The Centre for Early Modern and Medieval Studies at Sussex is one of the foremost interdisciplinary institutions of its kind in Britain. Consisting of distinguished and committed academics from the School of Media, Arts and Humanities, and a thriving postgraduate community drawn from across the country and the world, the Research Group covers many aspects of early modern study and has significant expertise in the medieval period. Staff members include Mat Dimmock, Flora Dennis, Aaron Kahn, Laura Kounine, Ambra Moroncini, Rachel Stenner, Katie Walter, and the Research Group directors are Andrew Hadfield and Chloe Porter. There are currently five Ph.D. students affiliated with the Group. We had no graduations this year but anticipate at least two next year.

This year, we held, as usual, a series of talks and lectures in both semesters, including:

19 October - Malcolm Gaskill (independent scholar), ‘The Ruin of all Witches’, co-organised with History WIP seminar.

16 November - Ladan Niayesh (Paris), ‘Practising the Persian Lexicon in Early Modern English Writings.’

1 December - Allison Steenson (Padua/Sussex), ‘The Scoto-British poets, the sonnet, and the Union of the Crowns.’

27 April - The 2022/3 Dove-Medcalf Lecture: Mark Amsler (University of Auckland): 'The Narrating Voices of the Book of Margery Kempe'            

We also held a symposium, ‘’Bad Poetry? New perspectives from the ‘Drab’ Age, c.1450-1600’, Institute of English Studies, University of London, Senate House, 4 April 2023, co-organised by Andrew Hadfield and Richard Danson-Brown (Open University), which will lead to a volume of essays. We partially sponsored a conference organised by Ambra Moroncini, ‘Visibili rifatti. Early Modern Voices in the Contemporary World’ 29-30 June 2022).

We continue to have success with external funding, with Allison Steenson here as a Marie-Curie Fellow, and we have just learned that Dr. Kat Addis (NYU) will be here from September as a BA postdoctoral fellow for three years (until 2027). Dr. Steenson will be organising a symposium on Scoto-British Identities next year in June 2024, funded by her fellowship. A member of the Centre, Dr. Charlotte Potter secured a position at the University of Geneva, one in a line of former Ph.D. students who have secured university posts.

We are grateful to the School of Media, Arts and Humanities for funding our activities.

Andrew Hadfield and Chloe Porter (Directors of the Centre for Early Modern and Medieval Studies)