Center for Premodern Studies

The Center for Premodern Studies (CPS) was founded in July of 2021. It joins the communities and activities of the UMN Center for Medieval Studies, the Center for Early Modern History, and the Mellon-funded Consortium for the Study of the Premodern World. We are in the process of reworking our web presence. Information about our programs and projects can currently be found on this website as well as that of Early Modern Studies and Medieval Studies.

Research Workshops

Recent News

Black and white print of a 17th C. cabinet of curiosities featuring natural history and ethnographic objects.

Introducing the Premodern Podcast!

Introducing the Premodern Podcast by the Center for Premodern Studies.

Flap anatomy by Heinrich Vogtherr, 1551. Close-up of the stomach layer, labeled "stomachus". Broadsheet. Wangensteen Collections.

Announcing Spring '23 Premodern Courses

Register for Spring '23 Premodern courses today

A student sits in the grassy commons of east bank campus, with fall colors behind.

Apply for an Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellowship

Applications due by October 24!

Describing how to use the dictionary to community members

Minnesota State Fair and CLA

Stop by and see us at the Great Minnesota Get Together! Learn more about some of our rich, robust programs and some of the amazing people who make liberal arts a world of…

Alchemist at table with examples of everyday transformations--bread, wine, cut stones, metal objects, and cooked chicken.

Transformation is in the Works

The Center for Early Modern History, the Center for Medieval Studies, and the Consortium for the Study of the Premodern World become the new Center for Premodern Studies.

Upcoming Events

Printed early modern coastal scene. Colonial soldiers in European armor receive gifts by indigenous community members in leaf skirts. A ship in the background.

December 02, 2022

CPS Lecture: Stephanie Leitch

The Adjustable Feather Skirt in 16th-century Travel Narratives

Illustration from the 18th-century Icelandic manuscript NKS 1867 of Thor's fight with the World Serpent, the subject of early skaldic verses by Bragi Boddason and Úlfr Uggason

December 08, 2022

CPS Lecture: Anatoly Liberman

"Skaldic Tradition and the Definitive Origin of the word 'Skald'"