Joe Moshenska, Oxford University: “Making Darkness Light: The History of a Book”, English Department Renaissance Colloquium, co-sponsored by Early Modern World

Joe Moshenska will talk about the practice and method of writing his acclaimed experimental biography of John Milton, published by Basic Books in 2022.

Early Modern World is pleased to announce its first Short-Term Faculty Visitor this spring. Joe Moshenska, Professor of English Literature at Oxford University, will be with us on campus March 31-April 3. Professor Moshenska is a scholar of the literature and culture of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in England, with frequent forays into later periods.  He works at the intersection between literature and contiguous fields – philosophy, theology, science, visual arts – and has longstanding interests in critical theory. Recently, he has published on biography and life-writing, and is a leader in current discussions of the overlap between critical and creative practice. While his focus is on England and Europe, his interests in literature and anthropology and questions of method make him a fascinating interlocutor for early modernists working on materials from Latin America, Africa, South Asia, and East Asia. EMW will host several events with Professor Moshenska, to which all are invited. Graduate students from all of our disciplines are encouraged to participate.