GEMS - Group for Early Modern Studies

11/06/2026

Call for Papers Jaarboek De Achttiende Eeuw: ‘Geld en krediet: van John Law tot Greshams Law’

English version below

Geld en krediet zijn twee kanten van dezelfde medaille: vertrouwen. Maar beide zijn ook betaalmiddelen. Hoe dat in het verleden functioneerde hing af van sociale en institutionele contexten. Zo tuigde de Schotse financier John Law in Frankrijk een complex systeem op van leningen en papiergeld gedekt door goud en zilver, dat in 1720 compleet instortte toen het publieke vertrouwen wegviel. Krediet was echter geen uitzondering, maar een alledaags onderdeel van het economische verkeer. Dat blijkt bijvoorbeeld uit de uitbetaling van zeeliedenlonen, waarbij logementhouders zekerheid voor hun betaling zochten. Ook contante betalingen tussen winkeliers en klanten waren niet vanzelfsprekend, terwijl in de vroegmoderne tijd een grote verscheidenheid aan munten door elkaar circuleerde. Wat de waarde van die munten precies was en of men daarop kon vertrouwen, was geen vaststaand gegeven.

Voor het themadossier van 2027 verwelkomt de redactie van De Achttiende Eeuw bijdragen die in brede zin op het thema ‘geld en krediet’ ingaan. Onderwerpen kunnen variëren van de rol van bankiers, geldschieters en de media tot die van de overheid als producent van muntgeld en regulerend orgaan dat economische stabiliteit en vertrouwen bevorderde, toezicht hield op het economische verkeer en fraude bestreed. Bijdragen over financiële crises (zoals de Mississippibubbel of de South Seabubbel, waaraan de naam van John Law nauw verbonden blijft) en speculatiedrift zijn welkom. Te denken valt ook aan de wereldwijde verspreiding van muntgeld. Zo gold de Hollandse gulden dankzij het stabiele zilvergehalte als standaardmunt in het internationale betalingsverkeer en functioneerden Spaanse realen lange tijd als belangrijkste betaalmiddel voor Europeanen in Azië. Naast dat zilvergeld vond ook Europees kopergeld zijn weg naar Aziatische markten, wat leidde tot de monetisering van de economie. Wat leert dit ons over vroege vormen van globalisering of over de universele waarden van geld, krediet en vertrouwen? Tot slot kijkt de redactie uit naar cultuurhistorische bijdragen over economie, geld en krediet en hun weerslag in de literaire, wetenschappelijke (denk aan Adam Smith) en kunsthistorische wereld van de achttiende eeuw.

Abstracts met voorstellen voor artikelen (max. 300 woorden, met korte bio van de auteur) graag toezenden vóór 1 augustus 2026, aan gastredacteur Alberto Feenstra ([email protected]) en [email protected]. Van de geselecteerde voorstellen worden de volledige artikelen van maximaal 6.000 woorden verwacht tegen 1 februari 2027. De artikelen worden aan redactionele peer review onderworpen.

---

Money and credit are two sides of the same coin: trust. But both are also means of payment. How this functioned in the past depended on social and institutional contexts. For instance, the Scottish financier John Law set up a complex system in France of loans and paper money backed by gold and silver, which completely collapsed in 1720 when public trust fell. Credit was not an exception, but an everyday part of economic transactions. This is evident, for example, from the payment of sailors’ wages, where innkeepers sought security for their payment. Cash payments between shopkeepers and customers were also not a given, while in the early modern period a wide variety of coins circulated. What the exact value of those coins was, and whether one could trust them, was not fixed notion.

For the 2027 theme, the editors of De Achttiende Eeuw welcome contributions that broadly interact with the topic of ‘money and credit’. Topics can range from the role of bankers, lenders, and the media, to that of the government as a producer of coinage and a regulatory body that promoted economic stability and confidence, supervised economic activity, and combated fraud. Contributions regarding financial crises (such as the Mississippi Bubble or the South Sea Bubble, with which John Law remains closely associated) and speculation are welcome. Consideration should also be given to the global spread of coinage. For instance, the Dutch guilder served as the standard currency in international payments thanks to its stable silver content, and Spanish reales functioned for a long time as the primary means of payment for Europeans in Asia. In addition to this silver currency, European copper currency also found its way to Asian markets, leading to the monetisation of the economy. What does this teach us about early forms of globalisation or about the universal values ​​of money, credit, and trust? Finally, the editors look forward to cultural-historical contributions on economics, money, and credit, and their impact on the literary, scientific (think of Adam Smith), and art-historical world of the eighteenth century.

Please submit abstracts with article proposals (max. 300 words, with a brief biography of the author) before 1 August 2026 to guest editor Alberto Feenstra ([email protected]) and [email protected]. Full articles of a maximum of 6,000 words from the selected proposals are expected by 1 February 2027. The articles will be subject to editorial peer review.

04/06/2026

Double Book Presentation by Dr. Tim Vergeer and Dr. Britt Dams: Early Modern Dutch Literature in International Contexts

GEMS warmly invites you to the book presentation of two recently published volumes on early modern Dutch literature in international contexts: Spanish Drama on the Dutch Stage: Transgressive Emotions in the Seventeenth Century (Brill, 2025) by Dr. Tim Vergeer, and Dutch Brazil in the Early Modern Imaginary: From Description to Classification of Lands and Peoples, 1624-1654 (Brill, 2026) by Dr. Britt Dams.

Monday 22nd of June 2026 at 4 pm
Camelot Meeting Room (room 3.30, Blandijnberg 2, Campus Boekentoren)

---

Tim Vergeer, Spanish Drama on the Dutch Stage: Transgressive Emotions in the Seventeenth Century (Brill, 2025)

Between 1568 and 1648, the Dutch revolted against the occupying Spanish Empire. Simultaneously, Dutch theatregoers eagerly flocked to adaptations of Spanish comedia nueva. This study shows how and why plays by Lope de Vega, Calderón, and others were, paradoxically, theatrical blockbusters in the Dutch Republic and Flanders. Using techniques such as spectacle, illusion, and tableaux vivants alongside violence, in**st, and cross-dressing, the comedias were emotional whirlwinds of love, honour, and revenge. Examining historical texts and stage practices from Amsterdam, Antwerp, and Brussels, Tim Vergeer demonstrates that this vastly understudied genre offered audiences a voyeuristic escape from the emotional norms of early modern life.

Tim Vergeer, Ph.D., is a scholar of historical literature and, particularly, early modern Dutch and Spanish theatre. His expertise includes onstage emotions, colonial identities in drama, Q***r readings of plays. He also publishes widely on early modern theatrical practices. More recently, he has been exploring the feminine perspective in Dutch poetry. He is a visiting professor at Ghent University.

---

Britt Dams, Dutch Brazil in the Early Modern Imaginary: From Description to Classification of Lands and Peoples, 1624-1654 (Brill, 2026)

Between 1624 and 1654, Dutch representations of Brazil evolved from wonder-filled travel narratives to increasingly systematic forms of observation and classification. Drawing on four key texts—Nieuwe Wereldt, Iaerlijck Verhael, Rerum per Octennium in Brasilia, and Historia naturalis Brasiliae—alongside maps, West India Company records, and illustrations, this study traces the emergence of new ways of describing the colonial world. It shows how information gathered by planters, soldiers, artists, and Indigenous intermediaries shaped the classification of landscapes, plants, animals, and peoples, transforming description into a powerful tool of colonial knowledge and governance in Dutch Brazil.

Britt Dams is a literary scholar specializing in early modern, colonial, and postcolonial literature, with a particular focus on seventeenth-century Dutch Brazil. She received her PhD in Literature from Ghent University in 2015 with a dissertation entitled Comprehending the New World in the Early Modern Period: Descriptions of Dutch Brazil (1624–1654). She teaches Portuguese and French at Ghent University’s Language Centre and is affiliated with the Ghent Centre for Early Modern Studies (GEMS). She also teaches comparative literature, with a special emphasis on colonial and postcolonial studies, at Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3, where she is a member of the Institut de Recherche Intersite d’Études Culturelles (IRIEC). She has published widely on early modern travel writing, colonial discourse, and representations of Brazil in journal articles and edited volumes.

27/04/2026

Lecture by Dr Adam James Smith: “The Cannibal Taste Test: Sensual vs. Intellectual Discernment in Satire from Jonathan Swift to Britain’s Miracle Meat”

Camelot Meeting Room (Lokaal 3.30)
3rd Floor, Blandijnberg 2
Monday, May 11, 2026, 3-4 pm

This presentation examines the trope of cannibalism in satire as a means of interrogating the unstable boundary between sensual and intellectual taste. In the eighteenth century, “taste” denoted both physical gustation and aesthetic or moral discernment, a duality captured in Voltaire’s distinction between goût sensuel and goût intellectuel. It argues that cannibal satire deliberately privileges sensual taste in order to expose the fragility of intellectual judgement, revealing how easily ethical reasoning can be overridden by appetite, fashion, or pleasure. The paper begins with an analysis of A Modest Proposal (1729), showing how Swift’s speaker circumvents moral scrutiny by emphasising the supposed deliciousness of human flesh. This rhetorical strategy functions as a “taste test,” forcing readers to confront whether their responses are governed by reason or by visceral appeal. The persistence of this satiric mechanism is then demonstrated through Matt Edmonds’s 2023 mockumentary Gregg Wallace: Britain’s Miracle Meat, in which ethical objections are similarly displaced by sensuous descriptions of flavour and texture. Ultimately, the paper argues that cannibal satire cultivates a form of critical habitus, compelling audiences to rehearse discernment when confronted with seductive but ethically untenable propositions.

Dr Adam James Smith is an Associate Professor of English Literature at York St John University, where he is also co-director of the York Research Unit for the Study of Satire. His most work on satire has been published in the European Journal for Humour Research, 1650-1850 Ideas, Aesthetics and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era and the Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies, and he has written chapters on satire for Animal Satire (Palgrave), Character and Caricature, 1660-1820 (Palgrave), The Routledge Companion to Folk Horror, Rewriting Medicine: Healthcare, Literature, Culture, 1660-1831 (Cambridge), The Cambridge Companion to Eighteenth-Century Environmental Writingand The Cambridge Companion to Literary Vampires. He is co-author of the forthcoming monograph Eighteenth-Century Folk Horror: Roots, Representation and Returns (Bloomsbury) and co-editor of Impolite Periodicals: Reading Rudeness in the Eighteenth Century (Bucknell, 2026), People of Print: Eighteenth-Century England (Cambridge, 2025), People of Print: Seventeenth-Century England (Cambridge, 2023) and Print Culture, Agency and Regionality in the Handpress Period (Palgrave, 2022). He is Chief Book Reviews editor for the Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies and co-host of the ongoing monthly podcast Smith and Waugh Talk About Satire.

No registration is required for this event.
Moderated by Giulia Coppi (PhD Candidate, UGent).
If you have any questions, please contact [email protected]. We look forward to seeing you there!

06/03/2026

Photo Report: Prof. Roland Greene’s Inaugural Francqui Lecture
'Literary Studies After Universalism: A History and a Manifesto'

We would like to thank Prof. Roland Greene for his fascinating lecture this Wednesday, and everyone who attended. See the highlights in the photos below.

Greene’s lecture traced the decline of universalism: the idea that certain themes, experiences, or values in literature are common to all humans, transcending specific cultural, historical, or geographical contexts. This doctrine ruled the study of literature until about 75 years ago. Its disappearance made possible new canons of experimental, ethnic, and Indigenous writing, but left literary studies with a crisis of authority—and a diminished place in public culture—that remains the topic of countless jeremiads. After sketching a provocative history of this transformative episode in the life of a discipline, Prof. Greene offered ideas toward the rebuilding of literary criticism’s authority on a sounder basis than what it was established on—in effect, remaking its foundation with a new sense of ethics and justice.

Prof. Roland Greene is the Mark Pigott KBE Professor, Anthony P. Meier Family Professor of the Humanities, a Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Stanford University, and Director of the Stanford Humanities Center. During 2026, he will be a Francqui International Chair at Ghent University.

His research and teaching are concerned with the early modern literatures of England, Latin Europe, and the transatlantic world, and with poetry and poetics from the Renaissance to the present. His most recent book is Five Words: Critical Semantics in the Age of Shakespeare and Cervantes (Chicago, 2013). His other books include Unrequited Conquests: Love and Empire in the Colonial Americas (Chicago, 1999); and Post-Petrarchism: Origins and Innovations of the Western Lyric Sequence (Princeton, 1991). Greene is the editor with Elizabeth Fowler of The Project of Prose in Early Modern Europe and the New World (Cambridge, 1997), and he is editor in chief of the fourth edition of the Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics (2012).

In 2015-16 he served as President of the Modern Language Association. His theme for the 2016 Annual Convention in Austin, Texas was Literature and Its Publics: Past, Present, and Future. At Stanford Greene is co-chair and founder of two research workshops in which most of his Ph.D. students participate. Renaissances brings together early modernists from the Bay Area to discuss work in progress, while the Poetics Workshop provides a venue for innovative scholarship in the broad field of international and historical poetics. Greene has taught at Harvard and Oregon, where for six years he was chair of the Department of Comparative Literature. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

The Belvedere Lecture: New Perspectives in Early Modern Studies (https://www.belvederelecture.ugent.be/) is a joint initiative of various research groups at Ghent University, including the Institute for Early Modern History, the Sarton Centre for History of Science, the Group for Early Modern Studies (GEMS), the Institute for Legal History, THALIA and RELICS

Photos by Lou Braibant

06/02/2026

Belvedere Lecture 2025-2026: wednesday 4 march 2026, at 5PM
Roland Greene (Stanford University): Literary Studies After Universalism: A History and a Manifesto.

Prof. Greene’s lecture will trace the decline of universalism: the idea that certain themes, experiences, or values in literature are common to all humans, transcending specific cultural, historical, or geographical contexts. This doctrine ruled the study of literature until about 75 years ago. Its disappearance made possible new canons of experimental, ethnic, and Indigenous writing, but left literary studies with a crisis of authority—and a diminished place in public culture—that remains the topic of countless jeremiads. After sketching a provocative history of this transformative episode in the life of a discipline, Prof. Greene will offer ideas toward the rebuilding of literary criticism’s authority on a sounder basis than what it was established on—in effect, remaking its foundation with a new sense of ethics and justice.

More information on:

Home BELVEDERE LECTURE 2025-2026: wednesday, 4 march 2026, at 5PM The Belvedere Lecture is the Ghent annual lecture on early modern history and culture. It sheds light on the early modern period from a multi-disciplinary perspective. ‘Belvedere’ suggests a bird-eye view on early modern history, ...

06/02/2026

Talk by Prof. Karin Kukkonen (University of Oslo): “Riddles, Dreams and Banquets: Reimagining Literary History through Games”

The Novel Echoes research group warmly invites you to a research paper talk by Prof. Karin Kukkonen (University of Oslo): “Riddles, Dreams and Banquets: Reimagining Literary History through Games.”

Thursday 26th February at 2:30pm
Camelot (room 3.30, Blandijnberg 2, Campus Boekentoren)

Talk abstract: Early-modern writers developed an account of literary history from antiquity to the early-modern period by reimagining ancient sources in game settings. In particular, Prof. Kukkonen will discuss Madeleine de Scudéry’s use of Plutarch’s Banquet of the Seven Sages, Hesiod’s Theogeny and other early-modern translations and versions of ancient texts. Drawing on the ancients, she suggests, allowed Scudéry to write a history for the modern genre of the novel.

Prof. Kukkonen is a specialist of literature and cognitive studies, whose long-standing interest in the history of the novel has led her to bring Early-Modern poetics, narratives and literary games into dialogue with today’s cognitive approaches to literature. Her ​current project JEUX – Literary Games, Poetics and the Early-Modern Novel is funded by an ERC-Consolidator Grant and investigates how literary games facilitated novelists’ narrative innovations.

Please contact [email protected] in the case of any questions or requests for further information. We look forward to seeing you there.

04/02/2026

Call for Papers: Jaarcongres Werkgroepen Zeventiende en Achttiende Eeuw en VNVNG: Vroegmoderne Ecologieën

(English version below)

Dit jaar op 4 september organiseren de Werkgroep de Zeventiende Eeuw, de Werkgroep de Achttiende Eeuw en de VNVNG voor het eerst samen een jaarcongres, met als thema Vroegmoderne ecologieën. Het doel is de bredere vroegmoderne gemeenschap bijeen te brengen en gedachten uit te wisselen over de complexe relaties tussen mensen en niet-mensen binnen ecologische netwerken in de vroegmoderne periode (ca. 1500–1850), en de representaties daarvan.

Hoe verhielden vroegmoderne menselijke samenlevingen zich tot natuurlijke bronnen, landschappen, niet-menselijke dieren en planten? Welke ideeën bestonden er over evenwicht, duurzaamheid, verstrengeling, uitbuiting en extractie? En hoe werden deze ideeën verbeeld in literatuur, kunst, ambacht, filosofie, wetenschap, religie, recht en politiek?

Ze verwelkomen bijdragen die ecologie breed opvatten en aandacht hebben voor zowel materiële als discursieve praktijken. Zowel casestudy’s als theoretische of methodologische reflecties en voorstellen voor paneldiscussies zijn welkom. Mogelijke invalshoeken zijn:

- stedelijke en rurale ecologieën
- koloniale en globale ecologische netwerken
- klimaat(verandering) en weerservaringen
- landbouw en voedselvoorziening
- omgang met ziekte, vervuiling en afval
- relaties tussen mensen, niet-menselijke dieren en planten
- archivering en kennisproductie van de natuurlijke omgeving
- artistieke en literaire representaties van landschappen, dieren, en planten
- natuurhistorie en verzamelingen
- de rol van instituties en macht in ecologische ordeningen

Het congres staat open voor beginnende en ervaren onderzoekers uit verschillende disciplines, waaronder (maar niet beperkt tot) literatuurwetenschap, geschiedenis, kunstgeschiedenis, filosofie, digital humanities, wetenschapsgeschiedenis en erfgoedstudies. In het bijzonder moedigen ze zelfstandige onderzoekers en onderzoekers in de culturele, creatieve, museum en archiefsector aan om een abstract in te dienen. De voertaal van het congres is Nederlands, maar presentaties kunnen ook in het Engels worden gehouden.

Abstracts van ca. 300 woorden, vergezeld van een korte bio (max. 100 woorden), kunnen worden ingediend via dit formulier: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdnZhSgiGnKvwIXBTalNtSwMTFjhNqG7G9OvD9CJi4WVD3elw/viewform. De kosten voor deelname aan het congres bedragen 20 euro. De deadline voor abstracts is 1 april 2026. Wie vragen heeft kan zich richten tot een van de organisatoren: Karen Hollewand, Djoeke van Netten, Marrigje Paijmans en Marlise Rijks ([email protected]).

---

This year on the 4th of September, de Werkgroep de Zeventiende Eeuw, Werkgroep de Achttiende Eeuw and the VNVNG are organising a joint conference for the first time, focusing on Early Modern Ecologies. The goal is to bring together the broader early modern community and exchange ideas about the complex relationships between humans and nonhumans within ecological networks in the early modern period (c. 1500–1850), and their representations.

How did early modern human societies relate to natural resources, landscapes, nonhuman animals, and plants? What ideas existed about balance, sustainability, entanglement, exploitation, and extraction? And how were these ideas expressed in literature, art, crafts, philosophy, science, religion, law, and politics?

They welcome contributions that engage with ecology from a broad perspective, addressing both material and discursive practices. Case studies, theoretical or methodological reflections, and proposals for panel discussions are welcome. Possible perspectives include:

- urban and rural ecologies
- colonial and global ecological networks
- climate (change) and weather experiences
- agriculture and food supply
- interaction with disease, pollution, and waste
- relationships between humans, non-human animals, and plants
- archiving and knowledge production of the natural environment
- artistic and literary representations of landscapes, animals, and plants
- natural history and collections
- the role of institutions and power in ecological systems

The conference is open to emerging and experienced researchers from various disciplines, including (but not limited to) literary studies, history, art history, philosophy, digital humanities, history of science, and heritage studies. They especially encourage independent researchers and researchers in the cultural, creative, museum, and archival sectors to submit an abstract. The conference language is Dutch, but presentations may also be given in English.

Abstracts of approximately 300 words, accompanied by a short bio (max. 100 words), can be submitted via this form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdnZhSgiGnKvwIXBTalNtSwMTFjhNqG7G9OvD9CJi4WVD3elw/viewform. The conference fee is 20 euro. The deadline for abstracts is April 1, 2026. If you have any questions, please contact one of the organizers: Karen Hollewand, Djoeke van Netten, Marrigje Paijmans, and Marlise Rijks ([email protected]).

23/01/2026

Out soon: Dutch Brazil in the Early Modern Imaginary, a book publication of GEMS-member Britt Dams. A pioneering study into early modern literature about Dutch Brazil. Congratulations, Britt!

"Dutch Brazil in the Early Modern Imaginary" published on 26 Feb 2026 by Brill.

24/12/2025

On 15 and 16 January, we will organise an international workshop in Ghent on Cultures of Consumption 1500–1800: Products, Desire and Imagination. The workshop will feature keynote lectures by Prof. Daniel Fulda (Delights beyond Virtue: Consumer Ethics in the German Enlightenment’s Comedy) and Prof. Inger Leemans (The Sweet Smell of Desire: How the Dutch Created an Affective Economy for Fragrance Consumption). The workshop is part of the FWO research project ‘Displays of Desire’ (https://venstersvanverlangen.ugent.be) at UGent and ULB, and is organised in cooperation with Thalia and GEMS.

There are still a few places available for colleagues who would like to participate in the discussions. If you are interested, please register by 9 January by sending an email to
[email protected] or [email protected]

More information:

https://aogthalia.wordpress.com/2025/12/24/program-international-workshop/

CULTURES OF CONSUMPTION 1500-1800: PRODUCTS, DESIRE AND IMAGINATION GHENT – 15-16 JANUARY  Conference room Simon Stevin, Jozef Plateaustraat 22. Markt op het Buitenhof. Anoniem, naar een teken…

21/12/2025

Job alert! Vacancy for BOF professorship at UGent in Latin Literature (medieval & early modern period).

Professor in Latin literature (BOF)