Genealogies of Modernity

The Enemy of Morality Is Not Modernity, It's Me

The great English essayist and linguist Samuel Johnson was writing during the Enlightenment – the period some historians identify as the beginning of the modern age. Amer

A Genealogy of Gun Violence

The problem of gun violence is as old as guns themselves. According to historian Priya Satia, America's present epidemic of gun violence has its roots in the industrial r

A Medieval Anti-Racist

What if racism shared an origin with opposition to racism? What if the condemnation of injustice gave rise both to an early form of anti-racism and to the racial hierarch

Picturing Race in Colonial Mexico

Race is sometimes treated as a biological fact. It is actually a modern invention. But for this concept to gain power, its logic had to be spread – and made visible. Art

Jamestown and the Myth of the Sovereign Family

What is the "traditional American family?" Popular images from the colonial and pioneer past suggest an isolated and self-sufficient nuclear family as the center of Ameri

What Is Genealogy?

Genealogy, in Charles Darwin's terms, is the study of "descent with modification." Taken as an analogy for the study of history, genealogy can guard against the potential

What Is Modernity?

We often think of modernity as a distinct time period in history – one that is said to start at different places, but which always includes us. Yet people have been claim

Climbing the Mountains of Modernity

We all know many stories about how modernity came about. But what does it mean to be "modern?" This episode comes at the question through the test case of mountain climbi

Chris Nygren – Giorgio Vasari and Genealogies in Art History

This week's episode is based on Chris Nygren's session at the summer school in 2018, and a follow-up interview we conducted with him afterwards. Chris is an assistant pro

Eileen Reeves - Galileo and Early Modern Science

This week's episode is based on Eileen Reeves' session at the summer school in 2018, and a follow-up interview we conducted with her afterwards. Eileen is a professor of

Karen Detlefsen - Women in Early Modern Philosophy

This week's episode is based on an interview we conducted with Karen Detlefsen, professor of Early Modern Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. Karen takes us thr

Ryan McDermott - On Genealogy

The first episode of the podcast is based on Ryan McDermott's session at the summer school in 2018, and a follow-up interview we conducted with him afterwards. Ryan is a