‘Matters of Representation’ will be the theme of the fifth annual Text and Event in Early Modern Europe (TEEME) conference, taking place from 3rd-5th November, 2016 at the University of Kent, Canterbury, UK. The conference will feature keynote speeches from:
- Jonathan Gil Harris, Professor of English, Ashoka University, India
- Catherine Richardson, Professor of Early Modern Studies, University of Kent, UK
- Léonie Seliger, Director, Stained Glass Studio, Canterbury Cathedral, UK
Questions concerning the study of objects can provide productive entry points to an exploration of early modern texts and events because they problematize the desire to achieve access to the past via the (apparent) tangibility of objects, and because the early modern period was marked by an acquisitive materialism, described by Lisa Jardine as ‘a celebration of the urge to own, the curiosity to possess the treasures of other cultures, and pride in a new craftsmanship which can make the most humdrum commodities desirable’.
Speakers presenting at this conference will thus begin with an object. By this method, we would like to observe how our discussions develop as they move from these material beginnings through the perspectives of each speaker, like the trajectories of objects whose use and meaning changes as they pass through different cultures across time and space. This is not a conference about early modern objects or material culture, however; rather, we hope that this method will allow us to ask new questions and achieve new insights into the social and historical lives of the objects, subjects, texts, events, images, ideologies, and other ideas that we will discuss.
Please see the conference website for more information and contact details.
TEEME is an international doctoral programme in early modern studies funded by the European Union. It is structured around a unique collaboration between university-based researchers in the Humanities and the cultural and creative sector in four EU countries (United Kingdom, Germany, Portugal, Czech Republic). The partnership will foster intercultural dialogue and disseminate the best research in history, literature and culture to the wider community.