Monday, February 20, 2012

Working with Text in a Digital Age - Reminder



Humanities researchers, consider applying to the NEH Institute, "Working with Text in a Digital Age."
Faculty, graduate students, and library professionals are encouraged to apply. The deadline is February 15.

For any information, please visit http://sites.tufts.edu/digitalagetext/ 
July 23-August 10, 2012, Tufts University in Medford, MA will host “Working with Text in a Digital Age”, a three-week NEH Institute for Advanced Technology in the Digital Humanities. This institute will combine traditional topics such as TEI markup with training in methods from Information Retrieval, Visualization, and Corpus and Computational Linguistics. Co-directors are Monica Berti and Gregory Crane, Tufts University; Anke Lüdeling, Humboldt University.


This institute will provide participants with three weeks in which to:
  1. Develop hands on experience with TEI-XML,
  2. Apply methods from information retrieval, text visualization, and corpus and computational linguistics to the analysis of textual and linguistic sources in the humanities,
  3. Rethink not only their own research agendas but also new relationships between their work and non-specialists.
--
Monica Berti
321 Eaton Hall
Department of Classics
Tufts University
Medford, MA 02155

Invitation for contributions: Newsletter of the Southern African Society for Medieval and Renaissance Studies


Invitation for contributions to the Newsletter of the Southern African Society for Medieval and Renaissance Studies

I am currently preparing the first 2012 newsletter for posting on the website at http://sasmarsnewsletter.blogspot.com/. Its success depends in large measure on the contributions of our members and those interested in Medieval and Renaissance Studies. Please send me information about personalia, e.g. awards, new appointments, promotions, retirements, etc., research opportunities,
·         new books and journals, conferences, meetings and gatherings, news items that may interest our readers.
Since this is an illustrated medium in colour, logos, photographs, video clips, etc. are most welcome.
Regards
Leonie Viljoen
-----------------------------
Leonie Viljoen
Research Fellow
Department of English Studies
University of South Africa
Home/fax: 012 643 1492
Cell: 0829244733

Postnet Suite 396
Private Bag X1015
Lyttelton
0140
PRETORIA
SOUTH AFRICA

Digital Medievalist 7

Dear community,

It is with great pleasure to announce issue 7 of the journal of the Digital Medievalist, which is now available online from the DM-website: http://www.digitalmedievalist.org/journal.

This issue features the proceedings of the 2010 MARGOT conference as a special cluster guest-edited by Christine McWebb: twelve articles illustrating the wide range of aspects of our field at the intersection
of digital scholarship and medieval studies. This is our first special cluster and is published along side the normal type of articles and reviews published by DM.

I would like to express my appreciation to the contributors of this issue, to guest-editor Christine McWebb, the referees, and to all volunteers who supported the publication.

And as always: Digital Medievalist is a peer-reviewed online journal in open access (CC BY NC). Please consider your contribution to the community and contact us at editors@digitalmedievalist.org. We have
already started working on the next issue!

Enjoy reading!

On behalf of the editorial team (Peter Stokes, Dan O'Donnell, and Rebecca Welzenbach)
Malte Rehbein
Editor-In-Chief

-- 
Dr. Malte Rehbein

Universität Würzburg
Zentrum für digitale Edition
Philosophiegebäude 8/E/14
Am Hubland
97074 Würzburg

fon     +49.(0)931.31.88773
fax     +49.(0)931.31.88427
email   malte.rehbein@uni-wuerzburg.de
web     http://go.uni-wuerzburg.de/rehbein
web     http://www.denkstaette.de

IDE: http://www.i-d-e.de
Digital Medievalist: http://www.digitalmedievalist.org


Digital Medievalist --  http://www.digitalmedievalist.org/
Journal: http://www.digitalmedievalist.org/journal/
Journal Editors: editors _AT_ digitalmedievalist.org
News: http://www.digitalmedievalist.org/news/
Wiki: http://www.digitalmedievalist.org/wiki/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/digitalmedieval
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gidI320313760
Discussion list: dm-l@uleth.ca
Change list options:http://listserv.uleth.ca/mailman/listinfo/dm-l

Call for Applicants: NEH Summer Institute (Barcelona, July 2012)



Call for Applications

DEADLINE REMINDER
1 March 2012 - Email and postmark deadline for applications.

Networks and Knowledge in the Medieval Muslim-Christian-Jewish Mediterranean*

The Mediterranean Seminar 
http://www.mediterraneanseminar.org/ announces the opening of  applications for a four-week NEH Summer Institute to be held on in  Barcelona, Spain, July 2-27, 2012.

This Institute, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities,  with the collaboration of the the Mediterranean Seminar/UCMRP and the  support of the Institute for Humanities Research at the University of  California Santa Cruz, will bring together 24 college and university  faculty and graduate students for an intensive 4-week course, directed  by Sharon Kinoshita (Literature, UC Santa Cruz) and Brian A. Catlos (Religious Studies, University of Colorado Boulder/History, UC Santa Cruz).

The aim is to introduce college and university instructors to new approaches to the medieval Mediterranean (c. 1000--1500) and its role in  the emergence of the modern world. As a region whose history of  connectivity goes back two and a half millennia, the Mediterranean is currently the object of innovative scholarship in various disciplines. Where traditional accounts cast the Middle Ages as the lull between the loss of the culture of classical antiquity and its "rebirth" in the Renaissance, rethinking the Middle Ages through the optic of the medieval Mediterranean emphasizes questions of religious and ethnic pluralisms, cultural contact, transculturation, and the negotiation of identities.

This is the third program of this type organized by Kinoshita and Catlos, and follows up on the successes of their 2008 and 2010 NEH Summer Institutes.

The 2012 Institute focuses on the medieval Mediterranean as a zone of cultural, scientific, and technological innovation. The facility with which ideas and technologies traversed the Mediterranean is testament to the commonalities underlying the apparent contrasts between ethnic and religious groups. The Institute's distinguished multidisciplinary Guest Faculty examines the circulation of knowledge and shared practices through topics including:

"Mobility and Communications" (Peregrine Horden),
"Changing Christian Attitudes towards Muslim Food and Foodways" (Olivia 
Remie Constable),
"The Topography of Translation" (Charles Burnett),
"Networks of Literary Transmission" (Karla Mallette),
"Medical Knowledge and Daily Life Experience" (Fernando Salmón).

Studying the circulation of medieval Mediterranean knowledge and practices, this project redefines  medieval inter-religious interaction so that "Holy War" is revealed not as the dominant mode of, but as only one pole of a spectrum that includes co-existence, accommodation, and cooperation. It reveals that many "modern" ideas and technologies (municipal republics, double-entry accounting, neo-Aristotelian logic, vernacular literature, paper, rice cultivation, universities, etc.) first crystallized in the medieval Mediterranean, thus calling into question established teleological meta-narratives, and geo-historical 
and cultural paradigms, in order to contribute to a revised understanding of the "rise" of the Modern West.

For general information and in order to apply, see the NEH website 
(www.neh.gov <http://www.neh.gov>).

Detailed information regarding this and our previous Institutes (2008 
<http://humweb.ucsc.edu/mediterraneanseminar/projects/neh2008.php> & 
2010 
<http://humweb.ucsc.edu/mediterraneanseminar/projects/neh2010/neh2010.php>),
please see the Mediterranean Seminar website 
(www.mediterraneanseminar.org <http://www.mediterraneanseminar.org>)

NOTE: The Mediterranean Seminar and the UCSC Center for Mediterranean Studies sponsor many projects open to international scholars and eagerly collaborate with non-US institutions. This NEH Summer Institute, however, is primarily intended for US citizens and residents. Please consult the Mediterranean Seminar website's pages (NEH 2012 >> FAQs) for details.

Nuns' Literacies in Medieval Europe: University of Missouri-Kansas City



A conference on ‘Nuns’ Literacies in Medieval Europe’ will take place at the University ofMissouri-Kansas City from 5-8 June 2012. This is the second of three conferences designed to bring together specialists working on diverse geographical areas to create a dialogue about the Latin and vernacular texts nuns read, wrote, and exchanged, primarily from the eighth to the mid-sixteenth centuries. To date, there has been significant research in this field but little in the way of cross-cultural study. Full details about the Kansas City conference, as well as registration forms, are available at: http://www.nuns-literacies.org/

For further details, please contact the organizers:
Dr Virginia Blanton, University of Missouri-Kansas City (blantonv@umkc.edu),
Dr Veronica O’Mara, University of Hull (V.M.OMara@hull.ac.uk), and
Dr Patricia Stoop, University of Antwerp (patricia.stoop@ua.ac.be).

Many thanks for your help in circulating information to those who might be interested. The first meeting at the University of Hull was very successful and papers from that meeting will be published by Brepols in October 2012. The third conference will take place in June 2013 at the University of Antwerp. Please let me know of any interest, off-list.

We are grateful for funding from the University of Missouri Research Board, the University of Missouri-Kansas City College of Arts & Sciences, the University of Missouri-Kansas City Women's Center, the University of Missouri-Kansas City Women's and Gender Studies Program, and the Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship.

Donald Bullough Fellowship For A Mediaeval Historian



UNIVERSITY OF ST ANDREWS

St Andrews Institute of Mediaeval Studies

DONALD BULLOUGH FELLOWSHIP FOR A MEDIAEVAL HISTORIAN

The St Andrews Institute of Mediaeval Studies invites applications for the Donald Bullough Fellowship in Mediaeval History, to be taken up during either semester of the academic year 2012-13.

The Fellowship is open to any academic in a permanent university post with research interests in mediaeval history. It covers the cost of return travel to St Andrews from the holder’s normal place of work, together with a substantial subsidy towards accommodation while the holder is resident in St Andrews.  Previous Fellows have included Dr Christina Pössel, Professor Cynthia Neville and Dr Ross Balzaretti. The fellowship is currently held by Dr Marlene Hennessy.

The Fellowship carries with it no teaching duties, though the Fellow is expected to take part in the normal seminar life of the mediaeval historians during their stay in St Andrews. Weekly seminars, held on a Monday evening, run from September – December, and February – May. You will also be invited to lead a workshop on your chosen research theme during your stay. Fellows are provided with computing facilities and an office alongside the mediaeval historians in the Institute. The university library has an excellent collection for mediaeval historians.

You should send a letter of application by the advertised closing date, together with a scheme of research for the project on which you will be engaged during your time in St Andrews.  You should also enclose a CV, together with the names of two academic referees, who should be asked to write by the closing date. All correspondence should be addressed to The Director, St Andrews Institute of Mediaeval Studies, University of St Andrews, 71 South St, St Andrews, Scotland, KY16 9QW. Please mark the envelope ‘Donald Bullough Mediaeval Fellowship’.

The closing date for applications is 30 March 2012.

Further enquiries may be addressed to the Director, Dr Alex Woolf
(saimsmail@st-andrews.ac.uk) or to colleagues in the Institute, whose
contact details may be found on www.st-andrews.ac.uk/saims

8th Annual ASSC Grad Student Conference at UC Berkeley, Feb 24-25


The Anglo Saxon Studies Colloquium
announces

The Eighth Annual ASSC Graduate Student Conference

"Philology"
  University of California, Berkeley
 
24 - 25 February 2012

***Please remember to register by emailing assc2012@gmail.com if you plan to attend***

****

Conference Program
 
All talks to be held in 300 Wheeler Hall
Friday, 24 February
5:00 Keynote - “We Philologists”
Jan Ziolkowski
Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Medieval Latin, Department of Classics, Harvard University
Director of the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection
Reception to follow in 330 Wheeler Hall
 
Saturday, 25 February
9:30 Light breakfast & registration

10:15 Opening Remarks

10:30 Session I: Words, Words, Words: Lexical Approaches to Old English

- Dave Wilton, University of Toronto,
“You Keep Using That Word.  I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means: Fæhð in Beowulf

- David Pedersen, Fordham University,
Wyrd in the Old English Poem Solomon and Saturn II

- Leonard Neidorf, Harvard University,
“Beow in Beowulf: New Evidence for an Old Emendation”

 Respondent: Jacob Hobson, UC Berkeley

12:00 Lunch – 330 Wheeler Hall


1:30 Session II: Where Did the Middle Ages Go? The Modern Reception of Anglo-Saxon England

Peter Buchanan, University of Toronto,
“Caedmon and the Gift of Song in Black Mountain Poetics”

Josephine Livingstone, New York University,
“‘Like solid rocks’: Language, Nature and the Nature of Language”

Annie Abrams, New York University,
“‘Mutilated Remains’: Longfellow’s Historicized Anglo-Saxons

Respondent: Marcos Garcia, UC Berkeley
 
3:00 Coffee break – 330 Wheeler Hall

3:30 Session III: The Form of the Content: Formal Approaches to Old English Literature

Kathryn Jagger, University College London,
“Words for Learning in Alfred’s Preface to the Pastoral Care: Philology and the History of Intellectualism in West Saxon Literature”

Leslie Carpenter, Fordham University,
“A New English Verse Form: Poems of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

Emile Young, New York University,
“Runes, Wisdom, and Textual Transmission”

Respondent: Jennifer Lorden, UC Berkeley

5:00 Banquet – 330 Wheeler Hall – please RSVP by 16 February if planning to attend
****

 
This conference has been generously sponsored by: The UC Berkeley Department of English, College of Letters and Sciences, Program in Medieval Studies, Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Humanities, Center for British Studies, Student Opportunity Funds, Graduate Assembly, Graduate Medievalists at Berkeley, and the Anglo-Saxon Studies Colloquium.       
 
The Anglo-Saxon Studies Colloquium is a forum for scholars of early medieval England.  ASSC aims to foster intellectual exchange among faculty and graduate students whose interests embrace the language, literature, and culture of early medieval England. Currently based in Columbia, New York University, the University of Rhode Island, Rutgers, UC Berkeley, and King's College London, the Colloquium seeks to expand the resources available to Anglo-Saxonists from these universities and other institutions in the area, and also to create a welcoming intellectual community for anyone who is interested in Anglo-Saxon studies.

****

Organized by: Marcos Garcia, Jacob Hobson, Jennifer Lorden, R. D. Perry, and Benjamin A. Saltzman
 
****
For other ASSC events and for further updates on this conference, please visit the ASSC website at www.columbia.edu/cu/assc.

Durham MEMSA Conference Call for Papers



Transition and Transformation in Medieval and Early Modern Cultures

Durham University, 5-6 July 2012

Keynote Speakers: Professor David Cowling, Institute of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Durham and Professor Margaret Cormack, College of Charleston, South Carolina

The Medieval and Early Modern Student Association of Durham University is holding its annual interdisciplinary conference for postgraduates and early career researchers and seeks papers on the theme of "Transition and Transformation in Medieval and Early Modern Cultures". Attached please find the complete call for papers.

The conference will also feature a special exhibition of the Durham manuscript collection by Professor Richard Gameson, to be hosted in Durham Cathedral, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Please send abstracts of no more than 300 words to imrs.mrpdg@durham.ac.uk by no later than 31 March, 2012. Registration for attendance and the conference banquet will be sent in May.

Call for Participants: Roots & Routes 2012 Summer Institute at the University of Toronto


Roots & Routes II: Translation, Mediation, and Circulation in the Premodern Mediterranean
A Summer Institute at the University of Toronto Scarborough, April 30-May 11, 2012

Application deadline: March 1, 2012

Dear colleagues and students,

We are delighted to announce the second of three annual summer institutes at the University of Toronto on knowledge production in the premodern Mediterranean and in the Digital Age. This year's theme is translation, mediation, and circulation. We hope you can join us! Please keep reading for details on the institute, its format, and how to apply, or go directly to the application website: http://ocs.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/utsc/.

Format: The Roots & Routes Summer Institute aims to facilitate a more coherent and explicitly transdisciplinary analytical framework for Mediterranean studies using digital tools and methodologies. The institute, hosted by the University of Toronto Scarborough, features a combination of individual presentations, seminar-style discussions of shared materials, hands-on workshops on a variety of digital tools, and small-group project development sessions. Participants will explore new formats for conducting research and presenting their findings. By teaming up with information technology specialists and digital scholarship experts working outside the Mediterranean, participants will have a chance to develop long-term collaborative projects to enhance their ongoing individual research agendas.In order to maximize the potential for future collaboration and broad, thematic conversations, groups will be composed of participants from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds and at different stages of their scholarly careers, from senior scholars to advanced undergraduates. Participants are encouraged to engage each other’s materials, bring insights from their own field of expertise to a broader methodological and conceptual discussion, and begin to draw out connections between what are often seen as disparate fields of knowledge.

Annual theme: This second annual summer institute will focus on Translation, Mediation, and Circulation. Specifically, it seeks to address processes of cultural mediation in the Mediterranean by attending to the ways in which language served as a central site for the elaboration and contestation of sociocultural boundaries from the eighth century to the Scientific Revolution. Participants, drawn from Toronto area-based faculty and graduate students as well as internationally, will consider the various practices involved in the transmission, adaptation, and contestation of scholarly knowledge across boundaries, and experiment with different forms of “translation” within and between different media and genres. In this context, special attention will be paid to digital technologies and the potential synergies between textual and multimedia digital humanities projects.

Application process: Your application should include a current CV and a brief proposal (up to 500 words), which discusses your current research and a specific object you would like to present and further develop digitally. This object may be a text, an artifact, a database, or a combination of any of the above. Once accepted, you will be asked to compile a bibliography of relevant readings to share with others in advance, as well as to install and become familiar with a few digital tools (e.g. Zotero), to allow us to explore more advanced features and digital skills at the institute itself. Participants are not expected to have prior programming knowledge or other advanced digital skills, but should be genuinely interested in the potential of digital tools to challenge and transform current research practices. 
Proposals may address (but are not limited to) one or more of the following five clusters of questions:
  1. What role did institutions such as chancelleries, academies, universities, and schools, play in developing, defining, and standardizing “official” vernacular languages and in distinguishing them from other language varieties? What role did such institutions play in processes of language instruction and socialization across metropolitan and peripheral settings? How were these institutions themselves shaped by the range of (often multilingual) milieus in which they operated?

  2. To what extent, in the contexts of colonial expansion, imperial consolidation and inter-imperial rivalry, did specialized cadres—including diplomatic interpreters, commercial brokers, missionaries, court scribes, notaries, lexicographers, and philologists—develop to regulate linguistic and cultural difference?

  3. What language ideologies and practices emerged in the inherently bilingual contexts of imperial borderlands, such as medieval Iberia and North Africa, Venetian Dalmatia, the Eastern Mediterranean, and Ottoman Bosnia?

  4. How were linguistic and cultural differences objectified and mapped onto one another through a range of genres, from court records and commercial manuals to travelogues and polyglot comedies?

  5. How do the histories of premodern translation, mediation, and circulation speak to current debates about knowledge production in the digital age and the role of scholarly networks in the acquisition and dissemination of texts and technologies?
The deadline for applications is March 1, 2012. Applications must be submitted online at http://ocs.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/utsc/Selection announcements will be made by March 15. For more information about the Institute, check out the Q&A section athttp://ocs.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/utsc/RRSI2/about/editorialPolicies#custom-1 and the institute's websitehttp://humrp.utsc.utoronto.ca/ePorte/summer-institutes (which will be updated periodically between now and May to reflect the evolving program and roster of workshops). Please contact the organizers by email (rrsi@utsc.utoronto.ca) for further information or to get involved in the organizing process.

 **Travel bursaries and full room and board are available for out-of-town graduate student participants.**
 The Roots & Routes summer institute is generously supported by the Connaught Fund at the University of Toronto

We look forward to hearing from you!
Natalie Rothman
On behalf of the Roots & Routes Summer Institute organizers
___________
E. Natalie Rothman
Assistant Professor of History
University of Toronto
rothman@utsc.utoronto.ca
http://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/~rothman

CFP: 6th Annual Graduate Conference on Medieval Studies at CUA in DC--April 20, 2012



Dear Medievalist Friends,

I am pleased to send you the call for papers for our 6th Annual Graduate Conference on Medieval Studies (attached). This year's conference will be held on April 20, 2012. The theme is "Cross-Cultural Encounters in the Middle Ages," but presentations on other topics will also be considered. Abstracts of 250 words are due on March 1, 2012. Please email them to me at 
56newman@cardinalmail.cua.edu

I'm also delighted to announce our keynote speaker, Dr. Thérèse-Anne Druart of CUA's Philosophy Department, who will be speaking the evening before the conference, at 5:15 pm on April 19 in the Happel Room.

Presenters and attendees from past years will recall fondly the fascinating scholarship, encouraging atmosphere, and of course the famous medieval banquet (with Tastour's Pris for best dish!). It's a
great opportunity to share your research, and get a line on your CV, in a friendly environment. This is a graduate conference, but advanced undergraduates are also encouraged to submit abstracts.

Please share the attached CFP with anyone, especially those at other schools, who might be interested in presenting or attending.

--
Beth Newman Ooi
Medieval & Byzantine Studies
The Catholic University of America
620 Michigan Ave NE
Washington, DC 20064

2012 Toller Lecture



MANCHESTER CENTRE FOR ANGLO-SAXON STUDIES

The 2012 Toller Lecture will be held on 5 March 2012 at 6pm in The Historic Library, John Rylands University Library, Deansgate, Manchester, UK.

Professor Eamonn O'Carragain of the University of Cork will speak on ‘Vercelli as a context for The Dream of  the Rood’ followed by a FREE wine reception in the Foyer of the Deansgate Library,
sponsored by the G. L. Brook Fund, and dinner at Pesto, 115 Deansgate, Manchester.

To book a place at dinner email: gale.owencrocker@ntlworld.com, by Monday 27 February 2012.

Cost of the dinner is £25. Cheques should be made payable to Gale R. Owen-Crocker

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Cappadocia summer workshop for graduate students, 17 June - 5 July, 2012



Koç University will once again offer a summer workshop on Byzantine Cappadocia, 17 June through 5 July, led by Dr. Robert Ousterhout and Dr. Tolga Uyar. Qualified graduate student are encouraged to apply. Some scholarships are available. For more information, see:
http://oip.ku.edu.tr/cappadocia/home.

Application deadline is 30 April with notifications of acceptance shortly thereafter.

Robert Ousterhout
Professor of Byzantine Art and Architecture
Chair of the Graduate Group in the History of Art
Director of the Center for Ancient Studies

Department of the History of Art, 3405 Woodland Walk
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6208
Office telephone: 215-898-3249

Julian Gardner Lecture



Posted on request from Charles McClendon:


The Department of Fine Arts Brandeis University presents:

THE LONG GOODBYE: CARDINAL STEFANESCHI, GIOTTO AND ST. PETER’S

JULIAN GARDNER

Professor Emeritus, University of Warwick

Samuel H. Kress Professor, Center for the Advanced Study of the VisualArts,

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Monday, February 13, 2012

7:00 pm

Mandel Center for the Humanities, main auditorium (G10)

Reception at 6:30pm in the atrium

Free and Open to the Public

Sponsored by the Brandeis Arts Council with additional support from the interdepartmental programs of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Religious Studies Program, and Italian Studies Program at Brandeis
University.

International Medieval Congress, Leeds -- update



Please find below the latest installment of the International Medieval Congress, Leeds Newsletter. We hope through the newsletter to keep in touch with IMC participants past and present, and to inform them of forthcoming IMC events.

You can read more on the upcoming IMC2012 in this newsletter, as well as the call-for-papers for IMC2013. We only send out two newsletters per year – if you prefer not to receive this newsletter in the future please let us know by return email. We always appreciate your feedback, so do please feel free to suggest improvements to this newsletter, and to let us know what you would like to see included in future issues.

Kind regards,

Axel E. W. Müller
Director, International Medieval Congress


IMC January 2012 newsletter

1.      About the IMC

Entering its 19th year, the International Medieval Congress is firmly established as an unrivalled interdisciplinary forum for intellectual debate in all areas of medieval studies. The IMC is held in Leeds every July, and attracts more than 1600 medievalists from around the world every year, over 1350 of which are actively involved in the programme.  The IMC is unique in that it welcomes papers in any major European language and the international nature of the Congress is central to its culture.

The IMC comprises a four-day programme of sessions, round tables, and special lectures and is complemented by an exciting range of excursions, workshops, concerts, and performances, as well as receptions, book fairs, craft and historical society fairs, and the annual Congress dance.

Papers and sessions for the IMC are selected by an international committee of 35 leading medievalists and proposals for papers in all major areas of medieval study are welcomed.

The IMC offers a great deal of opportunities to medievalists worldwide. Come and experience this for yourself at the IMC 2012!

Axel E. W. Müller
Director, International Medieval Congress


2.      IMC 2012: The Academic Programme

2012’s Congress programme promises to be just as productive and exciting as in previous years.  With some 450 sessions relating to many key areas of the study of the European Middle Ages, 19 round table sessions and a number of special lectures contribute to the core programme and special thematic strand, we are expecting more than 1800 medievalists to attend.

The IMC 2012 special thematic strand ‘Rules to Follow (or Not)’ is set to discuss the full range of rule making, stretching, bending, and breaking. Sessions will explore a range of topics including: When did
rules transition from unwritten to written? Who were the rule breakers and why? In addition, there will be a number of special lectures at IMC 2012. The opening keynote lectures will be by Sverre Bagge (Centre for Medieval Studies, Universitetet I Bergen) on ‘Changing the Rules of the Game: When Did Regicide Go out of Fashion and Why?’ and Nicole Bériou, (Centre Interuniversitaire d'Histoire et d'Archéologie Médiévale, Université Lumière Lyon II / Institut Universitaire de France) on ‘Just Follow Christ and the Gospels?: Debates and Confrontations about Rules in the 13th Century’.

‘Rules to Follow (or Not)’ is only one of the many focuses of the IMC, and discussion and activities will be by no means limited to this special focus: over 200 sessions plus 19 round table discussions and workshops contribute to continuing debates in a variety of areas of medieval studies.

We are, once again, pleased to welcome the Medieval Academy of America to IMC 2012. This year, Alan M. Stahl (Curator of Numismatics, Princeton University) will present the annual Medieval Academy Lecture, entitled ‘The Mediterranean Melting Pot: Crosscurrents in Medieval Coinage’.

Due to an unprecedented number of deserving sessions, the Congress this year will include an extra time slot on Thursday afternoon. Activities will continue into Thursday evening to mark the move on campus in 2013 and the final year at Bodington. Please keep this in mind when considering your travel arrangements.


3.      Additional Opportunities: Events, Excursions, Exhibitions, and Fairs

Events and Excursions:


This year’s selection of events presents something for everyone to enjoy as an addition to the academic sessions. The events programme includes workshops and gatherings for musicians and singers, as well as musical and dramatic performances. There will also be the opportunity to participate in hands-on workshops on calligraphy and games as well as the chance to learn medieval harp. In addition there will be the opportunity to experience medieval food and table manners in a medieval feast.

Excursions are led by experts in their field and often give privileged access to areas not usually open to the public. This year’s excursions include visits to the historical sites of Pickering, Rievaulx, Ripon,
and Southwell. There are also excursions to the guildhalls of York and behind the scenes of the Royal Armouries and Leeds City Museum. Full details of all events and excursions are available in the programme and through our website. Although Congress participants will be given precedence, all events and excursions are open to the public, and early booking is essential.

Post Congress Tour: ‘Defence in Depth’ - The Welsh Castles of Edward I


Due to popular demand the Post Congress Tour returns to North Wales, focussing on the castles of Edward I. The wars between England and Wales during the reign of Edward I (r. 1272–1307) resulted in a programme of castle-building and strengthening that cost approximately £100 000 (more than £30 000 000 at modern  prices). Begun between 1277 and 1295, the castles remain, due to their comparative completeness, some of the most potent and impressive symbols of power and conquest constructed in the Middle Ages. Led by Kelly DeVries (Loyola University, Maryland) and Robert C Woosnam-Savage (Royal Armouries, Leeds), this four-day tour will explore the turbulent history of the borders and the changing face of its defensive architecture. Sites visited will include the castles of Flint, Rhuddlan, Conwy, Beaumaris, Caernarfon, Criccieth, and Harlech.

Exhibitions and Bookfairs:


Once again, the 2012 Congress will feature more than 70 stands showcasing the publications and other output from publishers, booksellers, and academic departments from around the world in our popular annual four-day Main Bookfair. With a vast range of publications we are confident that there will be something for all tastes.  If previous years are anything to go by then there should be plenty of bargains to be found. The ever successful Antiquarian and Second-Hand Bookfair, also returns for another year. Delegates will have the opportunity to browse the stalls on Sunday 8 and Monday 9 July. The Congress will also again host an exciting one-day Craft Fair on Tuesday, 10 July. Come and browse the unique selection of hand-made items on offer! Items range from lampwork glass beads to wax candles, naturally dyed wool, silks and linens, leatherwork, and jewelry, all made by artisans with training in historical crafts or inspired by a medieval theme. Also returning for another year, there will be an opportunity to meet some of the many groups that work within the UK to preserve and promote local and national history and archaeology. Representatives will be on hand to discuss their work on Wednesday 11 July.

4.      The International Medieval Congress Online Registration is now available.


Congress delegates can now access the Online Registration option via the University of Leeds Online Store which provides a fast and secure method of payment. The Online Store registration is for payment by credit/debit card only. A Non-Online Registration option is available but will incur a non-online fee of £15 to cover the additional costs of processing the registration. For more information go to:
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/ims/imc/IMC2012/registration

5.      Looking ahead: IMC 2013: 1-4 July 2013
         Call for Papers: IMC 2013


Pleasure is a universal human experience, but its components, evaluation, and meaning, and the contexts in which it is, or is not, a legitimate feeling and form of behaviour vary according to cultures and among individuals. Pleasure can be brought on by sensory stimulation, by aesthetic appreciation, by practising an activity, by sharing a common experience with others – or even all of these together (as in the case
of the experience of sexual love). The crucial importance of pleasure in medieval living, as well as its multiple facets, constitute the reasons why the IMC has chosen ‘Pleasure’ as its special thematic focus for
2013.

Medieval Christianity had a specific cultural attitude towards pleasure, with a strong focus on the division of this world and the afterlife. Pleasure was often either spiritual or corporeal, although sometimes seen as both (as in the mystical/ecstatic experience). Earthly pleasures were first and foremost associated with sin and damnation, and even posed a threat to health, while spiritual pleasures contributed towards salvation and a more harmonious life. The attitude towards pleasure was ambiguous: with the threat of the devil on one side, and the enticement of heaven on the other, pleasure was linked to both joy and pain. Questions around pleasure were posed in philosophical and theological
debates throughout the Middle Ages. Pleasure was nonetheless an experience commonly and eagerly sought for - in all its forms and by all social groups, in and outside Christendom. Aristocratic life is
particularly represented as a culture of pleasure in both iconography and literature. The balance between celestial and terrestrial values was renegotiated in the late medieval period, so that pleasure became an
aspiration for all.

Areas of discussion could include:
•       Diverging cultural attitudes toward pleasure
•       Pleasure in non-Christian contexts
•       Earthly pleasure versus spiritual pleasure
•       Visual and narrative representations of pleasure
•       Social and corporeal manifestations of pleasure
•       Pleasurable activities
•       Individual and collective experiences of pleasure
•       Prohibition and condemnation of pleasure
•       Chastity, celibacy, fasting, and abstinence
•       Love / sexuality / pleasures of the flesh – and their specific cultural expressions
•       Medical theories and approaches to pleasure
•       Mysticism, spirituality, and pleasure
•       Creating and/or experiencing pleasure
•       Entertainment and leisure
•       Humour and fun
•       Material culture and evidence of pleasure
•       Pleasure and luxury / cultural goods / worldliness

Proposals should be submitted online at www.leeds.ac.uk/ims/imc/imc2013_call.html. The online proposal form will be available from 1 May 2012. Paper proposals must be submitted by 31 August 2012; session proposals must be submitted by 30 September 2012. The IMC welcomes session and paper proposals submitted in all major European languages.

IMC 2013: On Campus
We are delighted to announce that from July 2013, the International Medieval Congress will be centred on the main campus of the University of Leeds, close to the city centre. This location offers purpose-built, well-equipped, and more accessible lecture theatres, a larger variety of accommodation, and award-winning catering, together with the ambience of a major world-class University. This will allow us to continue the Congress’s work of bringing together medievalists from all over the world to network, share knowledge, and discover the latest academic developments with greater scope to develop and improve the Congress in future years.
For further details, visit:
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/ims/imc/imc2013_move.html

6.      Dates for your diary:

▪ IMC 2012 Registration Deadline: 14 May 2012
▪ IMC 2012: Special Thematic Strand, ‘Rules to Follow (or not)': 9-12 July 2012
▪ IMC 2013: Paper Proposals Deadline: 31 August 2012
▪ IMC 2013: Session Proposals Deadline: 30 September 2012
▪ IMC 2013: Special Thematic Strand, ‘Pleasure’: 1-4 July 2013
▪ IMC 2014: 7-10 July 2014
▪ IMC 2015: 6-9 July 2015

7.      About the Institute for Medieval Studies at the University of
Leeds

Latest News: New Chair in Medieval Studies
An exciting new post of Chair in Medieval Studies has been advertised in the Institute for Medieval Studies at the University of Leeds. More details, including how to apply, can be found at at
www.universityofleedschairs.co.uk or by emailing <IMS-Leeds@perrettlaver.com>.  The deadline for application is 23rd March 2012.

Teaching and Research
Formed in 1967, the IMS continues to go from strength to strength. IMS research spans all across Europe, from Late Antiquity to the end of the Middle Ages, from Iceland to Africa and the Middle East. Areas of specialisation include liturgy and music; the Mediterranean (Islam, the Crusades); cultural history of the post-Roman period; mission, monasticism, ecclesiastical history, and archaeology; historical topography; art history, and critical theory. Leeds is noted for medieval languages and their associated literatures: in addition to Latin and Old English, Leeds caters for Old Norse, Arabic, Hebrew, Old High German, Italian, French, and Spanish http://www.leeds.ac.uk/ims/study/index.html. The Institute’s links with the Royal Armouries provide a rich environment for teaching and research on chivalry, arms, armour, tournaments, medieval warfare, and the archaeology of battle.

The Institute’s community includes some forty scholars from constituent Schools and partner institutions, together with a nucleus of medievalists within the Institute who work alongside the
interdisciplinary teams that produce the Bibliography and organise the Congress. The Bibliography and Congress attract international visitors and lecturers, who contribute to the Institute’s lively programme of
seminars, lectures, and a year long programme of excursions and events:



http://www.leeds.ac.uk/ims/about/events.html


The co-location of postgraduate teaching and research with the International Medieval Bibliography and Congress provides a milieu wherein students have the opportunity to gain practical as well as academic experience. Links with heritage bodies and museums enable internships.

The University’s world-class library has the best medieval resources in the north of England, and, with the adjacent archive of the Yorkshire Archaeological Society, houses important collections of medieval
manuscripts and rare books. Many of the medieval manuscripts of the Library can now be viewed online: 
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/library/spcoll/. The libraries of the Royal Armouries (Britain’s national collection of arms and armour) and the British Library Lending Division are near to hand. Cooperation with the Royal Armouries and Leeds City Museum enriches teaching, research, and career development opportunities. For students of architecture and landscape, the great Cistercian abbey of Kirkstall is nearby, whilst the castles, abbeys, landscapes, and settlements of Yorkshire itself are on the city’s doorstep.

International Medieval Bibliography: Call for Contributors


The editorial team is looking for individuals or organisations to become contributors to join its existing range of partners throughout the world. Contributors take responsibility for identifying and cataloguing
publications relating to specific subjects or geographical areas, and are rewarded with free subscriptions to IMB (online or print), other free publications and additional benefits. Contributors are sought for
national, regional, and local history in France, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Sweden, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Portugal, Serbia, Israel, Lithuania, Greece, Cyprus, Latvia, Brazil,
Mexico, Chile, Korea, and the Arab world. Thematic contributors (who may be based anywhere) are particularly sought for art history, humanism, Italian literature, French literature, German literature, Jewish Studies, linguistics, numismatics, and music.

If you are interested in finding out more about becoming a contributor to IMB, there will be a reception and information session at 19.00-20.00 on Monday 9 July in the Senior Common Room at Bodington Hall. Alternatively, contact the Editorial Director, Alan V. Murray, at <a.v.murray@leeds.ac.uk>.

Membership of the Institute


Membership of the IMS offers medievalists priority access to IMC information and bookings and discounts on IMC registration and titles produced by Brepols academic publishers. Members also receive one free book per year from the Brepols back catalogue. There are two levels of membership: Affiliate and Associate. Associate members will gain access to the IMBOnline. For full details and how to join, visit  http://www.leeds.ac.uk/ims/about/join.html.


8.      Other


York Mystery Plays 2-27 August 2012


The medieval cycle of York Mystery Plays has been performed by the people of York across the centuries and is a world-famous part of the city’s cultural heritage.  From Creation to the Last Judgement, these plays form one of the greatest stories ever told. This summer, the story of God, of man and woman, and of the cosmic struggle between good and evil will be presented on an epic scale against the magnificent backdrop of St Mary’s Abbey in York Museum Gardens.


For more information visit www.yorkmysteryplays-2012.com
Box office: +44 (0) 190 462-3568