This workshop probes how physical and emotional contexts surrounding the creation and circulation of historical documents are integral to the meanings the documents convey, even when such contexts leave little trace in the documents themselves. The documents discussed are a much-used and much-loved Renaissance account of how Jesus’s house flew to Italy; a collection of self-produced audio tapes circulated in the 1980s United States among sound artists; and late-twentieth-century laws on licit/illicit sex that had unintended consequences for American gay men. By juxtaposing these documents, and excavating their publics, the workshop explores how historians’ sources once expressed more than they now actually say. Panelists include:

Carol Symes, Associate Professor, History, Theatre, and Medieval Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign;
Scott De Orio, Ph.D. Candidate in History and Women's Studies, University of Michigan;
Pascal Massinon, Ph.D. Candidate in History, University of Michigan;
Emily Price, Ph.D. Candidate in history, University of Michigan;
Paolo Squatriti (chair), Professor of History and Romance Languages and Literatures, University of Michigan.

Free and open to the public. Lunch provided.

This event is part of the Friday Series of the Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies. It is made possible by a generous contribution from Kenneth and Frances Aftel Eisenberg.