Transforming information: record keeping in the Early Modern world

Convenors:
Professor Alexandra Walsham FBA, University of Cambridge
Dr Kate Peters, University of Cambridge
Ms Liesbeth Corens, University of Cambridge

Between 1500 and 1800, documentary records proliferated on an unprecedented scale. Bringing together historians, literary scholars and archivists, this interdisciplinary conference explores the incentives behind this surge in record-keeping in a range of global contexts. It investigates not only the processes by which records and archives were created, preserved, managed and used, but also their relationship with the religious, political, intellectual and cultural transformations which defined the early modern era. The conference encourages critical reflection on the ways in which these developments have shaped and constrained historical knowledge and scholarly interpretation.

Speakers include: Ms Jennifer Bishop (University of Cambridge) Professor Arndt Brendecke (Ludwig-Maximilian University, Munich) Dr Frederik Buylaert (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) Ms Liesbeth Corens (University of Cambridge) Dr Markus Friedrich (University of Hamburg) Dr John-Paul Ghobrial (University of Oxford) Professor Jelle Haemers (University of Leuven) Mr Tom Hamilton (University of Oxford) Professor Randolph Head (University of California, Riverside) Professor Ann Hughes (Keele University) Dr Arnold Hunt (British Library) Dr Lauren Kassell (University of Cambridge) Dr Mary Laven (University of Cambridge) Dr Kiri Paramore (Leiden University) Dr Kate Peters (University of Cambridge) Professor Judith Pollmann (Leiden University) Dr Jason Scott-Warren (University of Cambridge) Professor Jacob Soll (University of Southern California) Dr Adam Smyth (University of Oxford) Dr Filippo de Vivo (Birkbeck, University of London) Professor Alexandra Walsham, FBA (University of Cambridge) Dr Heather Wolfe (Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC) Professor Andy Wood (Durham University)