Futures of the Past symposium @ GWU this October

by J J Cohen

I'm placing this here on the chance that you are looking for just the right excuse to come to DC in the fall semester. Well, here it is. This symposium is free and open to all. You are most welcome to join us.

[from the GW MEMSI blog]

The GW Medieval and Early Modern Studies Institute is happy to announce its Fall 2015 symposium, "Futures of the Past."

Now that the Institute is entering the final three of its ten years of institutional funding, we have been thinking seriously about how to remain forward-looking and future-making. In each of the next three years we intend to sponsor a symposium that riffs upon our motto, gathering scholars at various points in their careers who have recently or are just about to publish a book of broad thematic interest. Our hope is to form a lively community around some important new work, fostering a wide ranging conversation about what paths medieval and early modern studies might take in the years ahead. The symposia welcome all who wish to attend.

On Friday October 30 we will hold an all day symposium Futures of the Past that will welcome the following scholars:

• Kim Hall, Barnard College, author of Sweet Taste of Empire (forthcoming)
• Patricia Clare Ingham, Indiana University, author of The Medieval New: Ambivalence in an Age of Innovation
• J. Allan Mitchell, University of Victoria, author of Becoming Human: The Matter of the Medieval Child
• Julie Orlemanski, University of Chicago, author of Symptomatic Subjects: Bodies, Signs, and Narratives in Late Medieval England (in progress)
• Coll Thrush, University of British Columbia, author of Indigenous London: Native Travellers at the Heart of Empire (forthcoming)
• Henry S. Turner, Rutgers University, author of The Corporate Commonwealth: Pluralism and Political Fictions in England, 1516-1651 (forthcoming)

The symposium will be held in the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Room of the Gelman Library (702). More details as the event nears.