CALL FOR PAPERS: The Early Modern Line: A Symposium

Friday 18th September 2015 - Brotherton Library, University of Leeds

The Early Modern Lines Research Network is hosting a discursive symposium with keynote presentations from Dr Matthew Eddy (Durham University), Matthias Garn, Master Mason, and carver Kibby Schaefer, alongside an exhibition of items from the Library’s Special Collections.

We invite proposals for 10-minute lightning papers on any topic considering the ‘early modern line’, conceived of in the broadest possible sense. Papers should be designed to provoke discussion, raise problems, puzzle out ideas and ask questions rather than provide answers, and should present work in progress rather than polished research.

Abstracts should be 150–200 words, outlining some of the main points you wish to discuss. Please email them - or any queries you might have - to earlymodernlines@york.ac.uk by Monday 10th August 2015. Travel bursaries, generously provided by the White Rose College of the Arts and Humanities, are available to all postgraduate students attending the symposium. Please indicate in your email if you would like to be considered for a bursary .

Topics for papers might include, but are not limited to:
  • Lines as organisational technologies; e.g. tables, diagrams and brackets
  • The importance of the line in scientific, philosophical and mathematical disciplines
  • Architectural and artistic lines
  • Poetic lines
  • Framing devices in early modern books
  • Conceptual, metaphorical or figural lines
  • Genealogical lines
  • The line in three dimensions
  • Cartography, trade and travel routes
  • The line in military strategy
  • Chronological lines and histories
  • Decorative lines and pattern
  • Folds, cuts, tears and creases
  • Typography
  • Plotlines
  • Weaving, stitching and knitting
  • Lines of influence
  • Applying modern theories to early modern lines