Shakespeare in Education: the BSA Education Network is the newly launched open news and discussion forum hosted by the British Shakespeare Association. Shakespeare in Education will act as a hub, linking existing sites and blogs dealing with Shakespeare in education and extending opportunities for networking ideas and information.

All readers are welcome to post responses and comments on the articles, and to contribute their own articles. The administrators of Shakespeare in Education are particularly keen to enlist authors with special interests in teaching Shakespeare.

For more details on how to contribute visit the website: http://shakespeareineducation.com/

Abbey Medieval Festival
Caboolture, Country Valleys, QLD
7-8 July, 2012
Festival Website

Step back in time at The Abbey Medieval Festival, Australia’s largest medieval festival that commences with the Abbey Medieval Banquet will be on the 30 June 2012, and ends with the Abbey Medieval Tournament. A special Kids Medieval Fun Day is on 4 July 2012 for all children up to the age of 12.

Discover jousting and skill at arms, watch combatants taking up armour in front of the castle, Turkish oil wrestling, dancing and sample fine medieval cuisine and crafts.

Immerse yourself in medieval culture amongst the colourful encampments from Viking Raiders and traders, Middle Eastern warriors and nomads, nobles and peasants from great European Households.

A short drive from both Brisbane and the Sunshine coast during Queensland and New South Wales school holidays makes it an ideal activity for families in July.

For more information about the festival, including ticket pricing and booking visit the festival website: http://abbeytournament.com

This may be of interest to members, particularly those not currently affiliated with a university.

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Register & Read Beta is a new, experimental program to offer free, read-online access to individual scholars and researchers who register for a MyJSTOR account. Register & Read follows the release of the Early Journal Content as the next step in our efforts to find sustainable ways to extend access to JSTOR, specifically to those not affiliated with participating institutions.

How does it work?

• When you find an article that’s part of Register & Read, click on the “Get Access” option.
• Register for a free MyJSTOR account, or log into your account if you already have one.
• Add the content to your shelf to read the full-text online. After 14 days, you may remove it and add new items to your shelf.
• PDF versions of some articles will also be available for purchase and download. If you purchase articles from your shelf, the PDF versions may be stored and accessed in your MyJSTOR account at any time.

Register & Read includes approximately 75 journals from more than 40 publishers, a subset of the content in JSTOR. This includes content from the first volume and issue published for these journals through a recent year (generally 3-5 years ago). We plan to add more titles at a later date. See a list of the titles and publishers. Register & Read is a beta program, and we expect to adjust aspects of the program as needed. This may include both functionality and the available content.

If you would like to be notified of updates to Register & Read, you may follow us on Twitter or Facebook.

New to JSTOR? Learn more about us.

The Europa Inventa database of medieval manuscripts in Australia, originally developed by NEER, is part of a major new international initiative known as Manuscripts Online.

MANUSCRIPTS ONLINE: Written Culture 1000 to 1500

Manuscripts Online is a new service which will enable users to search an enormous body of online primary resources relating to written and early culture in Britain during the period 1000 to 1500.

A single search engine will enable users to undertake sophisticated full-text searching of literary manuscripts, historical documents and early printed books which are located on websites owned by libraries, archives, universities and publishers. Users will be able to search the resources by keyword, but also by specific keyword types, such as person and place name, date and language (e.g. Middle English, Latin and Anglo-Norman), thanks to a technique called automated entity recognition. Additionally, users will be able to visualise search results using maps of medieval Britain and create their own annotations to the data for public consumption.

Manuscripts Online is funded by the JISC and supported by the Humanities Research Institute at the University of Sheffield and specialists in medieval studies at the universities of Leicester, Birmingham, Glasgow, York and Queen’s University Belfast.

Manuscripts Online is expected to be launched in January 2013.

GET IN TOUCH AND SHARE YOUR VIEWS

Federated searching using such a wide range of electronic resources has not been attempted before and naturally poses practical and intellectual challenges. Be part of the debate and join the discussion!

Project Blog: http://manuscriptsonline.wordpress.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/MedMSSO
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Manuscripts-Online/227994707285229

The 2012 Perth Medieval Fayre will be held at Supreme Court Gardens on March 17 from 10:00am-5:00pm.

Admission costs
Adult: $10.00
Concession: $5.00
Children under 12 years of age: free entry

Entertainment includes: sword fighting displays, medieval merchants, arts and crafts, food vendors, minstrels, dancers, and performance of the play, Virgin Warrior, based on the story of Joan of Arc (to be held from 7:30pm-10:00pm).

More details can be found at the West Australian Medieval Alliance website.

The Medievalism in Australian Cultural Memory project provides the first long-range analysis of Australian cultural responses to the medieval period, and the first comparative study of Australia’s relationship with international medievalism. It examines how Australians have used references to the medieval past, both favourable and hostile, to articulate our complex relations to European tradition and our aspirations to a distinctive national culture.

The Medievalism in Australian Cultural Memory database is a resource which aims to facilitate research by providing access to an abundance of digital resources in a user-friendly environment. The materials on this database have been organised into four major categories which cover a variety of original approaches to medievalism’s impact on the development of Australian cultural identity. They are:

• Medievalism at the Foundations: This collection focuses on discourses about, debates over, and changing interpretations of Australia’s medievalist political and religious institutions and rituals, its architecture, and its civic environment. 
• Medievalism in the Classroom: This collection traces the development of academic medievalism in Australia’s universities and other educational institutions. 
• Medievalism on the Page: This collection examines literary medievalism from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. 
• Medievalism on the Streets: This collection examines popular medievalism in material and public culture and spaces from the mid-nineteenth century to the present.

Through these categories, the Medievalism in Australian Cultural Memory digital repository aims to enhance public understandings of our British and European heritage in the context of contemporary debates about globalisation, republicanism, the monarchy, and ethnic and cultural diversity.

Website: http://ausmed.arts.uwa.edu.au

Email: australianmedievalism@gmail.com

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Medievalism-in-Australian-Cultural-Memory/313085105382443?sk=wall