Research Workshops
About our workshops
Each academic year, the Center for Premodern Studies funds approximately twenty research workshops. These faculty- and graduate student-led initiatives involve scholars at the University of Minnesota as well as partners at local, national, and international institutions.
Research workshops address intellectual questions in global premodern studies and vary greatly in their topics of inquiry and workshop activities—ranging from small reading groups focused on a diverse global literature to workshops linked to graduate seminars, conferences, and major research initiatives. CPS research workshops model collaboration across disciplines, chronologies, and geographies. The research workshops have become the core of the consortium in terms of scope and level of participation.
Contacts: Ben Hansen, Alex Magnolia, and Jeffery Cross
A workshop devoted to the study of Late Antiquity, an age of transition from the classical world to the cultures of early medieval Europe, Byzantium, and the Near East. This was also the period when the three major monotheistic religions took shape, and religious developments across Afro-Eurasia will be a central theme of the workshop. Additional Information about The First Millennium: Religion in Late Antiquity
Contacts: Ben Hansen, Alex Magnolia, and Jeffery Cross
Contacts: Dr. Katharine Gerbner and Hannah Smith, PhD Candidate
A research workshop devoted to the Atlantic world in the early modern period and the transatlantic networks linking Europe and Africa with the Americas. Additional Information on the Early Modern Atlantic Workshop.
Meets most Fridays over zoom from 2-3:30 pm.
Contacts: Dr. Katharine Gerbner and Hannah Smith, Phd Candidate
Contact: Rachel Trocchio
Characterizations of the eighteenth century as the “Age of Enlightenment” presume a move to Enlightenment that is defined as a move away from, or at least a marginalization of, matters religious and especially theological. This workshop brings together faculty and graduate students interested in the Enlightenment, Religion, Theology entanglement to share research, read scholarship of common interest, and generally dialogue about this modern problematic.
Contact: Dr. Rachel Trocchio
Contacts: Dr. Michelle Hamilton, Dr. Lydia Garver, and Alex Korte, PhD Candidate
An internal workshop dedicated to improving the Center's current K-12 outreach curricula. We send graduate students into local classrooms and present on manuscript culture and material (book) production. These presentations are geared toward the K-8 classroom and include fun period clothing and authentic medieval book materials like inks, quills, and parchment. To coordinate a classroom visit, fill out this Google Request Form: Link to Medieval Books Presentation Request Form.
Contacts: Dr. Michelle Hamilton, Dr. Lydia Garver, and Alex Korte, Phd Candidate
Complete list of 2021-2022 Research Workshops
| Title, Leader(s) | Focus |
|---|---|
| CCR/ASECS Webinar Project JB Shank |
A series of monthly Zoom-accessible seminars to build a collaborative research community around digital humanities with the Cérémonies et coutumes religieuses (CCR) as an axis point for myriad different humanities concerns (world religion, art history, visual studies, history of the book, travel, politics, etc) that is intrinsically multi-disciplinary. Seminars will be held in-person at the University of Minnesota, and to be posted through the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ASECS) YouTube Channel. Additional Information on the CCR/ASECS Webinar Series |
| CPS Writing Hunker Samira Musleh |
This series of writing workshops serves the CPS community by creating a supportive, productive, and intellectually stimulating space for writing. Additional Information on the CPS Writing Hunker |
| Critical Biography Studies Jennifer Marshal |
This workshop explores the intellectual history of life-writing and mytho-poetic biography in the humanities. Considering its foundational role across multiple disciplines, the archival challenges posed to its production, and the hermeneutic difficulties encountered in its analysis , the group especially seeks to find new political opportunities for the practice today—in a critical era so thoroughly engaged with questions of agency, actants, personal narratives, and liveness. Additional information about Critical Biography Studies |
| Early Modern Atlantic Workshop Katharine Gerbner and Hannah Smith |
A research workshop devoted to the Atlantic world in the early modern period and the transatlantic networks linking Europe and Africa with the Americas. Additional Information on the Early Modern Atlantic Workshop |
| History of the Book in East Asia Emily Beck & Lois Hendrickson |
A workshop engaging scholarly work about the history of the premodern book in East Asia. We will draw upon seminal readings from Rare Book School course reading lists and contemporary scholarship that addresses topics of interest to participants and are relevant to local collections. Meeting will include a discussion of readings and opportunities to examine materials from the University’s special collections libraries. Additional Information about History of the Book in East Asia |
| Making and Knowing: Histories of Premodern Books and Print Emily Beck, Lois Hendrickson, and Hannah Wiepke |
This workshop employs an integrated approach to studying the materiality of prints and texts. Participants will learn the fundamentals of codicology, analyzing the materiality of books in order to fully explore these complex and multifaceted resources. This workshop will also engage the mediational qualities of print including the ways in which printed images circulate, request viewer interaction, and translate visual information. Additional Information about Making and Knowing: Histories of Premodern Books and Print |
| Podcasting the Premodern Jonas Gardsby, Juliette Cherbuliez & Lydia Garver |
This workshop explores the medium of podcasts as a pedagogical and scholarly engagement tool. Participants will also explore the possibility of making a podcast to share the scholarship and community of CPS to a broader audience. Additional Information about Podcasting the Premodern |
| Premodern Food Lab Michelle Hamilton, Emily Beck, Marguerite Ragnow & Ann Good |
Premodern Food Cultures explores primary texts and secondary scholarship on premodern food and foodways and works with local food producers. Additional Information about Premodern Food Lab |
| Premodern Translation Forum and Workshop James Parente Jr. and Emily Groepper |
This workshop investigates translation from both a theoretical and empirical perspective. Interests include: early modern concepts of translation; differences between translations and adaptations; the role of translated texts in national literary canons; multilingual translations; translations and the transmission of ancient and medieval texts; the circulation of translated texts; the relationship between translators, printers, and the market. The workshop also aims to produce translations of premodern texts for publication, especially from literatures relatively under-represented in English. Additional Information about Premodern Translation Forum and Workshop |
| Reception of Classical Texts in the Medieval and Early Modern World Jennifer Easler & Sam Crain |
This research workshop provides a reading, discussion, and research forum for the reception of Greek and Roman texts in medieval and early modern western Europe to 1800. Additional Information about Reception of Texts in the Medieval and Early Modern World |
| Reimagining the Humanities Juliette Cherbuliez & Lydia Garver |
Reimagining the Humanities is a workshop to build community within CSPW and foster change across the University to support multidisciplinary humanities initiatives. Additional Information about Reimagining the Humanities |
| Religion, Theology, & the Enlightenment Rachel Trocchio |
Characterizations of the eighteenth century as the “Age of Enlightenment” presume a move to Enlightenment that is defined as a move away from, or at least a marginalization of, matters religious and especially theological. This workshop brings together faculty and graduate students interested in the Enlightenment, Religion, Theology entanglement to share research, read scholarship of common interest, and generally dialogue about this modern problematic. Additional Information about Religion, Theology, & Enlightenment |
| Serving the Qing Court Daniel Greenberg |
This workshop explores the relationship between foodways, ritual, and statecraft in the eighteenth-century Qing Chinese court. Over the course of a year of remote meetings, participants will utilize both Qing and European primary sources to research food, drink, and recipes used in state banquets. The project will culminate in a practical workshop with the Premodern Food Cultures workshop, where some of these historical recipes will be recreated and eaten. Additional Information about Serving the Qing Court |
| Uncommon Bodies Jennifer Row & Penelope Geng |
This workshop will explore art and literature, theories, and scholarship connected to embodiment, disability, corporeality, the allure of the flesh, and issues of physical and virtual embodiment. We will engage readings and research-in-progress on abjection, empathy and virtual reality, genetic mutations/metamorphosis, legal and medical constructions of the body (including trans bodies), cultures of disability, body horror in film, seeing bodies in media, etc. These topics will be considered both as they operate in the early modern and contemporary context. You can follow us on Twitter at @uncommonbodies. Additional information is available at the Uncommon Bodies website. |