Welcome to EMSI!
The USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute (EMSI) explores the history, literature, art, and science of the Early Modern period (c. 1450-1850). The institute’s range is global – instead of focusing on a particular region, EMSI aims to advance knowledge of the diverse societies in and around the Atlantic and Pacific basins. Researchers nourish diverse perspectives, advance interdisciplinary perspectives, and share discoveries about the Early Modern period with the goal of informing the ways we approach problems today as well as keeping us in touch with the sources of our common humanity.
2026 Annual Conference: “American Revolution International”
Friday & Saturday, November 6 & 7, 2026
The American Revolution was an international event. Its causes, origins, consequences, and trajectory all had roots in places beyond the thirteen colonies, from neighboring Indigenous nations to Asian cities thousands of miles away. Over the last few decades, there has been increasing scholarly attention to the United States in the world and an enlarged geography for early America. Yet, beyond works specifically on international diplomacy and war, the American Revolution has been largely resistant to such treatment, remaining sturdily provincial especially in popular understandings.
This conference will consider the challenges and advantages of making the American Revolution international in ways that move beyond simply European high politics and diplomacy. The Revolution was at the center of a number of global processes, from colonialism to Enlightenment. The interplay of these dynamics and the specific American trajectory furnishes an excellent avenue of approach to re-invigorate and widen perspectives on older stories about colonial resistance, unity, and war.
Register to attend by October 30.
LA2026 brings together members of the public and humanities scholars for eighteen conversations about museum and cultural exhibitions at six partnering institutions in the Los Angeles region, including the Autry Museum of the American West, The Huntington, LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes / El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument, Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, and USC Libraries. Each exhibition frames conversations about the anniversary of 1776 from the perspective of California and the West. Each discussion will focus on specific items from one of the partner exhibitions, encouraging public discussions about national identities, relationships between regional and national narratives, participating in democracy, and human relationships to the land.
Meet the 2026-2027 EMSI Fellows
Ashley L. Cohen
Associate Professor of English, USC
EMSI Faculty Fellow, Fall 2026
Project Title:
England’s Heretical Radicalisms: Sectarianism, Antinomianism, and Non-Domination in the Long 18th Century
Scott Wagner
EMSI Ph.D. Dissertation Fellow, 2026–2027
Ph.D. Candidate, Van Hunnick Department of History
Dissertation Title:
Brawlers for Liberty: Borderlands Adventurers in a Revolutionary Age
Join EMSI Events and Opportunities!
Stephanie Hershinow, Baruch College & Graduate Center, CUNY
Friday, September 25, 2026
The Huntington
“Homuncular Personhood: Reading Tristram Shandy after Dobbs”
Barbara Carrasco & Gaila Sims, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
Friday, September 25, 2026
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
“Painting Los Angeles History”
Owen Stanwood, Boston College
Saturday, September 26, 2026
The Huntington
“Popular Cosmography in a Land of Wonders: Visions of Sixteenth-Century North America”
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Image: Detail from “Vallard Atlas,” (1547) HM 29 f.1, chart 4, Arabian Sea, Red Sea, and Persian Gulf. Portolan atlas. Courtesy of the Huntington Library.
