Tampereen yliopistossa käynnissä oleva Professorin perhekunta -hanke järjestää 9.–10.2.2023 kansainvälisen ja poikkitieteellisen työpajan Professor’s Household in the Early Modern Times, jonka esitelmäkutsu on nyt auki!

—

During the Middle Ages a professor was meant, as a clergyman, to spend his life unwed. After the Reformation the ideal of a university professor changed in the protestant areas of Europe. Professor was now expected to be a married man with wife and children. Professors have, however, quite rarely been studied as husbands, fathers, and as the heads of their family. Research has mainly focused on studying professors as scientists. We know even less about professors’ wives: who they were, what their contribution to the household was. Furthermore, more research on extended academic families/households is needed even though recently it has been proven that family connections were essential in creating larger academic networks. This workshop focuses on early modern (ca. 1500–1800) academic family life both in theory and in practice. It seeks to bring together scholars of different fields to compose a picture of early modern professors’ households.

In the workshop we will discuss the families of the early modern professors as well as the academic conceptions of family. We welcome papers relating to early modern European universities. Themes might include, but are not limited to:

• Early modern academic conceptions of marriage, family, and household
• Professors’ marital and family life
• Women’s (e.g. professors’ wives, daughters, mothers and widows) position and agency within the academic household and community
• The significance of academic family networks
• Academic dynasties: how the academic positions as well as academic legacy were passed down in the families
• Unideal family life: e.g., pre- and extramarital relationships of the professoriate

Please send a c. 250 word abstract and a short presentation of yourself to by 31 October 2022. We encourage proposals from all the disciplines of humanities. The workshop’s aim is to publish a book on early modern professors’ households and family lives. We encourage you to take this into account when planning your abstract. The workshop does not have a participation fee and meals (including lunch, coffee & dinner) will be offered for the participants.

The workshop is organized by the project Professor’s Household – The Royal Academy of Turku as a Family Network in the 17th Century financed by the Jalmari Finne Foundation. More information on the project can be found on the internet page.