The Center for Renaissance Studies at the Newberry Library is hosting a virtual conference on Speech as Protest: Being Heard and Taking Up Space in the Premodern World.

This virtual conference is organized by Elisa J. Jones (College of Charleston) and will include a keynote address by Ada Palmer (University of Chicago).

I am looking forward to participating in one of the roundtable sessions at the conference and presenting on “‘There is Not a Single Catholic in This City’: Public Preaching and Conversion during the French Wars of Religion.”

Graduate students in medieval and early modern history at Northern Illinois University are invited to attend the virtual conference. See the announcement from the Center for Renaissance Studies and a registration link at the Speech as Protest: Being Heard and Taking Up Space in the Premodern World conference page on the Newberry Library website.

Speech as Protest:
Being Heard and Taking Up Space
in the Premodern World

October 22-29, 2020
Organized by Elisa J. Jones, College of Charleston

What constitutes speech? What is a public space, and how is it policed? How are the boundaries drawn between those who want to be seen and heard, and those who want them to remain absent? This interdisciplinary symposium will address how the permeable boundaries between public presence and absence were created, enforced, and challenged in the medieval and early modern periods. Ada Palmer, professor of history at the University of Chicago and renowned author, will deliver the keynote address, “The Modern Political Impact of How We Talk about Premodern Censorship,” on Thursday evening and will participate in the final roundtable.

Through roundtable discussions and collection presentations, the symposium will explore how various premodern publics were formed and contested by a range of cultural forces. Possible topics include social mobility, public spaces, printing and censorship, control over one’s body, slavery and personhood, representation aurally or visually of minority groups, and tolerance or intolerance of religious sects.

This virtual conference will frame discussions about these premodern subjects as part of a larger conversation about the ways that rights exist as cultural artifacts with premodern histories, as well as how premodern scholars can best bring these histories about premodern publics into contemporary public conversations.

For more information, including a complete schedule and registration link, please visit our website here: https://www.newberry.org/10222020-speech-protest-being-heard-and-taking-space-premodern-world