About this inaugural lecture

Before the shattering of organic and providential temporalities by universal clock time, a period dubbed the ‘early modern’ foreshadowed and heralded our ‘modernity’. But how are our times different from what came before?

Dividing the past, our history, into periods, generates the change and continuity that allow us to locate ourselves. Successive reconfigurations of these roots and origins make clear history is always on the move, marshalled to build a bridge to the future. History has never been more popular and more than ever is at stake in the stories we tell ourselves about who we are and where we have come from, but the possibilities for change and progress appear mired in a dark, threatening and toxic modernity... Is there a way out and what might this mean for early modern studies?

About the speaker

Alexander Samson is Professor of Early Modern Studies at UCL and Director of Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin American Studies programmes. His work has encompassed Digital Humanities, Tudor History, the cultures of early modern England and Spain, in particular their interconnections, the world of theatre and global empires. He is currently working on a book, Hispanic Worlds and English Renaissance Culture, and an edition of Alonso Jeronimo de Salas Barbadillo’s short comic play Los mirones.

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Time Frames: Marking the Early Modern