Society for the Study of – Early Modern Women and Gender

Interdisciplinary and Global Studies of Women and Gender in the Early Modern World

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We are pleased to announce the recent volume of th

We are pleased to announce the recent volume of the Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal (Volume 17, no. 2, Spring 2023).

ARTICLES
The Reader Is Hooked: Ema Saikō’s Poems on The Tale of Genji
Matthew Mewhinney

Salons, Patronage Networks, and the Self-Representation of Three Seventeenth-Century French Women of Science
Anne R. Larsen

Female Community, Identity, and Icon: Honoring the Madonna Advocata in Santi Domenico e Sisto
Kirstin Noreen

Knowing How: Estate Management, Practical Knowledge, and Agency among Aristocratic Women in Early Modern Sweden
Anna Nilsson Hammar and Svante Norrhem

CONVERSATIONS ON EARLY MODERN WOMEN AND RACE
Early Modern Women and Race: State of the Study
Danielle Terrazas Williams

My Husband Is Also My Daughter: The Social History of the Bantu Matrilineal Zone, 1450–1800
Christine Saidi

India’s Everywomen in the Early Modern Archive
Bindu Malieckal

BOOK REVIEWS
Anna of Denmark: The Material and Visual Culture of the Stuart Courts, 1589–1619, Jemma Field
Melinda J. Gough

Trans and Genderqueer Subjects in Medieval Hagiography, Alicia Spencer-Hall and Blake Gutt, eds.
Mathew Kuefler

Women’s Patronage and Gendered Cultural Networks in Early Modern Europe: Vittoria della Rovere, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Adelina Modesti
Maria Galli Stampino

Early Modern Women’s Complaint: Gender, Form, and Politics, Sarah C. E. Ross and Rosalind Smith, eds.
Danila Sokolov

Kitty Clive, or The Fair Songster, Berta Joncus
Vanessa L. Rogers

The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Aphra Behn, Vol. 4: Plays 1682–1696, Rachel Adcock, Kate Aughterson, Claire Bowditch, Elaine Hobby, Alan James Hogarth, Anita Pacheco, and Margarete Rubik, eds.
Mattie Burkert

Transatlantic Women Travelers, 1688–1843, Misty Krueger, ed.
Sarah Crabtree

Minerva’s French Sisters: Women of Science in Enlightenment France, Nina Rattner Gelbart
Anne R. Larsen

The Venetian Bride: Bloodlines and Blood Feuds in Venice and Its Empire, Patricia Fortini Brown
Holly S. Hurlburt

Miracles of Love: French Fairy Tales by Women, Nora Martin Peterson and Jordan Stump, eds.
Aurora Wolfgang

And more!

Open Access Alert! Challenging Women's Agency and

Open Access Alert!
Challenging Women's Agency and Activism in Early Modernity
https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/61368

Examining women's agency in the past has taken on new urgency in the current moment of resurgent patriarchy, Women's Marches, and the global #MeToo movement. The essays in this collection consider women's agency in the Renaissance and early modern period, an era that also saw both increasing patriarchal constraints and new forms of women's actions and activism. They address a capacious set of questions about how women, from their teenage years through older adulthood, asserted agency through social practices, speech acts, legal disputes, writing, viewing and exchanging images, travel, and community building. Despite family and social pressures, the actions of girls and women could shape their lives and challenge male-dominated institutions. This volume includes thirteen essays by scholars from many disciplines, which analyze people, texts, objects, and images from many different parts of Europe, as well as things and people that crossed the Atlantic and the Pacific.

This volume is published in the Amsterdam University Press series Gendering the Late Medieval and Early Modern World. In case anyone is looking for summer reading ideas, there are a number of Open Access titles in the series, including:

· Authorizing Early Modern European Women: From Biography to Biofiction, edited by James Fitzmaurice, Naomi Miller and Sara Jayne Steen

o Congratulations to the editors and contributors on Co-Honorable Mention for the 2022 Collaborative Project Award from the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women and Gender (SSEMWG)!

· Missionary Men in the Early Modern World: German Jesuits and Pacific Journeys, by Ulrike Strasser

· Women and Power at the French Court, 1483-1563, edited by Susan Broomhall

· The Youth of Early Modern Women, edited by Elizabeth Storr Cohen & Margaret Louise Reeves

· Chivalry, Reading, and Women's Culture in Early Modern Spain: From Amadís de Gaula to Don Quixote, by Stacey Triplette

· English Aristocratic Women and the Fabric of Piety, 1450-1550, by Barbara J. Harris

· Gendered Temporalities in the Early Mode

Happy Belated to Maria Sibylla Merian, born April

Happy Belated to Maria Sibylla Merian, born April 2, 1647. Merian (2 April 1647 – 13 January 1717) was a German entomologist, naturalist and scientific illustrator. She was one of the earliest European naturalists to observe insects directly.

Are you a graduate student and looking for an oppo

Are you a graduate student and looking for an opportunity to get more involved with the SSEMWG? Consider becoming our grad representative!

The SSEMWG Executive Committee is seeking nominations for a graduate student representative to serve on the committee for the next year. The representative attends Executive Committee meetings and works towards helping graduate students navigate aspects of their research and career paths.

Students can nominate themselves, or faculty members can nominate students who have agreed to serve. Please send a CV and a paragraph expressing interest to Andrea Pearson, SSEMWG President, at pearson@american.edu.

Web Editor Position: In addition to SSEMWG members

Web Editor Position:
In addition to SSEMWG membership, familiarity with Word and WordPress (or some form of web editing) is required of candidates for the Web Editor position. The position usually involves an average of one or occasionally two hours of work per month.
Appointed by the President in consultation with the Executive Committee for a five-year term, renewable at the discretion of the Executive Committee and the individual concerned
Maintains and updates the SSEMWG website
Receives, monitors and inputs submissions for website revisions and additions from SSEMWG Officers, Committee Chairs, and other SSEMWG members
Suggests improvements for the website to the President and Executive Committee
Coordinates with Reclaim Housing to solve technical issues
Coordinates with Social Media and Blog Editor
Submits annual report to the Executive Committee
Ex-officio non-voting member of the Executive Committee
Andrea Pearson, PhD (she/hers)
Professor and Director of Art History
Chair of the Department of Art
American University, Washington, DC
President: Society for the Study of Early Modern Women and Gender
pearson@american.edu

Attending RSA in San Juan this year? We cordially

Attending RSA in San Juan this year? We cordially invite you to the annual plenary address of the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women and Gender.
We will hear from Jennifer L. Morgan, Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis and History at NYU, who will present, “On Race and Reinscription: Writing Enslaved Women into the Early Modern Archive.” Professor Morgan’s latest book, Reckoning with Slavery: Gender, Kinship and Capitalism in the Early Black Atlantic (Duke University Press, 2021), won the Mary Nickliss Prize in Women’s and/or Gender History from the Organization of American Historians, and the Frederick Douglass Prize awarded by the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University.
The presentation will take place on Friday, March 10, at 4:30pm at the Caribe Hilton, San Gerónimo Ballroom C, Wave Wing First Floor. A reception will follow.
Excitingly, this will be SSEMWG’s first in-person plenary in several years. We hope to see you there!

The International Margaret Cavendish Society is pr

The International Margaret Cavendish Society is presenting an “Online Olio” event this coming Saturday Jan 28, 1-3 pm EST/6-8 pm GMT on the topic of Early Modern Women Writers and Translation.

Here is the link for further information and to register for the event:
https://www.canva.com/design/DAFXfv50hO8/NZDWifLrSUn9-29718b2vw/view?website&fbclid=IwAR2IpZDJtPE7KL7PcnwGADMopFLqwkRd0aCVM6Dma5KLLu81llVyzsCAkWI#2

The essay collection, In the Kitchen, 1550-1800: R

The essay collection, In the Kitchen, 1550-1800: Reading English Cooking at Home and Abroad, edited by Madeline Bassnett and Hillary Nunn, now has a 20% discount code until the end of March:

New Book 20% Discount
Use discount code “AUP4” for UK and ROW and “NEWAUP4” for US and Canada, valid until 31st March 2023. The code is valid for the print and eBook via the AUP website and the links to our distributor’s webshops. Once your book is in the basket, the code can be entered via the “Use a discount code” link.

REMINDER: There's still time to apply for a travel

REMINDER: There's still time to apply for a travel grant for conference travel (due January 1st)!

See https://ssemwg.org/opportunities/graduate-student-travel-funds/

On this day, December 24 (1660), Princess Mary, th

On this day, December 24 (1660), Princess Mary, the eldest daughter of Charles I, passed away.
Adriaen Hanneman, Princess Mary, 1631 - 1660. Eldest daughter of Charles I; Princess of Orange,
About this artwork
Mary was the eldest daughter of Charles I and Henrietta Maria, and Britain’s first Princess Royal. In 1641, aged only nine, she married the future Dutch stadholder, or leader, William of Orange. After Mary was widowed aged nineteen, she devoted her time to promoting her brother, Charles II (who was in exile on the continent) and the restoration of the Stuart monarchy. Her political and financial support of the Stuart cause annoyed Oliver Cromwell’s regime and strained her relations with the Dutch. Hanneman had been one of Van Dyck’s studio assistants in England and his portraits had a sentimental familiarity for the many exiled British courtiers who sat to him in The Hague. Mary is shown revealing a coronet, reminding us of her royal status.
Source: National Galleries Scotland

On this day, December 17- the Duchess Eleonora of

On this day, December 17- the Duchess Eleonora of Toledo passed away.

To honor her memory, check out a fairly new read on the duchess by Bruce Edelstein, Eleonora di Toledo and the Creation of the Boboli Gardens!

Let's celebrate this queen, Catherine of Aragon, w

Let's celebrate this queen, Catherine of Aragon, who was born on this day, December 16, 1485. Happy Birthday!

We are excited to announce that our next panel for

We are excited to announce that our next panel for graduate students and early career researchers will discuss Networking at Conferences. The panel will take place via Zoom on Tuesday, December 6 at 1:00pm Eastern time. We have some very distinguished speakers joining us: Dr. Linda Austern, Dr. Stephanie Bahr, Dr. Caroline Koncz, and Dr. Shannon McHugh. Together they represent a wealth of knowledge and experience in archives, so I hope you can make it!
To register, please visit this website and fill out the form.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/10cE-j1R9jt1pvwDwOCdhqWWLcEymT7kBRssqwrUnaZI/viewform?edit_requested=true&fbclid=IwAR2k3tIvslPxQbcbg_zgRRcX9Vu7keo7svfwP1DHTrPmLnXdQ0eaN5fby7k

The Zoom info will be sent to you after you submit your registration. If you have any particular questions that you would like our panel to address, please send an email to Will2146@purdue.edu by the Friday before the panel.
We hope to see you there!

November 17th is Mary I of England's death date (1

November 17th is Mary I of England's death date (1558)

Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558), also known as Mary Tudor, and as "Bloody Mary" by her Protestant opponents, was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death in 1558. She is best known for her vigorous attempt to reverse the English Reformation, which had begun during the reign of her father, Henry VIII. Her attempt to restore to the Church the property confiscated in the previous two reigns was largely thwarted by Parliament, but during her five-year reign, Mary had over 280 religious dissenters burned at the stake in the Marian persecutions.

#maryiofengland #bloodymary #earlymodernwomen

November 16th marks the death date of Sofonisba An

November 16th marks the death date of Sofonisba Anguissola death day (1625).

Sofonisba Anguissola (c. 1532 – 16 November 1625), also known as Sophonisba Angussola or Sophonisba Anguisciola, was an Italian Renaissance painter. Her most distinctive and attractive paintings are her portraits of herself and her family, which she painted before she moved to the Spanish court. In particular, her depictions of children were fresh and closely observed. At the Spanish court she painted formal state portraits in the prevailing official style, as one of the first, and most successful, of the relatively few female court painters. Later in her life she also painted religious subjects, although many of her religious paintings have been lost. In 1625, she died at age 93 in Palermo.

#earlymodern #herstory #renaissancewomenartists

https://www.theflorentine.net/2022/10/24/queer-his

https://www.theflorentine.net/2022/10/24/queer-history-florence/

Happy Halloween to those who celebrate! Here is

Happy Halloween to those who celebrate!

Here is some recommended reading for this special occasion:
Julie Mathias, “Introduction to English Witches in the Early Modern Period”, Curious Histories (blog on oldoperatingtheatre.com), August 30th, 2016.
Source: https://oldoperatingtheatre.com/introduction-to-english-witches-in-the-early-modern-period/?fbclid=IwAR2hFcy-JvjuDlnQt-2ZrFkD0vCpUnrOikCJXoh003YePGTK3b33ZyZDfaI

Research Shoutout! Dr. Elizabeth Kolkovich (Asso

Research Shoutout!

Dr. Elizabeth Kolkovich (Associate Prof. of English at The Ohio State University) is at work on a number of exciting projects on early modern women, including the editing of Cavendish’s play The Bridals (for the Complete Works) and Elizabeth Cary’s play The Tragedy of Mariam (for an online, open-access edition).

She is also currently working on a project featuring women patrons as playmakers. Women might not have acted or written for commercial stages in England before 1660, but they made plays in many other ways. One understudied way is patronage. By identifying patrons as co-makers of performances and play texts, we can move toward more inclusive and feminist histories and gain new ways to interpret canonical authors’ texts. Dr. Kolkovich's research aims to recover the influences, for one, of Elizabeth Stanley Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, an important female patron in early modern England whose sponsorship of plays helped shape our canon. Texts associated with her network use maternal metaphors for patronage and emphasize women’s authority within conventional roles. They promote conventional ideals and invoke language of radiant beauty, revealing how these women’s power depended upon class and racial privilege.

For more on this exciting project, follow this link: https://collation.folger.edu/2022/06/women-patrons-as-playmakers/

Call for important dates!! We are looking for imp

Call for important dates!!
We are looking for important dates that are related to Early Modern Women and Gender - birthdays, death dates, coronation dates, and more. All of these dates will be marked in our calendar and will be posted on our social media platforms.
Feel free to suggest names of known women (artists, writers, patrons, rulers, and more) with important dates (or without - all hail Wikipedia 😉) or other gender-related dates.

#onthisdayinhistory #earlymodernwomen #ssemwg #womenandgender #earlymodernhistory #renaissancewomen

#ReccomendedReading Women’s Labour and the Histo

#ReccomendedReading
Women’s Labour and the History of the Book in Early Modern England, edited by Valerie Wayne.

This collection reveals the valuable work that women achieved in publishing, printing, writing and reading early modern English books, from those who worked in the book trade to those who composed, selected, collected and annotated books. Women gathered rags for paper production, invested in books and oversaw the presses that printed them. Their writing and reading had an impact on their contemporaries and the developing literary canon. A focus on women's work enables these essays to recognize the various forms of labour -- textual and social as well as material and commercial -- that women of different social classes engaged in. Those considered include the very poor, the middling sort who were active in the book trade, and the elite women authors and readers who participated in literary communities. Taken together, these essays convey the impressive work that women accomplished and their frequent collaborations with others in the making, marking, and marketing of early modern English books.

The collection features chapters by Valerie Wayne, Heidi Craig, Alan B. Farmer, Sarah Neville, Erika Boeckeler, Martine van Elk, Kirk Melnikoff, Sarah Wall-Randell, Molly Yarn, Georgianna Ziegler, Elizabeth Zeman Kolkovich, Lori Humphrey Newcomb, and Helen Smith. See less

#earlymodernwomen #ssemwg

Image Credits: https://ssemwg.org/image-credit/