Women Writing Knowledge: Philosophy in the Early Modern World Lecture Series 2026 Cultures of Philosophy, University of Exeter Thursday 29 January 4 pm UK | 5 pm Italy Natalia Zorrilla Sirlin (McGill University | Università Ca' Foscari Venezia) Origin Stories of Gender Inequality in early modern Feminist Philosophy Thursday 12 February 4 pm UK | 5 pm Sweden Cecelia Rosenberg (University of Gothenburg) Women as Agents of the Enlightenment in 18th-century Gothenburg Thursday 19 March 4 pm UK | 5 pm Italy Natacha Fabbri (University of Siena | Galileo Museum) Claiming the Heavens: Women, Astronomy, and Intellectual Authority in Seventeenth-Century Europe Thursday 16 April 9 am UK | 6 pm Sydney Dalia Nassar (University of Sydney) Diotima’s Daughters: Women Philosophers on Love, Beauty, Goodness and Truth in the Early Romantic Period Thursday 30 April 4 pm UK & Ireland Derval Conroy (University College Dublin) Constructing a Philosophy of Celibacy: Gabrielle Suchon's Le Célibat Volontaire ou la Vie Sans Engagement (1700) Thursday 14 May 4.30 pm UK |11.30 am ET Ann Pang-White (University of Scranton) Two Early Modern Women Thinkers of China: Empress Renxiaowen and Madame Liu Thursday 18 June 9 am UK | 5 pm South Korea Hwayeong Wang (Duke Kunshan University) Women Writing Confucian Philosophy in Late Joseon Korea: Im Yunjidang and Gang Jeongildang This work is supported by the European Research Council-selected Starting Grant, ‘Cultures of Philosophy: Women Writing Knowledge in Early Modern Europe’, funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), under the UK government’s Horizon Europe funding guarantee [grant number EP/Y006372/1].

We're so excited to announce our new lecture series for 2026 "Women Writing Knowledge: Philosophy in the Early Modern World"

Please do join us online for an incredible selection of talks by leading scholars working on #womeninphilosophy

Sign up here: forms.office.com/e/8V5WjGG3hN

CfP for an online workshop on Object Stories in Health and Medicine, 1700-1900
@annafranjam.bsky.social and I can't wait to hear about your objects!

Morning dip in Copenhagen before another great day at the Women’s history of philosophy summer school

The broad beans are so happy for the rain

Conference poster: Women Writing Philosophy in Early modern Europe - Spaces and Exchanges 2-4 June, knightly building

We’re so looking forward to bringing together some incredible scholars in Exeter next week for our conference: Women Writing Philosophy in Early modern Europe - Spaces and Exchanges

A mock up of a front cover of a book entitled 'Birth, Death, and Domestic Religion in early modern London'. The book cover is red, and the image is from a seventeenth-century woodcut of bodies being removed from London households during the plague.

Delighted to see this mock up of the front cover of my first book, due to be published later in the Summer with @cambridgeup.bsky.social .

It's been several years in the making, and has had input and guidance from so many people - but it nearly exists!

Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, recently used my second-place finish in the 1,600-meter run, and that of my teammate in the 800-meter run, to malign Soren Stark-Chessa, the trans-identified athlete who finished first. One of the reasons I chose to run cross-country and track is the community: Teammates cheering each other on, athletes from different schools coming together, and the fact that personal improvement is valued as much as, if not more than, the place we finish. Last Friday, I ran the fastest 1,600-meter race I have ever run in middle school or high school track and earned varsity status by my school’s standards. I am extremely proud of the effort I put into the race and the time that I achieved. The fact that someone else finished in front of me didn’t diminish the happiness I felt after finishing that race. I don’t feel like first place was taken from me. Instead, I feel like a happy day was turned ugly by a bully who is using children to make political points. We are all just kids trying to make our way through high school. Participating in sports is the highlight of high school for some kids. No one was harmed by Soren’s participation in the girls’ track meet, but we are all harmed by the hateful rhetoric of bullies, like Rep. Libby, who want to take sports away from some kids just because of who they are. Anelise Feldman Freshman, Yarmouth High School Yarmouth

this is a letter to the editor from a high school track runner who came in second to a trans girl in a race. her state house rep in maine started talking about it. so she wrote this: www.pressherald.com/2025/05/14/r...

The bridgewater canal really suffering in comparison to Venice today 🦆

So excited about our upcoming conference! Some absolutely fascinating papers foregrounding women’s intellectual work across early modern Europe

Early Modern War Narratives - Annual CEMS Colloquium — CEMS KCL Blog Join CEMS for our annual colloquium. This year's theme is early modern war narratives. CfP deadline: 11th April.

What ethical responsibilities do we bear when we write about war? This is one of the questions we’re posing in our June colloquium on early modern war narratives. CFP here and the deadline is 11th April! Please share widely and consider submitting an abstract!
kingsearlymodern.co.uk/events/lamen...

BBC Radio 3 - Radio 3 in Concert, Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring from Manchester The Hallé performs works by Stravinsky, Thomas Adès and Kaija Saariaho.

Looking forward to singing Thomas Adès’ America (a new version!) tonight with the @thehalle.bsky.social conducted by the man himself!

The concert will be on Radio 3 for those unlucky souls not in manchester 🐝 www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Winged statue of a woman standing in a Boston square

Sunset over a cityscape

Time to explore beautiful Boston before #RSA2025 kicks off

Phtotograph of Bodleian Benefactors' Register, open and showing gifts of Robert Barker and William Ballow, in italic print and manuscript on parchment.

For anyone interested in the early Bodleian Library or early modern book owners, the Shaping Scholarship project at CELL, UCL has made the project data available: ebdo.org.uk/data/ It details every officially recorded donation made c. 1600-1620, plus some extras, which is around 10,000 items.

A new form of art to covet

Abraham Bosse, The Wise Virgins, print. Shows 5 women siting around a home altar, discussing books held int heir hands .

The CultPhil team are preparing for Boston! We'd love to see you at our #RSA2025 roundtable "Women Writing Philosophy in 17th century Europe" on Friday afternoon

There'll be chameleons, divine wetnurses, recently uncovered manuscripts, and arguments against tyranny

rsa.confex.com/rsa/2025/mee...

Grumpy fluffy cat sitting on a sunny balcony edge

Thrilled at the arrival of spring

Centre for Translating Cultures | Research Centres | University of Exeter

Next week @carlottamoro.bsky.social & @crevans.bsky.social will speak at the Center for Translating Cultures seminar - Pregnant with Thought: Women Writing Philosophy in Early Modern England and Italy

Please join us if you’re in Exeter! Wed 26 Feb, 15.30
www.exeter.ac.uk/research/cen...

‘I’ll sack who I want’: Inside the chaotic, mutinous new University of Greater Manchester The strange story of how a marketing man from Milton Keynes turned a university into his poison-filled fiefdom

A shocking report from @manchestermill.bsky.social about what's going on in Bolton.
HE is in crisis, and this university is in the hands of a marketing advisor "who makes racist jokes, shouts at colleagues and openly threatens people with the sack" manchestermill.co.uk/university-o...

A 17th century Dutch painting of pink roses, carnations, cornflowers, and narcissus. The text reads: Call for Papers. Plants and People: the cultivation and propagation of botanical knowledge among non-professional communities, c.1600–1800. University of Cambridge, 8–9 July 2025.

Text reads: This interdisciplinary conference will examine botanical knowledge exchange among early modern individuals at the periphery of professional science. We will focus on women, domestic workers, artisans, merchants, and enslaved and indigenous naturalists who used plant knowledge in their everyday life, yet did not (or could not) derive a living primarily from botany.    Over the course of this conference, and a subsequent publication, we intend to address the following questions: What kinds of people and spaces fostered botanical knowledge outside of traditional institutions of learning? What role did embodied experience play in the acquisition of botanical knowledge? What did the social networks of these practitioners look like, and how did this overlap with or differ from the networks of professional scientists? How was the knowledge of these non-professional practitioners valued (or devalued) by their contemporaries? Reflecting the creative nature of our subject matter, we welcome applications for papers in formats other than traditional presentations. Furthermore, the conference will include a practical workshop with the artist and natural dye expert Nabil Ali. We hope that our creative workshop will feed into participants’ practice and inform their contributions to our proposed publication.   This conference will be held in person from 8–9 July at the University of Cambridge. Lunch and refreshments will be included. We aim to offer grants of £150 to contribute towards the cost of travel and accommodation for speakers coming from outside of Cambridge and the surrounding area. Please let us know in your application whether you would like to be considered for a travel grant.   Please send an abstract of max. 300 words and a short biography to the conference organisers, Lucy Havard (lh655@cam.ac.uk) and Zara Kesterton (zlk21@cam.ac.uk) by Friday 14 March 2025.

We are delighted to announce our #CfP for 'Plants and People: the cultivation and propagation of botanical knowledge among non-professional communities, c.1600–1800'! Please email your abstracts (300 words) and bios to @zarakesterton.bsky.social @lucyjhavard.bsky.social, by 14 March 🪴

My ears are still ringing from the organ and the bells, but what a thrill to have sung Mahler’s 2nd symphony with @thehalle.bsky.social last night. Also my first time being conducted by Kahchun Wong, who brings the magic out of every piece of music

Image of a holy well in Co Clare with ribbons tied to the trees

Hello friends & colleagues. I will be developing a project this year on spatial histories of infertility (the places & spaces associated with this experience, sites of intercession, prayer, pilgrimage, healing) & would love to learn of any connected research/ sites/ histories/ practices. Thank you!

Call for Papers 'Cultures of Care in Scottish Women's Writing' Papers are invited for a special issue which will explore the myriad ways in which the concept of care has been imagined by Scottish women writers. 'Care' encompasses a diversity of meanings across philosophical, moral, and spiritual traditions; in practices which range from social to medial to therapeutic, and beyond; and in semantic terms evokes ideas of nurture, protection, welfare; feelings of solicitude, concern, love. 'To care for' someone, or something, is both to experience, and to enact, such affect with vigilance and a kind of watchful attention. We are interested in the ways in which Scottish women writers - across a variety of genres and forms - have imaginatively explored the concept of care as ethos and/or practice. We also invite a range of theoretical and disciplinary approaches from (for example) environmental humanities; medical humanities; history of emotion studies. Themes which might be explored include, but are not limited to: care of, and for self; care of, and for others, including communities and networks; care for nature, environment, and non-human others; therapeutic and/or medical care; concepts of welfare (individual and collective); ideas of nurture; expression of affect and emotion (including anxiety); care as cultural activism; writing/creating as an act of care; the experience of being taken care of. Please send 200 word abstracts and a short bio to s.m.dunnigan@ed.ac.uk and amcinto9@ed.ac.uk by Thursday 30 January 2025.

Delighted to share the CfP for an upcoming Special Issue of Scottish Literary Review, guest edited by @sarahdunnigan.bsky.social and @ainsley76.bsky.social. We'd love to have your contributions to 'Cultures of Care in Scottish Women's Writing'. Details 👇

@scottlyall.bsky.social
@asls.org.uk

Gislebertus Dream of the Magi 1120-30 Stone Cathedral of Saint-Lazare, Autun "Master Gislebertus was one of the greatest sculptors of the Middle Ages, who inscribed his name on the tympanum of the main portal of the Sainte-Lazare Cathedral at Autun. The majority of the capitals in the interior of the cathedral are also ascribed to him; most of them are on pilasters and therefore remain firmly connected to the surface. His sculptures are some of the most human, touching works that exist in Romanesque sculpture. The original capitals were removed and are on display in the Musée Rolin near to the Cathedral. The Dream of the Magi, the capital originally on the east side of the north-east crossing pillar, shows the three crowned figures together under a large, round cover. Two of them are still asleep, but the third has already been woken by the movingly gentle touch of the angel who is pointing the star out to him." (WGA)

Three Magi cuddle under a blue blanket as an angel appears in their dream British Library - Royal 1 D X fol-2v

Three kings sleep inside the letter E BnF Latin 7586; Isidorus Hispalensis, Etymologiarum libri XX; 11th century; France; f.45r (Bibliothèque nationale de France)

The Dream of the Magi, from the Queen Mary Psalter, England, 1310-20. (British Library)

It's Epiphany, which means it's time for Cuddling Kings in Medieval art

Its on the bulletin for Thursday at 10 - sounds really interesting!

Bhupen Khakhar, Two men in Benares (1982) oil painting showing two nude male lovers embracing with vignettes of religious life around them

Gulammohammed Sheikh, Speechless city (1975). Oil painting of an abandoned city with wild dogs and cattle, the houses are green and sky orange

Really glad that I managed to catch “The Imaginary Institution of India” @barbican.bsky.social - art from emergency rule to nuclear testing in 1998

Delia smith cookbook with her face on the front

Let’s be havin’ you

Home made, not very good Christmas wreath held up in a poly tunnel

Wreath constructed, Lindsey Lohan’s surprisingly enjoyable seasonal Netflix offering on - Christmas can start!

Last call, friends! @hartmann-villalta.bsky.social and I are collecting articles and books by contingent literary studies scholars for our 2024 @contingent-mag.bsky.social list. Please reply with your pubs by, say, end of day Mon, 12/2, to be included. Click through to see last year’s list.

Title, author and abstract of an article superimposed on top of an early modern horoscope chart Title: The Temporality of the early modern English Almanac Author: Catherine Evans Abstract: This article explores the place that almanacs held in early modern English culture, offering evidence of how they shaped practices of time keeping and history writing. During a period in which the calendar was a site of religious discord and political debate, did the printed time of the almanac act as a regularizing force? How was history writing used to shape local and national identity in both England and New England colonies? Did the ephemeral nature of the almanac make time less valuable? Drawing on evidence from the previously unstudied annotated almanacs in the Huntington Library and the Beinecke Library, this article attends to the ways in which the time of the almanac was personalized and multitemporal. By focusing on traces of book use, the article examines the symbiotic relationship between readers and their books, arguing that the materiality of texts both reveals and shapes patterns of thought.

Really pleased to see my article "The Temporality of the Early Modern English Almanac" out in the HLQ
It discusses how almanac owners annotated, contradicted, ripped up, and reused these ubiquitous but odd books, and what these behaviours reveal about their sense of time
muse.jhu.edu/article/944186

Deadline on Friday for our conference - Women Writing Natural Philosophy in Early Modern Europe: Spaces and Exchanges

We also have some travel bursaries for scholars without access to institutional funding