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| Taking the aerial view... Photo by Rennett Stowe |
One of the biggest conferences on
Reformation history, the Reformation Studies Colloquium, is coming up this
week, in Durham Danzig :
Reversing an Urban Reformation in 1526).
It’s not uncommon, at conference coffee
breaks, to hear people grumbling about the impossibility of doing justice to their
current research in a mere 20 minutes, as if this requirement were
fundamentally unjust. I’m of the firm view that any argument or episode can be
condensed into 20 minutes (or even rather less). It’s an excellent discipline
for historians at any stage of their career. That’s not to say that it’s easy
but, like a visit to the dentist, it’s probably very good for you. Writing this
paper has, as ever, mercilessly forced me to sift out the very important
details from the ‘interesting but less important’ ones, and to undertake the
painful process of pinning down in 2-3 clear sentences what I’ve found in 5
months of research on this topic, and why those findings might be important /
worthwhile. Writing the short conference paper also means I can look back at the 30-page
chapter itself afresh, and see more clearly its structural underpinnings – like an archaeologist doing an aerial site-survey.
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