I just returned from the huge Renaissance Society for America [RSA] conference in Berlin, where over 3000 Renaissance studies scholars gathered for an intense conference on early modern history.

I presented a research paper on siege warfare and war news, entitled “‘The Clamors of His Afflicted People’: Sensory Experiences of the City under Siege during the French Wars of Religion,” in a session on News and Conflict.

In addition, I chaired a session on “Networks and Connectivity in the Irano-Mediterranean Frontier Zone II: Texts and Individuals,” which was part of a five-session workshop on Mediterranean Networks within the broader RSA conference.

I was also able to attend several additional sessions on gender, violence, political culture, and chronicles in the early modern period. A roundtable discussed Guido Ruggiero’s new book, which provides a macrohistorical essay on the Italian Renaissance.

The RSA included an opening reception at the Bode Museum and a closing reception at the Gemäldegalerie, both of which included museum visits. I got to spend one morning at the Deutsches Historische Museum, focusing on their fabulous Renaissance, Reformation, and Thirty Years’ War collections. Then, I explored the contemporary art collections of the Hamburger Bahnhof Museum with a friend.

For more information on the conference, see the RSA website.

The full program of the RSA conference in .pdf format is available here.