Doctoral Workshop in Medieval and Early Modern Studies (11/12)

9 December 2026

Dre Devani Singh, UNIGE

Prof. Lukas Erne, UNIGE

Prof. Kilian Schindler (UNIFR)

The fortnightly Geneva workshops, which have been in existence for some time and are attended and regularly contributed to by PhD students and staff from all CUSO universities and CUSO associated universities, respond to the need, expressed by PhD students, for regular, short bursts of training and a structure to which they belong. They cover practical topics such as using digital resources in medieval and early modern English studies; focused discussion of key medieval and early modern texts (e.g., Chaucer, Shakespeare) or scholarly issues (e.g., codicology, bibliography); and work-in-progress papers. The workshops usually last two-to-three hours.

9 December: Prof. Kilian Schindler (UNIFR), ‘Transnational Literature before the Nation State’ 

This workshop will consider the methodological and conceptual stakes of transnational approaches to pre-modern literature. It will introduce participants to the case study of the Anglo-German literary exchanges following the dynastic union of James I’s daughter Elizabeth Stuart with the Elector Palatine Frederick V, the leading Protestant prince in the German Empire, in 1613. Celebrated as an international Protestant bulwark against Habsburg Catholicism on the eve of the Thirty Years’ War, this Anglo-Palatine alliance gave rise to a literary culture marked by a high degree of mobility, multilingualism, translation, and formal hybridity. Participants will be able to engage with concrete examples of transnational poetry, e.g. by the German poet and diplomat Georg Rudolph Weckherlin (1584-1653), John Milton's predecessor as secretary of foreign tongues (no knowledge of German required), and are invited to introduce their own research questions and problems, to the extent that they are relevant to the workshop topic, to the discussion. 

Université de Genève

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