Category Archives: member news

CEMS Seminar: Friday 24th February 12pm, Shakespeare & the Settlement of the North American West

Please join us for the inaugural CEMS Seminar for 2023 at 12 pm on the 24th of February in Lecture Room 1 of the RSSS Building at ANU.

CEMS is very excited to be hosting Professor Gretchen Minton for her excellent talk on “Shakespeare and the Settlement of the North American West”.

“Shakespeare and the Settlement of the North American West” focuses upon the role that Shakespeare as a cultural icon played in the nineteenth-century settlement of the North American frontier, providing a thorough picture of how the earliest white men who migrated across the continent used, understood and interacted with Shakespeare’s works. Re-examining narratives about white settler encounters with Shakespeare reveals several recurring themes, including the importance of books, hybrid identities, a return to Europe and the fashioning of Western personae. In the narratives about such encounters, the voices of the Indigenous people are consistently silenced, but important perspectives arise when we analyse the nature of such marginalisation. The article thus ultimately demonstrates that attitudes toward Shakespeare are symptomatic of attitudes toward settlement in the Rocky Mountain region, and thus invariably symptomatic of how this region’s Indigenous peoples were treated.

Gretchen has edited several early modern plays, including Timon of Athens, Twelfth Night, and The Revenger’s Tragedy. She is the co-founder of Montana InSite Theatre, which is dedicated to site-specific performances that use classical texts to address environmental issues. Projects for this company include Timon of Anaconda, Shakespeare’s Walking Story, and Walking the Water Way. Minton also serves as dramaturg and script adaptor for Montana Shakespeare in the Parks, which participated in the 2021-22 international project called “Cymbeline in the Anthropocene.” In 2023 she will be a Fulbright Scholar at James Cook University in Townsville, Queensland.

For further information and to register, please see this website.

ANZAMEMS ECR/POSTGRAD READING GROUP: SEMESTER 1, 2023

ANZAMEMS ECR/POSTGRAD READING GROUP: SEMESTER 1, 2023

The ANZAMEMS ECR/Postgraduate Reading Group will discuss the latest research in medieval and early modern studies, with the aim of promoting engagement with emerging and established fields of inquiry in MEMS research (see possible session themes below).

Virtual sessions of the reading group will take place via Zoom either monthly or every three weeks in the afternoon/evening between late February and June, 2023. Each session will take one or two recent articles or chapters related to a certain topic/methodological approach/trend in MEMS scholarship, and feature a short presentation from an ANZAMEMS member (whose own research is ideally in the vicinity of their chosen session theme), followed by questions-led discussion.

The reading group will be co-convened by Emma Rayner (PhD candidate, ANU) and Emily Chambers (PhD candidate, University of Nottingham).

We hope to foster a convivial and intellectually productive online space—think advanced graduate seminar!—where we can come together to talk all things MEMS research in a fairly informal manner, while expanding our networks or strengthening existing connections. Everyone is welcome, including more senior members of ANZAMEMS.

ANZAMEMS ECR or postgrad members who are interested in leading a session based around one of the below themes or a topic of your own selection, AND/OR who are interested in providing a short write-up of a session for a planned ANZAMEMS postgrad blog, please email Emma.Rayner@anu.edu.au / Emily.Chambers@nottingham.ac.uk no later than February 8, 2023. A finalized schedule and Zoom link will be circulated later in February.

Possible session themes include:
• Periodization
• Affect / emotion studies
• Critical race studies
• Cultures of materiality
• Ecocriticism
• Comparative / transnational studies
• Travel and cultural encounter
• Visual culture
• Religion, religious culture
• Borders, borderlands
• Language and translation
• Genealogies
• Geography, cartography
• Rhetoric
• Poetics
• Epistemologies
• Historiography
• Time and temporality
• Performance studies
• Knowledge production
• Humanism
• Virtue, vertu
• Cultures of collecting
• Book history
• Afterlives, reception studies
• Adaptation
• Digital Humanities
• Manuscript studies
• Incunabula
• Intellectual networks
• Devotional communities
• Reading, coteries
• Marginalia
• Disability studies
• Canonicity
• Gender studies
• Class studies
• Archives
• Methodologies
• Pedagogy

Access to the Index of Medieval Art Database Will Become Free on July 1, 2023

As of July 1, 2023, a paid subscription will no longer be required for access to the Index of Medieval Art database. This transition was made possible by a generous grant from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and the support of the Index’s parent department of Art & Archaeology at Princeton University.

Please read more about our momentous shift to open online access in a recent blog post written by director Pamela Patton:

“Access to the Index of Medieval Art Database Will Become Free on July 1, 2023.” The Index of Medieval Art (blog). January 12, 2023. https://ima.princeton.edu/2023/01/12/access-to-the-index-of-medieval-art-database-will-become-free-on-july-1-2023/.

Currently, the Index of Medieval Art database, accessed at this link https://theindex.princeton.edu/, can be browsed through its open access lists, as well as searched with keywords. Researchers can learn more about coverage through the browse function on the database, including over twenty thousand unique terms for iconographic subjects in medieval art, and plan to attend one of their upcoming info sessions this Spring term.

Index staff also remain available for researcher questions via their online form at https://ima.princeton.edu/research-inquiries/.

Mellon and Public Humanities fellowships are open for application

Mellon and Public Humanities fellowships are open for application! The deadline for both fellowships is February 1, 2022. 

The Mellon Fellowship is designed for junior faculty who currently hold a position in a United States university as an assistant professor. It is open to qualified applicants in all fields of Medieval Studies. The fellowship holder will pursue research in residence at Notre Dame’s famed Medieval Institute during the academic year (this is a nine-month position that begins mid-August). The intent of this Fellowship is to enable its holders to complete research and writing on a book manuscript in advance of tenure. More information

We also invite applications for the Public Humanities Postdoctoral Fellowship. The fellow will devote the majority of the fellowship time to working closely with the Institute’s staff, especially its director of undergraduate studies and engagement, in the Institute’s outreach and engagement efforts directed at local schools as well as potential donors, alumni, and undergraduate majors and minors. The fellow will also work with the Assistant Director to prepare public humanities marketing and communications materials. The remainder of the fellow’s time may be devoted to research and/or teaching. More information

Nov 24 CEMS End of Year Reception: Evening with Matthew Winterbottom

The ANU Centre for Early Modern Studies is pleased to welcome Matthew
Winterbottom, Curator of Western Art Sculpture and Decorative Arts at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, as our special guest for the final CEMS event for 2022. Matthew has extensive expertise in early modern European decorative arts across diverse media and in the history of cabinets of curiosity.

Join CEMS for an evening in conversation with Matthew followed by drinks, in-person on the ANU campus. This is the first in-person seminar held by CEMS and promises to be a wonderful evening for our members and wider audience to meet and mingle before the end of year.

Matthew Winterbottom is Curator of Western Art Sculpture and Decorative Arts at the Ashmolean Museum. His research interests cover a wide range of European decorative arts from the late medieval to the early twentieth centuries, and he has expertise in furniture, ceramics, glass and textiles and sculpture, with a particular interest in 17th- and 18th-century British and European silver and goldsmiths’ work. He is actively researching the Michael Wellby bequest – a collection of 500 pieces of Continental goldsmiths’ work and Kunstkammer objects – that was bequeathed to the Ashmolean Museum in 2012. Matthew has extensive knowledge of the history of Kunstkammern, Schatzkammern and cabinets of curiosities of the early modern period and of the revival of interest in such collections in the 19th and 20th centuries that led to the extensive faking and reproduction of precious objects.

Matthew has over 25 years’ experience working with and researching European decorative arts and is committed to exploring ways of making this material engaging and accessible to museum visitors. He has held curatorial roles at the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Royal Collection and the Holburne Museum in Bath. He joined the Department of Western Art in the Ashmolean Museum in March 2014 as Curator of Nineteenth-Century Decorative Arts where he was tasked with building a new collection of Nineteenth-Century decorative arts and redisplaying the Nineteenth-Century Art Galleries. Since January 2017, he has been responsible for the entire Western Art Sculpture and Decorative Arts Collections.

Matthew is at ANU in November as an international visitor at the ANU School of Art and Design funded by the ANU Research School of Humanities and the Arts.

This event is presented by the Centre for Early Modern Studies

For further information and to register please see: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/anu-centre-for-early-modern-studies-end-of-year-reception-tickets-459403597527

Mapping Culture and History Workshop, University of Newcastle/Online, 17-18 November

Join us for an event celebrating the possibilities of digital mapping for the humanities, hosted by the Time-Layered Cultural Map of Australia (based in Newcastle) and the Australian Cultural Data Engine (led by the University of Melbourne).

We are bringing together instructors, presenters, and anyone interested in learning about mapping in a series of workshop sessions and plenary talks. We are targeting honours and postgraduate students, humanities researchers, gallery, library and museum staff, and local historians, in particular, but all are welcome. The face to face events will take place at the University of Newcastle’s NUSpace building in the city campus, with some hybrid sessions and some via Zoom only.

Please review the workshop program in order to select workshops. Session descriptions can be found here. Zoom details for Zoom sessions will be circulated closer to the event.

We have bursaries available for Indigenous researchers and Early and Mid Career researchers, sponsored by ARDC and the College of Human and Social Futures at Newcastle – see the website here

For any other event enquiries, please contact tlcmapworkshop@newcastle.edu.au

Registration: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/mapping-culture-and-history-workshop-tickets-428326354657

Early modern panels are 11:00am-1:00pm on Friday, via Zoom, ‘Premodern Material Cultures in Motion’: https://hughdhorg.wordpress.com/mapping-culture-and-history/42-2/

And 2:00pm-4:00pm on Friday, in person, ‘Mapping the Roman Campagna — challenges, questions, discoveries’: https://hughdhorg.wordpress.com/mapping-culture-and-history/session-16-workshop-katrina-grant-anu-and-lisa-beaven-latrobe/

Research Fellow, Medievalism Job in Melbourne VIC

Campus Location: Melbourne, Australia

Job No: APTAV119903#002

Conduct high-level research for the Medieval and Early Modern Studies (MEMS) Program
Full time, fixed-term role for 5 years based at Melbourne campus

About ACU:
Australian Catholic University (ACU) is an inclusive community which welcomes students and staff of all beliefs. ACU has over 2,500 staff supporting more than 34,000 students across eight campuses – Ballarat, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, North Sydney, Strathfield, Blacktown and Rome.

As valued members of our community, all staff members are expected to have an understanding of ACU’s mission and values and to demonstrate an active contribution to them.

About Faculty of Theology and Philosophy:
The Faculty of Theology and Philosophy is the largest Faculty of its kind in Australia. It comprises of two national schools: the School of Theology and the School of Philosophy; and the Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry and the Dianoia Institute of Philosophy. ACU has prioritised research intensification and has developed a strategy designed to achieve excellence in a selected number of areas of strategic priority, including theology and philosophy. The outcome has been a remarkable transformation in the research standing of the University. In the 2019 THE World University Rankings, ACU rose to the 401-500 band for research and specifically to the 201-300 band in the Arts and Humanities subject rankings, which includes Philosophy. The investment in theology and philosophy is further evidenced through the results of the recent assessment of research quality conducted by the Australian Research Council, known as ERA (Excellence in Research for Australia). The 2018 ERA results rank ACU first in religion and religious studies in Australia, with our research in both philosophy, and religion and religious studies rated ‘above world standard’. We offer theology and philosophy for students at any stage of their life or career journey, with learning opportunities provided across multiple points of engagement, and across a variety of delivery modes. There are short courses, certificate and bachelor opportunities, postgraduate coursework programs, professional and research degrees, international study tours, and a wide range of professional learning and in-service opportunities. Our programs are conceived in collaboration with industry, community, and church leaders. They are designed to equip students with the knowledge and skills required to succeed in an evolving, global and digital world.

About Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry:
The Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry (IRCI) collaborates with researchers from around the globe to examine ideas, beliefs and history in order to advance understanding of our world and imagine ways to improve it. To this end the IRCI promotes collaborative research on religion and critical thought from multiple disciplinary perspectives, including philosophy, theology, history, and literature. It explores the inter-relationships between philosophy, religion, and their cultural contexts, and contributes to contemporary philosophical, theological, social, and political debates. Founded in 2014, the Institute is still in a growth phase but has three established research programs: Biblical and Early Christian Studies, Medieval and Early Modern Studies, and Religion and Theology. Each program includes full-time researchers and research students. The IRCI has established research partnerships with leading institutions in Europe, the UK, and North America, and presents a series of research seminars each year at ACU’s Rome Campus. It sits within the Faculty for Theology and Philosophy, the largest such Faculty in Australia, which offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses and higher research degrees across six campuses. In the recent ERA 2015 assessment, the University was ranked at above world standard (ERA score of 4) in Religion and Religious Studies and in Philosophy, placing it among the best universities in Australia in these fields. Research activities encompass projects, seminars, workshops, public engagement and conferences that enhance intellectual discourse and debate.

About the role:
As Research Fellow you will produce high-quality research to contribute to and strengthen the University’s research profile, and more specifically the research profile of the Institute. Research Fellow will have research expertise in medieval studies, specifically the area of medievalism (historical, creative, aesthetic, material and political interpretations of the Middle Ages in contemporary contexts), and will augment the current work of the MEMS program and Institute in areas such as (but not limited to) cultural memory, global and religious mobilities, histories of sexuality and gender, literary and historical studies, theory and critique. Through individual and collaborative research and publications, and participating in Institute activities, the Research Fellow will help to enhance the national and international research profile of both MEMS and the Institute.

You will need to have:
A PhD in historical or literary studies.
Eligibility to submit an ARC DECRA or Future Fellowship application during the 5-year appointment period.
A research record of outstanding publications in highly regarded scholarly outlets relevant to the field, and demonstrated successful collaborative research experience.
Demonstrated capacity to attract external research grant funding.
Demonstrated ability to participate as part of a collaborative team.
Demonstrated capacity to supervise or honours or higher degree research students or projects.
Demonstrated ability to engage a wide public audience in chosen field of expertise.

The University pursues an excellence agenda and offers an environment where staff are welcomed and safe, and valued through development, participation and involvement.

How to Apply:
Obtain the Position Description from the website. Applicants are expected to address all selection criteria listed in the position description and outline how they would support the mission of the university. To apply for this role click the ‘View Position Description and Apply’ buttons above or below. Visit Hints and Tips on how to apply.

Total remuneration valued to $126,303 – $149,019 total rem (pro rata) pa, including salary component $106,728 – $126,011 (pro rata) pa (Academic Level B), employer contribution to superannuation and annual leave loading.

General enquiries can be sent to Megan Cassidy-Welch, Program Director, Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry at: megan.cassidy-welch@acu.edu.au

For applicants currently based overseas, ACU will provide support for relocation expenses and visa sponsorship.

Equal Opportunity and Privacy of personal information is University policy. For more details visit: www.acu.edu.au/careers

Find out more information on the benefits of working at ACU at: www.acu.edu.au/about-acu/careers-at-acu/why-work-at-acu

ACU is committed to diversity and social inclusion in its employment practices. Applications from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people with disabilities and people from culturally diverse groups are encouraged.

Advertised: 28-OCT-2022

Applications close: 28-NOV-2022 at 11:59pm AUS Eastern Standard Time

For further information and to apply please see: https://www.seek.com.au/job/59009437?type=standout#sol=6c26d7c5cfa520b0abd6b0c19b10bf32f804c7f5

Boydell & Brewer’s Medieval Clothing and Textiles Annuals

Medieval Clothing and Textiles is a new collection containing the entire catalogue of Boydell & Brewer’s market-leading Medieval Clothing and Textiles annuals.

This rich interdisciplinary collection is the only opportunity to access the series in a single, cross-searchable online package, made available as part of the Bloomsbury Medieval Studies digital hub.

Content Highlights
• 16 annuals from Medieval Clothing and Textiles, with a 17th coming in Spring 2023
• The series features multiple examinations of specic clothing items—from wimples and tippets, to hoopskirts, capes, and headdresses
• Contains studies in the weaving, embroidering, and exporting of clothing and textiles around Medieval Europe

Features and Benefits for Research and Learning
• Broad scope—the articles offer in-depth studies that cover a broad geographical scope and a range of periods, from the early Middle Ages to the Renaissance
• Popular subject coverage—topics include masculinity, the history of women, religious clothing, and the representation of clothing and textiles in literature, tapestries, and art
• Annual Updates—a new annual will be added every year, ensuring access to the most up-to-date research in this vibrant field

Keep in Touch
With more collections coming soon, let us keep in touch with news of exciting new content. Sign up for our newsletter at https://www.bloomsbury.com/au/newsletters/bloomsbury-medieval-studies-newsletter/

For further information and login details please contact communications@anzamems.org

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SHAPE Futures Network

Please see below information about the new SHAPE Futures network which will be of interest to those of you at the early and mid-levels of your careers. SHAPE – Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts for People and Environment – is a new framing for the disciplines developed by the British Academy as a more outcomes-focused alternative to HASS (Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences).

The SHAPE Futures Network has been established with the support of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (AAH) and the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA) to advocate for early and mid-career researchers (EMCRs) in the humanities and social sciences within and beyond the academy. Their goal is to act as a voice for EMCRs, to build a network among the cohort, and to foster opportunities for scholars to contribute to the strengthening of these disciplines.

The network has recently launched their website (https://shapefutures.com.au/), which explains the Network further, and includes useful resources for EMCRs as well as a portal to sign up to the SHAPE Futures newsletter. A crucial part of their work is their EMCR cohort survey, which will help build their understanding of the needs of this diverse group, informing their strategies for representation, advocacy, opportunities and network-building. The survey can be found on the website homepage.

The Australian SHAPE EMCR Network defines an EMCR as any person in Australia who self-identifies as an early- or mid-career researcher (typically up to 15 years post-PhD, excluding career interruptions). The term researcher is interpreted broadly, and the EMCR Network strongly believes that the humanities, arts and social sciences research community includes research and teaching academics, professionals and practice-focused individuals both within and outside of academia. Many early and mid-career researchers work in a variety of fields in industry and community and the SHAPE Futures network explicitly includes these researchers.

CFP: The Languages of Medieval England

The French Journal of Medieval English Studies Études Médiévales Anglaises is seeking
submissions for its 102nd issue focusing on “the Languages of Medieval England”. The papers, written in French or English, should be submitted to Elise Louviot by December 15th, 2022 (see more information below). Authors who wish to submit a paper are advised to get in touch and submit a title with a brief description of content as soon as convenient.
It is a well-known fact that Medieval England, like most places at any given time in human history, was multilingual. The languages of Medieval England are many: Brittonic, Latin, English, Old Norse and French, to name but the most important, and each item on that list can be further subdivided into several varieties (along geographical, but also sociological & stylistic lines).
Examining the languages of Medieval England requires us to think of how they interacted and related to each other, from a number of perspectives.
From a sociolinguistic perspective, it is worth investigating the respective statuses of these languages. Who used them? For what purposes? What was the meaning of using a certain language in this or that context? For instance, the broad lines of the interplay between English and Latin throughout the period are well-known: Old English gradually challenged the dominant status of Latin as the official written language; the Conquest re-instated Latin in its dominant position and that dominance gradually eroded in favour of English once again over time. However, a closer look shows that the evolution is neither universal nor straightforward. Ingrid Ivarsen’s work on Anglo- Saxon legislation, for instance, reveals a much more complex evolution, from an initial
multilingualism partly obscured by later transmission, through a mostly monolingual English phase under the reign of Alfred, to a newly multilingual period, where Wulfstan of York once again makes use of Latin (Ivarsen 2021).
Multilingualism can also be examined in terms of language contact. How much did the
languages of medieval England influence each other? Which parts of the language were more readily influenced and to what extent is it possible to trace the paths taken by linguistic innovations spurred on by language contact? In many general descriptions of the History of the English language, French is assumed to be the language of the upper class and to have exerted an influence especially on areas connected to an aristocratic lifestyle. However, recent studies have demonstrated the influence of French vocabulary in various occupational domains, proving that “French evidently exerted influence not only on the language of social elite pursuits, but also on that of the technology relating to everyday occupations” (Ingham, Sylvester & Marcus, 2019).
The materiality of the languages of medieval England is also worth examining. To what extent does the language of coins and inscribed objects differ from language preserved on parchment? Why use runes on parchment? How different are scribal practices from one language to another? Which conventions of writing can be said to be language-independent (see for instance Laura Wright’s work on abbreviations in business writings, 2011)?
For this issue of Études Médiévales Anglaises, we welcome papers on all aspects of linguistic diversity in Medieval England.

The papers, written in English or in French, must be sent before December 15th, 2022 to Elise Louviot (elise.louviot@univ-reims.fr). Études Médiévales Anglaises uses double-blind peer review. The stylesheet to be used may be found on our website: https://amaes.jimdo.com/submit-a-paper/

All papers published with us are made open access after a two-year embargo and indexed by the MLA bibliography. You may consult our editorial policy here: https://amaes.jimdofree.com/editorial-policy/

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