Sven Dupré will chair Knowledgeable Youngsters Conference on June 24

Knowledgeable Youngsters: Youth, Media and Early Modern Knowledge Societies (follow-up 2016)

The international conference Knowledgeable Youngsters seeks to fill an important gap in our understanding of the early modern knowledge culture: the significance of youth literacies. How were the young (loosely defined here as ‘unmarried people’) taught to interpret and use textual and visual media (abilities commonly defined as ‘literacies’), and were thus capable to creatively and productively contribute to scientific, cultural, economic, and social innovations of the period?

Recent research has highlighted the importance of adult literacy for the revolutionary transformation of a knowledge culture in Western Europe between 1500-1800. But hardly any research has been done into the dynamics between the rising knowledge culture and the role of youth, although in the past decades historians and literary scholars have recognized the crucial role of youth culture in the social change and the creative outburst in early modern Europe. We know surprisingly little about the significance of youth literacies for intellectual, cultural, professional, personal, social and religious life in a period that witnessed a revolutionary change in media of communication.

This conference brings together distinguished experts in the fields of early modern knowledge culture, visual arts and textual culture who are dedicated to conduct and stimulate research into the interdependence of literacies, knowledge production and early modern youth in West-Europe.

Prof. dr. Sven Dupré will be chair of the conference on June 24.

Full programme: download here
Contact: Feike Dietz / F.M.Dietz@uu.nl
Register: knowledgeableyoungsters.congres@gmail.com