Welcome to my website. I was a college teacher for 34 years (1964-98). I am now emeritus. For 14 of my teaching years my scholarly work focused on the European Renaissance, in particular on Renaissance humanism. Several of us who were serving on the board of the Renaissance Society of America in the late 1980s and early 1990s became interested in extending the outreach of Renaissance studies beyond college and university audiences. This interest led me, in 1991, to apply for a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) summer institute for secondary school teachers. Its first incarnation was held in New York City in 1992 for teachers from New York State. That group met again in the summer of 1993 for an extension of the 4-week 1992 institute. Out of that experience grew “Worlds of the Renaissance,” a broad introduction to the European Renaissance that included social history, humanism, philosophy, the literatures of France, Italy and England, art, music, and the New World. This version of the institute, with minor variations each time it was held (each time in New York City), was offered to teachers nationwide in 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, and 2000.
In 2004 the unit on the New World was replaced by one on
Spanish literature. We plan to offer this institute again in
2006, dropping philosophy and including once again the
Renaissance and the New World. Thus the topics will be
social history, humanism, the literatures of England,
France, Italy, and Spain, art music, and the New World. Some
of the projects developed in 1998, 2000, and 2004 are
available on this website and are intended to be usable by
teachers who did not attend the institute.
In the late 1970s I became interested in women writers during the Renaissance, first the Italian humanists of the 1400s, then in the feminist tradition of women writers (particularly the querelle des femmes or the woman question), and finally in women writers generally. This interest led me, in 2000, to apply for a NEH summer institute for college and university teachers on women writers, entitled “A Literature of Their Own? Women Writing–Venice, London, Paris–1550-1700.” That institute was funded and held in 2001 for 30 teachers at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and in 2003 for 25 teachers. Some of the projects completed by 2001 and 2003 participants are available on this website and include particularly bibliographical and course development. This institute combines social and literary history. Its most recent faculty and syllabus are available on this website (2003 institute). The institute, amended to include Spain as well as England, France, and Italy, will be held again in the summer of 2005, again for 25 teachers on the campus of UNC-CH.
At the same time that I applied for my first summer institute in 1991, Margaret King and I, colleagues since the mid-1970s, developed a proposal to publish texts by women and men related to the querelle des femmes . That was the beginning of “The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe” series, described in its own section of this website. That proposal was accepted by the University of Chicago Press in 1992 and included 6 volumes. What has happened since can be read in the pages devoted to the series on this website.
It has been these special projects–the institutes and the series on women writers–that have led to the inauguration of this website, and it is devoted exclusively to these projects.