Monthly Archives: August 2013

Assistant Professor in Medieval Spanish Literature – Call For Applications

University of Chicago
Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
Assistant Professor in Medieval Spanish Literature

Medieval Spanish: The Department of Romance Languages and Literatures at the University of Chicago invites applications for a faculty position in medieval Spanish literature at the beginning or advanced Assistant Professor level, with a preferred start date of July 1, 2014. We welcome applications from candidates working in additional languages, literatures and cultures of relevance to the Iberian Peninsula, such as Arabic, Byzantine Greek, Catalan, Hebrew, Portuguese or Occitan. Candidates should be able to demonstrate serious scholarly promise, commitment to excellence in teaching, native or near-native Spanish and English, and a willingness to participate fully in a vibrant program with strong ties to neighboring disciplines in humanities, arts, and social sciences.

For full details and to apply, please visit: https://academiccareers.uchicago.edu/applicants/jsp/shared/position/JobDetails_css.jsp?postingId=163557

For full consideration, all materials (including recommendation letters) must be received by October 15, 2013. Review of applications will continue until the position is filled; no materials will be accepted after December 15, 2013.

Sixth Biennial British Shakespeare Association Conference – Call For Papers

Sixth Biennial British Shakespeare Association Conference
Shakespeare: Text, Power, Authority
University of Stirling
3-6 July 2014

Conference Website

Keynote speakers:

  • Professor Margreta de Grazia (University of Pennsylvania)
  • Professor Andrew Murphy (University of St Andrews)
  • Professor John Drakakis (University of Stirling)
  • Dr Colin Burrow (University of Oxford)
  • Dr Michael Bogdanov (Director, The Wales Theatre Company)

In the four hundred and fiftieth year since Shakespeare’s birth, this conference seeks to explore questions of authority for Shakespeare, in Shakespeare, and about Shakespeare. It aims to investigate the relationship between text, power, and authority, both in the writing of Shakespeare and in writing about Shakespeare. Shakespeare’s works ask us repeatedly to think about what constitutes authority, about where authority lies, and about the performance of authority. Shakespeare has also himself repeatedly been used as a form of cultural capital and authority, and we therefore also welcome contributions that explore some of the different ways in which his plays and poems have been deployed in various times and places. Shakespeare’s works prompt us to think about textual authority, too. What is textual authority? What makes one text more authoritative than another? How have ideas of textual authority changed over time, and what, politically, is at stake in these changes?

Topics may include, but are not limited to:

  • Shakespeare’s biblical and classical authorities
  • Monarchy and sovereignty in Shakespeare’s works
  • Democracy and Republicanism in Shakespeare’s works
  • The representation and performance of power in Shakespeare’s works
  • Editing Shakespeare
  • Shakespeare and politics
  • Shakespeare(s) past and present
  • Re-writing and adapting Shakespeare
  • Writing about Shakespeare
  • Shakespeare’s critics and readers
  • Shakespeare on stage and screen
  • Shakespeare and copyright
  • Shakespeare and nationhood/identity (in the year of the Scottish referendum on independence, we particularly welcome proposals on Shakespeare and Scotland)
  • Shakespeare and institutional power
  • Teaching Shakespeare

The conference programme will include lectures, papers, workshops, seminars, performances, and excursions.

We welcome proposals for papers or presentations (20 minutes), panels (90 minutes) or workshops (90 mins) on any aspect of the conference theme, broadly interpreted. Abstracts (250 words or less) should be sent to bsaconference2014@stir.ac.uk by 31 Jan 2014.

Participants must be members of the British Shakespeare Association at the time of the conference. Details of how to join can be found on the conference website: http://shakespeare.stir.ac.uk/

The Blood Conference – Call For Papers

The Blood Conference
Theories of Blood in Late Medieval and Early Modern English Literature and Culture
St Anne’s College, Oxford
8-10 January, 2014

Conference Website

 
Blood in the medieval and early modern periods was much more than simply red fluid in human veins. Defined diversely by theologians, medics, satirists and dramatists, it was matter, text, waste, cure, soul, God, and the means by which relationships were defined, sacramentalised and destroyed. Blood was also a controversial ingredient in the production of matter, from organic and medical to mechanical and alchemical. Between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries debates about the nature and function of blood raised questions about the limits of identity, God’s will for his creatures, science’s encounter with the self, and the structure of families and communities, and its impact was felt in artistic constructions on stage, in print, and on canvas.

This two and a half day conference will gather early modern and medieval scholars from English, history, art history and medical history, to ask: ‘What is Renaissance blood?’

Plenary addresses by Frances Dolan (UC Davis), Patricia Parker (Stanford), Helen Barr (Oxford) and Elisabeth Dutton (Fribourg).

Discussions will cover a range of topics including blood and satire, blood and revenge, blood and gender, blood and genre, queer blood, royal blood, blood and wounding, William Harvey, blood and race, blood on the stage, blood and witchcraft, blood and alchemy, bloodlines, blood and sacrifice, blood and friendship, blood and disease, and blood and automata.

The Blood Conference will feature a professional production of the Croxton Play of the Sacrament directed by Elisabeth Dutton, and a session led by David Fuller, with the help of Oxford singers, on early sacramental music and Eucharistic blood. Wellcome Trust archivists will also be offering a session on blood material in their collection.

More speakers are now warmly invited. We are particularly interested in interdisciplinary papers, and those with an emphasis on art history and medical history. But any innovative approaches to historical blood are most welcome.

Please send a 500 word abstract to Micah Coston by September 9th, 2013.

Digital Humanities Australia 2014 – Call For Papers

Digital Humanities Australia 2014: Expanding Horizons
University of Western Australia
18-21 March, 2014

Conference Website

The Australasian Association for Digital Humanities (aaDH) is pleased to announce its second conference, to be held at The University of Western Australia, 18-21 March, 2014. The aim of DHA 2014 is to advance digital methods, tools and projects within humanities research and develop new critical perspectives. The conference will provide a supportive, interdisciplinary environment to explore and share new and advanced research within the digital humanities. The conference is sponsored by iVEC@UWA, The University of Western Australia, Edith Cowan University, Perth Convention Bureau, and the Australian Literature Westerly Centre, UWA.

The conference will feature long and short papers, posters and workshops, and informal ‘birds of a feather’ discussions. We invite proposals on all aspects of digital humanities, and especially encourage papers showcasing new research and developments in the field and/or responding to the conference themes.

Proposals may focus on, but need not be limited to:

1. WORKING WITH TEXT such as;

  • Critical text editing and electronic editions
  • Digitisation, text encoding and analysis
  • Text mining in historical scholarship
  • Book history, and digitising the book
  • Computational stylistics and distant reading
  • Digital curation and archives for cultural materials

2. NEW MEDIA and the DIGITAL such as;

  • Computational approaches in new media and Internet studies
  • The digital in culture, creativity, arts, music, performance

3. METHODS, APPROACHES, USERS such as;

  • Crowd-sourcing scholarship in the humanities
  • Quantitative methods in humanities research
  • Code studies, and code in the humanities
  • Mapping and spatial visualisation
  • Human Computer Interaction (HCI) in digital humanities research
  • Gaming for learning, serious gaming, and game archiving
  • Archaeology using digital methods including marine archaeology

4. WORKING WITH DATA

  • Modelling humanities data
  • Linked Data and the humanities

5. BUILDING the DH COMMUNITY and PRESENCE

  • Measuring and valuing research in the digital humanities
  • Institutionalisation, interdisciplinarity and collaboration
  • Curriculum and pedagogy in the digital humanities
  • Virtual research environments in humanities research

6. INDIGENOUS AND CROSS-CULTURAL DIGITAL RESEARCH

  • Cross-cultural studies
  • International comparisons

Abstracts of no more than 600 words, together with a biography of no more than 100 words, should be submitted to the Program Committee by 14 September 2013. All proposals will be fully refereed.

Proposals should be submitted via the online form at http://www.conftool.net/dha2014/

Please indicate whether you are proposing a poster, a short paper (10 mins + 5 mins questions), a long paper (25 mins + 5 mins questions), or birds of a feather session (60 mins). Proposals will be assessed in terms of alignment with the conference themes and the quality of research within these or related themes. Presenters will be notified of acceptance of their proposal on 14 October 2013.

Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions/University of Western Australia: 2 Postdoctoral Fellowships – Call For Applications

The Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions (CHE) seeks to appoint two Postdoctoral Fellows based at the University of Western Australia. Details of both positions can be found below. The closing date for applications for the two positions is Friday 27 September 2013 (11:55 PM Western Australian Standard Time).

Research Associate (Postdoctoral Fellow): Emotions in Literature (Three year appointment – Job no. 492581)
The successful candidate will propose and work on a well-formulated, significant and original project concerning emotions in literature or drama in English between 1500 and 1800, preferably leading to a monograph, under the supervision of Winthrop Professor Bob White, Programme Leader for ‘Meanings’ in the ARC Centre of excellence for the History of Emotions at the University of Western Australia.

As Research Associate you will play a prominent role in medieval and early modern emotions research by examining the meanings attributed to emotions in medieval and early modern Europe, and their modes of expression, transmission and regulation.
For full details, and to apply: http://external.jobs.uwa.edu.au/cw/en/job/492581/research-associate-emotions-in-literature

Research Associate (Postdoctoral Fellow): Passions for Learning (Two year appointment – Job no. 492582) 
The successful candidate will work under the leadership of Professor Yasmin Haskell at the University of Western Australia in the ‘Passions for Learning’ project. The broad aims of this project are to explore the role of the emotions in European education and knowledge cultures, 1100-1800.

As Research Associate you will have a PhD in early modern intellectual, religious, cultural, and/or literary history, and proficiency in Latin. Reading competence in one or more of: German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch will be well regarded. Scholars with research interests spanning European and non-European (for example, Asian) cultures are especially encouraged to apply. In addition to publishing the results of your own research, you will involve yourself fully in the life of the project (including conference organization, editing of collected volumes).
For full details, and to apply: http://external.jobs.uwa.edu.au/cw/en/job/492582/research-associate-passions-for-learning

Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions/University of Melbourne: 2 Postdoctoral Fellowships – Call For Applications

The Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions (CHE) seeks to appoint two Postdoctoral Fellows based at the University of Melbourne. Details of both positions can be found below. The closing date for both positions is 19 September 2013 (11:55pm Aus. Eastern Standard Time).
 
 
In collaboration with the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, University of Melbourne, the Centre seeks to appoint a Postdoctoral Research Fellow to contribute to research projects in the history of emotions (Europe, 1100-1800). Working together with Professor Charles Zika and the Change Program of the Centre, the successful candidate will develop a project exploring the impact of deeply felt emotional experiences and rhetoric in stimulating and shaping group understanding and response to disasters faced by Europeans between the late fifteenth and the late seventeenth centuries. The project might focus on responses to such phenomena as plague, fire or war, or natural disasters such as earthquake, famine or flood. It might explore such ritual, literary and/ or visual responses as mechanisms for achieving relief or solidarity when facing the terrifying the impact of destructive events, and the immediate as well as longer term implications for models of communal life, organisation and meaning.
 
 
In collaboration with the School of Culture and Communication at The University of Melbourne, the Centre seeks to appoint a Postdoctoral Fellow to a three-year research appointment in one of its four research programs, “Shaping the Modern.” Working with the program convenor, Professor Stephanie Trigg, and Senior Research Fellow, Dr Grace Moore, the successful candidate will develop a multi-disciplinary research project on emotions and the environment that extends the Centre’s research in the period 1100-1800 into the modern era, with a special emphasis on Australia’s relationship with its European emotional past, and the emotional continuities and discontinuities between pre-modern Europe and Australian settler culture. The project will explore affective, emotional responses to landscapes, environment, ecology or place, by European settlers and migrants.
 
 

Othello’s Island 2014 – Call For Papers

Othello’s Island
Annual Conference of Mediterranean and Levantine Cultural History​ in the Byzantine, Medieval and Renaissance Periods
Cornaro Institute, Cyprus
9-12 April 2014

Conference Website

Confirmed keynote speakers:

  • Professor Rico Frances, American University of Beirut
  • Professor Robert Appelbaum, Uppsala University

This multi-disciplinary conference aims to bring together academics, researchers and research students covering a wide range of topics, including art historians, social and economic historians, museum curators, archaeologists, literary historians and others, convering not only the Western Christian Mediterranean world, but also Byzantine culture, Muslim and other societies relevant to the region.

We would also welcome suggestions from individuals or groups for parallel strands and semi-autonomous conferences which might share some of the plenary sessions and social elements of the event. For example, a strand dealing specifically with Shakespeare and the Mediterranean might be big enough to require its own semi-autonomous event alongside the one we are organising.

If you are interested in giving a talk at the conference please submit a proposal for a paper. Standard papers are 30 minutes long.

We are very open minded on the topic of papers, so if you have an idea for a presentation that is not covered by the suggestions given here please feel free to submit a proposal, or contact us first to discuss the idea.

Proposals for papers should comprise a cover sheet showing:

  1. Your title (eg. Mr, Ms, Dr, Prof. etc.) and full name
  2. Your institutional affiliation (if any)
  3. Your postal address, email address and telephone number
  4. The title of your proposed paper

​With this you should send a proposal/abstract for your paper of no more than 300 words and a copy of your CV/resume to michael@artcyprus.org with the subject line OTHELLO 2014.

All papers must be delivered in English.

The deadline for submissions is 31 October 2013.

For full details, please visit the following website: http://enqui7024.wix.com/copy-of-cypruscolleg#!othellosisland/c19ye

USyd Free Public Lecture – John Bell on Shakespeare

University of Sydney – Free Public Lecture
“Shakespeare – up against the wall?”, John Bell
 
Date: 22nd August, 2013
Time: 5.30–7:00pm
Venue: Lecture Theatre 351, Education Building A35, University of Sydney
RSVP: Booking is essential. Follow URL below to register.

This Thursday Bell Shakespeare co-artistic director John Bell will be appearing at an event at the University of Sydney to discuss the agony and the ecstasy of interpreting, teaching and performing the works of Shakespeare in our modern culture. Is there still a place for Shakespeare? What is the value of Shakespeare in our contemporary world (of celebrity and short attention spans!)? Why is Shakespeare simultaneously loathed and adored? Why teach Shakespeare to primary school students? John Bell will be addressing these issues and drawing on his vast experience of interpreting the Bard and working with Bell Shakespeare in schools and theatres across Australia and internationally.

For full details and to RSVP please visit the following link: http://sydney.edu.au/education_social_work/news_events/events/2013/Semester-Two/bell-lecture.shtml

Getty Musuem Lifts Restrictions On Use Of Digital Images

The following news will be of interest to scholars who are looking for freely accessible medieval and early modern images.

The Getty Museum in Los Angeles has made available, without charge, all available digital images to which the Getty holds the rights or that are in the public domain to be used for any purpose. No permission is required.

Initially, the images available through the Open Content Program are of works in the J. Paul Getty Museum’s collections. Over time, images from the Getty Research Institute and the Getty Conservation Institute will be added.

For full details, visit: http://www.getty.edu/about/opencontent.html

Balingup Medieval Carnivale 2013

Balingup Medieval Carnivale
Balingup, Western Australia
24th-25th August 2013
10:00am-4:30pm

Entry Fee: $15 per day or $20 for a weekend pass
Free Entry for accompanied Children Under 12

Featuring:

  • Market Stalls – Craft, Food & Wine Tastings
  • Music and Dance (featuring The Ferrymen Band)
  • Daily Grand Parade
  • WA Birds of Prey & Aussie Reptiles
  • Medieval Re-enactors Combat
  • The Blacksmith & Potters
  • The Burning of the Dragon (Sat. night 6:30pm-9:00pm)

For more information, please visit: http://www.balingupmedievalcarnivale.com.au