Image from the Minassian Collection of Persian, Mughal and Indian Miniature Paintings, John Hay Library
Brown’s Center for the Study of the Early Modern World is an interdisciplinary research group composed of faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate concentrators interested in studying the interwoven globe from the 13th to the 19th centuries. The Center is part of the Cogut Institute for the Humanities.
The John Hay Library’s holdings feature a wide and diverse range of materials and unique objects pertaining to various areas of study of the Early Modern world, comprising art and architecture, Asian studies, Islamic studies, humanism and Latin writing, vernacular literature in European languages, popular performance (especially theatre, fairs, fireworks, and magicana), book arts, printing and publishing history, children’s literature, history of medicine, history of science, military iconography, caricature, festival books and the occult.
In 2017, the John Hay Library and the Center for the Study of the Early Modern World implemented a partnership to establish the Hay/Center for Early Modern World Fellowship for the purpose of providing research and writing support to PhD candidates completing their dissertations in any field involving study of the Early Modern World, defined as the period between 1500 and 1800. A key component of the fellowship commitment is the development of an innovative project to be completed using resources available at the John Hay Library. Kenneth Molloy, the organizer and convener of the Performing Objects and Objects of Performance symposium, is the fourth recipient of the Hay/CEMW Fellowship.