Early Modern Studies at the University of King's College

Early Modern Studies at the University of King's College Early Modern Studies Program at the University of King's College, Halifax, Nova Scotia

✨ New Take on EMSP 2001 & 2002!Representations of the Self in Art, Literature, and ThoughtFrom the Renaissance to Romant...
03/18/2026

✨ New Take on EMSP 2001 & 2002!
Representations of the Self in Art, Literature, and Thought

From the Renaissance to Romanticism, this course explores how the modern idea of the “self” was invented and visualized across the world.

-When did the “self” become something you could see, shape, and represent?

-Is the self something you have… or something you make?

-How do letters, novels, and portraits shape self-knowledge?

-What happens to the self in moments of cultural encounter?

📅 Mondays & Wednesdays | 10:00–11:30
📆 2026/27 Fall & Winter (take one semester or both!)

Topics include:
The rise of the individual artist
Portraits, self-portraits, and identity-making
Shakespeare, Descartes, Montaigne
Women artists reclaiming their stories
The Enlightenment, emotion, and the politics of selfhood
Colonialism, race, and the construction of the “other”

🌍 Beyond Europe:
Mughal imperial identity
Chinese literati painting & poetry
Samurai ethics in Edo Japan
Casta paintings in colonial Latin America

Join us!

The 14th Annual Conference of the Early Modern kicks off tomorrow evening! Join us at 7pm in the KTS lecture Friday even...
01/29/2026

The 14th Annual Conference of the Early Modern kicks off tomorrow evening! Join us at 7pm in the KTS lecture Friday evening for a fascinating keynote lecture by art historian Angela Vanhaelen on "The Secrets of the Black Commentator". On Saturday we have an entire day of phenomenal student presentations as well as a talk by King's alumni Mirren Trevors on early modern bookbinding practices!

Join us!

As part of the EMSS conference, King's alumni Mirren Trevor will be giving a presentation next Saturday, Jan 31st on ear...
01/22/2026

As part of the EMSS conference, King's alumni Mirren Trevor will be giving a presentation next Saturday, Jan 31st on early modern book binding practices. Mirren is currently a Master of Art Conservation student at Queen's University and a bookbinding pro! Don't miss this fascinating and unique presentation!

Join us next Friday, January 30th at 7pm as we kick off the annual EMSS conference with a keynote lecture by McGill Prof...
01/22/2026

Join us next Friday, January 30th at 7pm as we kick off the annual EMSS conference with a keynote lecture by McGill Professor Angela Vanhaelen entitled "The Secrets of the Black Commentator'. Not to be missed!

Abstract: Painted figures who gesture and stare out at the viewer play a communicative role in early modern European art. According to Leon Battista Alberti, the interlocutor figure “tells the spectator what is going on” while also pointing out secrets that the picture does not fully disclose. In this way, the commentator indicates how art both conveys and withholds information. Starting from European depictions of the Three Magi and moving to seventeenth-century Dutch portraits and domestic scenes, my paper considers imagery that racializes the commentator figure. Surveying the pictorial conventions used to depict the faces of Black characters, I assess what type of information was being publicized and what type of information was being suppressed.

Angela Vanhaelen is Professor of Art History at McGill University. She is the author of Opacity: Blackness and the Art of the Dutch Republic; The Moving Statues of Seventeenth-Century Amsterdam: Automata, Waxworks, Fountains, and Labyrinths; and The Wake of Iconoclasm: Painting the Church in the Dutch Republic, all published by Penn State University Press.

Submissions for the Conference of the Early Modern are due January 18th! This is an excellent opportunity to share your ...
01/16/2026

Submissions for the Conference of the Early Modern are due January 18th! This is an excellent opportunity to share your ideas, practice your public speaking skills, and would be an impressive line to add to your CV!

Your submission does not have to be a paper, it could be a creative work of art, class presentation, or (if you've taken courses with Prof Spencer before), a virtual exhibition.

We have a fantastic lineup of keynote & alumni speakers this year. Our keynote will be Professor & art historian Angela Vanhaelen from McGill University whose talk is titled "Public Secrets: The Black Commentator in 17th C Dutch paintings". Our alumni speaker will be Mirren Trevors, who is currently pursuing an MA degree at Queen's University in conservation studies.

Be sure to pitch your submission and join us January 30th & 31st!

Wishing all of our students the best of luck with your final projects and exams! 📚 Image: Rogier van der Weyden, 'The Ma...
12/12/2025

Wishing all of our students the best of luck with your final projects and exams! 📚

Image: Rogier van der Weyden, 'The Magdalen Reading', 1435-38. Oil on panel, National Gallery London.

Join us next Thursday, Dec. 11th to celebrate the launch of Professor Kow's latest book! Faculty & students welcome! 1:3...
12/05/2025

Join us next Thursday, Dec. 11th to celebrate the launch of Professor Kow's latest book! Faculty & students welcome! 1:30pm in the Senior Common Room. Light lunch will be served 🎉

A big thank you to those of you who braved the rain and attended the Florence Field Course info session yesterday! If yo...
11/27/2025

A big thank you to those of you who braved the rain and attended the Florence Field Course info session yesterday! If you could not attend but would like to be added to the communications list, please email Prof Justina Spencer: [email protected]

Come get all your questions answered! And pizza 🍕!
11/24/2025

Come get all your questions answered! And pizza 🍕!

Head to the link in our bio for full details about EMSP 2510 "Early Modern Art, Literature, and Politics in Florence Ita...
10/02/2025

Head to the link in our bio for full details about EMSP 2510 "Early Modern Art, Literature, and Politics in Florence Italy", including accommodations, cost, and deadlines!

And mark your calendars for the Information Session on November 26th at 4pm in the Wilson Common Room!

Ever dreamt of studying abroad in Italy? Spend a month living and learning in the heart of Florence while earning 6-credit hours in this immersive residency course. Florence will become your classroom as you step inside its town halls, churches, palaces and museums to explore the art, literature, philosophy and politics of Renaissance Italy (1280–1580). This is not a course confined to textbooks. Each day, you'll encounter masterpieces and ideas on-site, experiencing the spaces where civic life unfolded, where faith shaped daily existence and where groundbreaking art and thought transformed Europe. You’ll also have time to savour Florence as a living city: sipping espresso in sunlit piazzas, exploring markets, crossing the Ponte Vecchio and yes, eating plenty of gelato!

This course is open to all King's & Dal students, including those enrolled in the Foundation Year Program.

For further information, please contact Prof. Justina Spencer: [email protected]

It's happening! For four unforgettable weeks, you’ll study the Renaissance where it actually happened — in the churches,...
09/16/2025

It's happening!

For four unforgettable weeks, you’ll study the Renaissance where it actually happened — in the churches, museums, and piazzas of Italy’s most beautiful city.

👀 Imagine standing in front of Michelangelo’s David, climbing Brunelleschi’s dome, walking through the Uffizi Gallery to see Botticelli’s Birth of Venus.

📚 This 6-hour-credit interdisciplinary course covers the rise of perspective in painting, the power struggles of the Medici family, the sacred spaces of monastic life, and the philosophical revolutions of thinkers like Machiavelli and Galileo.

☕ And beyond academics? Gelato, espresso, and sunsets over the Arno.

Join us. May 4–31, 2026. Florence awaits. 🇮🇹

**Information session: November 26th @ 4pm in the Wilson Common Room at the University of King's College.

Questions?: [email protected]

Address

6350 Coburg Road
Halifax, NS
B3H2A1

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