Earle Havens

Earle Havens is an Adjunct Professor in Modern Languages and Literatures at Johns Hopkins University (JHU), and Director of the Virginia Fox Stern Center for the History of the Book in the Renaissance. He also serves as the Nancy H. Hall Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts at the Sheridan Libraries. Havens holds a PhD in Renaissance Studies and History from Yale University, focusing on Counter-Reformation print culture. His research emphasizes the history of the book, scribal practices, and Catholic Reformation dynamics in early modern Europe (1400-1750).

• Education: PhD in Renaissance Studies and History, Yale University

His scholarship spans over a dozen books and exhibition catalogues, including co-authored works on literary forgery and Elizabethan Catholic networks. Notable projects include editing the Information Cultures monograph series for JHU Press and co-founding the Archaeology of Reading digital humanities initiative, which analyzes marginalia in 16th-century books. The Stern Center, established in 2018 under his leadership, supports research on JHU’s rare book collections through fellowships, symposia, and skills-based workshops.

Recent publications explore topics such as Gabriel Harvey’s marginalia, Leiden University Library’s origins, and female Catholic book smugglers. His work has been supported by fellowships from the Houghton, Huntington, and Clark Libraries, as well as residencies at the Institute for Advanced Study (2019) and All Souls College, Oxford (2021).