Early Modern World
Early Modern World at Harvard is a multi-disciplinary group composed of faculty, graduate students, and visiting researchers who study the historical traditions of early modernity across the globe. “Early Modern” refers to the dynamic period of cultural exchange within and between different regions of the world from the 14th to the 18th centuries. The complex legacy of the Early Modern era in Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Europe—a period of political change, movement of peoples and colonization, scientific and technological discovery, and artistic innovation—continues to shape the present day. As research and teaching in these fields becomes increasingly diverse and global, this group fosters inclusivity, connection, and collaboration among Harvard’s community of early modernists.
EMW is Harvard’s central hub for early modern activities of all kinds. It serves scholars, librarians, archivists, curators, and digital specialists working across departments and units, recognizing shared goals and fostering opportunities for collaboration in research, teaching, and public engagement. We maintain a coordinated list of lectures, workshops, seminars, and events hosted by affiliated groups and programs. We publish course offerings and promote awareness of the activities of our community members. We run two mailing lists—one newsletter for Harvard-based early modern events and one for events in the broader New England area. We welcome your input as we work to support ongoing and emerging projects in early modern fields across the university. If you would like to join one or both of our mailing lists, please write to our Program Coordinator, Anja Goeing, at agoeing@fas.harvard.edu. Welcome to Early Modern World at Harvard!
Past Spring 2025: Visiting Professor Joe Moshenska (Oxford)
Upcoming Events
An Unstable Canon: Vesalius, Fabrica, & Vesicovaginal Fistulae
Sponsor: Harvard Early Sciences Working Group
Speaker: Alex Halberstam (G2 PhD, History of Science)
![Ch'ŏnhado. [Korea] :: [publisher not identified],, 1630. (World map, Harvard Libraries)](/sites/g/files/omnuum9471/files/styles/hwp_16_9__960x540/public/2025-09/Screenshot%202025-09-04%20at%206.35.58%E2%80%AFAM.png?itok=nFqQTtcK)
Newton’s Matter Theory: Between Mechanism and Hylomorphism
Sponsor: History of Philosophy Workshop, Harvard
Speaker: Patrick Connolly (Johns Hopkins University)
Harvard Early Modern World Fall Aperitivo
Sponsor: Harvard Early Modern World initiative
Faculty Flash-talks:
Cécile Fromont (HAA)
Nathan Perl-Rosenthal (Center for European Studies)
Jennifer Oliver (RLL)
Robert Darnton (History)
Lewys Glyn Cothi: revisiting the manuscripts of a Welsh pencerdd
Sponsor: Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Celtic Literature and Culture
Speaker: Gruffudd Antur, University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies in Aberystwyth
Letters from the Augsburg Collegium Medicum and German Physicians / Practicing Healers
Sponsor: Harvard Early Sciences Working Group
Speaker: Courtney Greer-Soliday (G3 PhD, History of Science)
Writing into Nothingness
Sponsor: Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on France and the World
Speaker: Joanna Stalnaker, Columbia University
Colossal Engineering in Carioca
Sponsor: Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Visual Representation, Materiality, and Medium
Speaker: Erika Naginski, Harvard Graduate School of Design
Seminar with Tanya Pollard
Sponsor: Harvard Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Shakespearean Studies
Speaker: Tanya Pollard, Brooklyn College and CUNY
A Conversation on Petrarch’s "Canzoniere: A New Translation"
Sponsor: Harvard Mahindra Humanities Center public event
Speakers: Andrew Frisardi, A.M. Juster, and Kate van Orden
Moderator: Ramie Targoff
The Book of Job in the Republic of Letters: The Reception of Hugo Grotius's Annotata ad Vetus Testamentum (1644)
Sponsors: Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar in the History of the Book and Early Modern Workshop in the Department of History, Harvard University.
Speaker: Michael Legaspi (St Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary). Comment: Gabriel Parlin (Committee...
Locanadarpaṇamu (A Mirror for the Eyes)
Sponsor: Harvard Early Sciences Working Group
Speaker: Sri Sathvik Rayala (G1 PhD, History of Science)
Scytale: A Historical Analysis of Cryptography, Military Intelligence, and Military Science: Ancient Secrets, Messages, and Sensitivity
Sponsor: Harvard Early Sciences Working Group
Speaker: Xiao Di "Janice" Tong (H-Net Reviews Editor)
What is Sacred about Emotions? A Historical Exploration of Emotion in Hasidism
Sponsor: Harvard Mahindra Humanities Seminar on Jewish Cultures and Societies
Speaker: Leore Sachs Shmueli, Bar Ilan University
A Cooler Art History of European Landscape
Sponsor: Harvard Early Sciences Working Group
Speaker: Kirsten Burke (Junior Fellow, Harvard Society of Fellows)
Seminar with Matthew Ritger
Sponsors: Harvard Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Shakespearean Studies and Harvard English Department Renaissance Colloquium
Speaker: Matthew Ritger, Dartmouth College
A Closer Look at the Crespi Chronicle: An Illustrated History of Mankind in the Early Renaissance
Speaker: Paolo Sachet (Sapienza University of Rome and Institut d’Histoire de la Réformation, University of Geneva)
Sponsors: Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar in the History of the Book and Early Modern Workshop in the Department of History, Harvard...
Book Discussion: "Antiquity Made Whole: The Renaissance Continuation of Ancient Literature"
Author: Leah Whittington (English, Harvard). Respondents: Gordon Teskey (English, Harvard), Eric Weiskott (English, Boston College), Megan Heffernan (English, DePaul) and Stephen Hinds (Classics, University of Washington, Seattle). Co-sponsored by the...
The Earth Turned Inside Out: Sino-European Exchange and the Cross-cultural History of Early Modern Seismology
Sponsor: Harvard Early Sciences Working Group
Speaker: Seongun Park (G7 PhD, East Asian Languages and Civilizations)
Seminar with Erika Boeckeler
Sponsor: Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Shakespearean Studies
Speaker: Erika Boeckeler, Northeastern University