Welcome to Warwick’s interdisciplinary Centre for the Study of the Renaissance!

The Centre for the Study of the Renaissance (CSR) is an internationally-recognized research community of the University of Warwick. While an autonomous unit, it is supported by departments across the Faculty of Arts. It boasts numerous international connections, which enrich both its research and teaching programmes.

The CSR advances – through research, teaching, and outreach – the study of the period stretching from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century, at Warwick and beyond. It is particularly dedicated to exploring Renaissance Studies in a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary way and within a context of international collaboration. It promotes activities that intersect with the work of medievalists and early modernists.

Housed in the University's new Faculty of Arts Building (see photo right), the CSR has its own premises for the Centre's administrator and for graduate students and research fellows to conduct their research. The University itself has a large campus and straddles the area between south Coventry and Warwickshire. It is surrounded by luscious countryside and is only a short drive away from Kenilworth Castle, Stratford-upon-Avon (which hosts the famous Royal Shakespeare Company), and the pretty town of Warwick. Numerous staff and students live in Leamington Spa, around 9 miles to the south of campus, although several graduate students find it convenient to live on campus for their first year. Birmingham, Oxford, and the Cotswolds are within easy reach (Oxford is around 50 minutes by train), as is London (about 1 hour by train to Euston Station).

The CSR's members include – in addition to its own students and research fellows and Professor Catherine Bates – some forty academics drawn from Warwick’s departments of Classics and Ancient History; English & Comparative Literature; History; History of Art; and the Schools of Modern Languages & Cultures (especially Hispanic Studies, French, and Italian); Creative Arts, Performance & Visual Studies; and Cross-Faculty Studies. The Centre's staff includes an administrator (Mrs Jayne Sweet), a Director (Professor Teresa Grant), and a Director of Graduate Studies (Dr Rich Rabone). The CSR also maintains ties with a large community of honorary faculty and research fellows.

The CSR is well-known for its organization of international conferences and symposia. With sponsorship from Warwick's Humanities Research Centre, the CSR also hosts a well-established series of research seminars (STVDIO), which invites speakers from the UK and abroad.

International Ties

The CSR is one of few UK organizations to be a member of the Consortium of Renaissance Centers associated with the Newberry Library’s Center for the Renaissance (Chicago), and of FISIER (the Fédération internationale des Sociétés et Instituts pour l’Étude de la Renaissance). It is an Associate Organization of the Renaissance Society of America (RSA), the largest society in the world for the study of the Renaissance.

The CSR has excellent ties with institutions and universities across the UK, the rest of Europe, North America. and Australia. In particular, close partners include:Ca’ Foscari University in Venice (building on long-standing collaborations, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed recently at University level)

• Paris Nanterre and its multiple international partners through the project Renaissances
• the Charles S. Singleton Center of Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, Maryland), with which it runs a doctoral-student exchange programme

The Faculty of Arts Building, where the CSR is housed

The Royal Shakespeare Company theatre, in nearby Stratford-upon-Avon