AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership Studentship

We invite applications for the following AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership Studentship at the University of Kent and National Maritime Museum.

The Royal Observatory, Greenwich, and its networks of support and influence, 1675-1742

Deadline: 7 May 2018, 17:00

Supervisors: Dr Rebekah Higgitt (Senior Lecturer in History of Science, School of History, University of Kent) and Dr Richard Dunn (Senior Curator for the History of Science at the National Maritime Museum)


The Project

We seek applications from outstanding postgraduate students for this collaborative doctoral award, starting in September 2017. This project aims to develop a new approach to the institutional history of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. Using the Observatory as a central hub, it proposes to explore the local, national and international networks of astronomy, practical mathematics, navigation, education, print and instrument making that supported its work and developing reputation. It will focus on the period of the first two Astronomers Royal, John Flamsteed and Edmond Halley, aiming to better understand the role, milieu and development of this key institution in its foundational years. This research will draw on work on geographies of knowledge, material culture and book history in order to gain a fuller picture of contexts in which mathematical and instrumental knowledge was developed and used. The project will make use of a range of archival sources and object, book and image collections, especially those of the NMM. The student will have the opportunity to enhance the Museum’s cataloguing and interpretation within public programming and displays, and to feed into the development of plans for the 350th anniversary of the Royal Observatory (2025-26), which forms part of the NMM (collectively, with The Queen’s House and Cutty Sark, known as Royal Museums Greenwich). They will also be able to contribute to Dr Higgitt’s research project, Metropolitan Science: Places, Objects and Cultures of Knowledge and Practice in London, 1600-1800, in partnership with the Science Museum.

Studentship information

The standard tuition fees and stipend (maintenance grant) will be paid by the AHRC to the award holder subject to the eligibility criteria outlined by them. The AHRC stipend for 2018/19 is £14,777 (full-time, pro-rata for part-time) plus an additional stipend of £500 for Collaborative Doctoral Students. The funding is for 3 years (full time) and there is an opportunity to apply for an additional six months of funding from the AHRC’s Student Development Fund, which can (subject to agreement) be used to support appropriate training or a placement based on the student’s individual training needs. The NMM will also provide £1000 per year for three years (subject to agreement) to support the student’s research-related expenses such as travel costs.


To apply:

Applicants should have: a First Class or Upper Second Class Honours degree in an appropriate discipline; a masters degree in an appropriate discipline, although applicants who do not hold a masters degree will be considered if they can demonstrate sustained and relevant experience and meet the criteria outlined in the AHRC guidelines.

Candidates must meet the AHRC's academic criteria and eligibility criteria: AHRC.


To apply please send the following by email as a single document (Word or PDF) to r.higgitt@kent.ac.uk.

• A cover letter.
• A current CV, including your academic qualifications to date and anticipated results if you are still studying.
• Two letters of academic reference to be included with the rest of your application. 

The deadline for applications is 17.00 on Monday 7 May. Shortlisted applicants will be asked to supply a writing sample on a related topic. Interviews will likely be held on 3 July.

For further information please contact Rebekah Higgitt r.higgitt@kent.ac.uk or Richard Dunn RDunn@rmg.co.uk.

https://www.kent.ac.uk/scholarships/search/FN05AHRCNM02​

Dr Rebekah Higgitt | Senior Lecturer in History of Science
Centre for the History of the Sciences | School of History
W2.W6 Rutherford College | University of Kent | Canterbury | Kent CT2 7NX
Web: http://www.kent.ac.uk/history/staff/profiles/higgitt.html

CALL FOR PAPERS: 'Locating the Ancient World in Early Modern Subversive Thought'

Newcastle University, 12th-14th April 2018

Dichotomies have long been used to define the intellectual developments of early modern Europe - reason and faith; authority and subversion; science and humanism; radicalism and tradition; heterodoxy and orthodoxy — with classical thought usually located on the side of tradition, a behemoth of learning which inhibited man’s reason and his ability to learn through observation. Such unilinear accounts of the progression to modernity have been subjected to increasingly numerous challenges in the last two decades, as scholars have sought to demonstrate that the ideas which drove Europe towards the Enlightenment were far more complex and multi-layered than suggested by the traditional narratives.

The aim of this conference is to expand on this revived appreciation of the classical influence in early modernity by looking specifically at the role played by the ancient world in that sphere from which it has most usually been excluded: subversive literature. The idea that the texts, philosophies, and exempla of the ancient world might have served as significant tools for those who sought to undermine and challenge political, religious and cultural authority stands in direct opposition to the traditional role assigned to the classics in this period. Emphasising an interdisciplinary approach, this conference will draw scholars together to build a coherent picture of how the classical tradition functioned as a tool for subversion, illuminating a previously neglected aspect of the ancient world in the early modern thought.

The keynote speakers will be Peter Harrison (University of Queensland) and Marianne Pade (Danish Academy at Rome).

We are inviting abstracts for papers of thirty minutes on topics including, but not limited to:

• Ancient philosophical involvement in epistemological challenges to traditional understandings of knowledge and belief
• Ancient theories of natural philosophy in the debates concerning God and the universe in both religion and science
• The contribution of ancient texts to the arguments for natural religion, and against magic, miracles, and the supernatural
• Classical rhetoric and literary forms as models for argumentation in subversive treatises, polemics, pamphlets, poetry, and other literary genres
• Ancient religion in the construction of arguments in favour of toleration, and the establishment of a civil religion
• The function of ancient examples in radical political ideologies, including republicanism, democracy, and theories of resistance and revolution
• Classical scholarship as a tool for subversion, and print culture as a sphere facilitating this function of the classics

If you would like to offer a paper for the conference, please submit an abstract of 300 words to Katherine East by 9th February 2018.

See Locating Subversion for further information.


Katherine A. East
Leverhulme Early Career Fellow
School of History, Classics, and Archaeology
Newcastle University

University of Amsterdam Seminar on Embroidered Bindings

Wednesday 19 – Friday 21 August 2015

Since 2010, the Research Group for Book and Manuscript Studies and the Special Collections of the University of Amsterdam have been organising a Summer School on the History of the Book, which takes place in August each year.

During the summer school, there will also be a three-day seminar about embroidered bindings. The seminar will be held in English. The seminar is being organised in collaboration with the Centre for Renaissance and Early Modern Studies, University of York, in conjunction with Illuminare – Centre for the Study of Medieval Art, University of Leuven, the Leiden University Library and the National Library of the Netherlands in The Hague.

Day 1: Theory and practice of research - papers on this topic or on related topics, including

• experience and practicalities in research on embroidered bindings (Claire Canavan) 
• history and practice of European embroidery and needlework (Marike van Roon) 
• history of European textiles related to bindings; relationships between embroidered books and other objects (Claire Canavan) 
• practice of conservation; diversity of attitudes on conservation, use, and consultation (Renate Mesmer) 
• questions of methodology - what frameworks do we use to approach bindings and relationships between books, bindings, collections (Lieve Watteeuw) 
• hands-on research of embroidered bindings of Special Collections UvA 

Day 2: Exploring other collections of embroidered bindings in the Netherlands

• visit to Leiden University Library (Karin Scheper) 
• visit to National/Royal Library The Hague (Rens Top) 

Day 3: Summary of topics learned

• reports of the research performed the days before 
• comparing the Amsterdam bindings with the results of 3D-scanning (Lieve Watteeuw) 
• discussion of future research plans and possibilities

Contact:
Special Collections of the University of Amsterdam Oude Turfmarkt 129 (Rokin)
1012 GC Amsterdam
020–5257300
summerschool-bc@uva.nl

www.bijzonderecollecties.uva.nl

Creativity and Commerce in the Age of Print

Registration is now open for the Edinburgh Centre for the History of the Book's one-day conference titled "Creativity and Commerce in the Age of Print"!

Centre for the History of the Book, University of Edinburgh
Saturday, 26 July 2014 from 09:00 to 19:00 (BST)
Edinburgh, United Kingdom

The programme includes a range of papers from a very diverse group of postgraduates and early-career researchers on topics including authorship, publishing, and professionalisation from the Early Modern period to today, as well as keynotes by Dr. Jason Scott-Warren (Director of the Centre for Material Texts, University of Cambridge) and Professor Iain Stevenson (Centre for Publishing, UCL).

Full programme information can be found at our Eventbrite page, where you can register to attend:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/creativity-and-commerce-in-the-age-of-print-tickets-12040963847

Thanks to generous funding, attendance is free (including lunch and wine reception), but spaces are limited.

CALL FOR PAPERS: "Creativity and Commerce in the Age of Print"

University of Edinburgh (26 July 2014)

‘What an insane thing it is to make literature one's only means of support!... 

To make a trade of an art! I am rightly served for attempting such a brutal folly.’

- George Gissing, New Grub Street (1891)

Hosted by the Centre for the History of the Book at the University of Edinburgh, this interdisciplinary conference will explore the sometimes-fraught connections between the ‘art’ and ‘trade’ of books from the Western invention of printing to today. Are the interests of authors and publishers always opposed, or can they lead to productive forms of collaboration? Does work undertaken for the marketplace necessarily compromise its moral and cultural standing? How does literature become property, and how has authorship evolved between the starving writer of ‘Grub Street’ and the modern book festival circuit? Can the requirements of the printing and bookselling industries constitute a form of de-facto censorship, determining the types of work that are published and circulated?

We are currently seeking papers from postgraduate and early career researchers interested in questions such as these, with potential topics including (but not limited to):

• Authorship and other creative professions
• The printing and bookselling industries
• Author-publishers relationships
• Dissemination networks
• Subscription and patronage
• Book advertising, illustration
• Serial publication
• ‘Tie-ins’, merchandise, and material culture
• Libraries and book collecting
• Commerce and censorship
• Originality, copyright, and intellectual property
• Book piracy and its national boundaries
• Creative work and gender
• The impact of new technologies for production and dissemination
• The ‘rise’ or ‘death’ of print.

Proposals in all relevant subject areas and historical periods post-1450 are welcome. Please send a 200-word abstract to Natasha by 5 May 2014. Limited travel bursaries may be available; indicate if you would require one to attend. The conference will take place in Edinburgh on 26 July 2014, with registration opening in June.

Dr. Natasha Simonova
4.03, 18 Buccleuch Place
Career Development Fellow
Department of English Literature
University of Edinburgh

The Edition as Argument, 1550-1750

16-17 July 2014, Queen Mary University of London

From the philology of Lorenzo Valla to twentieth-century debates over copy-text to the new frontier of digital humanities, textual scholars have always argued over the making of meaning. Indeed, argument is integral to the practice of editing: to privilege one reading is to demote another. Bibliographical, historical, and textual choices: these ineluctably and often invisibly inform our larger understanding of the text, the author, and the culture from which they emerge. They can destabilise or confirm our most basic assumptions, from a single word – what is "blew"? – to the nature of the book: what is a text? what is an author? what is an edition?

This landmark two-day conference will draw together experienced and new editors, to analyse and to celebrate editions in progress and to inspire a new generation of editors and editions. Hosted by the AHRC-funded Complete Works of Sir Thomas Browne (forthcoming, OUP), the event will explore the future of editing in universities and offer perspectives from curators and publishers. Confirmed speakers include Cathy Shrank, Leah Marcus, Jessica Wolfe, David Colclough, Kate Bennett, Christopher Burlinson, Daniel Carey, Richard Serjeantson, Alice Eardley, Valerie Rumbold, Nicholas McDowell, and Henry Woudhuysen.

REGISTRATION NOW OPEN
2 days £85/£65 (postgraduate students/unwaged)
1 day £43/£33 (postgraduate students/unwaged)

This includes tea/coffee, lunch on both days and a drinks reception on the evening of Wednesday 16th July. There will also be a conference dinner, charged separately.

Book your place at here.  If you have any questions, please contact h.phillips@qmul.ac.uk or c.b.williams@qmul.ac.uk

PROGRAMME

Day 1

8.45-9.15 Registration

9.15-9.30 Welcome

9.30-10.30 Keynote 1 Professor Cathy Shrank (University of Sheffield)

10.30-10.45 BREAK

10.45-12.30 Panel 1

• Leah Marcus (Vanderbilt University), 'A Man Who Needs No Introduction'
• Jessica Wolfe (UNC), 'Annotating Browne's
• Pseudodoxia: sources versus conversations'
• David Colclough (QMUL), 'A Well Wrought Urn? Editing John Donne's final sermon'
• Joe Moshenska (University of Cambridge), 'Insignificant space in manuscript letters: the case of Kenelm Digby'

12.30-13.30 LUNCH

13.30-15.00 Panel 2

• Kate Bennett, (University of Oxford), '"My original minutes": Editing Aubrey's Brief Lives'
• Ruth Connolly (University of Newcastle), 'Agency versus Authority: Editing Herrick's poems from print and manuscript'
• Tom Charlton (University of Stirling), 'A faith 'kindled' or 'sharpened'? Editing Richard Baxter's life'

15.00-15.15 BREAK

15.15-17.00 Panel 3

• Megan Heffernan (DePaul University), 'Elizabethan Metaphors, Victorian Miscellanies: Editing Sixteenth-Century Poetry Collections'
• Joel Grossman (QMUL), 'Unediting Tottel: Editorial mythologies and the Tudor miscellany'
• Christopher Burlinson (University of Cambridge), 'Poems and News: Textual Editions and Information Networks'
• Alison Searle (University of Sydney), ''...a Connaturality of Spirit in the Saints that will work by Sympathy': Constructing Richard Baxter as a Letter Writer in the Context of His Correspondence Networks'

17.00-18.30 DRINKS RECEPTION

19.00 CONFERENCE DINNER

DAY 2

9.00-10.45 Panel 4

• Daniel Carey (NUI Galway), 'To Edit the Editor: Protocols and Possibilities for an Edition of Richard Hakluyt's Principal Navigations...of the English Nation (1598-1600)'
• David Atkinson, 'Editing without Authority: Representing the Ephemeral in a Folklore Collection'
• Dianne Mitchell (University of Pennsylvania), 'A Forest of Variants: the strange case of Dudley North'
• Richard Serjeantson (University of Cambridge), 'Editing manuscript drafts of early modern philosophical texts: problems of principle and practice'

10.45-11.00 BREAK

11.00-12.30 Panel 5

• Alice Eardley (University of Southampton), 'Making the "Unreadable" Readable: A Digital Edition of Henry Cogan's Translation of Madeleine de Scudéry's Ibrahim (1652)'
• Sukanta Chaudhuri (Jadavpur University), 'Renaissance drama as a very large textual object: the possibilities of a full-text database'
• Rebecca Barr and Justin Tonra (NUI Galway), 'For the sake of argument: crowdsourcing annotation of Macpherson's Ossian'

12.30-13.15 LUNCH

13.15-14.45 Panel 6

• Valerie Rumbold (University of Birmingham), 'Textual apparatus and reader engagement'
• Nicholas McDowell (University of Exeter), 'Revising Republicanism? Political Argument and Copy Text in Milton's Regicide Writings'
• Jeffrey Miller (Montclair State University) and Tom Roebuck (University of East Anglia), 'Editing the Table Talk of John Selden'

14.45-15.00 BREAK

15.00-16.00 Roundtable: Pitching and planning an edition

16.00-17.00 Keynote 2 Professor Henry Woudhuysen (University of Oxford)