Daily Archives: 17 August 2012

National Library of Australia: Japan Study Grants – Call For Applications

This will be of interest to any Australian based researcher, whose work involves the study of medieval or early modern Japan:

The National Library offers annual Japan Study Grants under the auspices of the Harold S. Williams Trust Fund. The Japan Study Grants were established to support interstate scholars and researchers whose work would benefit from access to the Japan-related collections of the National Library. Grants are offered for periods of up to four weeks commencing in January each year.

The closing date for applications is 30 September.

Who can apply?

Japan Study Grants are open to postgraduate students, academic researchers, teaching staff and independent scholars in any discipline, based outside the Australian Capital Territory or Queanbeyan who can demonstrate a need to use the Library’s Japanese or Japan-related collections for their research. Priority consideration will be given to applicants from centres where there are few or no library resources in the Japanese language. Japan Study Grants are open to adults of any age and citizenship but applicants must be resident in Australia.

What assistance is offered?

Grant holders will receive an honorarium of $1,000 per week to cover accommodation and living costs in Canberra, together with a return economy class air fare or equivalent for travel between the grant holder’s home within Australia to Canberra. They will be provided with a desk in the Asian Collections reading room, access to the book stacks and free photocopying. International travel will not be funded.

Selection criteria:

The principle selection criteria are:

  • Academic record of the applicant as shown in application
  • Referee reports.

Priority consideration will be given to candidates:

  • who are based in centres where there are few or no library resources in the Japanese language
  • who can demonstrate a need to use the Library’s Japanese or Japan-related collections for their research
  • whose proposed study is best able to be supported by the National Library’s Japanese and Japan-related collections.

For further information about the Japan Study Grants and to access the application form, see the Japan Study Grants page at the National Library of Australia website: http://www.nla.gov.au/japanese/study-grants

The Middle Ages in the Modern World – Preliminary Call for Papers

The Middle Ages in the Modern World
University of St Andrews, UK
25-28 June, 2013

Conference Website

A multidisciplinary conference on the uses and abuses of the Middle Ages from the Renaissance to the 21st century.

Provisional Keynotes:

  • Carolyn Dinshaw (New York University): The Green Man and the Modern World
  • Patrick Geary (Princeton): European ethnicity: Does Europe have too much past?
  • Seamus Heaney (Nobel Prize-winning Poet): Translating medieval poetry
  • Bruce Holsinger (University of Virginia): The politics of medievalism
  • Felicitas Hoppe (Author and Translator): Adapting medieval romance
  • Terry Jones (Author and Broadcaster): Columbus, America and the flat earth

Medievalism – the reception and adaptation of the politics, history, art and literature of the Middle Ages – has burgeoned over the past decade, and is now coming of age as a subject of serious academic enquiry. This conference aims to take stock and develop directions for the future. We hope to address questions such as:

  • Why and how do the Middle Ages continue to shape the world we inhabit?
  • Did the Middle Ages ever end?
  • Did the Middle Ages ever happen?
  • Is there a difference between medievalism and medieval studies?
  • Does the medieval past hold the key to understanding modern nations?
  • What does “medieval” mean to non-medievalists?
  • How has medievalism developed over the past 600 years?

Medievalists and modernists in all areas of the sciences and humanities, librarians, artists, curators are invited to submit proposals for papers, panels, public talks, exhibits, posters, concerts etc. The conference will be held during the climactic period of the University of St Andrews’s 600th anniversary celebrations.

Possible topics include (but are not limited to):

  • the reception of the Middle Ages in literature, art, architecture, music, film, politics, economics, theology, popular culture, universities, sciences;
  • periodization and the invention of the Middle Ages;
  • modern misconceptions of the Middle Ages;
  • the politicization of the Middle Ages and neo-medievalism;
  • twenty-first century medievalisms;
  • revivalism and re-enactment;
  • medievalism, science fiction, fantasy and cyberspace;
  • translating medieval texts;
  • the legacy and influence of the University of St Andrews and other medieval institutions
  • a special celebratory 600th anniversary session on the reception and representation of St Andrew himself.

Early bird proposals are welcome now to mamo@st-andrews.ac.uk to assist planning, any time before 31 August 2012.

Organisers: Dr Chris Jones, School of English and Dr Bettina Bildhauer, School of Modern Languages, University of St Andrews.