Gender, Race, and Early Modern Studies[folger.edu]
Kimberly Anne Coles and Ayanna Thompson
2017-2018 Colloquium
With a few notable exceptions, early modern scholars have not consistently wed gender and race studies as effectively as those working on later periods. Yet race in the early modern period is a concept at the crossroads of a set of overlapping concerns of lineage, religion, sexuality, custom, and nation. These categories often serve as support or solvent to the terms and relations by which the early modern category of “woman” is understood. This year-long colloquium will thoroughly explore the works that women read and wrote, in which they are represented, and in which they represent themselves, to put gender in consistent and contested conversation with race. Scholars working on a wide variety of genres, including religious and medical tracts, domestic and conduct manuals, travel narratives, poetry, and drama, are invited to apply to participate in a gathering that will utilize the wealth of relevant Folger materials. They will have the opportunity to workshop their own writing as well as to discuss approaches and directions in the broader field with invited presenters.
Directors: Kimberly Anne Coles is Associate Professor of English at the University of Maryland. Author of Religion, Reform, and Women’s Writing in Early Modern England (2008), she recently co-edited The Cultural Politics of Blood, 1500-1900 (2015). Her current book project, “‘A Fault of Humour’: The Constitution of Belief in Early Modern England” deals with the medical and philosophical context that makes moral constitution a physiological, heritable feature of the blood. Ayanna Thompson is Professor of English at The George Washington University. She is the author of Teaching Shakespeare with Purpose: A Student-Centred Approach (2016), Passing Strange: Shakespeare, Race, and Contemporary America (2011), and Performing Race and Torture on the Early Modern Stage (2008). She is the editor of Weyward Macbeth: Intersections of Race and Performance (2010) and Colorblind Shakespeare: New Perspectives on Race and Performance (2006).
Invited Presenters: Patricia Akhimie (Rutgers University), Dennis Britton (University of New Hampshire), Ruben Espinosa (University of Texas-El Paso), Melissa Sanchez (University of Pennsylvania), and Reginald Wilburn (University of New Hampshire). Their brief biographies may be found here[folgerpedia.folger.edu].
Schedule: Friday afternoons, 1:00 – 4:30 p.m., 22 September, 20 October, 17 November, 8 December 2017; 26 January, 23 February, 9 March, 27 April 2018.
Apply: 12 June 2017 for admission and grants-in-aid. Visit http://www.folger.edu/application-information-and-guidelines[folger.edu] to access the application instructions and portal.
Please contact institute@folger.edu with any questions.