Northern Plains Conference on Early British Literature

 

The 30th Annual Meeting of the Northern Plains Conference on Early British Literature will be held April 14th & 15th 2023 in the Bangsberg Fine Arts Complex on the beautiful campus of Bemidji State University, Bemidji MN. 

Dr. Richard McCoy, Distinguished Professor, English and Distinguished Professor, Global Early Modern Studies, Emeritus, of Queens College and CUNY Graduate Center, will present our keynote address, “Shakespeare’s Boy Heroines.” 

The organizers invite faculty, graduate students, and independent scholars to submit a one-page proposal for twenty-minute presentations on all aspects of teaching, interpretation, and research concerning early British literature by 31 March 2023. 

 Email proposals to stephen.hamrick@bemidjistate.edu 

 Information & Registration can be accessed via npcebl.org 

 

 43^rd Annual Medieval and Renaissance Forum:  

Touch and Affect in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance  

Keene State College  

Keene, NH, USA 

Friday and Saturday April 14-15, 2023 

  

Call for Papers and Sessions 

We are delighted to announce that the 43^rd Medieval and Renaissance Forum will take place in person on Friday, April 14 and Saturday April 15, 2023 at Keene State College in Keene, New Hampshire. The theme of this year’s conference, our fifth dedicated to the five senses, is Touch and Affect in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, focusing on the sense of touch, the sensory, and affect. As always, we also welcome papers on any and every topic related to the Middle Ages or the Renaissance as well as papers on medievalism.   

 

While we plan to hold the 43^rd Annual Medieval and Renaissance Forum in person with a limited number of virtual presentations, the entire event may have to be moved online should the safety of our participants require it. 

 

We welcome abstracts (one page or less) from faculty, students, and independent scholars. Please include in your proposal: 1. a title for your paper, 2. your status (faculty, graduate, undergraduate, or independent scholar), 3. your affiliation (if relevant), and 4. full contact information, including email address. If you are an undergraduate student we ask that you obtain a faculty member's approval and sponsorship.

 

Graduate students are eligible for consideration for the South Wind Graduate Student Paper Award upon submission of their essays by April 1, 2023. The winner of the South Wind Graduate Student Paper Award will win $100 to be used for registration and/or travel expenses to the 44^th Annual Medieval and Renaissance Forum (travel expenses including but not limited to transportation to and from the conference and accommodations while in Keene). The winner of the South Wind Graduate Student Paper Award will be announced at lunch on Friday, April 14, 2023.  

 

Please submit abstracts and full contact information on the google form available at:  

https://forms.gle/SBLxvi9nVXzc2tt66 

This year’s keynote speaker is Lauren Mancia, Associate Professor of History at Brooklyn College, who will speak on “(Reach Out and) Touch Medieval Monastic Devotion.”  

 

Dr. Mancia focuses her research on the devotional and material culture of medieval European monasteries in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. More recently, Professor Mancia has turned to the field of performance studies both to better understand medieval European monastic devotion and to innovate ways to perform that understanding for contemporary audiences. Professor Mancia’s first book, Emotional Monasticism: Affective Piety in the Eleventh-Century Monastery of John of Fécamp (2019/paper 2021), sheds light on medieval monastic practices of affective piety. Her second book, Meditation and Prayer in the Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Monastery: Struggling Toward God is forthcoming in Spring 2023 from ARC Humanities/Amsterdam University Press. 

Abstract deadline: January 15, 2023 

 

Presenters and early registration: March 15, 2023 

 

As always, we look forward to greeting returning and first-time participants to Keene in April! 

 International Anchoritic Society Conference Call for Papers July 2023

 

Conference hosted by Marymount Manhattan College in New York City, July 26-29, 2023. These dates are inclusive of the conference excursion.

 

Theme: Anchorites and the City (broadly interpreted)

 

Anchorholds were located at key points in a village or city. Many of them were built contiguous to church walls. Still others were built into city walls, especially by bridges and gates. In this manner, anchorites themselves were often situated at the heart of political, social, and religious networks within their own city and beyond.

 

Papers could explore networks of prayer, communal interaction, parish responsibilities, archaeological structure of cells, political maneuvering between locations and anchorites, or any other topic that sees anchorites as connected to the local community at hand rather than the larger sphere of the Church or country. In other words, “anchorites and the city” is loosely interpreted, and we encourage you to submit anything for consideration. In fact, we especially encourage papers on post-medieval anchorites.

 

And, as always, we accept papers on hermits and other reclusive and/or enclosed religious figures in any world religion. 

 

Keynote speakers: Liz Herbert McAvoy and Michelle M. Sauer speaking on “post-medieval anchorites.”

 

Please send abstracts of 200-250 words to iasconference@gmail.com

 Deadline January 1, 2023

 Conference: Multilingual Literary Practices In A Multicultural World, From Archaic Greece To The Byzantine Empire

November 14, 2023 - November 15, 2023

BELGIAN ACADEMY IN ROME

https://classics.ufl.edu/event/conference-multilingual-literary-practices-in-a-multicultural-world-from-archaic-greece-to-the-byzantine-empire/

CALL FOR PAPERS
Multilingualism in the ancient world has been of great interest to linguists and literary scholars alike. Linguists investigate borrowings and structural convergences between two or more languages and explore broader sociolinguistic questions such as regional diversi­fication and linguistic ideologies (e.g.  Adams et al. 2002; Bentein 2016; Clackson et al. 2020; Hogeterp 2018; Kaimio 1979). Literary scholars look into the socio-cultural context within which literary works were produced and received and the linguistic background that Greek-speaking and writing authors had – including the linguistic norms and stan­dards that they tried to uphold in the Greek language itself – framing it in the broader question of (the struggle for) cultural identity (Adams 2020; Andrade 2013; Bozia 2018; Goldhill 2011, Lee at al. 2014). For both research strands, Archaic Greek dialectal variety and its literary manifestations, as well as multidialectal and multilingual contacts in Classical Greek, have been of interest. Similarly, the Post-classical period (including the Hellenistic, Roman, and Late Antique periods) has been of particular relevance as a time of parti­cularly intense language contact.

Scholars working in these two research strands tend to focus on different types of sources – literary and non-literary sources such as papyri and inscriptions – and adopt different methodologies, focusing on different types of research questions. The main aim of this conference is to bring together researchers, methodologies, and sources with the objective of developing a more integrated ap­proach toward multi­lingual practices in various ways:

• by developing a diachronic approach to the study of Greek and its contact languages, from the Archaic to the Byzantine period,
• by including types of sources traditionally neglected, such as translations and bilingual metalinguistic sources like grammars & dictionaries,
• by situating multilingual literature in its socio-cultural context, looking at people with multilingual competencies, the intellectual communities in which they operated, and the factors driving particular linguistic and literary choices,
• by integrating new theoretical approaches, such as cognitive and socio-pragmatic ones, to create a framework for the study of multilingualism in the ancient Greek world.
• The general goal of the conference is to understand better what the linguistic repertoire of multilingual speakers and writers looked like, how and why writers brought together features (ranging from specific linguistic patterns to larger and more abstract cultural forms such as genres) from different cultural traditions, and what the intended effect was, or, vice versa, why they consciously resisted them. Importantly, under ‘multilingual competencies,’ we also understand the existence of different linguistic registers and dialects inside a single language. Finally, the conference focuses on literary sources, but it is also interested in overlaps with genres that have traditionally been defined as ‘non-literary,’ a distinction that recent research has problematized (e.g., Fournet 2013).

TOPICS MAY INCLUDE BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO THE FOLLOWING:

• Systematic studies of multilingualism in the ancient Greek and Byzantine worlds:
  • Cognitive and socio-pragmatic approaches to ancient Greek, its evolution, and contact languages
  • (Re)-definitions and applications of concepts of linguistics and sociolinguistics on Greek linguistic competencies
• Consideration of different forms of multilingualism (translations, “errors” in translations, lexica, etc.)
• Studies of linguistic varieties in different literary genres (such as dialectal varieties) as forms of multilingualism
• Analysis of multilingual lexica/grammars
• Studies of private writings and others meant for public consumption to determine levels of multilingualism
• Considerations of multilingualism in literature in conjunction with multiculturalism (lexical and social variations, multilingual literary practices alongside multicultural ones)
• Insights into the reception of ancient texts through translations.

A thematic issue with selected contributions will be published by The Journal of Literary Multilingualism. Leiden: Brill.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:
JAMES CLACKSON, University of Cambridge
MARK JANSE, Ghent University
ARIETTA PAPACONSTANTINOU, University of Reading

Interested scholars are invited to submit proposals (500 words max) by December 15th, 2022 to Eleni Bozia (bozia@ufl.edu), Klaas Bentein (Klaas.Bentein@UGent.be), and Chiara Monaco (Chiara.Monaco@UGent.be).

REFERENCES
Adams, J. N., Mark Janse, and Simon Swain. 2002. Bilingualism in Ancient Society: Language Contact and the Written Text. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press.

Adams, Sean. 2020. Greek Genres and Jewish Authors. Negotiating Literary Culture in the Greco-Roman Era. Baylor University Press.

Andrade, Nathanael J. 2013. Syrian Identity in the Greco-Roman World. Greek Culture in the Roman World. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Bentein, Klaas. 2016. Verbal Periphrasis in Ancient Greek: Have- and Be-Constructions. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Bozia, Eleni. 2018. “Immigration as acculturation: voluntary displacement in the Roman Empire.” In D. Arroyo (ed.) Displacement in language, Literature and Culture – 2016 CMLL Symposium, Selected Proceedings. Benalmádena, Málaga, Spain. 49-82.

Clackson, J., Patrick James, Katherine McDonald, Livia Tagliapetra, and Nicholas Zair. (eds.) 2020. Migration, Mobility, and Language Contact in and around the Ancient Mediterranean. Cambridge University Press.

Fournet, Jean-Luc. 2013. “Culture Grecque et Document Dans l’Égypte de l’Antiquité Tardive.” Journal of Juristic Papyrology 43: 135–62.

Goldhill, Simon. 2011. Being Greek under Rome. Cambridge, GBR: Cambridge University Press.

Hogeterp, Albert L. A. 2018. Semitisms in Luke’s Greek: A Descriptive Analysis of Lexical and Syntactical Domains of Semitic Language Influence in Luke’s Gospel. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen Zum Neuen Testament 401. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.

Kaimio, Jorma. 1979. “The Romans and the Greek Language.” Commentationes Humanarum Litterarum 64: 1–379.

Lee, B.T., Ellen Finkelpearl, and Luca Graverini (eds.) 2014. Apuleius and Africa. Routledge.

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE:
ELENI BOZIA, University of Florida
KLAAS BENTEIN, Ghent University
CHIARA MONACO, Ghent University

 CALL FOR PAPERS

Tenth Annual Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies
June 12-14, 2023
Saint Louis University
St. Louis, Missouri 

 

The Tenth Annual Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies (June 12-14, 2023) is a convenient summer venue in North America for scholars to present papers, organize sessions, participate in roundtables, and engage in interdisciplinary discussion. The goal of the Symposium is to promote serious scholarly investigation into all topics and in all disciplines of medieval and Renaissance studies.

The plenary speakers for this year will be Uta-Renate Blumenthal, of the Catholic University of America, and Lia Markey, of the Newberry Library, Chicago.

The Symposium is held annually on the beautiful midtown St. Louis campus of Saint Louis University. On campus housing options include affordable, air-conditioned apartments as well as a more luxurious hotel. Inexpensive meal plans are also available, although there is a wealth of restaurants, bars, and cultural venues within easy walking distance of campus.

While attending the Symposium, participants are free to use the Vatican Film Library, the Rare Books Division, and the general collection at Saint Louis University's Pius XII Memorial Library. These collections offer access to tens of thousands of medieval and early modern manuscripts on microfilm as well as strong holdings in medieval and Renaissance history, literature, languages, manuscript studies, theology, philosophy, and canon law. The Jesuit Archives & Research Center is adjacent to the university and also accessible to Symposium attendees.

The Tenth Annual Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies invites proposals for papers, complete sessions, and roundtables. Any topics regarding the scholarly investigation of the medieval and early modern world are welcome. Papers are normally twenty minutes each and sessions are scheduled for ninety minutes. Scholarly organizations are especially encouraged to sponsor proposals for complete sessions, and organizing at least two sessions in coordination with each other is highly recommended.

Submission are currently open and the deadline for all proposals is December 31, 2022. Decisions will be made by the end of January and the final program will be published in March.

For more information or to submit your proposal online go to: https://www.smrs-slu.org/. 

 International Anchoritic Society Conference Call for Papers July 2023

 

Conference hosted by Marymount Manhattan College in New York City, July 26-29, 2023. These dates are inclusive of the conference excursion.

 

Theme: Anchorites and the City

 

Anchorholds were located at key points in a village or city. Many of them were built contiguous to church walls. Still others were built into city walls, especially by bridges and gates. In this manner, anchorites themselves were often situated at the heart of political, social, and religious networks within their own city and beyond.

 

Papers could explore networks of prayer, communal interaction, parish responsibilities, archaeological structure of cells, political maneuvering between locations and anchorites, or any other topic that sees anchorites as connected to the local community at hand rather than the larger sphere of the Church or country. In other words, anchorites and the city is loosely interpreted, and we encourage you to submit anything for consideration.

 

Keynote speakers: Liz Herbert McAvoy and Michelle M. Sauer

 

Please send abstracts of 200-250 words to iasconference@gmail.com

 

Deadline November 1, 2022

 Literary, religious and manuscript cultures of the German-speaking lands: a symposium in memory of Nigel F. Palmer (1946-2022)

When: 19/20 May 2023

Where: Oxford, Bodleian Library, Taylor Institution Library, St Edmund Hall

To celebrate the life and scholarship of Nigel F. Palmer, Professor of German Medieval Literary and Linguistic Studies at the University of Oxford, we invite expressions of interest from those who wish to honour his memory with an academic contribution to speak at a symposium in Oxford that is to take place 19-20 May 2023. Presentations of twenty minutes’ length are sought. They should speak to an aspect of the wide spectrum of Nigel’s intellectual interests, which ranged extensively within the broad scope of the literary and religious history of the German- and Dutch-speaking lands, treating Latin alongside the vernaculars, the early printed book alongside the manuscript, and the court and the city alongside the monastery and the convent. His primary intellectual contributions were methodological rather than theoretical, and he brought together a study of the book as a material object with the philological and linguistic discipline of the Germanophone academic tradition.

The first session planned for the afternoon of Friday 19 May will take place consequently in the Weston Library, and will consider the manuscript cultures of the German-speaking lands; presentations may take a workshop format, and may – though need not – focus upon one or more manuscripts in the Bodleian collections. The second and third sessions will take place on Saturday 20 May in the Taylorian Library, and will consider the religious and literary history of the German-speaking lands in relation to the questions, issues and working methods central to Nigel’s published scholarship.

We would request expressions of interest, of not more than one full page, to be received by 11 November 2022, to be sent to Stephen Mossman. We ask in advance for the understanding of all who submit that we anticipate receiving many more expressions of interest than we can accommodate within the schedule. A reception will be held at St Edmund Hall on the Saturday afternoon, to which all are cordially invited and welcome, followed by a dinner in College. Those planning to attend are advised to reserve accommodation in good time, e.g. via universityrooms. We hope to secure funding to support early career researchers in attending the symposium, but anticipate that participants will need to cover their travel and accommodation expenses. Details of the symposium and registration will be available through the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages web-site in early 2023.

For the organising committee: Racha Kirakosian, Henrike Lähnemann, Stephen Mossman, Almut Suerbaum