am so very pleased to introduce this booklet in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Early events
Modern Studies Program. It is my honour to be acting as Director of the EMSP yet again—chosen amongst the countless faculty members teaching in the program who were vying for this exalted position! I’m not being serious, of course: the program’s faculty complement, like its honours cohort, is relatively small. But its compact size is, as many of our alumni and current students attest to here, a chief strength: it punches, and puns, above its weight. The power of Early Modern Studies lies events
also in the redoubtable Early Modern Studies Society, now organizing its 13th annual Conference of the Early Modern and other student events, and continuing to publish the EMSS journal Babel (a name I suggested instead of The Egg, which I consider my single greatest contribution to the student life oftheprogram).
Wehavebeenfortunatetoattract someofthebravest,brightest,andmost creative students at King’s, who have been willing to take the plunge into the Miltonic abyss of an integrated, interdisciplinary humanities program whose main parameters are the alwayscontested temporal marker posts of the haevente
early modern period. Our curriculum reflects the multifaceted interests of our students—who are, after all, the beating heart (or in Gallifreyan and Robespierrian terms, hearts) of the program. The students have challenged us to makeconnections,temporalandspatial, between past and present and between nnnnnnn
early modern Europe and the wider world, as well as to consider questions of gender, race, and empire from interdisciplinary perspectives, and have made the program all the better for it: the adventurecontinues!
And so it is the eloquent, heartfelt, and sometimes hilarious thoughts, reflections, and experiences of the EMSP students over its quartercentury thus far that are the substance (to speak metaphysically) of this booklet, nnnn, nnnnnnn theideaforwhichwassuggestedbythe EMSP’s founding architect, Dr. Neil Robertson. One of the distinct pleasures I’ve had as Director while this booklet was being compiled was reconnecting with many of our wonderful alumni over the past 25 years, as well as with past faculty—notably, Dr. Jannette Vusich, who did so much in pioneering the art history curriculum and Florence studyabroad course which are integral to the program. My thanks go to colleagues within and without the EMSP, King’s nnnnnnn
administration who have supported the program over the years (including the Registrar’s and Advancement Offices) andtheEMSP’smanysupportivefriends at Dalhousie, some of whom are fitly praised by alumni. Special thanks must go to Sharon Brown, who has kept the EMSP and the other combined honours nnnnn
programs running with patience, humour, and never-failing efficiency— and who suggested to me over a decade ago the crazy idea of offering a course on pirates—and to Erin Inglis, whose tireless work, creativity, and eye for design produced the stylish booklet you are reading now. Finally, our gratitude goes to all of you who contributed.Enjoy!
SimonKow EarlyModernStudiesProgram
events Modern Studies Programme. The previous year the Planning and Priorities Committee (chaired by Professor Wayne Hankey) had under the encouragement of the President of the University (President Colin Starnes) come to the wise determination that after the successful launching of the Contemporary Studies Program, a new program should be established that moved to the chronologically prior period of the beginnings of the Modern World. At first it wasn’t even clear what to call this program or exactly what its nnnnnn
coverage should be. There were thoughts that we should also be consideringaMedievalStudiesProgram, but it was agreed that this was really covered by the rather expansive purview oftheDalhousieClassicsDepartment.At any rate it was determined that an Early Modern Studies Program was a good idea and that I was put into this world to trytobetowhatDr.SlopwastoTristram Shandy. And with just as much preparationforthetask.
My task was initially to design the program and write up all the documents necessary for approval both within King’s and Dalhousie. The fact of the Contemporary Studies Program greatly assisted this. But I was a rather nnnnnn
junior Faculty member, having only been given a professorial appointment the previous year. So I very much relied on both the work that had gone into CSP by Ken Kierans and the support of thevariousfiguresintheadministration, aboveallAngusJohnston,theUniversity Vice-President,toseeitthrough.
OneofthethingsIhadtodowasto convince Dalhousie that it wanted this to happen. Crucial to that was having Steven Burns of the Dalhousie Philosophy Department (but also connectedtoCSP)beaforceforhelping nnnn
universities. Just like CSP, EMSP was envisaged as a way to help retain many of those wonderful students on the DalKing’s campus. Something I believe the programhasverymuchdelivered. Inthemid-1990s,King’swasfeeling fairly prosperous and the program envisionedhiringDalhousieFacultywith expertise in the Early Modern period to be fully cross-appointed to EMSP, and indeed this came to pass for a number of years with such people as Jack Crowley,RonHuebert,NicoleTrevesand Nathan Brett. The sense of EMSP was nnnnnn
bring support from Dalhousie to this unlikely venture. The world was very different in those days. The Foundation Year Program seemed to grow from year to year, bringing not only more students and indeed some of the best students to be educated by both nnnnnn
that it could be not just an addition to what King’s offered its own students, but a kind of centre for the various and rich company of early modernists from both Dal and King’s to share together scholarship and teaching. And of course, even as there may not be the same level of financial resources available, EMSP continues to have that vitalrole.
ThebasicstructureofEMSPwithits combination of core classes and electives was borrowed from CSP, but the content of those core classes was altered to make the modern “self” the entrance way to then explore what was distinctive in nature and human social nnnnnn
and political thought in the early modernperiod.Thisthree-partlogichad as a kind of culmination the option, as alternative to a demanding Honours Thesis, of a Course in Aesthetic Theory that I taught on an overload basis for 10 years, as well as teaching the first of the threecoreclasses.
Once all the approvals had been approved and all the agreements agreed to—which took 3 years—we began EMSP in 1999 with just the first core class, EMSP 2000: Structures of the Modern Self and a couple of electives from a few King’s and Dalhousie faculty members brave enough to give this a go. We knew from the beginning that nnnn EMSP would not have the same basis of popularity as the Contemporary Studies program, that it would be an acquired taste. However, students did come and the University was wonderfully constant in its support for EMSP. We had opened the EMSP doors.
In that first year, we were already hiring our first full EMSP professorial appointment (I was actually still partly a Foundation Year Program nnnn nnnn
professor who was being borrowed in part to be the Director of EMSP). Our first full appointment was to teach the third-year core class on Science and Nature in the Early Modern period. We were very lucky to interview a former FYP and King’s (originally Journalism) student, Kathryn Morris, who was doing fascinating work on Thomas Hobbes on Mathematics at McGill University. So nowwereallywerereal.
In fact one student, Mike Sampson, now a distinguished professor of Classics at the University of Manitoba, joined us in 1999 in his third year and by a few wriggles with the regulations we were able to have him successfully
graduate the next year before we even had our fourth-year core class as our very first graduate. One of those wriggles involved Kathryn Morris doing a reading class with Mike Sampson on Thomas Hobbes’s Latin works read in Latin.
Thomas Hobbes. So, in terms of our fulltime faculty, we were really the Thomas Hobbes Studies Program. Simon also brought an unfortunate and disturbing tendency for cruel and unusual punishment. Which, as one can learn fromJRRTolkien,isallonewouldexpect ofaHobbist.
But of course, to graduate our first crop of students properly we needed to appoint someone to teach the final core class in Early Modern social and political thought. We were once again graced with great good fortune in the appointment of Simon Kow, who came to us from the University of Toronto, where he too was working (in part) on nnnn As the Aristotelians would have it, EMSP had moved from potentiality to actuality. Kathryn Morris took up the rein of directing EMSP and the rest is history. And what a wondrous history there has been in the Early Modern Studies Program. But I must say that coming to a full quarter-century of its continuing life of fellowship, scholarship and now pirate ships, I can only feel a deep sense of gratitude to the faculty and students, alumni and administrators who have turned some vague thoughts and nervous aspirations into a vital and wonderful community of memory and hope, focused nnnnn
There are many more chapters in the story of the Early Modern Studies Program. But with the hiring of Simon Kow, this little program had been fully launched. That first graduating class of students was able to meet all the prerequisites (which in those ancient days included a language requirement). nnn
on the task of reflecting on the coming to be of that strange moment of human existence called the modern world. In EMSP, we seek to explore the Early Modern in its glories and its horrors, its libertyanditslicence.
But, before I finish this little history, one person needs a special mention. While Directors come and go and faculty occasionally disappear on sabbaticals or wander off to teach elsewhere or direct other programs, and students perversely insist on graduating nnnn
and having lives of their own, one person has been the stable presence who has from its beginning supported and sustained EMSP and that is Sharon Brown(andshedoesthatwhilejuggling two other (almost as wonderful) programs). Her kindness, care and sheer competence has been the sine qua non ofEMSP.
Let’s all look forward to another twenty-five years of exploring the Early ModernWorld.
THE ARTWORKS THAT SPARKED OUR PASSION
Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith and Her Maidservant
“I love how this painting shows a distinct moment in time. The way Judith's hand rests on her maid's shoulder lightly gives the impression that she has just heard something as they sneak from the camp with Holofernes head, and they are pausing to make sure it is safe. Gentileschi conveys so well the way women have always kept each other safe”
Rembrandt, Aristotle Contemplating the Bust of Homer
“The painting brings out a sense that there is a gathering up of the Classical World into Modern Inwardness. It displays even in the ancient world that Greek Philosophy is a reflection on the beautiful poetic world that preceded it and in the medallion of Alexander the Great that this issues in practical life made present in the Hellenistic world. In short it shows the modern not as opposed to and leaving behind the ancient but as its proper result and fulfillment”
Shiba Kokan, A Meeting of Japan, China, and the West
“It encapsulates my longstanding research on cross-cultural encounters in the Enlightenment period in both content and form (as it combines western and Japanese painting techniques and genres). It's also quite weird, which I like”
Benvenuto Cellini, Perseus with the Head of Medusa
“There are many compelling aspects of the piece, but its overall effect to me is a striking tension between its material rigidity and its dynamic form which seems to resist any ossification into something static or inert. Cellini seemed to identify life with perpetual change, and was never content himself to sit in any one station or role”
The Art of Global Encounters
Students of Dr. Justina Spencer's class, The Art of Global Encounters in the Early Modern Period, set about disentangling the ramifications of early modern globalization on the cultural heritage of indigenous cultures. The exhibition the class curated reflects its dynamic group discussions concerning relationships, language, confrontations, and aesthetic exchange in the context of encounters during the global renaissance. You can view the virtual exhibitionusingtheQRcode!
Titian, Portrait of Isabella d’Este
“I like this portrait because her opulent dress, stern gaze and strong posture really highlight the powerful role she played as a prolific female patron of the arts in early modern Italy! It’s also cool because she was in her sixties when she sat for it, but specifically instructed Titian to paint her like she’s in her twenties (early modern catfishing)”
Albrecht Dürer, Rhinoceros
“I find Dürer's woodcuts, drawings, and watercolours of animals fascinating, perhaps due to what Heidegger called the ‘animality’ in them, but also because of the speculative nature of Dürer's endeavour in many cases”
HOKUSAI’S THE GREAT WAVE OFF KANAGAWA
INGRES’S ODALISQUE WITH SLAVE
John O'Brien, BA (Hons) ’11
REMEMBERING EARLY MODERN STUDIES
hen I decided to make Early Modern Studies my primary focus, I didn't know that I was making one of the nnnnn best decisions of my life. I probably wasn’t thinking very far ahead. I’d spent most of my time in Foundation Year being overawed (and at times, overwhelmed) by the entire King's experience. Dashing from lectures to tutorials. Sweating deadlines on essays. Roaming aimlessly around the combined Kings/Dalhousie campus, trying to figure out where the hell I was. It was a lot to take in. But it was great. I was 18 years old. For the first time in my life, I felt like a nnnnnn
real adult. For the only time in my life, I felt like anything was possible. And best of all, I felt like a member of the best club in the world.
But, of course, that didn't mean it was all smooth sailing. In all honesty, before I came to King’s, my awareness of major philosophers came mostly from Monty Python. There were parts of FYP I struggled with very hard. And then, when we came to the 17th and 18th centuries, something clicked. I don’t remember the lecture that did it, but I remember the way I felt. A light switched on. A missing puzzle piece fell into place. Whatever metaphor works best, it happened.
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The Age of Enlightenment drew me in like nothing else we had covered so far. It was the first time I fell in love with ideas. There was no other option. It had to be Early Modern Studies. “But, why”, you ask? Because compared to earlier generations of philosophers, the Enlightenment thinkers represent a quantum leap in theorizing, and in qualityofthought.
What made the Early Modern thinkers different than those who came before them? In simple terms, their world was bigger. Better ships made it nnnnn
were mavericks who questioned the worldaroundthem.
Weshouldn'tlionizethem,butwe possible to travel to the Americas and circumnavigate the globe. Better telescopes cracked open the wonders of the night sky. Better microscopes revealed microbes and bacteria for the first time; an entire universe could be seen inapuddle.
I think about what I learned in EMSP a lot, about the origins of so many ideas that are so easy to take for granted. Many of the people I studied were very much men of their time. Case in point:
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almost all of the figures we discussed in EMSP WERE men. They were shackled by the limitations and prejudices of the timestheylivedin.Butmytakeawayhas always been that, despite these limitations, they were (in their different ways) brilliant. Transcendent, even. They nnnn
from EMSP. And when I feel myself being beaten down by the many calcified forms of superstition, irrationality, and partisanship in the world, it's what gives me hope and strength. And, all these years later, it still does.
Lindsay Reid, BA (Hons) ‘03
n the summer of 2000, I had just finished the Foundation Year Program at King’s. Dismayed that nnnnnn my first year of university had passed so quickly, I found myself pondering next steps. Antiquity had always captivated me, so Classics seemed like a natural choice—but other burgeoning interests were also pulling my attention. I had developed a fascination with German, and my love of literature also made English seem like an equally compelling option. To complicate matters further, I’d read a persuasive description of the brand-new Early Modern Studies Program, which was just coming into nnnnn
being. I resolved to hedge my bets by signing up for a carefully curated mix of classes that would leave my options relatively open: a second-year survey course required for English majors, a German language class, a Latin class, a historyoption,andthecoresecond-year EMSPoffering.
I don’t recall ever consciously deciding that I would continue all the way through with EMSP: it simply becameagivenassoonasIstartedthat first class on “Structures of the Modern Self” with Neil Robertson. I loved everything about the program. It wasn’t just the interdisciplinary approach or the focus on primary texts, though nnnnn
those were certainly important factors. What stood out to me most was the way that the undergraduate students in EMSP were encouraged to see themselves as individuals with distinct areas of interest and emerging areas of academicspecialism.
Theatmosphereinthoseearly years of EMSP was overwhelmingly collegial. One of my most vivid memories is our creation of Babel in the 2001-2002 academic year. The first editorial team took inspiration from the existing Classics journal PseudoDionysius. We obtained a— possibly bootleg?—copy of QuarkXPress and sample copies of Pseudo-Dionysius files from Classics MA student (and, I believe, EMSP’s first graduate) Mike Sampson,whoalsoobliginglygave us a crash course in desktop publishing. I can remember the editorial team gathering in my apartment on Coburg Road— chosen for its proximity to the university—for a weekend marathon in the spring of 2002 to pull the issue together. Fergus O’Connor, that year’s Editor-inChief,insistedonmakingeveryone nnnn
scrambled eggs for breakfast before we settled down to business, and I’m pretty sure that the weekend ended with celebratory beer and pizza, along with the finished files for the inaugural issue nnnnnnnn
of Babel. The following year, I had the privilege of serving as Babel’s second Editor-in-Chief.
The academic interests I began to explore as an undergraduate at King’s have shaped the entirety of my
Classics, I took a somewhat circuitous route, moving from an MA in Comparative Literature to a PhD in English. Today, I’m an academic in the nnnnn
School of English, Media, and Creative Arts at the University of Galway in Ireland. Throughout this scholarly journey, I have always identified first and foremost as an early modernist, and my research continues to primarily focus on classical reception in sixteenth-century literature and culture—a topic not so far
wrote at King’s. For me, things came full circle in 2021, when I had the pleasure of delivering a lecture based on my second book, Shakespeare’s Ovid and the Spectre of the Medieval, for EMSP’s annual student conference. As a proud graduate of the program, I am delighted that we are celebrating EMSP’s twentyfifth anniversary, and I wish the program continuedsuccessintheyearstocome!
when we hosted the first Conference. There was a nnnnnn snowstorm. Everything was a mess. Neil phonedtosaythatDr.BruceGordonwho was coming from Yale to give the keynote address was not able to make nnnnnnnnn
talk they had already prepared on Shakespeare—which for some reason did not happen, but which I still remember with great fondness and admiration for their kindness and willingness to step into the breach. We nnnnnn
Will Barton, BA (Hons) ‘13
got through the conference proceedings thanks to the goodwill of the many volunteers, faculty moderators, student participants, and generous supporters who were on board. And Neil Robertson's wise counsel and steady hand. And Tom Curran's good humour. I think I saw some people having lively conversations—one or two may even have enjoyed themselves. Or at least the snacks provided by the then-Sodexo catering crew (thanks Celine Beland, Judith,Liz,etal!).Attheend,therewasa fantastic meal for participants and moderators at the old Saege restaurant on Spring Garden Rd, followed by a performance of the Arcadian Duets in the King's Chapel. I arrived at the nnnnnnn
Chapel with just enough time and just sober enough to introduce the musicians (the very patient and sober Andrew Pickett, Dawn Bailey, Garth MacPhee, and Hilary Brown). President Cooper graciously hosted an open wine and cheese in the President's Lodge following the concert. Following the wine and cheese, those EMSPers and friends who had helped organize the conference (and were still standing) retired to my rooms on Lemarchant St, trudging through heavy and still-falling snow with what was left of the conference provisions. Wine, cheese, cigars, more wine, and increasingly dense conversation were had into the wee morning hours. Clouds of smoke. Somebody reading some-thing philosophical (not early modern) aloud in German. First kiss with the girl who is now my wife. The old days, good, bad, andugly.
he world is full of Negative Nellies, Debbie Downers, and Insufferable Iggies, who will hear about a nnnnnn program like EMSP and say “but what is that for?”. Probably the best thing to do when encountering one of these people is just walk away. But, if I am ever asked by such a person to reflect on what EMSP has meant to me or defend what it has done for me, I confidently assert thatEMSPgavemeaperspectiveonthe world that I would not have had otherwise. The program helped me tap into an ability to understand complex ideas (ahem, I’m looking at you, René Descartes). The program helped me expresswhatImeantosaywhenwriting orspeaking,skillsthatIrelyoneveryday inmywork.Theprogramgiftedmewith an appreciation for some of the world’s nnnnnnnnn
most astonishingly beautiful pieces of art—works that continue to be a source of inspiration in my life. The drama, literature, music, paintings and sculptures of the early modern period are works that I return to; each encounter with these artworks makes me believe in the capacity of humans to make good things. At a time when the contemporary world often falls short of my expectations, looking back at the early modern world helps me maintain optimism instead of spiralling into pessimism.
I had the pleasure of being an alumni speaker at the EMSS Conference in 2016, where I delivered a paper called “Misquotation and Meme: The Commonplacing of Shakespeare on Pinterest and Tumblr.” In the talk, I considered how Shakespeare’s writing is nnnnnnnn
Yolana Wassersug, BA (Hons) ‘08
shared on social media platforms, especially considering examples of Shakespeare memes that misquote the playwright. The talk presented theories about how these memes originate and why they were so widely circulated through the 2010s. The talk also compared the presentation of memes on contemporary social media sites with the emblems that were printed in early
modern commonplace books through the 16th and 17th centuries. On the occasion of EMSP’s 25th anniversary, I want to express my gratitude to the EMSS for inviting me to share this deeply silly talk. For your enjoyment, I’ve submitted several of my favourite Shakespeare mis-quote memes for this anniversarybooklet.
LIVE, LAUGH, LOVE.
Sarah Toye, MA, MFA ‘15
captured many treasures in the new EMSP piracy class. It changed the trajectoryofmyentirelife:
nnnnnn I went on to write on the history of piracy for my honours, MA, & MFA theses, presented at domestic and international conferences, published and lectured. I was even given the honour of being the Alumni Lecturer at one of the EMSP student conferences, which was a very special moment for measaformerco-presidentoftheEarly Modern Studies Society. The class also introduced me to two people who I consider to be the most important and influential mentors in my academic career, shortlived as it may have been. I met Dr. Jerry Bannister, a Dalhousie nnnnnnnnn
historian of Atlantic Canada, when he guestlecturedinthatpiracyclass.Afew years later, he was my undergraduate honours and MA thesis advisor—he was stuck with me for three years straight. He always knew when to ground me with desperately-needed guidance and commonsense,andwhentoencourage metoexperimentwithmymoreunconventional ideas. I am a better writer, historian, researcher and person for working with him. I have been the TA and/or guest lecturer for Dr. Kow’s piracy class nearly every year for almost a decade. The respect and support Dr. Kow showed me while I was an uncertain young grad student did more than I can say to build up my selfconfidence as an academic, but also as nnnnnn
someone trying to figure out what it meant to be an adult. Dr. Bannister and Dr. Kow both considered me an expert in my field before I had the courage to dosomyself.
I will be giving my flagship lecture, “Female Pirates in Popular Culture”, again in just a few short months. It is something that I look forward to every winter, and at the beginning of each lecture, I tell the students (who nnnnnnn
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it touches everything you could imagine. It exists in every era and in every geographic location where there are people near large bodies of water. It will continue to evolve, ever-present yet alwaysevadingatidydefinition,theway Golden Age pirates evaded capture in their quick little sloops. In the past decades, we’ve seen the rise of air, radio and digital piracy, and I predict a near futurewithspacepirates. somehow seem to look younger every year?) that I got to take that class the very first year it existed and no class has ever been so near and dear to my heart. All I can hope for is that it will resonate with them like it did with me. Even though I have mostly left the academic world behind, piracy still looms large in my life through books, art, home decor, rambling conversations at parties (it’s a great icebreaker), tattoos and even my cat, Revenge, who is nearly nnnn
as much of a troublemaker as the scallywags who inspired his name. Pirates have become such a foundational aspect of my identity that I truly don’t know who I would be withoutthem.
OneofthereasonsthatIwillnever tire of the history of piracy is that while itmayappearatfirsttobeanunserious, niche topic, once you dig a little deeper, nnnn
Through studying the history of piracy I have grappled with ideas of gender, sexuality, language, nationstates, criminality, class, justice, colonialism, industrialism, political dissent, revolution, race, propaganda, popularculture—Icouldgoonandon.It forced me to learn how to hold multiple truths in my mind at once, and has been an internal study of empathy, nnnnnnnnn
morality and radicalization. The mental gymnastics I have performed to try and wrap my mind around the idea of piracy has made me a more intellectually curious and nuanced critical thinker, abletoseemoreclearlythecomplexities our modern world has inherited and perpetuates.
showedupdressedlikeapirate.
AndifIcouldleaveyouwithjustone pirate fact to break out at parties, it would be this: walking the plank and burying treasure are literary tropes created by Robert Louis Stevenson in his justifiably iconic 1883 novel, Treasure Island. In the words of author George MacDonaldFraser,“walkingtheplankisa Victorian fiction, and I will not have it on myship!”
Evany Rosen, BA (Hons) ‘10
s a television writer turned showrunner, I occasionally get asked how I got to be where I am and what I did nnnnnn
Inshort,IamanEMSPsuccessstory. Thisisthegifttheprogramwasdesigned togive;Iwasjustluckyenoughthatmine to get there. I start with the answer I think they’re expecting—I was part of a sketch troupe in Halifax called Picnicface, which eventually led to a television show in my early 20s. Then I nnnnn
moved to Toronto and started writing in animation, which led to live action comedies. Finally, in 2019, I got to make my first series as a creator/showrunner alongside my best friend, which was called New Eden. While this somewhat selective resume is usually enough to satisfy, every once in a while someone probes further, “But what did you study? nnnn
Did you go to film school?” “Ah,” I smile sagely, “I actually have a combined honours degree in Early Modern Studies and History from the University of King’s College.”AtwhichpointIusuallyholdfor applause,orwaitfortheinevitablefollow up question: “Wow! … what’s early modern studies?” And that's when the real fun begins (for me—the interviewer usually starts to glaze with regret sometime between Locke and nnnnnnnn
submitted was, quote, “about 30 pages too short and literally brimming with typos”), when I got asked to write that book of humour essays in 2017 I knew exactly where to look for inspiration. Backwards. To my old friends in the glorious Age of Reason, and to the occasionally unreasonable things they got up to. And though my success in television is usually why random people are asking me how I got to where I am nnn
Foronething,ithasmademe a much better writer—and a far more humble one—as writing and rewritingmyEMSPhonoursthesis remains the most difficult thing I’ve ever done (including writing nnnn
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proudest achievement (other than actually managing to graduate, of course). It was my love letter to King's and the wonderful professors I had there, who taught me so many interesting things that even if I only retained a third it was still enough to fill an entire book. I am forever and most happilyintheirdebt.nnnnnn Rousseau). “But the truth is,” I tell them finally meandering past the Categorical Imperative to some kind of point, “though you wouldn’t think I’d use my degree that often in my career as a comedy writer, I actually wouldn’t bewhereIamtodaywithoutit.”
an entire book, which I’ll get to). Secondly, it’s opened up a world of storiesandideasthatImightneverhave known to explore in my work on screen. LikearecentpilotcalledSexwithKingsI got commissioned to write about the history of royal mistresses in the Enlightenment (who knew? I did, apparently. Thank you EMSP). And while I wasn’t necessarily the program’s most apt scholar (again, I had to rewrite my thesis because the first version I nnnnnnn
THE TEXTS THAT RESONATED WITH US MOST
Michel de Montaigne, An Apology for Raymond Sebond
“Through the lens of a response to Sebond, Montagne weaves together a politics of negative theology and epistemic humility that is probably the best reflection of my personal worldview. Be like Montagne and play with your cat (or let your cat play with you) and be honest with yourself about the limits of human reason”
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Reveries of the Solitary Walker
“I think of him walking through a field of flowers while simmering in paranoia about his potential enemies. I think of him claiming that no one in the world loved children as much as he, a father who left all his children at the orphanage, did”
John Milton, Paradise Lost
“I love Milton's poetry, I love his antimonarchical bent, I love how he justifies my own belief in not swearing an oath to a worldly power”
William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
“I die with laughter through every scene with the rude mechanicals, and it's such a relief to know that life and art are so irrevocably intertwined. Thank god we aren't just sensing matter!”
Voltaire, Candide
René Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy
“Descartes was my gateway drug. It was reading him in FYP that got me interested in philosophy in a deeper way, maybe because his radical skepticism seemed so thoroughly contemporary (or maybe because it's inherently enticing to an 18-year-old's brain)”
“I fell in love with Leonard Bernstein’s adaptation of the story before coming to King’s, but studying it in EMSP really opened my eyes to just how multi-faceted Voltaire’s satire really is. It’s definitely one of the more depressing and existential texts we read, but his use of humour makes everything a little easier to swallow”
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S HAMLET
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE’S ESSAYS GOETHE’S THE SORROWS OF YOUNG WERTHER
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI’S THE PRINCE
MIGUEL DE CERVANTES’S DON QUIXOTE
THOMAS MARLOWE’S DOCTOR FAUSTUS
“I've always liked teaching Machiavelli's The Prince
The text has a certain reputation and I think reading it closely shows a major shift not only in political but in moral thinking during the early modern period”
-MARK BURKE
“Wu Cheng'en's Journey to the West is a favourite with many students, since the story of the Monkey King is utterly fun and readable—nonsense and satire both concealing and revealing its deep roots in Confucian, Daoist, and Chan Buddhist traditions while always ready to make fun of those traditions and itself”
-SIMON KOW
John Milton's Paradise Lost is my favourite piece of literature from the period, both to read and to teach. The complexity of Milton's vision, and the elegance of its construction, make it a fascinating poem to look at from so many different vantage points.
-CHRIS RICE
“A tie between Montaigne's Essays and Spinoza's Ethics”
-LAURA PENNY
“I love to teach Giorgio Vasari's ‘Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects’ (1550 & 1568). A great deal of academic scholarship has highlighted the many problems inherent in Vasari’s account of the Renaissance, primarily his teleological approach and his Italocentrism. But it is important to examine the foundation that Vasari established, because it had long-lasting implications for the study of art history. So I like to critically analyze his work with students to pinpoint and excavate the biases in his text that are still very much with us today”
-JUSTINA SPENCER
“One of my favourite early modern texts is Margaret Cavendish's The Description of a New World, called the Blazing World. I've worked it into at least four courses. It's a proto-science fiction work that follows a young woman who is kidnapped and transported to a strange world, joined pole-to-pole to our own, where she becomes Emperess. It has everything you could want: bear-men, golden ships, wise (but material) spirits, and fantastic outfits. And it ends with an epic sea battle!”
-KATHRYN MORRIS
“I'd say Kant's Critique of Judgment. The central claim that judgments of taste can (indeed, must) make claims to universal validity remains a touchstone for modern aesthetic (and political) thought”
-DANIEL BRANDES
“I love teaching the writings of Muslim feminist authors (e.g. the writings of the Egyptian author, Ayesha alTaymuriyya).While some of these women fought against patriarchal norms, their framework was still an Islamic framework. As a result, their writings can be taught from an intersectional perspective”
-PARISA ZAHIREMAMI
“For the sake of choosing, Laura Cetera's Latin letters. They explore so many different topics and articulate protofeminist concerns while displaying ambivalence and complexity”
-HILARY ILKAY
“Leviathan—so darn fun, weirdly wrong and weirdly right”
-JOHN DUNCAN
WHY WE CHOSE EARLY MODERN STUDIES
“I was always fascinated by the early modern period as a child (I dressed as Johannes Gutenberg for my 'famous person project' in the fourth grade) but I was not quite confident in myself enough to think I could hack it in a program as intellectually rigorous as EMSP, until my primary FYP tutor Dr. Suzanne Taylor convinced me that I was capable of success. Her FYP tutorials in section 4 of FYP, and Dr. Jannette Vusich's Art History lectures inspired me to study in the EMSP”
“Instead of studying just one liberal art—history, literature, philosophy, politics—you study one time period from all those different perspectives”
“I love reading along with authors who write about or emulate something they themselves love. In FYP I saw that I'd get a heavy dose of this with the early moderns who loved ancient texts, so they often felt like comrades in thinking and living. It's especially meaningful (and probably essential) to read these authors alongside peers who also love the material, and I knew that I'd find my people in EMSP”
“The seminar-style classes, the opportunity to think deeply about important works and to discuss them in small groups”
“I find the early modern period fascinating. What really stuck with me, as a young student, was Descartes and Montaigne both trying to figure out the nature of things by looking into their essences. Both classical and contemporary philosophy felt too theoretical and far-reaching for me; I loved that in the early modern period, more of the philosophers seemed to be trying to figure out things for what they were, not what they could be”
“EMSP was the reason I came to King's! Which I've heard is pretty rare. I was obsessed with the French Revolution and found out about a program dedicated to its time period. There was no way I wasn't going to go. I also enjoyed at that point many other aspects of the Early Modern and now many more”
“It was always my favourite period of history, and it was my favourite section of FYP. So many of the ‘big ideas’ that underpin modern society were put forward in the early modern period, and many dramatic plays and fiction works written/set during this time were also formative for me”
“We’re all fish, and we’re pretty ignorant of what water is. When you take EMSP, you learn about the water, and in so doing, you learn an even greater deal about the fish”
“EMSP was known for having a healthy balance of solid, reliable core classes and eccentric electives. I'm all for academic solemnity, but at the end of the day, you have to be able to take the piss. And there was something about EMSP's serious (but not THAT serious) tone that appealed to me. Anything to make noted fun-hater John Calvin cartwheel in his grave like a wind turbine”
TAKING OUR STUDIES ABROAD
n 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2019, Dr. Jannette Vusich led the EMSP’s FlorenceStudyAbroad nnnnnnn program, giving students the opportunity to study on site in Florenceandimmersethemselvesin early modern art, literature and politics. This course allowed students to live their education, to encounter worksofartinpersonratherthanon slides. Dr. Vusich asked her students toconsiderworksofearlymodernart nnnnnnn from an early modern perspective, as they were literally walking in Dante’s footsteps. They read Boccaccio while picnicking in the Boboli Gardens, compared sculptures of David in the nnnnn
Bargello Museum, and discussed gendered conceptions of beauty in the Pitti Palace. During this month-long intensive class, students formed new and long-lasting friendships and experienced boththejoysandtrialsofliving abroad.
For their final project, students created a themed exhibition by choosing one picture from each of a series of rooms in the Pitti Palace. After days of preparation, they did tours of the gallery, explaining the rationale behind their choices and passionately defending their own personal favourites.nnnnEveryonesawsomethingnew througheachother’seyes.
Several students credit Dr. Vusich’s class abroad as a turning point for their studies or career aspirations. Katie Buckley took the course and was so affectedbyitthat,aftergraduatingfrom King’s, she decided to pursue a Master of Art History degree in Florence. She recalls, “I wouldn’t be where I am today without the EMSP. And where I am today is pretty cool—everything in Florenceisinfusedwithhistory.”
Dr. Vusich helped develop the Certificate in Art History and Visual Culture in partnership with Dalhousie, nnnn
which helps students incorporate their passion for visual art into their degree. The Certificate sets students up well for graduate studies or careers in art history, museum studies, arts administration, conservation, and cultural studies. Dr. Vusich says that she hopes studentscometorealizehowimportant material culture is to our understanding of ourselves and our history; that they learn to value it as much, in the same way,astheydotexts.
THE EARLY MODERN STUDIES SOCIETY
n the program’s 25 year history, the Early Modern Studies Society has published 23 volumes of its undergraduatennnnjournal, Babel, and hosted 12 annual conferences (two of which, miraculously, were held over Zoom during the pandemic). On top of this, the EMSS has organized a lecture series, print making workshops, launch parties, movie nights, and field trips.
Seeing as one of EMSP’s biggest drawing points has been its camalectureseries
raderie, the EMSS has become integral over the years for its efforts to bring studentstogetheroverasharedinterest in all things early modern. Attending one of the EMSS’s conferences or events, one really gets the sense that they are the midst of people who share a love and knowledge of what they are studying.
AnothernotableaspectoftheEMSP is its ability to laugh at itself, and to incorporate a hearty dose of silliness into its curriculum. This is something nnnnnn nnnn
the EMSS has helped cultivate, designing and disseminating hilarious posters, zines, and t-shirts around campus. The atmosphere of the EMSP fosters academic creativity, and as such has led to some ingenious student initiatives, such as the 2019 Early Modern Banquet, where guests tried
engagement with the EMSS’s events and initiatives should act as a testament nnnnnn to the success of the program over the years.EMSPstudents are passionate about their studies, and the EMSS encouraged
Early Modern Philosophers
EARLY MODERN FUN FACTS
“According to Adam Smith, capitalists are ‘an order of men, whose interest is never exactly the same with that of the public, who have generally an interest to deceive and even oppress the public, and who accordingly have, upon many occasions, both deceived and oppressed it’”
“The first Western European painted representation of an artist at work, painting at their easel with brush in hand, was by a woman: Sofonisba Anguissola”
“Samual Johnson was apparently turned down in his early career application to be headmaster of Solihull School in part due to the worry that ‘he has such a way of distorting his face (which though he can't help) ... may affect some lads’”
“Queen Christina of Sweden, one of the greatest early modern patrons, was also inadvertently responsible for the deaths of two of the greatest philosophers of the time: Rene Descartes (due to the early morning cold to conduct lessons with her) and Hugo Grotius (summoned to Sweden by Christina but caught in a shipwreck off northern Germany). Philosophically, she was a peerless femme fatale”
“On July 7th, 1776, James Boswell—biographer of the great Samuel Johnson—sought to convert the famous atheist David Hume by ceaselessly pestering the poor man (while on his deathbed!) about the fires of Hell. The regal Hume resisted these (frankly, tasteless) efforts and died in the same good humour that characterized his life”
“It was to finance the construction of St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome, a monument to the Italian Renaissance, that motivated the great project of selling indulgences that sparked Luther's 95 Theses and thereby the Protestant Reformation”
“At Versailles, the congregation at the Royal Chapel sat backwards to the altar so that they could see Louis XIV in the elevated royal box at the head of the nave”
FACULTY MOVIE RECCOMENDATIONS
“Isaac Newton was in charge of the Royal Mint and responsible for apprehending and convicting the archcounterfeiter William Chaloner. Chaloner was hanged and then disemboweled”
MESSAGE FROM THE EDITOR
want to express my sincerest gratitude for the opportunitytocompilethis anniversary booklet. We nnnn received an unprecedented number of submissions from students, alumni, and faulty in the form of written thoughts and reflections, posters, zines, photos, quotes, and votes (in our poll to determine the most hated early modern philosopher). It was such a pleasure to read through everyone’s memories of the program; I could have easily filled nnnn
another thirty pages with these lovely reminiscences, and while I unfortunately could only include a fraction of everything we received, I really appreciated the chance to learn about the history of the program through the eyes of students and alumni. It has been so nice to see how much the Early Modern Studies Program and the King’s community has meant to people. EMSP has certainly meant a lot to me, and I owe so much of who I am today to it.
