Applications are open through January 15th, 2026 for Folger Institute Short-Term Fellowships.
Each year the Folger Institute awards research fellowships to create a high-powered, multidisciplinary community of inquiry. This community of researchers may come from different fields, and their projects may find different kinds of expression. But our researchers share cognate interests in the history and literature, art and performance, philosophy, religion, and politics of the early modern world.
Short-term fellowships support scholars whose work would benefit from significant primary research for one, two, or three months, with a monthly stipend of $5,000 per onsite month and $4,000 per virtual month. These fellowships are designed to support a concentrated period of full-time work on research projects that draw on the strengths of the Folger’s collections and programs.
For the 2026-27 fellowship year, short-term fellows will have the option to take their fellowship fully onsite, fully virtual, or a combination of the two. Applicants may propose any research schedule that best fits their project’s needs.
The deadline for short-term fellowship applications is January 15, 2026.
Despoiling the King in 1525: Capture, Plunder, and the Battle of Pavia Associate Professor John Gagné
On the 500th anniversary of Renaissance Europe’s most renowned battle, we return to the Park of Mirabello, the walled hunting grounds outside the old Visconti palace at Pavia. It was here that Imperial forces destroyed France’s army and captured King François I as he fought to regain the duchy of Milan. Leaving aside questions of military history, this lecture explores the cultural significance of ensnaring one of Europe’s great kings on an Italian battlefield. By focusing on the monarch’s capture, we investigate not just the seizure of the royal person, but also the plundering of objects charged with his charisma: armour, weapons, decorations, flags, and clothing. These despoiled objects authenticated Imperial victory and exalted their owners. The “disassembly” of the royal warrior produced a host of these battle relics, whose traces – both real and legendary – this presentation reconstructs.
John Gagné is Cassamarca Associate Professor of History at the University of Sydney. His research pursues the intersections between war, representation, material culture, and the human body. He is the author of Milan Undone: Contested Sovereignties in the Italian Wars (Harvard University Press, 2021), co-editor with Stephen Bowd and Sarah Cockram of Shadow Agents of Renaissance War: Suffering, Supporting, and Supplying Conflict in Italy and Beyond (Amsterdam University Press, 2023), and co-author with Timothy McCall of Fabric of War: The Material Culture and Social Lives of Banners in Renaissance Europe (Cambridge University Press, 2025). His research has appeared in Renaissance Quarterly, Sixteenth Century Journal, Art History, and I Tatti Studies in the Renaissance.
Registrations for the 2025 ANZAMEMS Conference, to be hosted at the University of Melbourne between the 3rd and 5th December, will close on Sunday 9 November.
The right to enquire? A Symposium on academic freedom
Tuesday 25 November 2025 The University of Melbourne, Parkville
Presented by the Australian Academy of the Humanities and the Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (CHASS)
What does it mean to define, contest, and safeguard academic freedom in the 21st century?
Academic freedom is a cornerstone of democratic societies and the lifeblood of scholarly endeavour. Yet, across the world, we are witnessing growing pressures — political, cultural, and economic — that threaten to constrain open inquiry. Australia is not immune. Join leading scholars, journalists, and advocates to explore how academic freedom can be understood, protected, and renewed in our time. This is a free public event.
The next session of the 2025 ANZAMEMS reading group is on Tuesday 28 October at 1-2pm Melbourne time (UTC+11). This will be on the topic of ‘Disability and Legal Discrimination’. See schedule below.
The next ANZAMEMS Peer Support Group will begin on Tuesday 28 October.
The Peer Support Group is a writing and discussion space for postgraduate members of ANZAMEMS. The group will run online, via Zoom, and is open to postgraduate members at any stage from honours to PhD. Attendance across all sessions is not mandatory. This is an informal support group, and we welcome drop-ins as much as regular attendance. See our website for further information.
If you would like to participate or have any questions, please contact ANZAMEMS Postgraduate Representative (AUS) Jenny Davis Barnett at j.barnett@uq.edu.au.
On the 24th October ANU’s Dr Tatiana Bur will launch Fulcrum, Australasia’s network for the study of science and technology before 1500. Please find the program below.
Fulcrum is a group of Australasian scholars working on a broad range of premodern scientific and technological themes, with a particular emphasis on their interactions with other elements of culture such as gender, religion, philosophy, art, identity, history and historiography. You can find further information at:
You are invited to the official launch of this new body on 24 October, which will feature conversations between scholars from Classics, Assyriology, science communication, the history of medicine, cultural arts, philosophy and cybernetics on a range of themes relating to modern science and technology.
The event is free, and is an all-day event held on campus from 9 am to 5 pm. The programme is attached, with venues to be advised closer to the date.
If you would like to register to attend, you can do so via the following link:
Short abstracts (100-200 words) are welcomed for proposed chapters in the edited volume, The Medieval in Museums. Please send abstracts by 5pm GMT on Monday 3 November to Fran Allfrey (University of York) and Maia Blumberg (QMUL) fran.allfrey@york.ac.uk ; m.blumberg@qmul.ac.uk. Inquires can also be directed here.
The Medieval in Museums seeks to demonstrate the cultural, aesthetic, political and historical stakes and effects of how medieval objects, texts, and histories are presented in museums. Our interpretation of ‘museum’ is broad, encompassing a range of ‘memory institutions’ including galleries, libraries, archives, and museums, and heritage sites both independently and government managed. We invite contributions which address the presentation of the medieval in physical galleries, landscapes, or other visitor-facing spaces in exhibitions and events programming; in behind-the-scenes archive and collections stores; and analogue or digital database or catalogue systems. Similarly, ‘the medieval’ here encompasses Late Antiquity to the Late Medieval, as a temporal marker which shifts according to geo-spatial-political realities across a ‘global Middle Ages’.
We welcome traditional chapters, and will also consider dialogues, interviews, or other creative-critical text-based formats. Contributions may be from individual authors or two or more co-authors.
Full CFP available via the following link ➡️bit.ly/CfPMiM
The Consortium for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine has a new working group: Beauty Studies in the Premodern World. The group offers a transdisciplinary forum to explore the cultural histories of beautification and bodily care in the premodern world, examining beauty practices as historically significant forms of knowledge related to health, hygiene, status, and identity. The Working Group will meet once a month.
We are delighted to start with a reading seminar with Evelyn Welch (University of Bristol): ‘Whose Hair is it Anyway? Beauty, Health and Shaven Heads in Early Modern Europe’. This is based on Chapter 5 of Renaissance Skin (Manchester University Press, 2025). The full book is available open access here.
This will be on 13 October at 1:00 pm UK time / 2:00 pm CEST. The meeting link is available via the CHSTM website after you register.
We very much hope to see some of you there. Please share this to any of your colleagues that might be interested.
There are two more talks scheduled for 2025:
Monday, November 10, 2025, 1pm UK time/2pm CET Seminar with Katharina Seidl (Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna / Ambras Castle, Innsbruck) on the “The Art of Beauty exhibition” at Ambras Castle, Innsbruck (June-October 2025)
Monday, December 8, 2025, 1pm UK time/2pm CET Reading seminar with Erin Griffey (University of Auckland) on her book Facing Decay: Beauty, Aging and Cosmetics in Early Modern Europe (Penn State University Press, 2025)
On behalf of, Erin Griffey, Montserrat Cabré, and Romana Sammern
25th George Rudé Seminar in French History and Culture 8-10 July 2026 University of Western Australia
The conference organisers are pleased to invite you to the 25th George Rudé Seminar in French History and Culture, which will be held from 8-10 July 2026 in Boorloo / Perth at the University of Western Australia on the unceded land of the Whadjuk Noongar on the banks of the Derbal Yerrigan / Swan River.
The George Rudé Seminar, held every second year in Australia or New Zealand, brings together specialists in French history and culture from across the world in recognition of the contribution made by George Rudé to the study of French history and culture in Australasia and internationally.
Call for Papers: The conference welcomes papers on all aspects of French and Francophone history, from the Middle Ages to the present. Papers may be given in English or in French and will normally be of 20 minutes duration. Proposals for thematic panels of three papers will also be considered.
While the conference will mainly be held in person, some online presentations will be possible. Please indicate your requirements when submitting your proposal. Please note that the conference will run in Australian Western Standard times.
Proposal Submissions: Proposals including presentation title, 200-word paper abstract, 150-word biographical statement, are due by 15 December 2025. Successful proposals to present will be notified by 31 January 2026.
All queries and proposals should be sent to: georgerudeseminar2026@gmail.com
Travel Bursaries: A limited number of travel bursaries will be available to postgraduate, early career and unwaged presenters to support the costs of travel to the conference. See further details about the Alison Patrick Memorial Scholarship below. Please indicate in your proposal submission if you would like to be considered for bursary support and what your specific support needs are.
French History and Culture: Each Rudé conference produces a peer-reviewed selection of papers in the journal French History and Culture, published free and online through H-France at http://www.h-france.net/rude/rudepapers.html.
George Rudé Society: For further information on the George Rudé Society and on earlier conferences, see https://h-france.net/rude/
Alison Patrick Memorial Scholarship
Applications are invited for a scholarship in memory of Alison Patrick, to enable (post)graduate students to attend the George Rudé Seminar in French History and Culture. The Scholarship provides up to $3300 (AUD) towards travel and expenses.
Alison Patrick was Reader in History at the University of Melbourne. She had a lifelong interest in the scholarship of the French Revolution, and a strong commitment to students. She was one of the founders of the Rudé Seminar and presented papers over many years.
Eligibility: The Scholarship is open to students undertaking full- or part-time doctoral study in French or francophone history (or a related field) at a recognised university anywhere in the world.
Applications: Applications for the Scholarship to attend the 2026 George Rudé Seminar at The University of Western Australia, in Boorloo/Perth, should be sent to georgerudeseminar2026@gmail.com
Applicants should send a CV, a 200-word paper abstract, and provide the names of two academic referees (one of whom should be the candidate’s supervisor) by the closing date: 15 December 2025
The email application must be clearly marked ‘Alison Patrick Memorial Scholarship Application’ in the subject line.
Conditions: The recipient/s is expected to attend in person and present a paper at the Rudé Seminar. They will also be expected to offer the paper as an article for publication in French History and Culture. Papers from the George Rudé Seminar, published on H-France. If accepted, following referees’ reports, the published article will carry an acknowledgement of the Scholarship.
Costs incurred will be reimbursed upon presentation of receipts. In certain cases, fares may be paid directly by the Scholarship fund.
Part scholarships may be offered to more than one applicant. The Scholarship will not be awarded to the same person twice. If numerous applications of equal quality are received, preference may be given to papers on the French Revolution, Alison Patrick’s primary area of interest.
