Event Report: Intoxicants and Politics Past and Present

In public debates around intoxicants, political and medical commentators tend to focus on their biological, neurological, pharmaceutical, and criminological aspects, while the complex historical and cultural roots that have shaped the deeply embedded modern cultures of intoxication are ignored. In contrast, this short conference at the Palace of Westminster brought some of the latest historical and […]

Intoxicants and Empire c.1600-1800: Space and Material Culture

Seminar Room A, Research Department, V&A Friday 21 April-Saturday 22 April 2017 Intoxicants were an omnipresent feature of European imperial and commercial expansion during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This is as true for ‘old world’ commodities like beers, wines, and fortified liquors as it was for ‘new’ comestibles like tobacco, caffeine, cocoas, and opiates. […]

Project Event: Intoxicants and Politics Past and Present

The CPA Room, Palace of Westminster Monday 10 October 2016 One of our key research themes is intoxicants, politics, and governance. We’re especially interested in the role of early modern governors in determining which intoxicants were consumed where, by whom, at what cost; in the relationship between intoxicants and political debate, conflict, and mobilisation; and in […]

Project Workshop: Intoxication, Discourse, and Practice

Humanities Research Institute, University of Sheffield Friday 30 September-Saturday 1 October 2016 Since at least the sixteenth century intoxication has frequently been seen as a problem in western cultures – a medical, social, political, moral, and economic concern, affecting both individuals and social bodies, that huge amounts of public funding and energy have been devoted […]

Jolly Good Ale and Old: An Evening of Drink, History, and Song at the Sign of the Sheffield Tap

Last week, as part of the University of Sheffield’s contribution to national humanities extravaganza Being Human Festival 2015 (#BeingHuman15), I managed to combine my interests in early modern drinking and song by organising and hosting a convivial evening of beer, ballads, and banter at venerable railway station watering hole The Sheffield Tap. Over sixty locals with […]

RSA Boston 2016 Panels: Intoxicants and Early Modernity

Further to our CFP back in May, we’re pleased to report that three panels on Intoxicants and Early Modernity featuring ten papers have been included in the programme of the Renaissance Society of America’s next Annual Conference, which will take place in Boston, Massachusetts, in early 2016. The full conference schedule is now online; our […]

RSA Boston 2016 Call for Papers: Intoxicants and Early Modernity

We’re pleased to announce an intoxicant-themed CFP for the Renaissance Society of America’s next Annual Conference, which will take place in Boston, Massachusetts, on 31 March−2 April 2016. Full details below; don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions or require further information. CFP: Intoxicants and Early Modernity This set of sessions welcomes papers […]

Workshop Report: Material Cultures of Intoxication in Early Modern England and the Netherlands

Back in November, under the auspices of our fifth research strand, the V&A and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands jointly hosted an Anglo-Dutch Workshop and Reception around the topic of Material Cultures of Intoxication: Trade, Taste, and Exchange between the Early Modern English and the Dutch. Background The inspiration for the workshop emerged […]