The course focuses on religious minorities, dissent and secrecy in Europe during the early modern period (c.1550–1750), in the wake of the religious, political and cultural upheavals of the Reformation. Our approach is based on specific case studies revealing the diversity of life experiences, of religious practices and worship, and of modes of writing, such as life writing, letters and autobiographies. The course will adopt comparative perspectives on several geographical areas: France, England and Wales, Germany and the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Italy, Spain and the Ottoman empire.
The main objectives of the course are:
- To present key themes in the history of religious minorities
- To propose a variety of methodological tools according to different approaches (history and anthropology of religion, social history, material turn, history of representations, history of emotions, history of experience, lived religion, study of autobiographical documents and life writing, etc.)
- To reveal the variety of the primary sources, whether textual (printed or manuscript sources), iconographic or material
- To explore the way collective memory and physical landscapes are shaped by the history of religious minorities
This CIVIS Blended Programme is open to everybody, but is especially targeted towards Master and Ph.D. students. It is a free series of webinars and the inscription is open until October 31st.