Erin Rowe, now at the University of Virginia, writes to tell me about a party/conference celebrating Richard Kagan that occurred last month:
“On the weekend 26-28 September, former students of Richard Kagan surprised their former mentor with a festschrift celebration in honor of his 65th birthday at the Johns Hopkins University [called "Kagan's Kaleidescope"]. Friends, colleagues, and former students traveled from across the country and across the Atlantic to present papers, give tributes, and raise a glass to Richard and his many contributions to the field of early modern Spanish history. On Saturday and Sunday, there were a series of panels on a broad array of topics, which mirrored the depth and breadth of Richard’s scholarship, including: cartography, literature, historiography, the Inquisition, and art. Closing remarks were made by Richard’s own mentor, Sit John Elliott.”
Here’s the program – just reading through the list of names is an impressive tribute to Kagan’s work and legacy, after the jump.
Kagan’s Kaleidoscope:
Celebrating Richard L. Kagan’s 65th Birthday
(The Johns Hopkins University, 26-28 September 2008)
Friday, 26 September 6:00pm-8:00pm
Reception – Café Azafran
David Bell (Johns Hopkins University) – Welcome / Introductory remarks
Tributes
Orest Ranum (Johns Hopkins University)
A. Katie Harris (University of California – Davis)
Olivier Zunz (University of Virginia)
Geoffrey Parker (Ohio State University)
Saturday, 27 September 9:00am-11:00am
Habsburg Monarchy, Court Culture, and the Writing of History
Chair and comment: Xavier Gil (Universitat de Barcelona)
Magdalena Sánchez (Gettysburg College) : “Letters, Gloves, and Family Ties”
Bethany Aram (Instituto de Estudios Internacionales – Sevilla) : “Fernández de Oviedo and Antonio de Herrera : Legal vs Historical Evidence”
Erin Rowe (University of Virginia) : “Sixteenth-Century Historiography and the Invention of Spain”
Tribute
James Amelang (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid)
Saturday, 27 September 11:30am-1:00pm
Art, Patronage, and Visual Culture
Chair and coment: Jonathan Brown (New York University)
Luis Corteguera (University of Kansas) : “Visual Culture and Spanish Mysticism”
Tanya Tiffany (University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee) : “Velázquez’s Portraits and the Power of the Gaze: Mother Jerónima de la Fuente”
Saturday, 27 September 2:30pm-4:30pm
Religion, Inquisition, and Local Identity
Chair and comment: Lu Ann Homza (College of William & Mary)
Sara Nalle (William Paterson University) : “Ethnic Identity and the Family in Early Modern Spain”
Kimberly Lynn Hossain (Western Washington University) : “An Inquisitor’s Defense : Experience, Legal Precedent, and Self-Promotion in the Vida of Diego de Simancas”
Marcia Norton (George Washington University) : “Antonio de Léon Pinelo and Cultural Relativism”
Tribute
Antonio Feros (University of Pennsylvania)
Saturday, 27 September 4:45pm- 6:30pm
Cities of the Spanish Atlantic
Chair and comment: Ida Altman (University of Florida – Gainesville)
Marta Vicente (University of Kansas) : “Divine María: Staging Femininity in Eighteenth-Century Madrid”
Allyson Poska (Mary Washington College) : “Men, Women, and the Transatlantic Voyage: Gender and the Spanish Scheme to Colonize Patagonia, 1778-1785”
Donna Guy (Ohio State University) : “Love and Suicide in Nineteenth-Century Buenos Aires”
Sunday, 28 September 9:30am-11:00am
Print, Manuscript, and the Golden Age Literatures
Chair and comment: David Nirenberg (University of Chicago)
Laura Bass (Tulane University) : “Town and City in the Heart of Spain: Toledan Chorography in Lope de Vega’s Peribáñez y el Comendador de Ocaña”
Elizabeth Wright (University of Georgia) : “Liberty via Latinity: The Epic Stratagems of Joannes Latinus, an African-Andalucian Freedman Navigating an Age of Mass Enslavement (1570–73)”
Neil Safier (University of British Columbia) : “A Trip to the Printhouse: Publishing Juan and Ulloa’s Voyage to South America”
Tribute
Stuart Schwartz (Yale University)
Sunday, 28 September 11:15am-12:45pm
Cartography, Cosmography and Iberian Science
Chair and comment: Benjamin Schmidt (University of Washington)
Benjamin Ehlers (University of Georgia) : “Mapping the Mediterranean”
Ricardo Padrón (University of Virginia) : “Mapping the Colonial Philippines”
María Portuondo (The Johns Hopkins University) : “Empiricism and Natural Philosophy in Arias Montano’s Historia de la Naturaleza”
Ann de León (University of Alberta) : “Chimalpahin and Heinrich Martin in Dialogue: A Christianized Native’s Nahuatlization of a German Cosmographers Text”
Sunday, 28 September 1:00pm-1:30pm
Closing Remarks
Sir John Elliott (Oxford University)
