The MLA is in Philadelphia next January. This year’s conference in Austin was super, and we had some excellent papers and roundtable discussions for the Old English thread. We’d really like to encourage Anglo-Saxonists to come to the MLA and help build a community of participants there. We’ll organize a dinner and drinks, and we’re making every effort to have Old English show itself as a dynamic and well-attended area of the MLA’s program.

Here are two of the sessions we’re putting on this year. Another CFP for two other sessions will follow shortly. Please do submit a 300-word abstract in .doc format to me (etreharne@mac.com) by 15th March 2016. It would be great to have a lively crowd in Philadelphia.

All best wishes,

Elaine (and on behalf of the rest of the Executive Committee of the OE Forum—Samantha Zacher, Matt Hussey, Renee Trilling)

Session 1) The Present is Another Country (Roundtable)

This roundtable, which seeks four focused case studies in total, will emphasize the ways in which Old English Literature and Language can make a significant contribution to contemporary discussions of diversity, ethnicity, disability, and other pressing issues in society and culture. Speakers are invited to present their case studies in a tightly argued ten-minute proposition. A respondent will synthesize the central themes emerging from the case studies.

Session 2) Beyond Measure

This session provides three speakers (or pairs of co-speakers) with the opportunity to present their research on any aspect of Old English Literature that is ‘beyond measure’; that is, texts or textual objects that are incomparable, ineffable, immeasurable, impenetrable, indecipherable, or that are simply outside of the understanding or intellectual reach of present-day scholarship.

Elaine Treharne, FSA, FRHistS, FEA
Roberta Bowman Denning Professor of Humanities
Co-Director of CMEMS; Director of Stanford TexT
Department of English
Building 460, 450 Serra Mall
Stanford University, CA 94305-2087
Tel: 650 723 4609
https://texttechnologies.stanford.edu/
https://english.stanford.edu/people/elaine-treharne

Elaine Treharne, FSA, FRHistS, FEA
Roberta Bowman Denning Professor of Humanities
Co-Director of CMEMS; Director of Stanford TexT
Department of English
Building 460, 450 Serra Mall
Stanford University, CA 94305-2087
Tel: 650 723 4609
https://texttechnologies.stanford.edu/
https://english.stanford.edu/people/elaine-treharne

New News!

Saxon Child Given Burial After 1000 Years


Watlington Hoard A Treasure


MMMM Medieval Foot Fungus!!


Children's Diet in Age of Chaucer


Early Medieval Muslim Graves in Frankia


Battlefield in Devon Identified

I am writing to invite submissions for the annual conference of the Texas Medieval Association (TEMA), which will take place at Texas A&M University on Sept. 23-25.  Proposals for individual papers and for full sessions are equally welcome.

All topics in medieval studies are eligible.  However, we are particularly interested in attracting papers and panels contributing to the 2016 conference theme: in shorthand, –form–, but invoking any word sharing this root.  The numerous –form– terms, though divergent in meaning, all pertain to organization, configuration, or structured relations.  Virtually any topic in any discipline can be viewed through its engagement with these concepts.  Those who wish to connect to the conference theme may seek intersections of their areas of interest with ideas of transformation, information, conformity/non-conformity, performance, formulation, reformation, or any other component of the far-reaching –form– network.

Papers may be delivered in English or Spanish.  If the presentation language will be Spanish, please specify this.  Send abstracts (in English) of approximately 200 words to Britt Mize (bmize@tamu.edubmize@tamu.edu

>) no later than August 1, 2016. Early submission is encouraged: rolling acceptance will begin on May 31, 2016, and space may become limited after this date. Among proposals for full sessions, those including participants from more than one institution will be given priority. A prize will be awarded for the best paper by a graduate student. I am attaching the Call for Papers in a form suitable for printing, posting, and sharing. If the attachment is stripped away by the server, it can be found (along with other information) at the conference website: tema.tamu.edu<http://tema.tamu.edu>. All best, Britt Mize _________________ 2016 President, Texas Medieval Association Associate Professor and Associate Head (interim) Department of English Texas A&M University

CALL FOR PAPERS

for a renaissance in feminist scholarship on Anglo-Saxon England

We invite abstracts for essays to be published in a collection showcasing new work on masculinity, family, relationships, sexuality, virginity, women, and other topics related to gender or enabling feminist approaches, broadly conceived. We encourage submissions from people working at all stages of the profession and in all areas of interest. The editors will be writing grant proposals to engage graduate students as both research assistants and authors and to enable conference opportunities to workshop projects and develop links among collaborators. Our process will be collaborative, supportive, and rigorous. The final product will be a traditional collection published by an academic press.

The editors welcome enquiries by email and in person at Kalamazoo. Please submit abstracts by the end of May 2016 to support the editors in drafting grant proposals during Summer 2016. Essays will be due in May 2018, after conference activity in 2017. The manuscript will go to press in Fall 2018 for publication in 2019.

We also invite mentors and mentees to join our community, to support and learn from our authors and editors, to serve as readers, responders, and in other roles. Please send a brief email describing your potential involvement by the end of May 2016.

Robin Norris, Carleton University, robin_norris@carleton.ca

Rebecca Stephenson, University College Dublin, rebecca.stephenson@ucd.ie

Renée R. Trilling, University of Illinois, trilling@illinois.edu

News for Feb 21

Medieval Burial disovered in Aberdeen and More Here

A Piece on Danish Fascination with Their Viking Past

The Pope's Medieval Message to Modern Capitalism

Medieval Monks' Language Acquisition Techniques Adopted

Christopher Brooke Has Died

14th Century Breviary Acquired by National Library, Scotland

Reproduction of Chronicles of Ivan the Terrible gifted to U. Edinburgh

Joan of Arc's trial began on Feb 21, 1431

So much to say about Umberto Eco....but here's one piece

New Viking Documentary Series by Ribe Viking Center

Outils et pratiques des artisans du livre au Moyen Âge

 

Au Moyen Âge, le livre manuscrit rassemble autour de lui nombre d’artisans : parcheminiers, copistes, peintres et enlumineurs, relieurs, libraires, etc. Et chaque artisan utilise ses propres outils.  Le double volume 19/20  de « Pecia, le livre et l’écrit », à paraître en 2017, fait appel à contributions pour des études pertinentes sur ces thèmes.  Résumé de quelques lignes à faire parvenir avant le 30 avril 2016 à :

 

In the Middle Ages, the manuscript book brought together a number of "artisans": parchment-makers, scribes, painters and illuminators, binders, booksellers, etc. Each of these required unique tools. This double issue of Pecia. Le livre et l'écrit (volumes 19 and 20), to be published in 2017, seeks articles relating to these themes. Please send short abstracts before the 30th April to:

 

Jean-Luc Deuffic

pecia29@orange.fr

http://www.pecia.fr/

The Laboratorio LIBeR. Libro e ricerca of the University of Cassino, in cooperation with the Abbey of Montecassino, is pleased to announce its second Summer School on Trends in Manuscript Studies, for the benefit of master and PhD students, scholars, librarians and other experts or interested persons working with medieval manuscripts and early printed books.
The School will take place in Cassino (FR, Italy) from June 27th to July 1st, 2016. Each session at the University of Cassino will be followed by a visit to the Archive of Montecassino, where a selection of manuscripts related to the session's topic will be presented.

For any information:
http://www3.laboratori.unicas.it/Libro-e-ricerca/SummerSchool

Email:
liberschool@unicas.it

___

Erica Orezzi, Ph.D.

Laboratorio LIBER (Libro e ricerca)

Dipartimento di Lettere e Filosofia

Università degli Studi di Cassino e del Lazio meridionale

via Zamosch

I-03043 Cassino (FR)

SHIFTING FRONTIERS IN LATE ANTIQUITY 
TWELFTH BIENNIAL CONFERENCE 
“THE FIFTH CENTURY: AGE OF TRANSFORMATION” 
Yale University 
23 - 26 March 2017 

The Society for Late Antiquity announces that the Twelfth Biennial Conference on Shifting Frontiers in Late Antiquity will be held at Yale University on the topic of “The Fifth Century: Age of Transformation.” The conference will be cosponsored by the University of Groningen. 

In chronological terms there can be little doubt that the fifth century is the pivot point of Late Antiquity. It is arguable that it also represents the major watershed between a monolithic world still dominated by the Roman Empire in the third and fourth centuries and the more tessellated worlds of the sixth and seventh. Whereas the fourth century is still very much an age of continuity with the earlier empire, the fifth can rightfully be viewed as the moment when Mediterranean Eurasia and North Africa witnessed profound political, social, religious, economic and cultural transformations. Shifting Frontiers XII seeks to investigate the nature and impact of these changes. We are particularly interested in six areas of research which reflect this transformational trend. 
1) Shifts in the archaeological and material record: archaeology of the frontier; art and power; spoliation, collectionism, preservation 
2) State formation, re-formation, transformation: emperors, kings, rulers; law codes; new loci of political power – desert and steppe 
3) Transformations in religious authority: east and west – tension and cooperation; traditional religion; notions of the divine; popular practice 
4) Changes in climate, environment, geography: demography, disaster, microclimates / macroclimates; resource allocation 
5) Literary transformations: epitomes, canons, excerpts; commentary; vernacular literature (Syriac, Coptic, Armenian, Georgian); translation / transcription 
6) Identity transformation: ethnicity and identity; gender and sexuality; uses of alterity – etic and emic 

As in the past, we intend for the conference to provide an interdisciplinary forum for historians, archaeologists, and specialists in religious studies, near-eastern or Asian studies, and scholars of Greek, Latin, Syriac, Coptic, Georgian, Armenian, Persian , and Ge’ez literature. The conference should open a forum for the exploration of intersections between the world cultures of Europe, Asia, and Africa and the ways in which these peoples and places collided and were recombined to launch the global Middle Age. 

Proposals should be clearly related to the theme of the conference and one of the above areas of research, and should state clearly both the problem being discussed and the nature of the new discoveries, insights, or conclusions that will be presented. Abstracts of not more than 500 words for 20-minute presentations may be submitted via e-mail to Professors Noel Lenski and Jan Willem Drijvers, at shiftingfrontiers.12@gmail.com. Deadline for submission of abstracts October 15, 2016. 

Recent Medieval News

In case you hadn't heard about Bede's World: http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/bedes-world-visitor-attraction-jarrow-10881231

And a bid to save Bede's World!: http://www.shieldsgazette.com/news/local-news/bid-to-save-bede-s-world-funding-campaign-launched-as-volunteers-stage-gathering-outside-attraction-1-7731116

Medieval Tolerance Influences Modern

Medieval Playing Cards!

Viking Worms Proving to be an interesting tale

Vyne's Henry VIII glass restored

The Sad Tale of Vellum and the Law

Hereford Cathedral Lost Tudor Cross Replaced

Barnard Castle Walls need help

Jorvik Center needs 2m pounds for flood restorations--First Jorvik, then Bede's World...what's next Whitby? Hadrian's Wall?  York?

A new piece on the Viking Sun Crystals

Sword Grip Mount Found Near Norfolk Mysterious

7th or 8th Century Village Uncovered in Gwynned

Lost Bosch Painting Found in Kansas City

Report on a Vikings Exhibit at Discovery Times Square

Hoard of Danish Coins from 1300s Found in Jutland

2 Early Medieval Burials near Sundhasen, Germany Discovered

More on the Early Church in Turkey Discovery

Medieval Boat Raised in Netherlands

A Medieval Exhibit of Discoveries from Far Gosford Street

In Honor of the Day, How Medieval Lovers Did It--er, Did Valentine's Day that is

A Piece on the Oseberg Ship Runes

A Piece on Fossilized Viking Poop

Conference: "Landscape and Myth in North-Western Europe"

Institut für Nordische Philologie, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 6-8 April 2016

Rooms D116/RiWa and D118/RiWa, Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie, Richard-Wagner-Str. 10, München

Day 1

13.30 Matthias Egeler: Welcome address and introduction

14.00 Session 1: Dindshenchas
Grigory Bondarenko & Nina Zhivlova (Moscow): Codal and Ériu: Feeding the Land-Goddess
Marie-Luise Theuerkauf (Dublin): The Road Less Travelled: Cú Chulainn's Journey to Matrimony and the Dindṡenchas of Tochmarc Emire

15.00 Coffee

15.30 Session 2: Landscape, Myth and History
Jonas Wellendorf (Berkeley): Myth, Landscape and Legendary History
Reinhard Hennig (Mid Sweden University): Natural Resources, Sustainability and Environmental Change in Medieval Icelandic Literature
Natalia Petrovskaia (Marburg/Utrecht): Mapping Religion and History in Imago Mundi and Delw y Byd

17.00 Coffee

17.30 Keynote
Terry Gunnell (Reykjavík): Spaces, Places and Liminality: Marking Out and Meeting the Dead and the Supernatural in Old Nordic Landscapes

18.30 Drinks reception

Day 2

9.30 Session 1: Landscapes of Myth and Literature
Vittorio Mattioli (St Andrews): The Worlds of Grímnismál: Perceptions of Space in Mythological Landscapes
Lukas Rösli (Basel): The Myth of Útgarðr: A Toponym as a Basis for an Old Norse System of Values?
Nicolas Meylan (Lausanne): King Sverrir’s Mythic Landscape

11.00 Coffee

11.30 Session 2: Landscape Mythology and Landnámabók
Verena Höfig (Urbana-Champaign): The Legendary Topography of Ingólfr Arnarson’s ‘landnám’
Matthias Egeler (Munich): Death and Immortality by the Arctic Ocean

12.30 Lunch

14.30 Session 3: Beyond the North-Western Middle Ages
Jörg Füllgrabe (Frankfurt a.M.): The Localisation of ‘Dietrichs Ende’: A Geographical and Mythological Transfer from Late-Antique Italy to the Central-European and Northern Hemisphere
Anna-Konstanze Schröder (Bern): Dragør, Kullen, Skagen from the Sea: Scandinavian Landmarks as Holy Places and Ritual Cues for Mecklenburgian Sailors in the 19th Century
Jonathan Westaway (Preston): The Inuit ‘Discovery’ of Europe? Finnfolk, Preternatural Objects and the Abducted Autochthonous Body

16.00 Coffee

16.30 Keynote
Stefan Brink (Aberdeen): Toponyms, Landscape and Myth in Early Scandinavia

19.00 Conference dinner

Day 3

10.30 Session 1: Fiannaigheacht
Elizabeth FitzPatrick (Galway): Wilderness in the Mythical Tales and Real-World Landscapes of Finn mac Cumaill
Edyta Lehmann (Harvard): “If we settled in the forest…”: Irish Forest as a Place of Madness, Wisdom, Self-discovery and Healing
Tiziana Soverino (Dublin): “Here, Finn… Take this and give him a lick of it”: Two Place-lore Stories about Fionn Mac Cumhaill in Medieval Irish Literature and Modern Oral Tradition

12.00 Lunch

14.00 Session 2: Combining Oral and Other Traditions
Nela Scholma-Mason (York): A Norse View on Ancient Sites
Gregory R. Darwin (Harvard): The Mélusine Legend in Written and Oral Tradition

15.00 Coffee

15.30 Keynote
Gregory Toner (Belfast): Myth and the Creation of Landscape in Early Medieval Ireland

16.30 Closing discussion

SELIM 28 – University of Vigo, 15-17 September 2016


CALL FOR PAPERS

The Spanish Society for Mediaeval English Language and Literature and  
the local organising committee invite members of the Society and all  
other scholars interested in the field to participate in the 28th  
International SELIM Conference, which will be hosted by the Department  
of English, French and German of the University of Vigo from September  
15th to 17th 2016.

The organisers welcome papers dealing with any aspect of mediaeval  
English language and literature and particularly encourage the  
submission of papers that offer new readings or perspectives on  
mediaeval English texts, as well as new approaches and analytical  
tecniques.

The following keynote speakers have already confirmed their  
participation in the conference:

Richard North (University College London)
Stuart D. Lee (University of Oxford)
Ans Van Kemenade (Radboud Universiteit, Nijmegen)
Belén Méndez Naya (University of Santiago de Compostela)

Scholars interested in offering 20-minute papers (followed by a  
10-minute discussion) must send a 250 word abstract in electronic  
format (please use the MSWord template found at  
http://selim28.webs.uvigo.es) via e-mail to selim28@uvigo.es before  
May 15th 2016. Abstracts should include name(s), institutional  
affiliation(s) of the author(s), as well as e-mail address and the  
technical support required for the presentation. Acceptance of  
proposals will be confirmed as soon as the proposal has been  
peer-reviewed.

A selection of contributions will be edited by the organisers and  
submitted to a major international press.

For further information please visit the conference webpage,  
http://selim28.webs.uvigo.es, or contact the organising committee at  
selim28@uvigo.es

We are looking forward to seeing you in Vigo next September.
-- 
Dr. Jorge Luis Bueno Alonso
Senior Lecturer
Department of English, French and German
University of Vigo
Lagoas-Marcosende Campus
Praza das Cantigas, s/n
E36310 VIGO (Spain)
Phone: +34986813958
Fax: +34986812380
Website: http://webs.uvigo.es/lvtc/people/jlbueno

CALL FOR PAPERS

Embodying life and death: The body in Anglo-Saxon England 

Saturday 22nd October 2016, Durham University

Keynote speaker: Prof Catherine Karkov (University of Leeds)

The Anglo-Saxon period is characterised by significant cultural shifts and transformations. Emerging kingdoms, religious conversion, economic intensification, growing cultural contact and mobility result in increasing social complexity. Situated directly at the centre of these multiple transformations are the understudied Anglo-Saxon bodies, enacting, resisting and adapting to the ever changing world around them. The Anglo-Saxons employed the human form on elite gear and paraphernalia, found humour in the human anatomy as evidenced in their riddles and, in death, left behind their bodies often disposing of them with elaborate treatments, rich goods, and theatrical staging. From the Germanic 'pagan' to the Christian periods, the Anglo-Saxons considered and debated the power of the human body in real and metaphysical terms. Despite immensely varied treatment, representation and conceptualisation of the body, a lacunae remains in scholarship on the Anglo-Saxon body. This represents a challenging field of discourse that can facilitate cross-period and cross-disciplinary study on the changing nature of body portrayal and perception across c. AD 400-1100. 

This interdisciplinary conference will examine and unfold the multiplicity and vibrancy of the body in the Anglo-Saxon world. Paper proposals are invited on any aspect of embodied living and dying in early medieval England and continental parallels, and from researchers in any discipline. Possible topics include but are not limited to: 

Gender, sex, and sexuality
Nakedness, clothing, and the flesh
Physical appearance, hygiene, and bodily aesthetics Sensory perception and experience Religious conversion: the pagan body and the Christian body Dying, death, and the corpse The abnormal, the monstrous, and the Other Health, disease, and medicine Bodily governance and corporal punishment Bodies whole and body parts Envisioning the Anglo-Saxon body in the contemporary world

Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words to Sian Mui (sean.mui@durham.ac.uk) by 31 March 2016. 

For more information:
Sian Mui, sean.mui@durham.ac.uk
Tristan Lake, tristan.lake@durham.ac.uk Department of Archaeology, Durham University, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE. 
http://anglosaxonbody.wordpress.com

This conference is kindly funded by the Department of Archaeology and the Institute of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, Durham University. 

Friday, February 26, 2016, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

The Graduate Center, CUNY, Room 9204 

Sanctity and Sinfulness

11th Annual Graduate Student Conference

Hagiographical Studies in Memory of Thomas Head

Schedule of Events

10:30: Registration and Coffee

11:00: Panel One – Embodiment and Evidence in the Lives of Holy Women

12:00: Lunch Break

1:00: Faculty Roundtable – Hagiography and the Work of Thomas Head: The Legends and the Legacy (participants: Cynthia Hahn, Marlene Hennessy, and Paul Freedman; respondent: Steven Kruger)

2:30: Panel Two – Exploring the Kinship of the Sacred and the Secular

4:15: Reception, Rm. 5105

http://pkms.commons.gc.cuny.edu/

Sponsored by the Pearl KibreMedieval Study, Doctoral Students’ Council, Art History Program, Medieval Studies Certificate Program, English Program

Medieval and Modern Manuscript Studies in the Digital Age (MMSDA)

2 – 6 May 2016, Cambridge and London

We are very pleased to announce the sixth year of this course, funded by the Digital Scholarly Editions Initial Training Network (DiXiT), and run by King’s College London with the University of Cambridge and the Warburg Institute. The course will run in two parallel strands: one on medieval and the other on modern manuscripts.

The course is open to any doctoral students working with manuscripts. It involves five days of intensive training on the analysis, description and editing of medieval or modern manuscripts to be held jointly in Cambridge and London. Participants will receive a solid theoretical foundation and hands-on experience in cataloguing and editing manuscripts for both print and digital formats.

The first half of the course involves morning classes and then afternoon visits to libraries in Cambridge and London. Participants will view original manuscripts and gain practical experience in applying the morning’s themes to concrete examples. In the second half we will address the cataloguing and description of manuscripts in a digital format with particular emphasis on the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI). These sessions will also combine theoretical principles and practical experience and include supervised work on computers.

The course is free of charge but is open only to doctoral students (PhD or equivalent). It is aimed at those writing dissertations relating to medieval or modern manuscripts, especially those working on literature, art or history. Eight bursaries will be available for travel and accommodation. There are thirty vacancies across the medieval and modern strands, and preference will be given to those considered by the selection panel likely to benefit most from the course. Applications close at 5pm GMT on 22 February 2016 but early registration is strongly recommended.

For further details see http://dixit.uni-koeln.de/mmsda/ or contact dixit-mmsda@uni-koeln.de.

Abstract deadline extended: Monday February 15, 2016

37^th Annual Medieval and Renaissance Forum

Keene State College

Keene, NH, USA

Friday and Saturday April 15-16, 2016

Call for Papers and Sessions

“The Local and the Global in the Middle Ages”

Keynote speaker: Suzanne Conklin Akbari, University of Toronto 

We are delighted to announce that the 37^th Medieval and Renaissance Forum will take place on April 15 and 16, 2016 at Keene State College in Keene, New Hampshire.  This year’s keynote speaker is Suzanne Conklin Akbari, Professor of English and Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto.  Her research focuses on intellectual history and philosophy, ranging from neo-Platonism and science in the twelfth century to national identity and religious conflict in the fifteenth. Akbari's books include Seeing Through the Veil (on optics and allegory), her important and influential study on images of Islam and Muslims in medieval Europe (Idols in the East), and a book on Marco Polo.  She is currently at work on Small Change: Metaphor and Metamorphosis in Chaucer and Christine de Pizan.

We welcome abstracts (one page or less) or panel proposals on all medieval and Renaissance topics from all fields and on the reception of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

Students, faculty, and independent scholars are welcome. Please indicate your status (undergraduate, graduate, or faculty), affiliation (if relevant), and full contact information (address and e-mail address), on your proposal.

Undergraduate sessions are welcome but require faculty sponsorship.  

Please submit abstracts, audio/visual needs, and full contact information to Dr. Meriem Pagès, Director. For more information please e-mail mpages@keene.edu.

Presenters and early registration: March 15, 2016

We look forward to greeting returning and first-time participants to Keene in April!

the Centre for Information Modelling in Graz is
organizing an event in the Marie Skłodowska-Curie programm "DiXiT":

Call for papers:

*Digital Scholarly Editions as Interfaces*

International symposium, 23.-24.9.2016, Graz (Austria)

Scholarly editions intermediate between the texts and their readers,
which does not change with their transfer to digital media. Over the
past two decades, research on digital scholarly editions (DSE) was 
deeply engaged with the impacts of the digital medium on the critical 
representation of texts and the changing conditions for the editor. 
However, less research has been done on the roles of the readers, or - 
as they are called in the digital environment - the users. A critical 
examination of the topic has already been demanded by Jerome McGann in 
2001, it was repeated by Hans Walter Gabler in 2010, and was taken up 
more recently by Patrick Sahle (2013) and Elena Pierazzo (2015). User 
studies are rare, and systematic considerations of principles of Human 
Computer Interaction are still marginal in theory and practice of DSE. 
In addition, the conceptualization of the DSEs as interfaces between 
machines could be intensified. However, the discourse on DSEs benefits 
from considering paradigms of interface design, from reflecting on the 
cultural and historical context of the visual appearance of scholarly 
editions and their affordances, as well as from examining the 
interactions between user and resource.
The symposium will discuss the relationship between digital scholarly
editing and interfaces by bringing together experts of DSEs and 
Interface Design, editors and users of editions, web designers and 
developers. It will include the discussion of (graphical/user) 
interfaces of DSEs as much as conceptualizing the digital edition itself 
as an interface. In this context, we are interested in contributions to 
the following questions and beyond:

- How can DSEs take full advantage of their digital environment without 
losing the traditional affordances that makes an edition "€˜scholarly"? 
What is the role of skeuomorphic tropes and metaphors like footnotes, 
page turn and index in the design of DSEs and concerning the user 
interaction?
- Do interfaces of DSEs succeed in transferring the complexity of the
underlying data models?
- Plurality in representation is a core feature of DSE. How do
interfaces realize this plurality? Do we need different interfaces for 
different target audiences (i.e. scholars, digital humanists, students, 
public)?
- How can user interfaces of DSEs succeed in transmitting Human Computer 
Interaction design principles like ‘aesthetics’, ‘trust’, and
"€˜satisfaction"?
- Citability and reliability are core requirements of scholarly work.
Which user interface elements support them? How can we encourage the 
user to critically engage with the DSE?
- What are the users of a DSE actually doing: are they reading the text 
or searching and analyzing the data?
- Can we conceptualize machines as users? How can we include application 
programming interfaces (APIs) in the discussion on DSEs as interfaces?
- Does the development of user interfaces for DSEs keep up with the
rising distribution of small handheld devices? Will interfaces on 
tablets greatly differ from those on computer screens and perhaps 
encourage a larger readership?

Please submit your proposal for a talk at the symposium until April 17,
2016 to dixit@uni-graz.at. The proposal should not exceed 700 words.
There are funds to reimburse travel and accommodation costs. Please
indicate with your submission if you need financial support.

For further information see:
http://informationsmodellierung.uni-graz.at/de/aktuelles/digital-scholarly-editions-as-interfaces/

CALL FOR PAPERS – CASBC/ACÉHL

Many Books, Many Communities
The twelfth annual meeting of the
CANADIAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF BOOK CULTURE
ASSOCIATION CANADIENNE POUR L’ÉTUDE DE L’HISTOIRE DU LIVRE
Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences
University of Calgary
May 29-30, 2016

CASBC/ACÉHL, founded to bring together scholars studying written communication in all its forms and processes, is pleased to announce its twelfth annual meeting at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences in Calgary.

In response to the “One Book, One City” campaign, which has now reached Canada, and the 2016 Congress theme “Energizing Communities,” CASBC/ACÉHL invites proposals for papers and presentations on the theme Many Books, Many Communities. We encourage scholars to consider book history and print culture in relation to the many uses of books, broadly defined, in the formation, maintenance, energizing, and transformation of communities of all kinds. Possible topics may include:
Books and communities—local, regional, national, global
Books and communities of belief
Books and subcultures / Books and counter-cultures
Books and dissident communities
Books and scholarly communities
Books and communities of their producers, such as artisan communes, co-operatives of various kinds, educational movements
Books and political movements
Books and communities of readers
Books and communities of distributors and circulators
Circulation of books in communities

Papers and panels on any topic related to book history are welcome, but priority will be given to proposals that address the chosen theme in any time period or geographical area. The program co-chairs also encourage papers that apply an interdisciplinary approach to the study of book history and print culture.
Proposals may be submitted in English or in French.

Please send your proposal, including a title, 250-word abstract and a one-page CV, in .doc format to both program co-chairs Gary Kelly, Department of English and Film Studies, University of Alberta, [gkelly@ualberta.ca] and Joan Judge, Department of History, York University, [judge@yorku.ca] before February 10, 2016. We also encourage proposals for three-paper panels.

*Please note that presenters must be members of CASBC/ACÉHL by the time of the conference, and that all presenters and participants must be registered through Congress in order to participate. For further information, visit http://congress2016.ca/

SPECIAL FEATURES OF THE 2016 CONFERENCE
* The keynote speaker for the CASBC/ACEHL conference will be Professor Massimo Ciavolella, Director of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies of the University of California, Los Angeles. This international lecture will be co-sponsored by the Canadian Society for Renaissance Studies and the Canadian Society of Medievalists.
* CASBC/ACEHL will also collaborate with the Bibliographical Society of Canada on a joint session on May 30, 2016.
For further information on CASBC/ACEHL, please consult our website: http://casbc-acehl.dal.ca/
-- 

Joan Judge| Professor| Department of History|
2122 Vari Hall| York University | 4700 Keele St.|
Toronto, Ontario| Canada M3J 1P3|
Phone: (416)736-2100 x 20593| Fax: (416) 736-5732| judge@yorku.ca

CALL FOR PAPERS: 43rd Saint Louis Conference on Manuscript Studies (14-15 October 2016)

Vatican Film Library

Saint Louis University

Paper or session proposals are invited for the 43rd Saint Louis Conference on Manuscript Studies, organized by the Vatican Film Library and to be held at Saint Louis University in St. Louis, MO, 14–15 October 2016. The guest speaker will be Madeline H. Caviness (Mary Richardson Professor Emeritus, Tufts University), speaking on "Medieval German Law and the Jews: The Sachsenspiegel Picture-Books."

Proposals should address the material aspects of late antique, medieval, or Renaissance manuscripts. Papers are twenty minutes in length and a full session normally consists of three papers. Submissions of papers may address an original topic or one of the session themes already proposed. Submissions of original session themes are welcome from those who wish to be organizers.

SESSIONS PROPOSED

Patterns of Exchange: Manifestations of Cross-Cultural Practice and Production in Medieval and Renaissance Hebrew Manuscripts

Every year we try to have a panel that parallels the topic explored by the keynote speaker. To complement Madeline Caviness’s “Medieval German Law and the Jews: The Sachsenspiegel Picture-Books,” we welcome papers that will explore/discuss medieval and Renaissance Hebrew manuscripts that reflect cultural interactions between Christian and Jewish communities in diverse geographical locations.

Manuscripts for Travelers: Directions, Descriptions, and Maps

This session focuses on manuscripts of travel and accounts of places and geographies intended for practical use: perhaps as guidance for a journey; descriptions of topography and marvels, or as travel accounts of pilgrimage, mission, exploration, and commercial or diplomatic expeditions. They could constitute itineraries, guidebooks, narratives, surveys, chorographies, or practical maps such as city plans, local maps, or portolan charts. We invite papers that examine any of these aspects of manuscripts associated with travel, with particular attention to their production, illustration and decoration, use, transmission, or preservation.

Pages with Extended Pedigree: Second-Hand Manuscripts and Their Owners

The names of famous manuscripts come quickly to mind, especially because of their association with wealthy and celebrated figures: the Bedford Hours; the Très Riches Heures of Jean, Duke of Berry; the Bible of Borso d’Este, for example. Less well-known are their subsequent owners, who may have been equally notable but have been eclipsed by the aura surrounding the first. This panel seeks papers that examine the cumulative ownership history of extraordinary manuscripts, before they entered their present holding institutions.

Open Panel

Here is your chance to propose and assemble, or propose and contribute to a panel that speaks to a manuscript theme that you have long been wishing to see explored, or investigated from a particular standpoint. We are open to proposals on all manuscript genres, from any geographical locale, on all aspects of manuscript study: transmission and reception, codicology, local practices of production, collecting, library history, cultural influence, and scholarly use.

Please submit a paper or session title and an abstract of not more than 200 words by 15 March 2016 via our online submission form. Those whose proposals are accepted are reminded that registration fees and travel and accommodation expenses for the conference are the responsibility of speakers and/or their institutions. For more information, contact Erica Lauriello, Library Associate Sr for Special Collections Administration, at 314-977-3090 or vfl@slu.edu . Conference information is posted at http://lib.slu.edu/special-collections/programs/conference.

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Gregory A. Pass

Assistant Dean for Special Collections
Director, Knights of Columbus Vatican Film Library

Co-Editor, Manuscripta: A Journal for Manuscript Research

Saint Louis University Libraries

Pius XII Memorial Library

3650 Lindell Blvd.

St. Louis, MO 63108
tel 314-977-3096 | fax 314-977-3108 | email passga@slu.edu

http://lib.slu.edu/special-collections