Call for papers for a panel proposal entitled "Imperial, Colonial, Early Modern, Renaissance: Reflexions on Theory and Method", as part of the Renaissance Society of America's 2027 Annual Meeting, to be held on 11-13 March 2027, in Philadelphia, United States.

This panel invites proposals on the analytical categories used in the studies of the period from c.1400 to c.1800 in modern scholarship, across disciplines. Possible topics may include, but are not limited to:

• Convergence and divergence between conceptual framings, such as ‘imperial’, ‘colonial’, ‘early modern’, ‘Renaissance’, ‘pre-modern’, ‘pre-colonial’, ‘dynastic’;
• Comparative approaches according to discipline, target audiences, national-academic and/or regional-linguistic contexts
• Articulation between chronological and geographical framings, eg. local, regional, national, continental, intercontinental, and global
• Impact of standardisation, eg. English language, in research, teaching and outreach outputs in studies engaging with period between c.1400 and c.1800

Submission guidelines

Interested participants should send the following, to Marina Bezzi and Joseph da Costa (marinab@unb.br, joseph.dacosta@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk), by 1 July 2026:

1. Full name, current affiliation, and email address;

2. Title (max. 15 words);

3. Abstract (max. 200 words);

4. Short CV (max. 2 pages) emphasizing research and scholarship;

5. PhD completion date (past or expected).

Decisions will be communicated by 15 July (this will allow those not accepted ample time to submit unsponsored proposals). Please see RSA proposal guidelines and membership eligibility in the RSA Conference Submission Guide.

Organizers

• Marina Bezzi (Universidade de Brasília),
• Joseph da Costa (University of Oxford)