Friday, August 27, 2010

Call for Papers: “Reading the Middle Ages”

Call for Papers



“Reading the Middle Ages”



The Graduate Medievalists at Berkeley

invite submissions for the

UC Berkeley conference on the practice of reading in the Middle Ages



25-27 March 2011

UC Berkeley



Keynote Address by

Rita Copeland

Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn

Endowed Term Professor in the Humanities

at the University of Pennsylvania


Our knowledge of late antique and medieval culture derives primarily from the way in which we read today the manuscripts, images, and artifacts that were created and read in the past. The various intersecting and discrete social strata spanning the Middle Ages each practiced radically different methods of reading, in the broadest possible sense of the term. From the monasteries where the writings and stories of the classical period were transmitted and preserved, to the stained-glass windows greeting worshipers of even the lowest social classes, each reading practice provides us with invaluable information about what the people we study may have valued as well as how they lived and communicated with one another.



This conference will take up the variety of reading practices at play in the Middle Ages as the cornerstone to an exploration of medieval culture. However, proposals are encouraged to push our modern conceptions of reading into new territory, finding medieval reading practiced in ways we would not expect, challenging the way in which we read now, and asking questions of our relationship to medieval texts. Above all, we invite papers from a wide range of disciplines, especially ones that do not limit themselves to a treatment of literary or textual reading, but instead reach beyond the scope of the manuscript page to archeology and the reading of time through physical remains, art and the reading of images, et cetera.



We look forward to welcoming you to our beautiful campus for what promises to be an exciting and intellectually stimulating weekend.



Please send 300-word abstracts for twenty-minute papers to Graduate Medievalists at Berkeley ( graduatemedievalists@gmail.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) by Friday, 12 November 2010.



For more information on the conference and GMB, please visit www.graduatemedievalists.org



Sincerely,

Lauren Chiarulli, R.D. Perry, and Benjamin Saltzman

GMB Co-chairs

Conference Organizing Committee

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Greek Memories: Theory and Practice

Greek Memories: Theory and Practice

Department of Classics & Ancient History, Durham University

Ritson Room, 27-28 September 2010

Memory, and its correlate, forgetting, are at the centre of a recent
surge of studies focused on the construction of collective
identities. In the wake of Halbwachs, and more recently Assman, much
work has been devoted to the relationship between cultural memory,
intentional history (the invention of tradition), and identity, in
ancient Greece and elsewhere. While these elements are bound to
interact in any society, the specific ways in which they are
conceptualized and function may differ significantly. We propose to
reorient the discussion by focusing on how the theories and the
practices of memory, recollection, and forgetting play themselves out
in specific texts and authors from ancient Greece, within a wide
chronological span (from the Homeric poems to Plotinus), and across
the entire range of literary 'genres' (epic and lyric poetry,
tragedy, comedy, historiography, philosophy and scientific prose
treatises). In particular, we plan to explore two interrelated
aspects: (i) explicit discursive reflections on memory, recollecting,
and forgetting as divine and human experiences and (ii) the role of
these reflections in shaping practices of thought, communication, and
writing.


Monday 27 September


9.30 – Welcome, registration and coffee

10.00-10.15 – Introduction to the conference

10.15-11.00 – Anita Nikkanen (Harvard), ‘Mnemosyne khariessa’

11.00-11.45 – Sarah Harden (University College, Oxford),
‘Self-Reflexive Memory in Pindar and Theognis’

11.45-12.30 – Peter Agocs (Christ’s College, Cambridge): ‘Speaking in
the Wax Tablets of Memory’

12.30-14.30 – Lunch and break

14.30-15.15 – Andrea Capra (Milano): ‘Lyric Oblivion: When Sappho
Taught Socrates how to Forget’

15.15–16.00 – Silvia Milanezi (Nantes): ‘Comic memories’

16.00-16.30 – Tea

16.30-17.15 – Catherine Darbo-Peschanski (CNRS, Lille 3): ‘Place and
Nature of Memory in Greek Historiography’

17.15-18.00 – Neil Sewell-Rutter: ‘Remembering and Forgetting
Cambyses: Memory in the Constitution Debate, Herodotus 3.80-82’

19.45 – Conference dinner


Tuesday 28 September



9.15-10.00 – Anca-Cristina Dan (Institute for Neohellenic Research,
Athens / Paris IV): ‘The Memory of Wonderful Sites: Some Remarks upon
Herodotean Theoretical Principles in Proemia of Extant “Geographical”
Works’

10.00-10.45 – Steven D. Smith (Hofstra University, New York):
‘Claudius Aelianus: Memory, Mnemonics, and Literature in the Age of
Caracalla’

10.45-11.15 – Coffee

11.15-12.00 – Ynon Wygoda (Hebrew University of Jerusalem):
‘Socrates’ Forgetfulness and Platonic Irony’

12.00-12.45 – Jean-Louis Labarriere (CRNS, Paris IV): ‘PhantasmaM and
PhantasmaF in Aristotle’s De Memoria, 1, 450 b 20-451a8’

12.45-15.00 – Lunch and break (and guided tour of cathedral?)

15.00-15.45 – Emidio Spinelli (Roma, La Sapienza): ‘Physics, Memory,
Ethics: the Epicurean Road to Happiness’

15.45-16.30 – Stephen Clark (Liverpool): ‘Plotinus: Remembering and
Forgetting’

16.30-16.45 – Tea

16.45-17.30 – Maria Michela Sassi (Pisa): ‘Greek Philosophers on How
to Memorise – and Learn’

17.30-18.00 – Final discussion


More information (bookings, location, programme) can be found at
http://www.dur.ac.uk/classics/events/upcoming_events/?eventno=8087
Or e-mail the organisers, luca.castagnoli@durham.ac.uk,
paola.ceccarelli@durham.ac.uk.

"Latinity and Identity in Anglo-Saxon England (1-2)"

Call for Papers: 46th International Congress on Medieval Studies

"Latinity and Identity in Anglo-Saxon England (1-2)"

Pre-Conquest Anglo-Latinity was a complex phenomenon: the choice to write
in Latin was itself significant for Germanic-speaking peoples, while
various modes, styles, topics and genres held meanings of their own which
today's scholarship is still working to understand. We invite proposals on
one important aspect of those meanings: the intersection of identity
(personal, national, religious, or other) with the Latin literature of
Anglo-Saxon England.

Abstracts for 20 minute papers, together with a participant information
sheet (available at
http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/submissions/index.html#PIF), should
be directed by September 15 either by email to thornbury@berkeley.edu, or
by post to

Emily V. Thornbury
Department of English
322 Wheeler Hall
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720

I. LAW AND LEGAL CULTURE IN ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND

> I. LAW AND LEGAL CULTURE IN ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND
> Recognizing the extent to which the study of early law has changed over
> the last century, this session looks to bring together scholars from a
variety of disciplines to discuss new ways of understanding
> pre-Conquest
> legal culture. As we have in the past, this year also we invite papers
> that examine the many ways in which law was made, understood,
> practiced,
> promulgated, and transcribed in the Anglo-Saxon world> We are eager to
> receive submissions representing a variety of perspectives
> methodologies, and disciplines. Possible topics include (but are not
limited to): royal legislation, legal manuscripts, law in/and
> literature, legal procedure, charters and diplomatics, writs and wills,
> dispute resolution, theories of law and justice, perceptions of early
law in later periods, and law in/and art.
>
> II. ARCHBISHOP WULFSTAN AND THE SERMO LUPI AD ANGLOS
> This session is being organized to mark the approaching 1000th
> anniversary (in 2014) of Archbishop Wulfstan's most famous
> composition,
> the Sermo lupi ad Anglos. As recent scholarship has revealed the scope
> of Wulfstan's activities as prelate, homilist, legislator, and royal
councilor, scholars have come to understand the Sermo lupi, not as an
isolated composition, but as part of a larger attempt to reshape England
> into a "Holy Society." For this session, we seek proposals examining
all aspects of the Sermo lupi itself, its place in the Wulfstanian
canon, as well as its influence of Anglo-Saxon culture generally.
>
> Proposals or questions can be sent via e-mail to
> andrew.rabin@louisville.edu.
>
>
>
> Andrew Rabin
> Assistant Professor
> Department of English
> The University of Louisville
> Louisville, KY 40292
>

Bede and the Future/The Future of Bede

Proposals are solicited for two sessions on "Bede and the Future/The
Future of Bede" at the 46th International Congress of Medieval Studies,
Kalamazoo 2011. These sessions are sponsored by The Medieval Research
Centre at the University of Leicester, and organized by Peter Darby
(University of Leicester), Joshua Westgard (University of Tennessee at
Knoxville), Paul Hilliard (University of St Mary of the Lake) and Faith
Wallis (McGill University). We invite proposals for papers on all aspects
of Bede's life, milieu, and writings that shed light on the following
issues:
(1) how Bede and others in his circle imaged the (short-term or long-term)
future. Themes could include prophecy; apocalyptic; reform/renewal versus
decline/decay; the perception of current geo-political events (e.g. the
rise of Islam); the threat of heresy; concepts of the shape of historical
time; and ideas about analogies between the past and the future.
(2) the ways in which Bede was received and perceived after his death.
Possible topics include: manuscript transmission and traditions of Bede's
writings; medieval and modern appraisals of Bede; Bede's impact, legacy
and perceived relevance; the adaptation and alteration of Bede's writings;
Bede's posthumous status as a scholarly and Patristic authority.

Proposals should be sent to Faith Wallis (faith.wallis@mcgill.ca), no
later than 15 September.

Faith Wallis, PhD
Associate Professor,
Dept. of History/Dept. of Social Studies of Medicine,
McGill University,
855 Sherbrooke Street W.,
Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 2T7
(tel.) 514-398-6213
(fax) 514-398-8365
http://www.mcgill.ca/history/faculty/faculty/wallis/
http://people.mcgill.ca/faith.wallis/

Found in Translation: Linguistic Evidence for Cultural Change"

**CALL FOR PAPERS***

46th Annual International Congress on Medieval Studies
Western Michigan University
12-15 May 2011

"Found in Translation: Linguistic Evidence for Cultural Change"

Scholars have long recognized that language both reflects and influences
cultural change. In a society where multiple languages are used, each with
its own cultural associations and political capital, the interplay between
those languages must be instructive to anyone wishing to understand more
fully the tensions and frictions that give rise to change, whether
religious, economic, political, artistic, or other. This session seeks to
explore the connections between Old English texts derived--however
loosely--from Latin works, to map the interplay of the languages in order
to perhaps elucidate developments in Anglo-Saxon culture.

Please send 300-word abstracts for 20-minute papers by September 1, 2010,
to Mary K. Ramsey at either

mary.ramsey@selu.edu

or

Department of English
Southeastern Louisiana University
SLU Box 10861
Hammond, LA 70402

Beowulf against the Grain

DEADLINE APPROACHES!

The Society for New Language Study and In Geardagum: Essays on Old and Middle English are sponsoring a session at the 2011 ICMS called: Beowulf against the Grain. We are looking for papers that are unconventional, nontraditional, or innovative approaches to Beowulf whose arguments are based on close readings of the text. 500-word proposals/abstracts for twenty-minute papers will be accepted until August 31. Please send submissions and questions to Elizabeth Howard (ehoward@kent.edu).

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

CALL FOR PAPERS: “INTERIORITY IN EARLY CULTURES”

CALL FOR PAPERS: “INTERIORITY IN EARLY CULTURES”
>
> The Group for the Study of Early Cultures at the University of
California,
> Irvine invites submissions for its Third Annual Graduate Student
Conference:
>
> INTERIORITY IN EARLY CULTURES
> Friday & Saturday, January 21-22, 2011
> Keynote Address by Paul Strohm (Anna Garbedian Professor in the
Humanities
> at Columbia University)
>
> Our contemporary understanding of interiority is tied to a sense of
domestic life, personal psychology, and the separation of public and
private spheres, all which suggest a model of human existence and
interaction that hinges on the delineation of what is ‘inside.’ This
conference revitalizes notions of the interior in premodern contexts,
ranging from the ancient era, through the medieval and early modern
periods, and into the eighteenth century. We define “interiority”
loosely
> as any terrain, such as conscience, mind, psyche, soul, or spirit, that
positions itself within a subject. Given this openness, we invite papers
across a variety of disciplines that investigate interiority in any of
its
> manifestations—literary, historical, visual, dramatic, legal, spiritual,
or philosophical—in early cultures. Fundamentally, we seek to question
and
> mobilize the borders between the interior and exterior as vital spaces
of
> containment and definition.
>
> Topics may include, but are not limited to:
>
> Religious Interiors: How do the concepts of the sacred and profane
hinge
> on an inner life? Can spiritual interiors conflict with one another? Do
dream visions and experiences of the sublime affectively challenge the
delineation of the interior?
>
> Interior Bodies: Are interior spaces altered in concert with new
discourses of the body, disease, anatomy, and medical knowledge? Do
seemingly ‘exterior’ changes in consumption practices (food, goods,
clothing) rework internal awareness? How is queerness performed or
experienced within premodern interiority?
>
> Political Interiors: Through what means do royal, national, and local
subjects construct interiorities? Does state power depend on
constructing
> interiority in its subjects? How do indigenous and colonial tensions
engage with sovereign interiority?
>
> Textual Interiors: Do literary works contain interiorities through the
incorporation of authorial voice, as in memoirs or confessions? Are new
interiorities modified through translation?
>
> Metaphorical Interiors: In what ways do material containers, such as
chambers, closets, or caskets, stand in for psychic interiors? How do
performed scenes gesture to, or create, a sense of interiority in their
spatial configuration?
>
> All interested graduate students, from any university and discipline,
are
> welcome to submit a one-page abstract on any topic related to the self.
For more information. please visit the conference website at the Group
for
> the Study of Early Cultures at
> http://www.humanities.uci.edu/earlycultures/
>
> Deadline for abstracts: September 15, 2010
>
> Please limit the length of abstracts to no more than 300 words. Send
abstracts and CVs to earlycultures2010@gmail.com.
>
> The Group for the Study of Early Cultures focuses mainly on fields that
investigate pre-modern societies, including but not limited to:
Classics,
> Late Antiquity, Medieval Studies, Renaissance Studies, 18th Century
Studies, East Asian Studies, Latin American Studies, and Islamic
Studies.
> We are also interested in a wide range of disciplinary approaches to
Early
> Cultures, including literary studies, history, art history, drama,
visual
> studies, sociology, culture studies, anthropology, political science,
philosophy, and religious studies. For more information about our
organization, please visit our website:
> http://www.humanities.uci.edu/earlycultures/

HIAA SYMPOSIUM, 21-23 October 2010

HIAA SYMPOSIUM, 21-23 October 2010

The Historians of Islamic Art Association (HIAA) is pleased to
announce that its Second Biennial Symposium will be held at the Freer
and Sackler Galleries in Washington, D.C., 21-23 October 2010. The
overall symposium theme is "Objects, Collections and Cultures," and
the program features an opening address by Julian Raby, director of
the Freer and Sackler Galleries; a round-table discussion on the role
of objects in the study of Islamic art and culture; six seminar-style
workshops on works of art in the Freer and Sackler collections; and
seven thematic panels with formal presentations. The symposium is
open to the scholarly community and the general public. The full
program and registration form are now available on the HIAA website:
http://www.historiansofislamicart.org/portal/default.asp?cat=sym

In addition to the renowned collection of Islamic art on view in the
Freer Gallery of Art, symposium participants will have the
opportunity to enjoy two special exhibitions: “The Shahnama: 1000
Years of the Persian Book of Kings” at the Arthur M. Sackler
Gallery, and “Colors of the Oasis: Central Asian Ikats,” at The
Textile Museum, also in Washington.

ICMA members also may wish to know that ICMA has organized and
sponsored a thematic panel entitled “Objects on the Borders of
Islamic Art,” and that Larry Nees will lead a workshop on “A
Silver Stand with Four Eagles.” Please note that space at this, and
the other workshops, is limited, and attendance will be on a
first-come (i.e., first sign-up), first-served basis. So register
now!

We look forward to seeing you at our Second Biennial Symposium in
Washington this fall!

For the symposium program committee:
Massumeh Farhad, Chief Curator and Curator of Islamic Art, Freer and
Sackler Galleries
Marianna Shreve Simpson, President-elect, Historians of Islamic Art
Association

Deerhurst Lecture 2010

The 2010 Deerhurst Lecture will take place on Saturday 18 September 2010
at 7.30 pm at St Mary's Church, Deerhurst, Gloucestershire. The lecture
will be given by Emily Howe on the subject of "Painted Anglo- Saxon
sculpture in St Marys, Deerhurst: materials, techniques and context".
Tickets will be available at the door or visit deerhurstfriends.co.uk>.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Heroic Age 13

On behalf of the staff and editorial board of The Heroic Age, it is with very great pleasure that I announce the release of Issue 13: http://www.heroicage.org/issues/13/toc.php. Also please take note of updated links pages, Calls for Papers, and other items at the main site: http://www.heroicage.org.

I would like to give special thanks to Deanna Forsman without whom this whole endeavor would fall apart, Bill Schipper for his archivist activities, Bill Hamilton and Heather Flowers for editorial help, and others who read, edited, and were patient through the too long process.

Sincerely,

Larry J. Swain
Editor in Chief
The Heroic Age
http://www.heroicage.org
haediting@yahoo.com
lswain@bemidjistate.edu
theswain@operamail.com

Thursday, August 5, 2010

In a Word, Philology: Etymology, Lexicography, Semantics, and More in Germanic.

I welcome you to submit paper proposals for the second year of my
session "In a Word, Philology: Etymology, Lexicography, Semantics,
and More in Germanic." Any philological or linguistic topics are
acceptable regarding Gothic, Old or Middle High German, Old or Middle
English, Old Saxon, Old Norse, Middle Dutch, Old Frisian, etc.
(including comparative topics), though papers outside of Old and
Middle English are particularly welcome due to the relative number of
sessions covering them during any given year at Kalamazoo. If you are
interested, please send this form
(http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/submissions/index.html#Paper)
and an abstract to me by September 15th.

The Twenty-Second Barnard Medieval and Renaissance Conference

The Twenty-Second Barnard Medieval and Renaissance Conference
December 4, 2010 Barnard College, NYC

Animals and Humans in the Culture of the Middle Ages and Renaissance

An interdisciplinary conference that will explore some of the many ways in
which the human-animal connection and ‘divide’ was imagined, employed,
figured and explained by people in the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
Special attention will be given to the multiple constructions and fluid
and tense nature of the boundaries between wild and civilized. We seek
proposals that go beyond animal figuration and instead focus on literal
and metaphorical interactions between humans and other animals. Papers
might consider texts on husbandry, falconry, hunting, companion animals,
warfare, bestiaries, fables, encyclopedias, heraldry, visual arts,
narrative, philosophy, and theology, and analyses informed by current
critical animal theory are especially welcomed.

Plenary speakers:
Laurie Shannon (Northwestern University
Bruce Holsinger (University of Virginia)

Plenary panel:
Aranye Fradenberg (UC Santa Barbara)
Paula Lee (Arete Initiative, U of Chicago)
Karl Steel (CUNY Brooklyn College)
Sarah Stanbury (Holy Cross)
Julian Yates (U of Delaware)


Please submit one-page abstracts and c.v. to Conference Organizer, Laurie
Postlewate
lpostlew@barnard.edu by September 1, 2010.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Postgraduate Work-in Progress Seminar

Dear colleague

I should be very pleased to receive abstracts from postgraduate students
whose research focuses on late antiquity (or any topic defined in the call
for papers). If you are a supervisor please do encourage your students to
take part. The seminar is always a very rewarding experience both for us
and for our speakers.

Best wishes

Stephen Royston-Davies
Seminar joint chair 2010/11

CALL FOR PAPERS

Postgraduate Work-in Progress Seminar
Institute of Classical Studies
School of Advanced Study
University of London

We are now inviting abstracts from postgraduate students who would like to
present a paper at the seminar during the year 2010/11.

Speakers give a paper of about 45 minutes duration dealing with any
subject connected with the ancient world (broadly defined), the reception
of antiquity, or classical scholarship. They have the opportunity to
receive questions, moderated by the joint chairs, from an audience of
postgraduate students, mainly, but not exclusively, from the University of
London, and to continue the discussion over wine and nibbles. The seminar
provides a friendly environment in which speakers are able to talk about
their research, take part in stimulating discussion of their paper, and
extend their social and academic network. During the past two years we
have been pleased to attract speakers from twenty-four different
institutions in the United Kingdom and further afield in Europe.

The seminar will take place at Senate House at 4.30 p.m. on Fridays during
term.

Speakers travelling from outside London will be eligible to submit a claim
for reimbursement of reasonable travelling expenses within the UK.

Please submit an abstract of about 300 words, together with a working
title for your paper, to both of the seminar’s joint chairs:
s.royston-davies@ucl.ac.uk and alexander.millington@ucl.ac.uk. The
deadline for submissions is 12 midday on 23 August 2010. We will not
finalise the programme before the deadline has passed but we will begin to
consider abstracts as soon as they arrive.

For further information please visit our website: www.pgwip.org.uk.

With all good wishes.

Stephen Royston-Davies and Alexander Millington

Institute of Classical Studies
School of Advanced Study
University of London
Senate House
Malet Street
London
WC1E 7HU

Fifteenth-Century Studies

Fifteenth-Century Studies

Call for Papers (2011) 46th International Congress on Medieval Studies
at Western Michigan University, May 12 15, 2011,
Kalamazoo, Michigan USA

1) The British Isles: Languages and Literatures of the
Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries. Abstracts to: Prof. Rosanne Gasse,
Department of English, Brandon University, 270 18th Street, Brandon, MB,
R7A 6A9, Canada. Phone: 204-727-9795; Fax: 204-726-0473; Email:
gasse@brandonu.ca

2) Germanic Languages and Literatures of the Fifteenth and
Sixteenth Centuries. Abstracts to: Prof. Elizabeth Wade-Sirabian,
Foreign Languages & Literatures, University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, WI
54901-8693 (USA). Phone: 715-256-1261; Fax: 920-424-7289; Email:
wade@uwosh.edu

3) Spanish Language and Literature in the Late Middle Ages
(including Catalan). Abstracts to Prof. Josefa Lindquist, Department of
Romance Languages & Literatures, University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill, Dey Hall CB #3170, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3170 (USA). Phone: 919-
843-2043 or 919-962-2062; Fax: 919-962-5457; Email:
lindquis@email.unc.edu

4) Late-Medieval French Language and Literature. Abstracts to:
Prof. Geri Smith, Department of Foreign Languages, U. S. Military Academy,
745 Brewerton Road, West Point, New York 10996 (USA). Phone: 845-938-8731;
Fax: 845-938-3585; Email: Geri.Smith@usma.edu

5) The Dawn of the Modern Era: Humanism and Early Renaissance in
Northern Europe. Abstracts to: Prof. Mathilde van Dijk, Theology and
Religious Studies, University of Groningen, Oude Boteringestraat 38, 9712
GK Groningen, The Netherlands. Phone: +31 (0) 50-363-4584; Fax: +31 (0) 50-
363-6200; Email: mathilde.van.dijk@rug.nl

Requirements: submit one-page abstracts (with complete address,
phone/fax, and email details) to individual organizers or the contact
person (see below) by September 15. Please fill out the A-V form, whether
you need material or not. All presentations are limited to 20 minutes.
After the Congress, presenters may query the journal s editors to
determine whether their work is eligible for publication consideration.
Those inquiring about publication should contact Barbara I. Gusick (email:
bgusick@troy.edu) or Matthew Z. Heintzelman (email:
mheintzelma@csbsju.edu).

Contact Person for Congress: Prof. Elizabeth Wade-Sirabian, Foreign
Languages & Literatures, University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, WI 54901-8693
(USA). Phone: 715-256-1261; Fax: 920-424-7289; Email: wade@uwosh.edu

Generational Difference and Medieval Masculinity (2 sessions)

The following sessions will be of considerable interest to several list
members, I think. I send it along to you with the usual pleas for
forgiveness for cross-posting. Please feel free to forward to other interested parties!


Generational Difference and Medieval Masculinity (2 sessions)
1: Fathers and Sons in the Early Middle Ages
2: Fathers and Sons in the Later Middle Ages

These sessions have two aims. First, they will focus on masculinity, which
functions as an unexamined given in much gender scholarship; second,
they will
integrate cross-generational relations into the discussion by exploring
relations between fathers and sons. The paradigmatic father-son
relationship is
that of Abraham and Isaac; the standard reading explores kinds and degrees of
obedience. When the issue of obedience is decentered, however, father-son
relationships become a framework for a wider, more culturally complex inquiry
into law; labor; the history of the family, of motherhood, of childhood;
education in the craft shop or in the home; and others. There are
also affilial
relationships that acquire filial overtones, e.g., in monastic contexts, the
relationship between an abbot and his “son,” the monk. Many
behavioral traits
not necessarily raised in scriptural examples, including competition between
fathers and sons, Oedipal desire, homosociality, and others,
nonetheless figure
into medieval history, literary texts, and iconography.

One of the premises of the session is that father-son relationships raise
questions of masculinity in which one party poses a standard the
other must try
to reach. Not every father is an example to his son, however, and the
generational advantage of age does not establish the higher standard in every
case. Two-page abstracts for 20-minute papers are invited by August 31. For
more information and submissions, please contact Allen J.
Frantzen (afrantz@luc.edu).

*TEXTS OF MEDIEVAL FRANCE IN MANUSCRIPT CONTEXT*

*TEXTS OF MEDIEVAL FRANCE IN MANUSCRIPT CONTEXT*

The International Medieval Society-Paris invites proposals for an
interdisciplinary session that will illustrate the importance of
studying medieval texts in their manuscript context. As codicological
studies become an increasingly important component of scholarship on
the Middle Ages, even in fields that have, for some time, neglected
archives, we would like to explore the diverse ways in which the
material, visual form of the manuscript page or book inflects the
text it contains. To that end, papers might focus on the ways
extra-textual material such as /tituli/, rubrics, and illuminations
influence the reader’s reception of texts; the way the varied texts
of a miscellany may be understood with relation to each other; what
the transmission history of a given text may tell us about how it was
read; the function of the book as cultural artifact; the production
of manuscripts within the context of patronage, royal or otherwise,
and the importance of patronage to the history of the book; or more
generally the importance of integrating archival or manuscript
research into studies of this period. We encourage submissions from
history, the history of philosophy, the history of science, art
history, or literature that advance the study of medieval texts
within their original, manuscript context and would thereby increase
our understanding of medieval readers, writers, and manuscript
production in France during the Middle Ages.

University of Louisville Medieval Workshop

Now that the Congress organizing committee has posted the Call for
Papers for the 46th International Congress on Medieval Studies, it is my
pleasure to announce two sessions sponsored by the University of
Louisville Medieval Workshop:

I. LAW AND LEGAL CULTURE IN ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND
Recognizing the extent to which the study of early law has changed over
the last century, this session looks to bring together scholars from a
variety of disciplines to discuss new ways of understanding pre-Conquest
legal culture. As we have in the past, this year also we invite papers
that examine the many ways in which law was made, understood, practiced,
promulgated, and transcribed in the Anglo-Saxon world> We are eager to
receive submissions representing a variety of perspectives
methodologies, and disciplines. Possible topics include (but are not
limited to): royal legislation, legal manuscripts, law in/and
literature, legal procedure, charters and diplomatics, writs and wills,
dispute resolution, theories of law and justice, perceptions of early
law in later periods, and law in/and art.

II. ARCHBISHOP WULFSTAN AND THE SERMO LUPI AD ANGLOS
This session is being organized to mark the approaching 1000th
anniversary (in 2014) of Archbishop Wulfstan's most famous composition,
the Sermo lupi ad Anglos. As recent scholarship has revealed the scope
of Wulfstan's activities as prelate, homilist, legislator, and royal
councilor, scholars have come to understand the Sermo lupi, not as an
isolated composition, but as part of a larger attempt to reshape England
into a "Holy Society." For this session, we seek proposals examining
all aspects of the Sermo lupi itself, its place in the Wulfstanian
canon, as well as its influence of Anglo-Saxon culture generally.

Proposals or questions can be sent via e-mail to
andrew.rabin@louisville.edu.

Best,
AR

Andrew Rabin
Assistant Professor
Department of English
The University of Louisville
Louisville, KY 40292

Men, Marriage, and the Family in the Middle Ages

CALL FOR PAPERS, Kalamazoo 2010 - please don't hesitate to
circulate, and sorry
for cross-listing.

Session: Men, Marriage, and the Family in the Middle Ages

The literature on women in the domestic sphere, as wives, mothers, daughters,
and in work, has contributed significantly to our understanding of the Middle
Ages. Thanks to this body of research we have not only gained insight into
everyday lives, but now also have more nuanced views of for example
power, law,
religion, piety, and society.

More and more scholars have begun to ask, what could we learn if we
applied the
methods and questions we have so fruitfully used in studying women to
the study
of men? Questions about agency, identity, patriarchy and the everyday
experiences of men are relatively new, and they are yielding fascinating
studies of men as part of social groups and in familial roles, as well as
contributing to our understanding of the Middle Ages. Men were, of course,
members of the family, and of medieval society as well as of the patriarchal
systems of Church and secular rule. How did men qua men navigate the religious
and social institution of marriage and the roles, rights and responsibilities
the family placed on them as fathers, husbands, brothers sons, or even uncles?

For this session we invite scholars studying men within the myriad
frameworks of
marriage and family to come together to further explore the field and thus
contribute to the discussion, as well as increase all our knowledge of the
cultures and societies of the Middle Ages.

To submit an abstract or for more questions, please e-mail:
marita.vonweissenberg@yale.edu.

Organizers: Grace Philip (Grand Valley State University)
Marita von Weissenberg (Yale University)

The Syon Abbey Society Inaugural Sponsored Session at Kalamazoo 2011

The Syon Abbey Society Inaugural Sponsored Session at Kalamazoo 2011

“Syon Abbey and Its Neighbors”

We are looking for papers on the relationship between Syon and any neighboring communities that influenced or were influenced by Syon's prominent role in the religious culture of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century England. For instance: Sheen Charterhouse, the royal court, local lay readers, aristocratic patrons, visiting pilgrim populations, urban manuscript workshops, and London print shops; likewise, Syon's neighbors close at heart but further afield - the Bridgettine motherhouse at Vadstena, the Bridgettine houses across Europe, and Carthusian houses across England and abroad - and its neighbors after the Dissolution: sympathetic Continental communities in the Low Countries, France, and Portugal.

Organizers: Laura Miles (Yale) & Alex Da Costa (Oxford)

Please email syonabbeysociety@gmail.com to submit an abstract or for more information.


THE SYON ABBEY SOCIETY
www.syonabbeysociety.com

This new society, founded in 2009, aims to promote the study of the history and literature of Syon Abbey through sponsored conference sessions and a semi-annual newsletter distributed online. Membership is free.

To get on our mailing list and be a part of the Society, please email
syonabbeysociety@gmail.com

We are seeking members to contribute book and article reviews, notes, bibliography, and announcements to our first newsletter, to be issued in PDF form to a mailing list and on our website in Fall 2010.

Co-founders:

Alex Da Costa, Keble College, Oxford University
Laura Saetveit Miles, Yale University
Paul J. Patterson, Saint Joseph’s University

“Proselytism and Performance”

“Proselytism and Performance”

International Medieval Congress in Kalamazoo, Michigan

12-15 May 2011



Throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance, live performances served to promote religious ideologies and practices among believers, as well as to proselytize to those outside a given faith. At times such proselytism was overtly aimed at conversion, while in other circumstances it was concerned with negotiating the spaces between two or more religious communities or systems of belief. These functions were not restricted to a performance’s text or language, but were also achieved through staging practices, locale, rhythmic and musical elements, visual devices, and other performance tactics. These performative strategies—whether subtle or explicit—could prove especially useful when contact between faiths generated conflict or anxiety.



This panel invites work that considers the relationship between proselytism and performance across the Middle Ages and Renaissance. The organizer conceives of both terms—“proselytism” and “performance”—broadly, and specifically invites topics from across all geographic regions and religions in the Middle Ages and/or Renaissance.



Please submit one-page abstracts and a completed Participant Information form (http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/submissions/index.html#Paper) to Jill Stevenson at jstevenson@mmm.edu no later than September 15, 2010. Feel free to contact Jill with questions about the session. For general information about the 2011 Medieval Congress, visit: http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/

University of Vermont Libraries' Center for Digital Initiatives

The University of Vermont Libraries' Center for Digital Initiatives
(CDI) is pleased to announce our
newest digital collection, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts.

The manuscripts in UVM's Special Collections have been
comprehensively digitized. This
collection includes 21 loose manuscripts and 10 bound items dating
from the 12th to 17th
centuries.

The collection includes books of hours, Koran leaves, three works of
Cicero bound into a single
volume, and a distinctive Italian herbal with whimsical,
anthropomorphic illustrations of plants.

We invite you to see the manuscripts in the CDI at
http://cdi.uvm.edu