Early Modern Migrations:
Exiles, Expulsion, & Religious Refugees
1400-1700
An international and interdisciplinary conference
University of Toronto
Toronto, Canada
19-21 April 2012
Organized by
Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, Victoria University, University of Toronto
Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies, University of Toronto
Funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRCC)
University of Toronto
McMaster University
University of New Brunswick
Victoria University
Canada Research Chair in Southeast Asian Studies
South Asian Studies at the University of Toronto
Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Toronto The early modern
period witnessed a dramatic increase in the migration, expulsion and exile of social groups
and individuals around the globe. The physical movements of religious refugees triggered
widespread, ongoing migrations that shaped both the contours of European colonialist
expansion and the construction of regional, national and religious identities. Human
movements (both real and imagined) also animated material culture; the presence of bodies,
buildings, texts, songs and relics shaped and reshaped the host societies into which
immigrants entered. Following exiles and their diasporic communities across Europe and the
world enables our exploration of a broad range of social, cultural, linguistic and artistic
dynamics, and invites us to reconsider many of the conceptual frameworks by which we
understand ‘Renaissance’ and ‘Reformation’.
Over 100 presenters from around the globe will present papers at the conference, in sessions
that aim deliberately to foster cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary dialogue. A late sixteenth
century play, "The Christian Turn'd Turk" will be staged by Poculi Ludique Societas and the
Graduate Centre for Drama, and there will be concert of period music and displays of early
published books dealing with or written by exiles.
Early Modern Migrations will promote a sustained, comparative and interdisciplinary
exploration of the phenomenon and cultural representation of early modern migrations. It
will consider how the transmission and translation of material, textual and cultural practices
created identity and cross-cultural identifications in contexts animated by the tension
between location and dislocation. While often driven by exclusion and intolerance, the
exile/refugee experience also encouraged emerging forms of toleration, multiculturalism and
notions of cosmopolitanism. In a period in which mobility was a way of life for many,
identifications rooted in location were often tenuously sustained even as they could be
forcibly asserted in cultural representation.
Early Modern Migrations completes a 2 year program of research and collaboration that has
included workshops, lectures, sessions at international conferences, graduate and
undergraduate courses, and that will carry on through publications, courses, and further
workshops.
Organizers and Sponsors: The conference has been organized by the Centre for Reformation
and Renaissance Studies, University of Toronto and the Centre for Diaspora and
Transnational Studies, University of Toronto. Major funding has been provided by the
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRCC), McMaster
University, the University of New Brunswick, and Victoria University. In addition, several
Centres and Departments within the University of Toronto have provided significant
financial support, including the Jackman Humanities Institute, the Faculty of Arts and
Science, the Departments of Art, English, French, German, History, Humanities, Italian,
Near and Middle Eastern Studies, Slavic Studies, and Spanish and Portuguese; the Asian
Institute, the Centre for Jewish Studies, the Centre for Comparative Literature, the Centre
d'Etudes de la France e du Monde Francophone, the Centre for European, Russian, and
Eurasian Studies (CERES), and the Centre for Medieval Studies.
Program and Registration Information: TBA