BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.4.2//EN
TZID:America/Los_Angeles
X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/Los_Angeles
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:539@1718.ucla.edu
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260529T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260529T130000
DTSTAMP:20260527T183939Z
URL:https://1718.ucla.edu/events/ems-piechocki-zoom/
SUMMARY:Somatmospheres: Atoms\, Ambiance\, and Nascent Sky Bodies in the Wo
 rk of Athanasius Kircher\, María de Jesús de Ágreda\, and Sor Juana
DESCRIPTION:Lecture by Katharina N. Piechocki\, Associate Professor\, Depar
 tment of French\, Hispanic and Italian Studies\, The University of British
  Columbia\n\nThis talk brings into a Transatlantic dialogue three seventee
 nth-century writers who engaged with sky bodies: the prolific Rome-based G
 erman Jesuit Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680)\, the Spanish writer and mysti
 c María de Jesús de Ágreda (1602-1665)\, and the Mexican poet and nun S
 or Juana Inés de la Cruz (1648-1695). While Sor Juana’s interest in the
  polymath Kircher has long been explored\, recent scholarly work has highl
 ighted the impact María de Jesús’s Mística Ciudad de Dios (Mystical C
 ity of God) has had on Sor Juana’s scientific-cosmic poem Primer Sueño 
 (First Dream). All three writers explore sky bodies through the joint lens
  of science\, poetic thought\, and religion\, recurring to what was then a
  relatively new vocabulary\, such as “atmosphere” (Kircher) or “ambi
 ance” (Sor Juana). While María de Jesús offers a unique vision of her 
 “bilocation\,” her mystical flight from Spain to the Americas\, in whi
 ch her own body turns into a “sky body\,” both nuns focus on the gener
 ation of sky and celestial bodies\, inquiring into their own somatic prese
 nce within a larger cosmological framework. Piechocki calls this preoccupa
 tion\, which extends to a range of seventeenth-century writers about the u
 niverse\, “somatmospheres.”\n\nKatharina N. Piechocki is an Associate
  Professor in the Department of French\, Hispanic and Italian Studies at T
 he University of British Columbia\, Vancouver. Her monograph\, Cartographi
 c Humanism: The Making of Early Modern Europe (University of Chicago Press
 \, 2019)\, was shortlisted for the European Studies Book Award in 2022. Sh
 e is the co-editor of a special double issue of Romance Quarterly on the t
 opic of “Early Modern Clouds” (2021) and of the forthcoming special is
 sue of SubStance on “Atmospheres of Nuance” (both with Jeffrey N. Pete
 rs). Piechocki is currently completing a monograph\, tentatively titled Pr
 ocreative Poetics: Hercules and the Rise of the Opera Libretto. She is the
  founder of the Cartography Seminar in Harvard’s Mahindra Humanities Cen
 ter\, which she co-chaired from 2014-2024.\n\n\n\nThe lecture will take pl
 ace via Zoom.\n\nTo request the Zoom link\, please email c1718cs@humnet.uc
 la.edu .\n\n\n\nImage: Clouds from A discourse concerning the origine and
  properties of vvind\, with an historicall account of hurricanes\, and oth
 er tempestuous winds. By R. Bohun. Oxford\, 1671. QC859 .B67 *\, UCLA Will
 iam Andrews Clark Memorial Library.\n\n&nbsp\;
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://1718.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/03
 /Clouds_600x900.jpg
CATEGORIES:Lectures
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:America/Los_Angeles
X-LIC-LOCATION:America/Los_Angeles
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
DTSTART:20260308T030000
TZOFFSETFROM:-0800
TZOFFSETTO:-0700
TZNAME:PDT
END:DAYLIGHT
END:VTIMEZONE
END:VCALENDAR