5.30 pm
Tuesday 26th October, 2010
The Berrick Saul Auditorium, Humanities Research Centre, University of York

Professor Kate Lowe (Queen Mary, University of London) will join the team behind the AHRC-funded project 'Conversion Narratives in Early Modern Europe' to celebrate the official launch of the project on Tuesday 26th October, 2010. Professor Lowe, an expert on Renaissance and Early Modern Italy and Portugal, will deliver a lecture on 'News from Africa: reporting conversion in Renaissance Italy'. The lecture draws on Professor Lowe's current research on the representation and experiences of sub-Saharan Africans in Southern Europe between 1440 and 1650. It will provide a first taste of some questions and research areas which are central to the 'Conversion Narratives' project: how did people and information travel between countries and continents in this period? What forms did stories of conversion take? Why were people interested in news of conversion, and what were its and social and political implications?

The lecture will take place in the Berrick Saul Auditorium in the University's new Humanities Research Centre, and all are welcome to attend. It will be followed by a reception to celebrate the launch of the 'Conversion Narratives' project. For more details please visit the project website at www.york.ac.uk/conversion or email conversionnarratives@york.ac.uk.

Conference on ‘Conversion in the Early Modern World’

The period between 1550 and 1700 was one of widespread religious conversion, prompted by the Protestant and Catholic Reformations, encounters between European states and the Ottoman Empire, and the expansion of global trade and exploration. This conference, the first to emerge from the AHRC-funded project, ‘Conversion Narratives in Early Modern Europe’, will investigate the variety of ways in which men and women created stories about conversion. It will ask not only what constituted conversion (whether understood as a change or as an intensification of faith) in this period, but also how narrative shaped people’s expectations of religious change and enabled them to articulate their experience in a variety of ways.

For more details about the project, and a copy of the Conference Call for Papers, visit www.york.ac.uk/conversion, or email conversionnarratives@york.ac.uk.