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Theorizing Early Modern Studies
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Schedule for 2011 - 2012


The Passions

Fall Semester 2011

Thursday, September 15 – Opening Reception, 5:00 – 6:30 PM, Nolte 235.

Friday, September 16 – Reading Group: Aby Warburg, "Images from the Region of the Pueblo Indians of North America" (1923). 12:15 to 1:30pm, 1229 Heller Hall. (Click on the link above to download the essay for discussion. You can also read Joseph Leo Koerner's review of Warburg here. The reading group welcomes newcomers at any time as well as one-time participants. No RSVP needed.)

Thursday, September 22 – Book Discussion: “Sameness and Science, 1730–1750,” Chapter 2 of Anatomy of Blackness: Science and Slavery in an Age of Enlightenment (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011). Andrew Curran, French, Wesleyan University. 5:00–6:30 p.m., Nolte 235. Co-Sponsored with the Department of French and Italian.

Friday, September 23 – Lecture: Andrew Curran, French, Wesleyan University. “The Natural History of Slavery.” 2:30 p.m., Folwell 112. Co-Sponsored with the Department of French and Italian.

Friday, September 30 – Reading Group: Denis Diderot, Letter on the Blind for the Use of Those Who See and Letter on the Deaf and Mute. 12:15-1:30 p.m., Folwell 113.

Thursday, October 6 – Reading Group: Theories of Knowledge Production. Ludwig Fleck, Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact (University of Chicago Press), chs. 1-2. 5:00-6:30 p.m., Nolte 235.

Thursday, October 13 – Reading Group: Theories of Knowledge Production. Ludwig Fleck, Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact (University of Chicago Press), chs. 3-4. 5:00-6:30 p.m., Nolte 235.

Friday, October 14 – Reading Group: Aby Warburg: "Pagan Antique Prophecy in Words and Images in the Age of Luther," "Durer and Italian Antiquity," "Sandro Botticelli's Birth of Venus and Spring," and "Airship and Submarine in the Medieval Imagination." 12:15-1:30 p.m., Heller 1229.

Thursday, October 20 – Work in Progress Seminar:May 4, 2012ile Societies: Late Eighteenth Century German and English Discourses on Primitive Sociability.” May 4, 2012 – Reading Group: Denis Diderot: Philosophical Thoughts and Thoughts on the Interpretation of Nature. 12:15-1:30 p.m., Heller 1229.

Thursday, October 27 – Reading Group: Theories of Knowledge Production. George Canguilhem, Knowledge of Life (Fordham University Press), Parts 1-2. 5:00-6:30 p.m., Nolte 235.

Friday, October 28 – Reading Group: Aby Warburg: “Burckhardt and Nietzsche,” "The Art of Portraiture and the Florentine Bourgeoisie," and "The Theatrical Costumes for the Intermedi of 1589." 12:15-1:30 p.m., Heller 1229

Monday, October 31 – Lecture: Olivia Weisser, History of Science, Princeton University. “Learning How to be Ill in Early Modern England.” 12:15-1:30 p.m., Diehl Hall 555. Cosponsored with the Center for Early Modern History.

Thursday, November 3 – Lecture: Keith Bresnahan, Ontario College of Art and Design. “Secret Passages: Libertinism and the Architecture of Seduction.” 4:00-5:30 p.m., Nolte 125. Co-sponsored with the Institute for Advanced Study and organized by the Design, Architecture, and Culture group of Quadrant..

Friday, November 4 – Work in Progress Seminar: Keith Bresnahan, Ontario College of Art and Design. “Formal Pleasures: Affect and architectural judgment in eighteenth-century France” 12:00-1:30 p.m., Nolte 235. Co-sponsored with the Institute for Advanced Study and organized by the Design, Architecture, and Culture group of Quadrant.

Thursday, November 10 – Reading Group: Denis Diderot: Thoughts on the Interpretation of Nature. 5:00-6:30 p.m., Nolte 235.

Thursday, November 17 – Reading Group: Theories of Knowledge Production. George Canguilhem, Knowledge of Life, Part 3 (Fordham University Press). 5:00-6:30 p.m., Nolte 235.

Friday, November 18 – Reading Group: Aby Warburg: Ernst Gombrich, Aby Warburg: an Intellectual Biography (1970), chs. I-VII. 12:15-1:30 p.m., Heller 1229.

Thursday, November 24 – THANKSGIVING

Thursday, December 8 – Reading Group: Theories of Knowledge Production. Final Discussion: Fleck and Canguilhem. 5:00-6:30 p.m., Nolte 235.

Friday, December 9 – Reading Group: Aby Warburg: Ernst Gombrich, Aby Warburg: an Intellectual Biography (1970), chs. VIII-XVI. 12:15-1:30 p.m., Heller 1229.

Friday, December 16 – Reading Group: Denis Diderot: D’Alembert’s Dream. 12:15-1:30 p.m., Heller 1229.

Spring Semester 2012

 

Friday, January 20 – Reading Group: Aby Warburg: Finish discussion of Ernst Gombrich, Aby Warburg: An Intellectual Biography and discuss readings for spring semester. 12:15-1:30 p.m., Heller 1229.

Wednesday, February 1 – Reading Group: Theories of Knowledge Production. Bachelard, The Formation of the Scientific Mind. 5:00 – 6:30 p.m., Nolte 235.

Thursday, February 2 – Reading Group: Denis Diderot, "Encyclopédie." 5:00-6:30 p.m., Nolte 235.

Friday, February 10 – Reading Group: Aby Warburg. Erwin Panofsky and “Iconology.” There are two additional readings for this meeting: Didi-Huberman's Preface to Confronting Images, and Panofsky's "Perspective as Symbolic Form." 12:15 - 1:30 PM. Heller 1229.

Wednesday, February 15 – Reading Group: Theories of Knowledge Production. Bachelard, The Formation of the Scientific Mind. 5:00 – 6:30 p.m., Nolte 235.

Thursday, February 23 – Work-in-Progress Seminar: Ernesto Capello, History, Macalester College. "The Second French Geodesic Mission to Ecuador: A Visual Culture of Triangulation, Territorialization, and Tourism.” There is a precirculated paper and a series of images available for discussion. 5:00-6:30 p.m., Nolte 235.  Cosponsored by the Center for Early Modern History.

Friday, February 24 – Reading Group: Denis Diderot Selections from Diderot’s Salons. Part I and Part II. 12:00-1:30 p.m., Folwell 113.

Thursday, March 1 – Work-in-Progress Seminar: Daniel Brewer, French and Italian, University of Minnesota. "Dead Time.” 5:00-6:30 p.m., Nolte 235.

Wednesday, March 7 – Reading Group: Theories of Knowledge Production. Rheinberger, Toward the History of the Epistemic Thing: Synthesizing Protein in a Test Tube. 5:00 – 6:30 p.m., Nolte 235.

Friday, March 9 – Reading Group: Aby Warburg. “Ernst Bloch, Edgar Wind, and Kulturwissenschaft.” Readings:Bloch's Heritage of Our Times, Wind on Warburg's Kulturwissenschaft and Review of Gombrich's Biography of Warburg. 12:15 - 1:30 PM. Heller 1229.

Friday, March 23 – Lecture: Hélène Merlin-Kajman, French Literature, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3, "Civility, Honor, Familiarity," 3:00-5:00 p.m., Folwell 123. Cosponsored by the Department of French and Italian. Canceled due to illness.

Wednesday, March 28 – Reading Group: Theories of Knowledge Production. Rheinberger, Toward the History of the Epistemic Thing: Synthesizing Protein in a Test Tube. 5:00 – 6:30 p.m., Nolte 235.

Thursday, March 29 – Work-in-Progress Seminar: Jane O. Newman, Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine. "The Other Baroque State: Early Modern Lessons for a Post-Westphalian Age." 5:00-6:30 p.m., Nolte 235.

Friday, March 30 – Lecture: Jane O. Newman, Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine. "Auerbach's Dante: Poetical Theology and the Question of World Literature." 12:00 - 1:30 p.m., Nolte 125.

Friday, April 6 – Reading Group: Denis Diderot – We will continue with the Salon of 1767, assigned at the last session, and add these two texts on theater: Conversations on The Natural Son (Le Fils Naturel) and Letters with Mme Riccoboni. 11:45-1:15 p.m., Folwell 113.

Wednesday, April 11 – Reading Group: Theories of Knowledge Production. Rheinberger, Toward the History of the Epistemic Thing: Synthesizing Protein in a Test Tube. 5:00 – 6:30 p.m., Nolte 235.

Thursday, April 12 – Work-in-Progress Seminar: Melissa Hyde, Art History, University of Florida. "The Critical Fortunes and Misfortunes of Wertmuller's Portrait of Marie-Antoinette and Her Children (1785)." In addition to the linked paper, this talk also has a precirculated powerpoint presentation. 5:00-6:30 p.m., 235 Nolte.

Friday, April 13 – Reading Group: Aby Warburg. “Ernst Gombrich.” 12:15 - 1:30 PM. Heller 1229.

Friday, April 13 – Lecture: Melissa Hyde, Art History, University of Florida. "Wedded to her Profession? Marie-Suzanne Roslin as Artist and Artist's Wife." 3:00-4:30 p.m., 240 Blegen Hall.

Thursday, April 19 – CEMH 25th Anniversary/Bell Exhibition on the Pacific/FEEGI Keynote Lecture: Kris Lane, Frances V. Scholes Professor of History, Tulane University. "On the Mar del Sur: Early Spanish Trade in Pacific South America." 7:30 p.m., Fourth Floor Wilson Library. Cosponsored by the Center for Early Modern History and the James Ford Bell Library.

Friday, April 20 – Reading Group: Denis Diderot Supplement to the Voyage of Bougainville. 11:45-1:15 p.m., Folwell 113.

Friday, April 20 and Saturday, April 21 – Biennial Meeting of Forum on European Expansion and Global Interaction [FEEGI]. Schedule TBA. Sponsored by the Center for Early Modern History and the James Ford Bell Library.

Friday, May 4 – Reading Group: Aby Warburg. “Warburg, Benjamin, and Historicism. ” 12:15 - 1:30 PM. Heller 1229.

Thursday, May 10 – The 9th Annual Graduate Student Roundtable. 5:00 – 6:30 p.m., Nolte 235.
Nicole Conti, Art History, "The Etchings of Salvator Rosa and the Construction of the Oeuvre"
Tracy Rutler, French, "Family Remains: The Politics of Legacy in Eighteenth-Century French Literature"
Anne Wallen, German, Scandinavian and Dutch, "Anonymity at the Masquerade - German and Scandinavian Examples"

Friday, May 11 – Reading Group: Denis Diderot Rameau’s Nephew (English download) or read online in French (Project Gutenberg). 11:45-1:15 p.m., Folwell 113.

PAPERS WILL CIRCULATE IN ADVANCE. Readings for each session will be available as .pdf files on the TEMS website http://tems.umn.edu/, and in hard copy in Heller Hall 338 and Folwell Hall 255.