The Centre for Early Modern Studies (CEMS) builds on a long tradition of internationally-recognised, interdisciplinary research at Cardiff University into the period spanning the late 15th to 18th centuries.
Our Centre connects the School of History, Archaeology and Religion and the School of English, Communication and Philosophy creating a rich interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary environment by design.
Based in an officially bilingual and proudly multicultural nation, CEMS produces world-leading research into a wide range of topics connecting and working between the local, regional, and global scales of early modernity.
Grounded in an age that predates modern national borders and the expansion of global empires, the Centre incorporates an expansive geography and actively challenges many of the foundations of later nationalisms and identities through incorporating multiple languages, methodologies, and collaborations. Subject specialisms include:
- food, health, and medicine
- ravel, migration, and mobilities (human and non-human)
- map-making, geographies, and spatial studies
- approaches to religion and toleration
- marginality and peripheries
- literary and translation studies· Wales in the early modern world
Central to all our activities is the creation of interdisciplinary spaces in which to develop new approaches to early modern texts, objects, languages, cultures, and materialities.
As the only such centre in Wales, we aim to act as a hub for early modern scholarship across the country and to showcase the great range of research being undertaken here.
We maintain important links with a wide range of heritage and cultural institutions, especially Amgueddfa Cymru/Museums Wales, the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, National Theatre Wales, the National Trust, Cadw, the National Library of Wales, and many others.
We support interdisciplinary postgraduate research at MA and PhD level, and seek to ensure that CEMS stands as an exemplar of inclusivity and diversity across all career stages and backgrounds.
