diaries, volume 6

International Conference to mark the launch of the last volume of Patrick Gordon’s Diary, in conjunction with RIISS and CEMS

Literacy 'under the Lock': Education, Spirituality and Enclosure in Dominican Reform Convents

Wed 16th November, 1-2 pm Literacy 'under the Lock': Education, Spirituality and Enclosure in Dominican Reform Convents Marie Luise Ehrenschwendtner (University of Aberdeen, Divinity) Venue: NK11

Touching Skin: Why Medieval Readers Rubbed and Kissed their Manuscripts

Wed 9th November, 1-2 pm   Touching Skin: Why Medieval Readers Rubbed and Kissed their Manuscripts Kathryn Rudy (St Andrews) Venue: NK7 

Friends and Enemies in Julius Caesar

Wed 2nd November, 1-2 pm   Friends and Enemies in Julius Caesar Dermot Cavanagh (Edinburgh) Venue: NK7 

'What legacy shall I bequeath to thee?' - Shakespeare in the Context of his Time

Shakespeare Postgraduate and Early Career Symposium on 22 October 2016

Shakespeare Recreated: Carlos Gamerro's Cardenio

Thursday 20th October 5.30 pm. Shakespeare Recreated: Carlos Gamerro’s Cardenio A reading and discussion with the Argentinian writer of his novel that reimagines the lost Shakespeare play inspired by an incident in Cervantes’ Don Quixote. Part of Shakespeare Week at the University of Aberdeen.    

Playing Aberdeen, 1601

A performance event exploring the visit to Aberdeen of a theatre company in 1601

Playing Spaces: The Early Modern Stage Today

3 visiting speakers come together to investigate the stage spaces of Shakespeare's time and how we can use them today.

'Equal by Design': a film about Spinoza and the UK housing crisis

“Equal by Design”: a film about Spinoza and the UK housing crisis Beth Lord (University of Aberdeen, Philosophy) Venue: NK7 

Old tunes with new words: Scots Neo-Latin literary culture and the Hidden Revolution

Old tunes with new words: Scots Neo-Latin literary culture and the Hidden Revolution David McOmish (Glasgow)   

Identity Doubtful: The Supposed Polish Portrait of Bonnie Prince Charlie

This paper offers the rationale for identifying a new portrait of Bonnie Prince Charlie.

Political Community in Historical Perspectives - medieval and early modern

An all-day workshop highlighting the historical developments and implications of political community.

Sacred history, the Gentiles, and the early formation of society in the thought of Giambattista Vico.

Professor John Robertson, Clare College Cambridge: Sacred History and Political Thought

The Sobieski-Stuart marriage: what did the Stuarts gain?

Paper by Mindaugas Sapoka

Defining and Representing the City and the Periphery in Early Modern Florence

Dr Sandra Cardarelli (Honoray Research Fellow, History of Art/CEMS)

Dr Tom Rist : Revenge/Religion: Renaissance Re-enactments from Mary Queen of Scots to the Present

Dr Tom Rist from the English Department will present paper on Revenge/Religion: Renaissance Re-enactments from Mary Queen of Scots to the Present.

Seventeenth-Century English Organ Music: a Reappraisal

24 February 2016 Professor David Smith (Aberdeen), Music: Seventeenth-Century English Organ Music: a Reappraisal

Subversions of Classical Learning

Conference at the Grierson Centre, in association with the Centre for Early Modern Studies, and the Centre for Celtic & Anglo-Saxon Studies, 15-17 January 2016

Melanchthon and comedy in humanist pedagogy

25 November Dr Daniel Derrin (Durham University) Melanchthon and comedy in humanist pedagogy

Bodies Behaving Badly in C17 Song

CEMS Research Seminar

The Free Man and the Free Market: Ethics and Economics in Spinoza's Ethics IV

All seminars are taking place on Wednesdays, 1-2 pm in room KCT2. Please bring your lunch!

The University's museum collections and Early Modern studies

Dr Neil Curtis MR 258

Seminar 'Honour, Blood and Manhood.

3 October, lecture at 1 pm (KCF 9), PhD student discussion of paper at 5.15 pmProf. Jörg Rogge (University Mainz, Germany) co-hosted with History Seminar 'Honour, Blood and Manhood. Late medieval fighters writing about their Bodies'.