8.0168 CFP: De-Centring Renaissance (1/113)

Elaine Brennan (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Wed, 7 Sep 1994 16:42:20 EDT

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 8, No. 0168. Wednesday, 7 Sep 1994.

Date: Tue, 6 Sep 1994 21:29:09 -0400
From: Germaine Warkentin <warkent@epas.utoronto.ca>
Subject: Final call: De-centring Renaissance


FINAL CALL; PLEASE CROSS-POST TO RELEVANT LISTS:


CALL FOR PAPERS:


DE-CENTRING THE RENAISSANCE:

Canada and Europe in Multi-Disciplinary Perspective

1350-1700


On March 7 - 10, 1996, the Centre for Reformation and
Renaissance Studies, Victoria University in the University of
Toronto, will host an innovative conference bringing together the
fields of Early Modern and Canadian Studies. The occasion is the
500th anniversary of Henry VII's grant of letters patent to the
Italian explorer John Cabot on March 5, 1496. Cabot was given "full
and free authority . . . to set up our aforesaid banners and
ensigns in any town, city, castle, island or mainland whatsoever,
newly found by them."

Intellectually, those banners have flown for a long time. But
the transformation in our concepts of discovery and exploration
during the past decade has shown how unfruitful it is to confine
the study of the "newly found" lands within traditional conceptual
boundaries. This conference will challenge such boundaries even
further by addressing the extent to which Canada, in the period
roughly 1350-1700, was not merely an arena of European operations -
- whether Renaissance, Reformation, or Early Modern -- but an
authentic historical sphere interacting with forces and events from
within and without.

To do this will involve bringing together specialists from a
variety of fields: students of Italian Humanism with those in
Native North American studies, investigators of the Bristol trade
with those studying Jesuit learning, economists working on French
financial policy with students of Mohawk culture, of the lives of
women and working people, of English courts from Henry VII to
Charles II, of Huron land-use, and juxtaposing the work of
researchers working on Basque and Portuguese fishing practices with
those studying the life of aboriginal nations living far in the
interior and in the north.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Natalie Zemon Davis, Princeton University

PLENARY SPEAKERS: Oliva Dickason (Alberta) on aboriginal history and
the law; Selma Barkham (England) on the Portuguese and Basques in the
North Atlantic; Luca Codignola (Genoa) on Italians and early Canada;
Gilles Th'erien (Montr'eal) on Renaissance rhetoric and the _Jesuit
Relations_.

The Organizing Committee will be looking for papers which are
solidly based in ongoing research and at the same time framed in
interdisciplinary ways which reflect this broad representation of
fields.

Format: The conference programme will include invited plenary
sessions, sessions for which the papers will be circulated ahead of
time, and "Work-in-Progress" sessions structured around a problem
rather than presenting formal papers. We hope that confirmed
acceptances can be issued by January, 1995.

Proposals for Papers: proposals of 300 words maximum,
accompanied by a one-page CV should be submitted by October 1, 1994
to the address below. Papers may be in English or in French. The
Organizing Committee may ask to see completed papers before
confirming acceptance. Note that papers will be circulated ahead of
time and the Committee must therefore receive them in finished form
by December 1, 1995.

Proposals for sessions: A 500-word position paper outlining
the purpose of the session should be submitted along with the CVs
of chair and participants. Sessions may be in English or French,
or in both languages.

Organizing Committee:

Germaine Warkentin, English, Victoria College, University of
Toronto (Chair)
Jennifer S. H. Brown, History, University of Winnipeg
Jane Couchman, French Studies, Glendon College, York University,
Toronto
Deborah Doxtator, Graduate student, History, University of Western
Ontario
Franc,ois Pare`, Department of French, University of Guelph
Krystyna Sieciechowicz, Anthropology/Canadian Studies, University
College, University of Toronto


Conference Sponsors:

Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, Victoria University
in the University of Toronto
Canadian Studies Programme, University College, University of
Toronto
Rupert's Land Research Centre, University of Winnipeg
Canadian Society for Renaissance Studies/Soci'et'e Canadienne
d'Etudes de la Renaissance

Please send proposals by October 15, 1994 to:

Germaine Warkentin
Victoria College
University of Toronto
Toronto, Ont. M5S 1K7
Canada.

E-mail: warkent@epas.utoronto.ca Fax: (416) 585-4584