The History of "Fake News" from the Flood to the Apocalypse with Earle Havens, PhD

Lifelong Learning Logo Course Title: The History of "Fake News" from the Flood to the Apocalypse

Instructor: Earle Havens, PhD

Brought to you by Odyssey

February 11, 2025 - February 27, 2025 (6 Sessions)

Tuesday and Thursday, 6:00PM ET - 8:00PM ET

Virtual via Zoom

Offered as part of the Fall 2024 Odyssey Alumni Academy - courses exclusively for alumni and taught by esteemed members of our alumni community and faculty.

Course Description: In our digital age of hacking, on-line bots, and trolls stealing, faking, and confounding information across the Internet, it is often forgotten that “fake news” has, in fact, always been with us. The history of fakes, lies, and forgeries transcends human history and encompasses nearly every discipline within the Liberal Arts, from literature, art, and philosophy, to history, religion, and archaeology. Human civilization has been filling gaps in the historical record and inventing alternative narratives for all sorts of reasons: political, commercial, evangelical, and personal.

This course will explore this dark cultural undercurrent across time, exploring specific examples of historical and literary forgeries that date from the biblical Flood to the future Apocalypse. At the heart of the this course will be JHU's Bibliotheca Fictiva, the world's largest collection of rare books and manuscripts on the subject of forgery. You can read more about the collection here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliotheca_Fictiva_Collection.

Note: There will be no class session on Tuesday, February 25.

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Johns Hopkins alumni, staff, faculty and their spouse or domestic partners are eligible for tuition remission for Odyssey lifelong learning courses. Select the correct ticket pricing during registration. If we cannot confirm your eligibility, you will be requested to pay the full registration price for the course. Eligibility details can be found here.

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If a course is canceled or closed, the registrant is notified immediately, and a full refund is processed automatically unless another course is requested. Registrants who wish to withdraw from an active course must complete the online Odyssey Refund Request Form. Attach any documentation to support your request (e.g., medical documentation, family crisis documentation, etc.).

100% refund: Prior to the start of the course and after the first class.
No refunds: After the first week of each course unless in exceptional cases.

For single-session courses:
100% refundable within two (2) business days of the event.

Please note, refunds apply only to the tuition portion of an Odyssey participant’s charges and are not applicable to any fees or gifts made to the Johns Hopkins Alumni Association. Registrants will be notified by email if a refund is approved within five (5) business days.

ABOUT Earle Havens
Nancy H. Hall Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts, Director of the Virginia Fox Stern Center for the History of the Book in the Renaissance, and Adjunct Professor of Modern Languages and Literatures at Johns Hopkins University

Dr. Earle Havens is Nancy H. Hall Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts, director of the Virginia Fox Stern Center for the History of the Book in the Renaissance, and an adjunct professor of modern languages and literature at Johns Hopkins University. His academic teaching and published scholarship focus on the history of the book and material texts in early modern Europe, from 1400 to 1750.

Dr. Havens has authored, co-authored, and edited thirteen scholarly books and exhibition catalogues, and dozens of journal articles and book chapters, including Fakes, Lies, and Forgeries: Rare Books and Manuscripts from the Arthur and Janet Freeman Bibliotheca Fictiva Collection (Sheridan Libraries, 2014; 2nd ed. rev., 2016); and (with Walter Stephens, Literary Forgery in Early Modern Europe, 1450-1800 (JHU Press, 2018). He is currently co-editing several books, including with Mark Rankin, The Elizabethan Catholic Underground: Clandestine Printing and Scribal Subversion in the English Counter-Reformation (forthcoming with Brill); and with Erin Rowe and Kelsey Champagne, Women of the Book: The Spiritual Lives of Early Modern Women, 1450-1800 (forthcoming with the Pennsylvania State University Press). In Spring 2024 he once again taught his popular undergraduate seminar, “The History of Fake News from the Flood to the Apocalypse.”

Dr. Havens earned an interdisciplinary joint-PhD in Renaissance Studies and History from Yale University.

Event Date
Starts:
Tuesday, February 11, 2025
6:00pm EST

Ends:
Thursday, February 27, 2025
8:00pm EST

Contact
Odyssey
1-800-JHU-JHU1 (548-5481)
odyssey@jhu.edu

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	JHU Alumni (all divisions) 80% discount. Alumni status will be confirmed	$

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JHU Alumni (all divisions) ($48.00)

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