As an early modernist with an interest in the transformations brought about by Europe’s mercantile and colonial expansion—what has come to be called “the global Renaissance”—I pursue a research agenda that crosses disciplinary and territorial borders. I teach and write not only about European literatures and cultures, but also about the ways these literatures and cultures were transformed by cross-cultural encounters in both Asia and the Americas. My research builds on frameworks derived from history and anthropology as well as from literary criticism, moving among literary works, archival sources, and material artifacts.