The Early Modern Parish at 66th Annual Meeting of the Renaissance Society of America 2020

Organizing comittee e-mail: soldenbu@tulane.edu

Organizers: Renaissance Society of America

The parish was a fundamental unit of social organization in the early modern period. It was a significant administrative unit for local governance as well as a site for the resolution of disputes. It was a focal point for religious practice and sometimes arguments over right religion. A given parish might encourage community or inspire resentment among parishioners. Work by Katherine L. French, Beat Kümin, Peter Lake, Natalie Mears, Alec Ryrie, and Robert Whiting (to name only a very few scholars) all attest to the continuing relevance of the parish in early modern studies. I am seeking papers on the pre- and/or early modern parish from any relevant discipline for a proposed session (or possibly multiple sessions) at the Renaissance Society of America, 2020 in Philadelphia, PA.

Topics might include (but are by no means limited to):

• community and/or conflict within a particular parish

• gender dynamics within a particular parish (or parishes)

• the parish as an instrument of bureaucratic control (or site of subversion)

• ritual within a particular parish

• the literary world of a parish

• parish funeral monuments as literature

• class dynamics in a specific parish

• disputes over religion at the parish level

• the role of the laity in the parish

• parish guilds

• microhistorical work on a particular parish

• change from medieval to early modern within the parish

Conference Web-Site: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2019/05/31/the-early-modern-parish-rsa-2020