iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Brett Rushforth @brettrushforth.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Official pub day in the UK. Get our US remainders while you can! global.oup.com/academic/pro... #EarlyModern #skystorians #France

Image of a book cover for Beyond the Ocean, announcing Sept. 15 as the
official publication date in the UK.

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Brett Rushforth @brettrushforth.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Looking forward to this: The Great Peace of Montreal / La grande paix de Montréal, a 3-day international symposium. pacmusee.qc.ca/workspace/up...

Image of a treaty document from the Great Peace of Montreal of 1701, featuring clan totems of Native nations.

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Brett Rushforth @brettrushforth.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Kudos to Elspeth Currie (Boston College) for hosting a great conversation about Beyond the Ocean on New Books Network. She read the whole book and really understood what we were trying to do with it. #EarlyModern #FrenchAtlantic #Skystorians newbooksnetwork.com/beyond-the-o...

Square tile with a watermark image of ships on the sea, superimposed by text reading "In Beyond the Ocean: France and the Atlantic World from the Crusades to the Age of Revolutions (Oxford University Press, 2026), Christopher Hodson and Brett Rushforth reveal the vast and complex world of France's Atlantic enterprises in the premodern era. Drawing upon years of archival work, Hodson and Rushforth demonstrate how France's overseas activities created its empire, intentionally or not, and how these distant places built the French state and used it for their own ends. Beyond the Ocean covers an impressive sweep of history, from the late eleventh century through the early nineteenth, and yet the authors manage to retain a human element. Their judicious inclusion of microhistories and primary-source quotations, as well as their lively prose, helps the reader enter into what it might have felt like to live through these developments, to participate in the era when “France became France, and the Atlantic became a world.” Crucially, their attention to the non-European actors in this story and women’s worlds and work makes the book a helpful corrective to top-down approaches to imperial histories. Beyond the Ocean is a must-read for Atlantic world scholars, but also has value for anyone interested in early modern Europe or cultural exchange.
~Elspeth Currie, New Books Network"

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Brett Rushforth @brettrushforth.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

For the 250th, The Huntington curated an exhibtion called "This Land Is..." The curators--Linde Lehtinen and Josh Garrett-Davis--give a preview in the latest Verso article. www.huntington.org/watch-read-l...

Image of a time-weathered accoustic guitar.

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Brett Rushforth @brettrushforth.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

"In mid-seventeenth-century France, it turned out, female beauty, elite status, and the intertwined growth of Atlantic commerce and racial slavery registered together in all sorts of unusual places." #earlymodern open.substack.com/pub/frenchat...

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Brett Rushforth @brettrushforth.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

"Reversing the damage of the Code Noir demands a better understanding of the widespread and deeply historical French investment in racialized inequality. It also requires a shift in focus from the actions of the French state to the needs of diverse human communities in France’s orbit."

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Brett Rushforth @brettrushforth.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

On the challenges of writing a book intro. open.substack.com/pub/frenchat...

Image of an antique map superimposed by the words: How not to write an introduction: cutting room floor, Beyond the Ocean, and frenchatlantic.substack.com

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Brett Rushforth @brettrushforth.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

SoCal folks: join us this Friday and Saturday for what promises to be an amazing conference: "Disability and Care in Medieval and Early Modern France." Register here: www.huntington.org/event/disabi... @alanirosa.bsky.social #earlymodern #disabilitystudies

Poster announcing a conference at The Huntington titled "Disability and Care in Medieval and Early Modern France," to be held May 1-2, 2026. The poster features an image of early modern caregivers at a bedside.

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Brett Rushforth @brettrushforth.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

Conference CFP. Early/Modern Connections: Academic and Applied Humanities. Deadline, June 1. #earlymodern

On April 8–9, 2027, The Huntington will host a conference to explore the essential—yet often misunderstood—relationship between specialized academic scholarship and public-serving applied humanities work. Centered on the early modern period (ca. 1400 to 1800), the two-day event will highlight original research that has enabled, supported, or shaped specific public humanities or public interest projects. Like many cultural institutions, The Huntington is actively reflecting on its founding mission “to promote the public welfare,” including how to balance supporting deep, collections-based research with expanding access, engagement, and education for a broader public. This conference offers space to explore how such priorities work in concert.

Beyond asserting that past events apply to our present moment, speakers will demonstrate how they have translated their own scholarship into active public engagement in the form of art, activism, media, site-specific encounters, digital projects, or other collaborative efforts. We anticipate submissions highlighting smaller-scale individual work as well as collaborations between scholars and performers, educators, activists, writers, artists, and public-serving institutions. Collaborative applications should be limited to two participants, due to funding restrictions.

Proposals will be considered for inclusion in the conference, as well as for possible publication in the Huntington Library Quarterly’s new Early/Modern Connections section. For a successful recent example (but only one of many possible approaches), see Amanda Herbert and Kevin Dawson, “Black Aquatics: Early Modern Past, Present, and Future.”

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Brett Rushforth @brettrushforth.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

Featuring my middle-aged attempt to illustrate the complex NPS process in a simple graphic (*made without AI*).

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Brett Rushforth @brettrushforth.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

The story of Ona Judge and the ongoing battle over interpreting history at the Declaration’s quarter-century mark highlight the often-invisible links between public humanities and peer-reviewed academic scholarship. www.huntington.org/verso/undoin...

Image of a museum sign with an artist's rendition of Ona Judge, an enslaved woman who escaped from George and Martha Washington in 1796. The words "I am free now" are visible beneath the image of a ship in Philadelphia's harbor.

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Brett Rushforth @brettrushforth.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

Full book jacket just dropped, and we're pretty happy with it. Huge thanks to @cecilefromont.bsky.social, @soccerpolitics.bsky.social, Alice, and Andrés for your generous words! #earlymodern #BeyondTheOcean global.oup.com/academic/pro...

Image of a book jacket for Beyond the Ocean: France and the Atlantic World from the Crusades to the Age of Revolutions by Christopher Hodson and Brett Rushforth.

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Brett Rushforth @brettrushforth.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

Charles de Rochefort, a Protestant refugee, imagined a Native American utopia called Apalache. Stanwood uncovers the networks of knowledge, rumor, and storytelling that produced this fantastic--but not entirely fictional--place. #earlymodern #hlq

An image with a red banner on top with the text, in white: HLQ | an early modern studies journal. Below is the text: 'The Mysteries of Apalache': Tall Tales and Lost Worlds in the Early American South. Owen Stanwood. ABSTRACT: In 1658, Charles de Rochefort published a description of Apalache, an Indigenous polity located in southeastern North America that had welcomed French and English refugees. Usually dismissed as a tall tale, Rochefort’s account has never been thoroughly analyzed. The story demonstrates how Europeans in the early period of colonization understood America as a place of wonder and inspiration. In addition, one can learn how information (and misinformation) traveled across the Atlantic. Rochefort probably patched his tale together from various oral sources, including some that came from Indigenous Americans. As a result, Rochefort revealed a lost world of stories and shows the myriad ways Europeans tried to make sense of America.

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Brett Rushforth @brettrushforth.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

Ginny Reinburg's essay changes how we think about--and teach--Menocchio's story (and more). She shows that the conflict originated in, and was shaped by, clerical sexual abuse, institutional protections for abusers, and a broad struggle to resist. #earlymodern @vreinburg.bsky.social

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Brett Rushforth @brettrushforth.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

Amanda Herbert and Kevin Dawson debut a new HLQ article category called Early/Modern Connections: original #earlymodern research in service of the public good. The article and cover feature art by Ebony Iman Dallas. Open access: muse.jhu.edu/article/983132

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Brett Rushforth @brettrushforth.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

Happy to announce the publication of the latest issue of the HLQ. Access now through Project MUSE. muse.jhu.edu/issue/56420

Cover of the Spring/Summer 2025 issue of the Huntington Library Quarterly. At the top in white letters against a crimson backdrop it reads HLQ | an early modern studies journal. Below is an image of the artwork BLACKout: Madonna and Child, by Ebony Iman Dallas.

CONTENTS

EDITOR’S NOTE

New Directions for the HLQ
BRETT RUSHFORTH

RESEARCH ARTICLES

“The Mysteries of Apalache”: Tall Tales and Lost Worlds in the Early American South
OWEN STANWOOD

Indigenous Sun Worship in the Early Modern English Colonial Imagination
SOPHIE BATTELL

Escaping Rumor in the Mexican Inquisition
DARIA BERMAN

Rhetorical Rebound: Disabling Critique in Richard III
PASQUALE TOSCANO

A “Disposition to Laziness”: Visions of Cockaigne in the Early Modern Atlantic World
DANIEL JOHNSON

ASSESSMENTS AND APPROACHES

How Menocchio’s Ordeal Began: Clerical Sex Abuse and the Catholic Church in the Sixteenth and Twenty-First Centuries
VIRGINIA REINBURG

EARLY/MODERN CONNECTIONS

Black Aquatics: Early Modern Past, Present, and Future
AMANDA HERBERT & KEVIN DAWSON

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Brett Rushforth @brettrushforth.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

I couldn't be happier, or more honored, that the first issue of the redesigned and reimagined HLQ will feature the work of the Somali American artist Ebony Iman Dallas. Like much of her work, 𝘉𝘓𝘈𝘊𝘒𝘰𝘶𝘵: 𝘔𝘢𝘥𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘢 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘊𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥 puts past and present in vital conversation. #earlymodern #skystorians

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Brett Rushforth @brettrushforth.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

Proofs! (Not that colonialism, sovereignty, resource extraction, forced relocations, or racialized power are relevant to the modern world...)

Image of the cover and title page for a book titled Beyond the Ocean: France and the Atlantic World from the Crusades to the Age of Revolutions, by Christopher Hodson and Brett Rushforth. The cover features an 18th century watercolor of a harbor with three large ships and some smaller boats in the foreground and coastline with rising hills in the background.

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Brett Rushforth @brettrushforth.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

Ros Smith has an article coming out in the HLQ in a few weeks that discusses a similar example: Rosalind Smith, "Errant Marks: Misreading, Marginalia, and Early Modern Women's Book Use."

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Brett Rushforth @brettrushforth.bsky.social · 30/09/2025

"A major shift in how we understand colonial growth in the early Caribbean, colonial-Indigenous relations, the origins of slavery in the Caribbean and North America, and the connections between piracy, privateering, and colonization." Greg O'Malley nails it. Congrats @csschmitt.bsky.social!

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Brett Rushforth @brettrushforth.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

Haha, on it! The previous issue was a bunch of art historians, so their images were fun to play with (great essays, too).

A collection of eight historical images from nineteenth-century Britain illustrating a collection of essays titled "Paintings, Peepshows, and Porcupines: Exhibitions in London, 1763-1851"

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Brett Rushforth @brettrushforth.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

Morteza Lak, “Print Culture and the Composition of a Visual Anthology: The Picturesque Beauties of Shakespeare (1783-1787)" muse.jhu.edu/article/970063 #shakespeare #bookhist #printculture

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Brett Rushforth @brettrushforth.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

Richard Palmer and David Roberts, “Harris v. Harris: A Restoration Actor at the Court of Arches” muse.jhu.edu/article/970064

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Brett Rushforth @brettrushforth.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

Jacob Murel, “The Readers and Annotations of the First English Quran (1649)” muse.jhu.edu/article/970062

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Brett Rushforth @brettrushforth.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

Spencer Weinreich, “The Invasion of Utopia” muse.jhu.edu/article/970061 #utopia #earlymodern #renaissancelit

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Brett Rushforth @brettrushforth.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

Isabel Robinson, "'The Anagrammatic Method': Titus Oates and Satiric Wordplay in Post-Restoration England." muse.jhu.edu/article/970060 #earlymodern #PopishPlot #skystorians

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Brett Rushforth @brettrushforth.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

John Saillant, "Fictions of Freedom: An English Antislavery Novel and the Art of Jean-Étienne Liotard, 'Le Peintre Turc.'" muse.jhu.edu/article/970059 #skystorians #abolition #arthistory

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Brett Rushforth @brettrushforth.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

New HLQ issue live on Project MUSE. Articles explore imagined art in antislavery lit, deception in Stuart politics, reader engagement with the first English Quran, geopolitics in More's Utopia, anthologizing Shakespeare, and a bad actor in a c17 domestic dispute. #earlymodern #skystorians

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Brett Rushforth @brettrushforth.bsky.social · 07/07/2025

The whole issue is available here: muse.jhu.edu/issue/55109

Cover image of the Huntington Library Quarterly, vol. 87, number 2. "Paintings, Peepshows, and Porcupines: Exhibitions in London, 1763-1851." The journal's name and issue information are on an earth-colored banner above an artistic depiction of museum visitors.

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Brett Rushforth @brettrushforth.bsky.social · 07/07/2025

The introduction to the HLQ special issue on exhibitions in London is available for free download until Aug. 5. muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/artic...

Over an artistic depiction of museum visitors in nineteenth-century London is a white text box with the title of a journal article: "Special Issue Introduction: Exhibitions in London, 1763-1851," by Jordan Bear and Catherine Roach.

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Brett Rushforth @brettrushforth.bsky.social · 07/07/2025

Checking caption credits for the next HLQ issue (first French edition of Utopia) while also finalizing image permissions for The Book, and voila: Sir Thomas Morue. (Apologyes in advance, it's been a very long day.) #earlymodern

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Brett Rushforth @brettrushforth.bsky.social · 06/07/2025

New HLQ special issue. What counts as an exhibition? As art? As respectable or "high" art? How did colonialism, empire, and race shape artistic production, display, and consumption? #arthistory #skystorians #BritishArt nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...

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