Cultures of Knowledge: An Intellectual Geography of the Seventeenth-Century Republic of Letters

Papers are sought for an interdisciplinary graduate conference on ‘Intellectual Exchange and Networks in Europe, 1500-1660: Approaches from the Humanities and Social Sciences’, due to take place at the University of Chicago on 7-8 May 2010. Featuring keynote contributions from Denis Crouzet and Peter N. Miller, the conference will explore how ideas moved through Europe between 1500 and 1660, with a particular emphasis on social networks, trade routes, epistolary webs, and multiple forms of literary transmission. The conference will also consider the movement of ideas in the present. The deadline for the receipt of 250-word abstracts is 30 November 2009; for further details and submission instructions, see H-Net.

Contributions are sought for a workshop on ‘Intellectual Networks and Exchanges’, due to take place at Wolfson College at the University of Cambridge on 1-2 July 2010. Building on the methodological redefinition of ‘exchanges’ and of ‘networks’ which has occurred in the past three decades, the workshop will investigate cultural and intellectual networks and exchanges of ideas from the late medieval to the modern period. It will pay particular attention to the role of sources, historical factors, geography, images, and ideologies in creating, fostering, and preserving communicative practices, especially within colonial settings. For further information, please see the workshop webpage or contact the organizer, Dr Isabel DiVanna.

Papers are invited for a conference on ‘Circulating Ideas in Seventeenth-Century Europe: Networks, Knowledge and Forms’, due to be held at the Royal Society in London on 8-10 July 2010. The conference will explore the dynamic intellectual economies brought into being by wars, revolution, and international exploration, with particular reference to the forms in which ideas circulated; the networks of intelligencers, scribes, printers, publishers, and booksellers through which they moved; and the structures of knowledge which linked particular categories of content to particular material forms. The deadline for the receipt of 300-word abstracts is 7 January 2010; for further details and submission instructions, see the conference website.