Dear colleagues, on 9-10 May 2013 the University of Warwick will host the first of three annual research colloquia on the theme of 'Renaissance Conflict and Rivalries: Cultural Polemics in Europe, c. 1300-c. 1650'. The colloquia spring from a Leverhulme International Network that seeks to explore the relationship between the cultural renewal that many contemporaries saw taking place in art, literature, scholarship, and science and the simultaneous prevalence of opposition, confrontation, and rivalry, well captured by the German term Streitkultur. For further details on the Network and its aims, see http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/ren/projects/conflictandrivalries/

The first colloquium will be devoted to the topic of 'Forms'. Questions to be explored will include: to what extent were conflict and rivalries in the Renaissance expressed through differing media (e.g., verbal/visual), languages (e.g., Latin/vernacular), and genres (invectives, pasquinades, rival translations of the classics, works of scholarship, sculpture/painting, religious/secular art or literature)? What processes determined these differing forms and whether or not it was acceptable to express notions of conflict and rivalries through them?

We wish to alert colleagues that several bursaries for travel and/or accommodation are available, particularly for postgraduates and early career researchers. Details, along with the provisional programme, are available at http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/ren/projects/conflictandrivalries/colloquium1 /. The deadline for applying will be Tuesday, 16 April. We would be grateful if you could circulate this information to colleagues/students who may be interested.

Feel free to contact David Lines (D.A.Lines@warwick.ac.uk) concerning scholarly aspects of the colloquium and the project more generally. Enquiries about logistics and bursaries should be directed to Ms Jayne Brown (renaissance@warwick.ac.uk), secretary of Warwick's Centre for the Study of the Renaissance.