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CHPS Speaker Series Proposal Weijer/Matytsin 1 Thought in Practice: Information and Censorship in the Early Modern World The communal culture of scholarship shared by r eaders and thinkers of earlier times , as well as their experimental approach to books , has much to teach us today . Some of the most influential writing on the thought and culture of the premodern (pre 1800) world focuses not just on the information and ideas available to readers, but the ways in which readers dealt with the stuff of knowledge itself: the material evidence found in books, letters, and objects that they created and used to make sense of the world around them . We hope to explore the nuances of early modern knowledge and practice with a workshop series that will examine debates over censorship, authenticity, and the value of information as they played out on the pages of early modern texts . Our two speakers , Hannah Marcus and Frederic Clark, are leading scholar s on the subjects of early modern censorship and historical forgeries , and their topics have been chosen for their applicability to a wide range of disciplines . More importantl y, their work with the evidence in surviving books has allowed them to add subtlety to these areas, weighing the value of specialized knowledge against the risks it poses to general readers, or integrating forgery and misattribution as part of the process of historical criticism. Our speakers will present their recent scholarship in the fields in public talks . They will also offer small, hands on workshop sessions on a feature of early modern book culture that fascinates them and informs their scholarship. Our speakers will work with curators to select material from UF’s Special Collections for these workshop sessions, which will be open to all attendees of the talks . This pairing of events will give additional opportunities for UF faculty and graduate stu dents , and advanced undergraduates to come together around a common set of materials and discuss their own interests and insights with the larger group of experts . Participants in this series will gain new understanding of important debates in the history of information and scholar ship , while bring ing their own perspectives to these questions . More importantly, they will a lso have the opportunity for in depth conversations about the nature of research and the use of books as material evidence for the period s they study. T he interdisciplinary nature of the workshops will help foster a larger community across academic departments, and their focus on UF’s library collections will help make participants aware of local resources available for their research and teaching. In partnership with the George A. Smathers Libraries , the Department of History , and the Center for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, we hope to expand these first efforts into a yearly series of programs that focus on expanding the ways we can use eviden ce from the past . Our hope is to use the initial workshops to gauge the interest among students in the arts, literature, and area studies programs and to provide a model for partnering with additional departments to invite speakers from diverse areas and time periods in coming years.
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CHPS Speaker Series Proposal Weijer/Matytsin 2 Support from the Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere would allow us to present a more robust series of programs than our individual departments can support and to promote the talks and workshops to graduate stude nts across the humanities more broadly . This partnership would give both our proposed program and any future series the best chance of success at becoming a project that incubates new ideas across departments, and provides valuable experience and community to UF’s pre modernists throughout their time on campus. Speaker I nformation: Hannah Marcus is Assistant Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University, where she publishes on early modern views of the medicine, the environment, and a ge. She is the author of the award winning book Forbidden Knowledge: Medicine, Science and Censorship in Early Modern Italy (2020) , which will form the topic of her public talk . Her workshop will make use of the annotated and censored books in UF’s rare book collection to explore the differing views of readers towards censored information. Frederic Clark is Assi stant Professor of Classics at the University of S outhern C alifornia Dornsife, and an expert on the re use and reception of writings from classical antiquity in the Renaissance and beyond. He is the a uthor of The First Pagan Historian: The Fortunes of a Fraud from Antiquity to the Enlightenment (2020) . His workshop will focus on the ways that thinkers in antiquity and the R enaissance used the new tools of chronology and new forms of evidence to organize and critique, as well as to fabricate, the past. Audience: We anticipate an audience of faculty, graduate students , and advanced undergraduates for the lectures and the work shops. The Center for Medieval and Early Modern Studies is composed of faculty members from over half a dozen different departments across the humanities, and regularly offers undergraduate courses in a variety of areas. If necessary, we will prioritize gr aduate student participation in the workshops, since this will allow for the development of more advanced research techniques and topics. Budget: We estimate that t he series would require a budget of approximately $ 3 , 600 to cover travel expenses and a m odest honorarium for the workshop and additional lecture. Supplemental funding from the George A. Smathers Librar ies Department of Special & Area Studies collections has been added to the honorarium to cover any additional costs associated with the speakers and the workshops , and the ev ents would be hosted in the Judaica Suite of the Smathers Library . Further considerations for meals and post talk events may be undertaken in connection with the History Department.
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CHPS Speaker Series Proposal Weijer/Matytsin 3 Expense Detail Cost to Humanities Center Grant Cost to Smathers Libraries Cost to UF History Department Speaker 1 Frederic Clark Honorarium 500 250 Flight LAX to GNV (est) 7 50 Lodging 2 Nights @ $175/Night 350 Per diem Other Speaker 2 Hannah Marcus Honorarium 500 250 Flight BOS to GNV (est) 6 50 Lodging 2 nights @ $175/Night 350 Per diem Other Speaker 3 Honorarium Flight Lodging Per diem Other Vendor Services (filming, publicity design & printing) Food (speaker entertainment, event reception) TBD Total Expenses from each funding source $31 00 $ 500 Total Budget: $36 00
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