Season 1

Episode 1.1:

Theology with Ryan McDermott

The first episode of the podcast is based on Ryan McDermott’s session at the Genealogies of Modernity summer seminar in 2018. Ryan is associate professor of medieval literature and culture at the University of Pittsburgh, and director of the Genealogies of Modernity Project. We discuss with Ryan the many and varied senses that genealogy has as a term and methodology in the humanities, before looking at some particular examples of genealogical thinking which he has found important in his own work.

Episode 1.2:

Philosophy with Karen Detlefsen

Our second episode is based on an interview conducted with Karen Detlefsen, professor of philosophy and education at the University of Pennsylvania. Karen takes us through the so-called “standard narrative” of early modern philosophy and illustrates how it serves to exclude very many important thinkers from the 17th and 18th centuries.

Episode 1.3:

The History of Science with Eileen Reeves

This episode is based on Eileen Reeves’ session at the summer seminar in 2018. Eileen is professor of comparative literature at Princeton University. She speaks to us about the new ground that natural philosophy was broaching in the 17th century (with an emphasis on Galileo) and encourages us to question the usefulness of the monolithic concept of “The Scientific Revolution” in telling that story.

Episode 1.4:

Art History with Chris Nygren

Our fourth episode is based on Chris Nygren’s session at the summer school in 2018. Chris is associate professor in Renaissance and Baroque art at the University of Pittsburgh. He discusses the genealogy of art written by Giorgio Vasari in 16th century Florence, and the ways it is taken to be normative in conceptions of “modernity” into the 21st century.