EMoDiR is an international research group focusing on the history of religious dissent and radicalism in Early Modern Europe (emodir.hypotheses.org). Since 2011, the group has organized panels at RSA annual conferences on practices and conceptual frameworks of religious conflict, heresy, and groups of radical dissents. The panels were characterized by a multiplicity of methodological and theoretical approaches. EMoDiR is now planning for the upcoming RSA conference in Philadelphia, and we invite contributions that analyze Early Modern religious history in dialogue with the newer historiographical trends, approaches that underscore the global and interconnected dimensions of the Early Modern world and the historiography about it. We are especially eager to receive proposals focusing on the theme of religious dissent in its relation to space and mobility. The vibrant field of enquiry generally known as “entangled history” has generated challenging methodological suggestions, and we hope to contribute to the mapping of the circulation of radical ideas and religious dissent, and to analyze the instability of the boundaries of faiths and cultures in an ever-changing political and religious geography. We welcome micro and macro, as well as intra-and extra-European, perspectives. We would welcome papers on a range of topics-from social analysis of concrete urban spaces to intellectual investigation of “conceptual” landscapes, as for example, in the case of Early Modern religious atlases. The analysis of borderlands and fluid spaces would be particularly welcome, whether on a global scale (including circulation of people, material objects, and ideas along maritime routes) or on a local level (border areas within cities, towns, and neighbourhoods). Among the diverse manifestations of religious dissent and non-conformity that might be mapped in relation to space and mobility we note:
– religious minorities, with reference to spatial segregation
– food regulations
– exile communities
– religious heterodoxy and social non-conformity (e.g. sexual and gender transgressions) in Early Modern cities
– religious “tourism” (travels to shrines and religiously charged locations, both for religious and cultural purposes)
We would also encourage papers exploring the new opportunities of research opened up for historians of the Early Modern period by technologies and digital humanities, especially in relation to the recent developments in Spatial Humanities and network analysis. Proposals should be submitted by June 30, 2018 by email to Stefano Villani (villani@umd.edu) and emodir@emodir.net with full name, current affiliation and email address; a paper title (15-word maximum), an abstract (150-word maximum), keywords, PhD completion date (past or expected), and a brief CV (150 words maximum).