Early Modern Research Centre

EMRC online PhD showcase
2025-12-15 13:00 - 14:00 (Europe/London)
Please join us on 15 December 2024 at 13:00 (UK time) for our annual PhD showcase. PhD students at any institution working on any aspect of the early modern world may give a short introduction to their project. Please sign up to speak or attend using the form below.
We meet online on MS Teams: please sign up to our mailing list or email emrc@reading.ac.uk for the link.

EMRC online seminar: Giovanni Tortoriello (Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg), ‘Scala Christus est: Reassessing the Historical Context of Martin Luther 's Theology of the Cross’.
2025-11-24 16:00 - 17:00
Please join us on 24 November 2025 at 16:00 (UK time) when Giovanni Tortoriello (Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg) will speak on ‘Scala Christus est: Reassessing the Historical Context of Martin Luther ‘s Theology of the Cross’
We meet online on MS Teams: please sign up to our mailing list or email emrc@reading.ac.uk for the link.

EMRC online seminar: Graham Moore (The National Archives), ‘The Revolution Will Be Documented: Curating the American Revolution Exhibition at The National Archives’.
2025-11-10 13:00 - 14:00
Please join us on 10 November 2025 at 13:00 (UK time) when Graham Moore (The National Archives) will speak on ‘The Revolution Will Be Documented: Curating the American Revolution Exhibition at The National Archives’.
We meet online on MS Teams: please sign up to our mailing list or email emrc@reading.ac.uk for the link.

EMRC online seminar: Berta Cano Echevarria (Universidad de Valladolid), ‘The Tapestry behind the Ambassadors: A Closer Look at the Somerset House Conference Painting’.
2025-10-13 13:00 - 14:00
Please join us on 13 October 2025 at 13:00 (UK time) when Berta Cano Echevarria (Universidad de Valladolid), will speak on ‘The Tapestry behind the Ambassadors: A Closer Look at the Somerset House Conference Painting’.
We meet online on MS Teams: please sign up to our mailing list or email emrc@reading.ac.uk for the link.

EMRC online book launch: Fernando Gomez Herrero (Salamanca), 'Do you take “colonial” with your Early Modern?' The (Latin) American Scene, Present and Future (Im-)Perfect.
2025-05-19 13:00 - 14:00
Please join us on 19 May at 13:00 (UK time) to celebrate the publication of Dr Fernando Gomez Herrerro’s new book, The (Latin) American Scene, Present and Future (Im-)Perfect (Anthem Press, 2025) – for further information about the book, see this interview on the Anthem Press website.
If the Early Modern is typically restricted to Europe and its imperial expansion and the “colonial” is part of the latter, The (Latin) American Scene proposes a focus on the American side, prioritizing the “colonial” including its post/de-colonial provocations. This presentation on the book, ‘Do you take “colonial” with your Early Modern?’, will illustrate some challenges, problems, troubles and dilemmas apropos historical studies of the Early Modern/colonial Euro-Americas in university life in between geopolitics and popular cultures, including in the UK.
Dr Fernando Gomez Herrero is currently Visiting Research Scholar at the Instituto de Iberoamérica, University of Salamanca, Spain. He has taught mostly in the U.S. (Duke University, Stanford U, Pittsburgh U, Oberlin College, UMass, Boston, Boston College) and the U.K. (University of Birmingham, University of Manchester) in the last three decades. He is the author of Good Places and Non-Places in Colonial Mexico: Vasco de Quiroga (1470-1565) (University Press of America, 2001).
Anthem Press will make discount flyers available to attendees.
We meet online on MS Teams: please sign up to our mailing list or email emrc@reading.ac.uk for the link.
This event is hosted in collaboration with the Reading Latin America and the Caribbean Network (R-LAC) and the Seminar on Race, Empire and Decoloniality.

EMRC online seminar: Jane Eade (National Trust), ‘Mrs Carlile the great paintress’: Rediscovering Joan Carlile (c.1606-79).
2025-05-12 13:00 - 14:00
Please join us on 12 May 2025 at 13:00 (UK time) when Jane Eade (National Trust) will give a paper entitled ‘Mrs Carlile the great paintress’: Rediscovering Joan Carlile (c.1606-79).
We meet online on MS Teams: please sign up to our mailing list or email emrc@reading.ac.uk for the link.

EMRC online seminar: Tabitha Stanmore (Exeter), ‘The Fenland Witch Trials, 1645-47’.
2025-04-28 13:00 - 14:00
Please join us on 28 April 2025 at 13:00 (UK time) when Tabitha Stanmore (Exeter) will give a paper entitled ‘The Fenland Witch Trials, 1645-47’.
We meet online on MS Teams: please sign up to our mailing list or email emrc@reading.ac.uk for the link.

EMRC online seminar: Lewis Wade (Leiden), ‘Crisis and Conflict in the Consulates: Rethinking the Institutional Foundations of French Mediterranean Commerce under Louis XIV’.
2025-03-17 13:00 - 14:00
Please join us on 17 March 2025 at 13:00 (UK time) when Lewis Wade (Leiden) will give a paper entitled ‘Crisis and Conflict in the Consulates: Rethinking the Institutional Foundations of French Mediterranean Commerce under Louis XIV’.
We meet online on MS Teams: please sign up to our mailing list or email emrc@reading.ac.uk for the link.

EMRC online seminar: Douglas Clark (Reading), ‘The Forgotten Manuscript Poetry of Early Modern England’.
2025-03-03 13:00 - 14:00
Please join us on 3 March 2025 at 13:00 (UK time) when Douglas Clark (Reading) will give a paper entitled ‘The Forgotten Manuscript Poetry of Early Modern England’.
We meet online on MS Teams: please sign up to our mailing list or email emrc@reading.ac.uk for the link.

EMRC online seminar: Michael Bennett (Sheffield), ‘Merchant Houses, London Banks, and Plantation Development in the Ceded Islands, 1763-90’.
2025-02-17 13:00 - 14:00
Please join us on 17 February 2025 at 13:00 (UK time) when Michael Bennett (Sheffield) will give a paper entitled ‘Merchant Houses, London Banks, and Plantation Development in the Ceded Islands, 1763-90’.
We meet online on MS Teams: please sign up to our mailing list or email emrc@reading.ac.uk for the link.

EMRC online seminar: Christopher Marsh (Queen's University, Belfast) and Angela McShane (Warwick), ‘Hit Songs of the Seventeenth Century: Introducing the 100 Ballads Project’.
2024-12-16 13:00 - 14:00
Please join us on 16 December 2024 at 13:00 (UK time) when Christopher Marsh (Queen’s University, Belfast) and Angela McShane (Warwick) will give a paper entitled ‘Hit Songs of the Seventeenth Century: Introducing the 100 Ballads Project’.
We meet online on MS Teams: please sign up to our mailing list or email emrc@reading.ac.uk for the link.

EMRC online seminar: PhD showcase
2024-11-18 13:00 - 14:00
Please join us on 18 November 2024 at 13:00 (UK time) for our annual PhD showcase. PhD students at any institution working on any aspect of the early modern world may give a short introduction to their project. Please sign up to speak or attend usign the form below.
We meet online on MS Teams: please sign up to our mailing list or email emrc@reading.ac.uk for the link.

EMRC online seminar: Liesbeth Corens (Queen Mary), ‘English and/or Catholic: Binaries in the Archives of the Seventeenth Century’.
2024-10-21 13:00 - 14:00
Please join us on 21 November 2024 at 13:00 (UK time) when Liesbeth Corens (Queen Mary) will give a paper entitled ‘English and/or Catholic: Binaries in the Archives of the Seventeenth Century’.
We meet online on MS Teams: please sign up to our mailing list or email emrc@reading.ac.uk for the link.

Atlantic Geographies workshop
2024-09-13 10:00 - 17:00
Join us on 13 September 2024 for this research workshop focusing on the importance of Atlantic geographies in world history, organised by History PhD students Christos Giannatos and Graham Moore, and with a keynote address by Dr John McAleer (Southampton).
Register (free) for in person and online attendance here.
Programme
Registration, 10.00-10.30
Panel 1: Atlantic connections & littoral communities, 10:30-11:30
Ben Weddell (University of Reading): Social Networks, Shared Identities, and the Human Geography of Portsmouth and Portsea’s maritime communities, 1750-1800
Nigel Browne-Davies (University of Cambridge): Black Settler Colonies in the Atlantic World: The Peninsula and Islands of Colonial Sierra Leone and the Black Atlantic
Break, 11:30-12.00
Panel 2: Oceanic opportunities & illicit activity, 12.00-13.0
Luke Walters (University of Reading): Pirate-Brokers of the Atlantic: English Governors and the Facilitation of Piracy, 1698-1718
Anna Knutsson (University of Cambridge): Seasonality and illegality in the early modern North Atlantic: Smuggling between the Faroe Islands and Scotland, 1760-1780
Lunch, 13.00-14.00
Panel 3: Constructing the Atlantic, 14.00-15.00
Philippa Hellawell (The National Archives): Rocks, winds, and tides: an environmental history of English Tangier, 1662-1684
Nathan Jopling (University of Birmingham): Bringing the Blue Humanities to History: Understanding the Ocean in the late-seventeenth Century Caribbean
Break, 15.00-15.30
Keynote, 15.30-16.45
John McAleer (University of Southampton): Sharks, seasickness, and stopping-off places: Atlantic voyages and the route to Asia in the Age of Sail
Closing remarks, 16.45-17.00
Download programme.
For more information, email Graham Moore (graham.moore@pgr.reading.ac.uk) and Christos Giannatos (c.giannatos@pgr.reading.ac.uk).

EMRC / SWW Seminars: Phil Withington (Sheffield)
2024-03-18 13:00 - 14:00
Please join us on 18 March 2024 at 13:00 (GMT) when Phil Withington (Sheffield) will give a paper entitled ‘The Semantics of Slavery and Popular Print in Early Modern England’.
We meet online on MS Teams: please sign up to our mailing list or email emrc@reading.ac.uk for the link.

EMRC / SWW Seminars: Laura Sangha (Exeter)
2024-02-26 13:00 - 14:00
Please join us on 26 February 2024 at 13:00 (GMT) when Laura Sangha (Exeter) will give a paper entitled ‘”I geve and bequeth to thee my third best petycote”: English Wills and Attitudes to Possessions c.1540-1790’.
We meet online on MS Teams: please sign up to our mailing list or email emrc@reading.ac.uk for the link.

EMRC / SWW Seminars: Christos Giannatos and Graham Kerr (Reading)
2024-02-12 13:00 - 14:00
Please join us on 12 February 2024 at 13:00 (GMT) for a joint session on ‘Atlantic Empires in the Eighteenth Century’, featuring Reading PhD students Christos Giannatos and Graham Kerr.
We meet online on MS Teams: please sign up to our mailing list or email emrc@reading.ac.uk for the link.

EMRC / SWW Seminars: Thomas Roebuck and Sophie Butler (UEA)
2024-01-22 13:00 - 14:00
Please join us on 22 January 2024 at 13:00 (GMT) when Thomas Roebuck and Sophie Butler (UEA) will give a joint paper entitled ‘Books and Communities in Seventeenth-Century Norfolk’s Civic and Church Libraries: Past Contexts, Present Challenges, and Future Possibilities’.
We meet online on MS Teams: please sign up to our mailing list or email emrc@reading.ac.uk for the link.

EMRC / SWW Seminars: Early Modern PhD Showcase
2023-12-11 13:00 - 14:00
Please join us on 11 December at 1pm for our Early Modern PhD Showcase.
If you are a PhD student working on any aspect of the early modern period, and would like to present a short (3-5 minutes) talk on your project, please register using this form.
We meet online: please sign up to our mailing list or email emrc@reading.ac.uk for the link.

EMRC / SWW Seminars: Mary Morrissey (Reading)
2023-11-13 13:00 - 14:00
Please join us on 13 November 2023 at 1pm when Mary Morrissey (Reading) will give a paper entitled ‘Donne’s sermons and the politics of quotation’.
We meet online: please sign up to our mailing list or email emrc@reading.ac.uk for the link.

EMRC / SWW Seminars: Tyler Rainford (Bristol)
2023-10-16 13:00 - 14:00
Please join us on 16 October 2023 at 1pm when Tyler Rainford (Bristol) will give a paper entitled ‘Alcohol, Intoxication, and Diary-Keeping in England, 1660-1760’.
We meet online: please sign up to our mailing list or email emrc@reading.ac.uk for the link.

EMRC / SWW Seminars: Rachel Foxley (Reading)
2023-05-15 13:00 - 14:00
Please join us on May 15th at 1pm when Rachel Foxley (Reading) will give a paper entitled ‘Political Polarisation in the English Civil War: A Digital Humanities Approach’.
We meet online: please sign up to our mailing list or email emrc@reading.ac.uk for the link.

EMRC / SWW Seminars: Lucy Underwood (Warwick)
2023-02-20 13:00 - 14:00
Please join us on February 20th at 1pm when Lucy Underwood (Warwick) will give a paper entitled ‘The original (British) priest-harbourer: English Catholics, St Alban, and the British past’.
We meet online: please sign up to our mailing list or email emrc@reading.ac.uk for the link.

EMRC / SWW seminars: Philippa Hellawell (TNA)
2023-02-06 13:00 - 14:00
Please join us on February 6th at 1pm where Philippa Hellawell (The National Archives) will give a paper on ‘Commercial Experiments and West African Knowledge in the early eighteenth-century Royal African Company’.
We meet online. Please sign up to our mailing list or email emrc@reading.ac.uk for the link.

EMRC / SWW seminar: Graham Moore and Luke Walters on pirates in the archives.
2023-01-23 13:00 - 14:00
Please join us on January 23rd at 1pm for two papers:
Graham Moore, ‘!To mingle mercy with justice”: pardons, reprives, and acquittals in 17th-century pirate trials’
and
Luke Walters, ‘” I will not be my own murderer”: the scandalous trial of Captain Kidd’.
We meet on online. Please email emrc@reading.ac.uk for the link.

EMRC / SWW seminar: Ralph Houlbrooke on Wedding Sermons.
2022-11-14 13:00 - 14:00
Please join us at 1pm on November 14th when Ralph Houlbrooke will give a paper on ‘Wedding Sermons in Early Modern England’.
We will meet on Zoom. Please join our mailing list to receive the link.

EMRC / SWW seminar: Noah Millstone on 'Europe's Short Peace, c. 1598-1618'.
2022-10-31 13:00 - 14:00
Please join us on October 31st when Noah Millstone will read a paper on ‘Europe’s Short Peace, c. 1598-1618: Preliminary Findings from a Research Network’.
We will meet on Zoom: please join our mailing list to receive the link.

EMRC / SWW seminar: Harry McCarthy on 'Boy Actors in Early Modern England'
2022-10-17 13:00 - 14:00
Please join us at 1pm on 17th October when Harry McCarthy will give a talk on ‘Boy Actors in Early Modern England’.
We will meet on Zoom: please join our mailing list to receive the link.

EMRC / SWW seminars: Autumn showcase event.
2022-10-10 13:00 - 14:00
This is a chance to catch up with the members of the SWW Doctoral Training Partnership specialising in early modern studies. This is an opportunity to share details of our research interests and sound out opportunities for further collaborations.
We will meet 1pm on Zoom: please join our mailing list to receive the link.

EMRC / SWW seminars spring 2022: Niall Allsopp (Exeter), on sermons and ceremonies in Civil War Exeter.
2022-03-07 13:00 - 14:00
Please join us on 7 March, when Niall Allsopp (Exeter) will speak on ‘Sermons and Ceremonies in Civil War Exeter: Local identity and national politics in poetry and preaching’.
The meeting will take place at 1pm on Zoom. Please email emrc@reading.ac.uk for the link.
