June, 2025 study day at the University of Birmingham on 'Popular Recreations in Early Modern England' (pasted)

 

CfP: Popular Recreations in Early Modern England

CREMS, University of Birmingham
CfP Deadline: 3rd April 2025
Conference: 25th June 2025

Hosted at the University of Birmingham by the Centre for Reformation and Early Modern Studies, this study day explores what English people did for fun or personal restoration in the 16th and long 17th centuries. It considers a wide range of recreational materials and activities such as ballads, sport, devotional literature or practices, psalms/psalm singing, prints, emblems, dancing, ephemera, poetry, walking, commonplace books, bearbaiting, horse riding, decoration, readerships, game playing, eating/drinking, hunting, storytelling/folk belief, gardens, theatregoing activity and more!

Though the study day is open to all, postgraduate researchers are particularly encouraged to submit papers.

Suggested topics for 20-minute papers:

  • Ideas surrounding “popular” culture in this period and the reception of popular cultural history
  • Recreation and re-creation of the self
  • Community and social activity
  • Reading and other activities for instruction and enjoyment
  • Early modern popular culture and public engagement
  • Historiography of pastime and leisure in early modern England
  • Everyday objects and the museum
  • Recreation as a practice
  • Embodiment and refreshment
  • Places of recreation

Deadline for abstracts is 3 April 2025.

Please email a paper title and abstract of c. 200 words, along with a very short bio, to: Katie Bank k.n.bank@bham.ac.uk & Peter Auger p.auger@bham.ac.uk.

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