[On sabbatical in 2011-12]
Research and Publications
Dr Rubiés' main fields of interest lie in Early Modern European intellectual and cultural history, and the comparative study of early-modern empires. He has written extensively about travel writing and cultural encounters in the Early Modern period, and about the impact of Renaissance ethnography in the intellectual culture of early modern Europe. He has also specialized in the historiography and political thought of early modern Spain, with particular emphasis on Catalonia and the Crown of Aragon.
Joan-Pau Rubiés studied for his undergraduate degree at the University of Barcelona before moving to King's College, Cambridge in 1987, where he studied for a PhD. He was subsequently Research Fellow at Queens's College, Cambridge, and Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute. In 1994 he became Lecturer in History at the University of Reading, and in 1999 he joined the LSE as a Lecturer in International History.
His publications include the following books: Travel and Ethnology in the Renaissance|: South India through European Eyes, 1250-1625 (Past and Present Publications: Cambridge University Press, 2000) and Travellers and Cosmographers|. Studies in the History of Early-Modern Travel and Ethnology (Aldershot: Ashgate, Variorum, 2007) [Students and colleagues might order Travellers and Cosmographers with a 35% discount from the Ashgate website by using the code H11ESD35]. He has also edited Medieval Ethnographies|. European Perceptions of the World Beyond, 'The Expansion of Latin Europe' vol. 9 (Ashgate, 2009); Voyages and Visions: Towards a Cultural History of Travel (with Jas Elsner) (London: Reaktion Books, 1999); Shifting Cultures: Interaction and Discourse in the Expansion of Europe (with H.Bugge) (Münster: Lit Verlag 1995).
Dr Rubiés is currently writing a new monograph with the title Europe's New Worlds. Travel writing and the Origins of the Enlightenment, 1550-1750, to be published by CUP. He has also undertaken an edition of Renaissance Methods for Travel for the Hakluyt Society.
Recent articles include 'Late medieval ambassadors and the practice of cross-cultural encounters'. The 'Book' of Travels: Genre, Ethnology, Pilgrimage 1250-1700, ed. by Palmira Brummett, (Leiden: Brill, 2009); 'Imágen mental e imágen artística en la representación de los pueblos no-Europeos: salvajes y civilizados 1500-1650', La Historia Imaginada. La construcción visual del pasado y los usos políticos de las imágenes en la Europa Moderna (Madrid: Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica/Fernando Villaverde, 2007); 'Texts, images, and the perception of "savages" in Early Modern Europe: what we can learn from White and Harriot', in European Vision: American Voices, ed. by Kim Sloan (London: British Museum Research Publications, 2009). To read this article please click here|.
The following publications are also currently in press: 'The concept of a gentile civilization in missionary discourse and its European reception: Mexico, Peru and China in the Repúblicas del Mundo by Jerónimo Román', in Circulation des savoirs et missions d'évangélisation (XVIe-XVIIIe siècle) (Madrid: Casa de Velázquez, 2010); 'From antiquarianism to philosophical history: India, China and the World History of Religion in European Thought (1600-1770)', in Antiquarianism and Intellectual Life in Early Modern Europe in China, edited by Peter N. Miller and François Louis, Harvard University Press (2010/2011); 'The worlds of Europeans, Africans and Americans ca. 1490', Oxford Handbook of Atlantic History, edited by Nicholas Canny and Philip Morgan (Oxford University Press, 2010); 'From the history of travayle to the history of travel collections: the rise of an early modern genre', in Richard Hakluyt and collected Travel writing in Early Modern Europe, edited by Daniel Carey and Claire Jowitt (Hakluyt Society Extra Series, 2010).
Dr Rubiés is a member of the Council of the Hakluyt Society, and a member of the Editorial Board for the forthcoming Oxford edition of Richard Hakluyt’s Principal Navigations of the English Nation. He is also Also member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Early Modern History: Contacts, Comparisons, Contrasts. Dr Rubiés was the recipient of a British Academy/Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellowship in 2003-04. He was a Professeur invité at the École des Hautes Etudes et Sciences Sociales (Paris) in spring 2009.
Click here for more on publications by Dr Joan-Pau Rubiés|.
Teaching and Supervision
Dr Rubiés' is on sabbatical in 2011-12 but normally teaches the following courses:
At undergraduate level:
HY114: War and Society from the Renaissance to the Napoleonic Era, c.1500-1815| (taught jointly with other members of the Department)
HY230: The Early Colonial Empires: Europe and the World 1400-1750|
At Masters level:
HY423: Empire, Colonialism and Globalisation| (taught jointly with other members of staff in the Department)
HY433: Cultural Encounters from the Renaissance to the Modern World|
Contact Details
Office: Room EAS.E500
Telephone: 020 7955 7325
Email Address: J.P.Rubies@lse.ac.uk|
Office Hours
[On sabbatical in 2011-12]