ÌÇÐÄTV

Over four days, the School will ask questions such as 1) can a meaningful distinction be made between religion and magic? 2) How do we fit alchemy and astrology into evolving understandings of the natural world?  3) To what extent did the Enlightenment result in a rejection of previous belief systems where folkloric beliefs still had considerable purchase? 4) Does the natural world that is in evidence after the Napoleonic wars bear the scars of conflict and revolution, and how?  The School will investigate these and other questions over three days of workshops, each led by two faculty members from ÌÇÐÄTV (English and History) and two from Vanderbilt (English and History), followed by a fourth day of student presentations. The first workshop will cover 1550-1650 and look at changing perceptions of the natural world in Renaissance and Reformation Europe and America. The second workshop will look at the transitions that occurred in popular and elite understandings of natural phenomena between 1650 and 1750. The third workshop will examine the period between 1750 and 1850 and the role of the Enlightement and Romanticism in recasting and reformulating older understandings.  Readings will be available in advance. Students will be residential and will attend all workshops in order to best prepare a short paper for discussion on the last day of the workshop.

We invite interested students to contact Prof. Trevor Burnard in History (t.g.burnard@warwick.ac.uk) and Prof. Jackie Labbe in English (j.m.labbe@warwick.ac.uk).  There will be space for three students from each History and English department (twelve in all).