Anoud Visser

Bio

Arnoud Visser is Professor in the Department of Languages, Literature and Communication at Utrecht University, specializing in the textual culture of Renaissance Europe. He is also Director of the Huizinga Institute, the Netherlands’ graduate school of cultural history. Trained as a classicist, he has worked in different disciplinary environments, including History, English and Modern Languages. Prior to his appointment at Utrecht, he was employed at the Universities of St Andrews (UK), Leiden (NL) and Amsterdam (NL). In his research he is fascinated by the interaction of intellectual and religious culture in early modern Europe, with particular attention to historical reading practices, anti-intellectualism, and the cultural history of fame. He has written and edited several books on cultural, religious and intellectual history, including Reading Augustine in the Reformation (New York: OUP, 2011).

Courses

Spring 2023

• Cultures of Reading Early Modern Europe (4 credits)
  Comparative Literature GR6281

  This weekly seminar course offers an introduction to the cultural history of reading in early modern Europe. While case studies and readings are drawn from various European traditions, the case of the early modern Low Countries will be a recurrent focus, as this course is organized as part of the Queen Wilhemina Visiting Professorship of Dutch Studies.

  Reading was an essential part of early modern culture, but also a highly flexible, instable form of communication. It could be done in many different ways, depending on a host of historical, social, and religious contexts. In the past three decades the ‘History of Reading’ has become a vibrant scholarly field, exploring historical theories, debates and practices. Historians of different backgrounds have developed challenging new approaches, highlighting a diversity of reading styles and at least as great a variety of research opportunities. New digital resources have vastly increased our access to relevant evidence.

  During the seminars we will discuss and analyze primary and secondary sources from a variety of different historical and disciplinary perspectives, including classical and early modern humanist writings, as well as recent scholarship by social, cultural, intellectual, and book historians. The program includes two working visits to the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Butler Library.