Censorship from the Inquisition to the Present

Course Description

Many sessions will focus on censorship in early modern Europe, including the Inquisition and its practices, the impact of the printing press, the economic incentives and profit motives which shaped the entangled histories of censorship and copyright law, and traditions of clandestine literature in the Renaissance and Enlightenment. Some sessions will jump forward to compare patterns revealed by early modern censorship to modern examples ranging from internet censorship and videogames to document destruction and library book challenges, with special attention to wartime censorship, comic books, digital-rights management, and free speech on our own campus. Patterns in the recurring activities and goals of censoring bodies over time and space reveal the motives which lead people to support censorship, even in cultures that claim to value free expression.

Faculty

Ada Palmer

Ada Palmer is a historian focusing on the history of censorship and radical thought. Her current research treats censorship and radical heterodoxy, especially the ways censorship evolves and changes during …

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Course History