Agenda
-
Mon01Jun2026Fri05Jun2026Ghent University & Hotel Den Briel
Medieval and Early Modern Studies Spring School 2026
Show contentMateriality, Material Culture and Materialist Approaches
This Spring School is organised by Ghent University (Doctoral Schools), the University of Groningen, the Huizinga Institute and the Dutch Research School for Medieval Studies in cooperation with different research groups in the Low Countries. The main aim of this initiative is to stimulate contacts and exchange between PhD candidates and ReMa students in the interdisciplinary field of Medieval and Early Modern Studies bringing them together around a specific theme. The focus for this edition will be on materiality and material culture.
Topic
Material studies is a dynamic and rapidly evolving field in the study of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period. It explores the materiality of “objects” (broadly defined), drawing on various disciplines, such as book history, art history, history of science, archaeology and archaeometry. This Spring School examines technical methods, cultural uses of objects and human–object interactions, from daily use to ritual. Materialist and ecocritical perspectives are specifically addressed. Through lectures, workshops and pitches, participants will actively engage with varied approaches to materiality and material culture in historical contexts.
Programme
Session I: Walk through Ghent: Urban Archaeology with Geert Vermeiren (City of Ghent)
Session II & III: – Materialist Thought and Approaches with Laura Georgescu (University of Groningen) and Adam Hansen (Northumbria University)
Session IV & V: The Materiality of Cultural Objects with Marieke Hendriksen (Huygens Institute, Amsterdam), Maximiliaan Martens (Ghent University) and Youri Desplenter (Ghent University)
Session VI & VII : Material Culture with Maxime Poulain (University of Tübingen) and Maïka De Keyzer (KU Leuven)
Session VIII & IX: Natural Environment and Sustainability with Marjolijn Bol (Utrecht University) and Sander Govaerts (Ghent University)
Registration
PhD students and ReMa students are invited to register for this course before 4 February 2026 through the following link: https://forms.gle/T7YHmVkAKXqXoN9BA Please note that there is a limited number of places available for this course. After the deadline you will soon receive more information about whether your registration can be confirmed or not. Some of the participating graduate/doctoral schools will cover tuition and lodging for their participating members (please wait for more information after your registration). Students working on Antiquity, or the Modern Period can attend as well but please note that this course will focus mainly on the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period.
Organising institutions and partners
This Spring School is organised by Ghent University (Doctoral Schools), the University of Groningen, the Huizinga Institute and the Research School for Medieval Studies in cooperation with the following research groups: the Groningen Research Institute for the Study of Culture (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen), the Group for Early Modern Studies (UGent), the Henri Pirenne Institute for Medieval Studies (UGent), the Centre for Urban History (University of Antwerp) the Amsterdam Centre for Studies in Early Modernity (UvA), the Institute for Early Modern History (UGent-VUB) and the Onderzoeksgroep Nieuwe Tijd (KU Leuven).
Organising committee
Marrigje Paijmans (UvA), Elizabeth Merrill (UGent), Bart Ramakers (RUG), Stefan Meysman (UGent), Maïka De Keyzer (KU Leuven), Marlise Rijks (VUB/UGent), Estel van den Berg (UGent) and Kornee van der Haven (UGent).
-
Mon22Jun202616:00Camelot Meeting Room (room 3.30, Blandijnberg 2, Campus Boekentoren)
Double Book Presentation by Dr. Tim Vergeer and Dr. Britt Dams
Show contentGEMS warmly invites you to the book presentation of two recently published volumes on early modern Dutch literature in international contexts: Spanish Drama on the Dutch Stage: Transgressive Emotions in the Seventeenth Century (Brill, 2025) by Dr. Tim Vergeer, and Dutch Brazil in the Early Modern Imaginary: From Description to Classification of Lands and Peoples, 1624-1654 (Brill, 2026) by Dr. Britt Dams.
Tim Vergeer, Spanish Drama on the Dutch Stage: Transgressive Emotions in the Seventeenth Century (Brill, 2025)
Between 1568 and 1648, the Dutch revolted against the occupying Spanish Empire. Simultaneously, Dutch theatregoers eagerly flocked to adaptations of Spanish comedia nueva. This study shows how and why plays by Lope de Vega, Calderón, and others were, paradoxically, theatrical blockbusters in the Dutch Republic and Flanders. Using techniques such as spectacle, illusion, and tableaux vivants alongside violence, incest, and cross-dressing, the comedias were emotional whirlwinds of love, honour, and revenge. Examining historical texts and stage practices from Amsterdam, Antwerp, and Brussels, Tim Vergeer demonstrates that this vastly understudied genre offered audiences a voyeuristic escape from the emotional norms of early modern life.
Tim Vergeer, Ph.D., is a scholar of historical literature and, particularly, early modern Dutch and Spanish theatre. His expertise includes onstage emotions, colonial identities in drama, Queer readings of plays. He also publishes widely on early modern theatrical practices. More recently, he has been exploring the feminine perspective in Dutch poetry. He is a visiting professor at Ghent University.
Britt Dams, Dutch Brazil in the Early Modern Imaginary: From Description to Classification of Lands and Peoples, 1624-1654 (Brill, 2026)
Between 1624 and 1654, Dutch representations of Brazil evolved from wonder-filled travel narratives to increasingly systematic forms of observation and classification. Drawing on four key texts—Nieuwe Wereldt, Iaerlijck Verhael, Rerum per Octennium in Brasilia, and Historia naturalis Brasiliae—alongside maps, West India Company records, and illustrations, this study traces the emergence of new ways of describing the colonial world. It shows how information gathered by planters, soldiers, artists, and Indigenous intermediaries shaped the classification of landscapes, plants, animals, and peoples, transforming description into a powerful tool of colonial knowledge and governance in Dutch Brazil.
Britt Dams is a literary scholar specializing in early modern, colonial, and postcolonial literature, with a particular focus on seventeenth-century Dutch Brazil. She received her PhD in Literature from Ghent University in 2015 with a dissertation entitled Comprehending the New World in the Early Modern Period: Descriptions of Dutch Brazil (1624–1654). She teaches Portuguese and French at Ghent University’s Language Centre and is affiliated with the Ghent Centre for Early Modern Studies (GEMS). She also teaches comparative literature, with a special emphasis on colonial and postcolonial studies, at Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3, where she is a member of the Institut de Recherche Intersite d’Études Culturelles (IRIEC). She has published widely on early modern travel writing, colonial discourse, and representations of Brazil in journal articles and edited volumes.
Posts & News
- Double Book Presentation by Dr. Tim Vergeer and Dr. Britt Dams: Early Modern Dutch Literature in International Contexts
- Lecture by Dr Adam James Smith: “The Cannibal Taste Test: Sensual vs. Intellectual Discernment in Satire from Jonathan Swift to Britain’s Miracle Meat”
- Photo Report: Prof. Roland Greene’s Inaugural Francqui Lecture
- International Workshop: Tragedy and Resistance
- Talk by Angelo Lombardo: “Truth, Wit, and Authorship: Rethinking Tesauro’s Cannocchiale Aristotelico between Early Modern Epistemology and AI”
- Invitation to Participate: Francqui Events with Prof. Roland Greene