Monthly Archives: August 2013

Hagiography Society: Leeds Medieval Congress 2014, Sponsored Sessions – Call For Papers

The Hagiography Society seeks either individual papers or full session proposals for sponsored sessions at the International Medieval Congress 2014 in Leeds (7-10 July). Although all proposals relating to saints and hagiography will be considered, those which respond to the congress theme of ‘Empire’ or to the suggested sessions below are particularly welcomed.

Shifting Practices, Priorities, and Perceptions: The Changing Nature of Medieval Saints’ Cults.

 Whether considered from the standpoint of a single cult centre, or a saint with a following spread over a wide geographic area, the practices, motivations, and audiences of saints’ cults often changed over time. Papers in this panel might explore this issue through a variety of lenses: using available documentation of cult practice and promotion, iconographic changes seen in the representation of saints over time, alterations made to shrines and buildings, developments in the hagiographical tradition as witnessed by surviving copies of vitae, or other approaches. Interdisciplinary work is welcomed.

Local Heroes: New Approaches to the Study of Minor Saints and their Cults. 

This session is intended to provide an arena for scholars currently working on lesser-known saints and cults for which only fleeting textual, visual and/or material evidence remains. Proposed papers should engage with some of the following questions: What avenues of investigation are open to researchers in this area? How have new methodologies changed the field? How significant were these cults to the communities who venerated them? What factors prevented these saints from achieving wider prominence? And what insights do such micro-studies add to our broader understanding of medieval devotional practices?

Individual papers should be 20 minutes in length while full session proposals must consist of three papers.

Please e-mail abstract proposals of between 250-300 words per paper to H.Birkett@exeter.ac.uk by Friday 13 September.

If regular mail is preferred, hard copies should be sent to:

Dr Helen Birkett
History
Amory Building, Rennes Drive
EX4 4RJ, UK. 

Please ensure that postal applications arrive before the deadline.

For more information about the International Medieval Congress see: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/ims/imc/imc2014_call.html

ARC Centre for the History of Emotions: Early Career Rsearcher Visitng Program – Call For Applications

As part of its international research collaboration, the ARC Centre for the History of Emotions will fund excellent international Early Career Researchers in the field to visit one or more of the Australian nodes for a period of two months, to work with members of the Centre on a research program of their choice.

Since the object of the Early Career International Research Fellowships is primarily to promote collaborative research, the Fellows will not be required to undertake any undergraduate teaching, but will be required to deliver at least one paper or lecture.

The Fellow will be provided with a return airfare from their home to Australia, accommodation and a daily living allowance for their stay in Australia, and travel between Australian nodes of the Centre.

The call is open for Early Career International Research Fellowships to be undertaken during the period 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2015.

Eligibility:

  • Hold a doctorate in a relevant field of study, gained in the period 2005-2013.
  • Are based at a university outside Australia (note: this includes Australian citizens currently working at universities outside Australia).

Please refer to the following website for full details and how to apply: http://www.historyofemotions.org.au/get-involved/early-career-researchers.aspx

The closing date for applications is Friday 30 August 2013.

University of Melbourne: McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme – Call For Applications

The McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme has been established to attract outstanding recent doctoral graduates to the University of Melbourne in areas of research priority for the university and its faculties, and in particular to recruit new researchers who have the potential to build and lead cross-disciplinary collaborative research activities inside and across faculties. The University offers a leading and lively research environment that is internationally engaged, public-spirited, and with many outstanding areas of research strength.

The objectives of the scheme are to:

  • assist the university to build an ambitious program of research activity, and
  • attract outstanding postdoctoral researchers to be part of that and to begin to build the next generation of research activity.

Applicants must have evidence of the award of a PhD, with the date of award considered to be the date of the official notification letter, from a university other than the University of Melbourne by either the closing date or, if not available at that time, by 1st November 2013.  The PhD must have been awarded no earlier than 1 January 2011. Please see the Guidelines for exemptions from this ruling. The McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellowships are intended for applicants who do not hold a fixed term or continuing appointment of greater than one year duration at the University of Melbourne.

  • Applicants may be drawn from any field in which the University of Melbourne has research strength, and must have an ability to contribute to research collaborations and programs across faculties or disciplines.
  • Applicants will be required to provide a declaration of support from the department/school in which they would be located if successful but the criteria for selection will be university-based.
  • Assessment will take account of achievement relative to opportunity.

Applications close: 9 September 2013

For full details, including how to apply visit the following website: http://mro.unimelb.edu.au/content/mckenzie-fellowships

Aspects of Pilgrimage in the Middle Ages and Renaissance – Call For Papers

“Peregrinatio pro amore Dei: Aspects of Pilgrimage in the Middle Ages and Renaissance”
Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association Conference
SpringHill Suites Marriott, Denver, CO.
June 12-14, 2014 

Conference Website

Pilgrimage to Christian holy sites and shrines was a mainstay of western European life throughout the medieval and Renaissance periods, and the journeys to places such as Canterbury, Santiago de Compostela, Assisi, Rome, and Jerusalem informed a devotional tradition that encouraged participation from all social classes, evoked commentary by chroniclers, playwrights, and poets, and inspired artistic, iconographic, and literary expressions. Even when the faith-based culture of the Middle Ages began to transform into the more empirical (and experiential) centuries of the Renaissance and Protestant Reformations, pilgrimages were still very much on the minds of writers and geographers as a source of both inspiration and criticism (Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton, Bunyan, Hakluyt, and Raleigh).

The RMMRA Program Committee welcomes individual paper and panel proposals that address the conference theme from disciplines within the late antique, medieval, Renaissance, and Reformation periods (c. 4-17 Centuries). We invite all approaches, but special consideration will be given to those papers that attempt historical, literary, scientific, archaeological, and anthropological inquiries of pilgrimage, especially in the following subject areas: holy sites & shrines; cults of relics and saints; salvific aspects (healing, science, medicine); gender studies; geographical reckoning (faith-based vs. empirical); theological promotion, dissuasion, and contestation; mystical and philosophical beliefs (and criticism); internationality; secular vs. clerical approaches; considerations about (and representations of) space; relevant aspects of communitas and liminality; travel and communication; and, finally, intellectual history.

As always, all paper and session proposals related to medieval and Renaissance studies are welcome! (Theme not required)

Proposals for panels or abstracts for individual papers should be directed via email (Word, .pdf, or Rich Text) to one of the conference’s co-organizers: Kim Klimek (klimekk@msudenver.edu) and Todd Upton (tj_upton@icloud.com). Abstracts are due November 15, 2013.

8th International Symposium on Runes and Runic Inscriptions – Call For Papers

Reading Runes
The 8th International Symposium on Runes and Runic Inscriptions
Nyköping/Sweden
September 1-6, 2014

Conference Website

All runologists and other scholars interested in runic studies are cordially invited to attend the Eighth International Symposium on Runes and Runic Inscriptions, Nyköping, Sweden, September 1-6, 2014.

The theme of the conference is “Reading Runes: Discovery, Decipherment, Documentation”. The preliminary program provides room for some forty papers plus possibility for poster presentations. The organisers hope that most of the papers will pursue the prescribed theme and will give priority to those that do so.

Accepted languages are Danish, English, Norwegian, Swedish and German. Please indicate if you wish to give your talk in another language than the abstract.

Those interested in presenting a paper or a poster at the symposium are invited to submit a proposal to runforum@nordiska.uu.se by September 1, 2013. Proposals should include the following:

  • Participant’s name
  • Participant’s affiliation (if applicable)
  • Participant’s e-mail and contact information
  • What type of presentation you would like to give at the conference: poster or paper/lecture.
  • A title
  • An abstract containing between 1,400 and 2,800 keystrokes (including spaces). Use an ordinary text document (Microsoft Word, Apache Openoffice etc.) and stick to Unicode characters whenever possible. We encourage you to use a font that covers runes, phonetic symbols and relevant characters with diacritics, for instance Junicode. For runes and transliterations you might also use Svante Lagmans standard fonts Runlitt A and Futhark A (however, do not use his TMS Special) or the Bergen fonts Gullskoen and Gullhornet.
  • An indication if you would like your proposal to be part of a thematic session. (This presupposes independent contacts between interested parties.) Organizers of thematic sessions should include a session topic abstract along with their individual paper proposals, as well as a list of the other contributors.

ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotion: Early Career Researchers Visiting Programme – Call For Applications

The ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotion is now issuing a call for applications for Early Career International Research Fellowships, to be taken over the period 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2015. Closing date: 30 August 2013.

As part of its international research collaboration, CHE will fund excellent international Early Career Researchers in the field to visit one or more of the Australian nodes for a period of two months, to work with members of the Centre on a research program of their choice.

Since the object of the Early Career International Research Fellowships is primarily to promote collaborative research, the Fellows will not be required to undertake any undergraduate teaching, but will be required to deliver at least one paper or lecture.

The Fellow will be provided with a return airfare from their home to Australia, accommodation and a daily living allowance for their stay in Australia, and travel between Australian nodes of the Centre.

For more information, click here.

Understanding and Using Medieval and Early Modern Manuscripts PATS – Call For Applications

Understanding and Using Medieval and Early Modern Manuscripts
Postgraduate Advanced Training Seminar (PATS)
University of Western Australia, Perth
27-28 November 2013
The Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies at UWA will host a Postgraduate Advanced Training Seminar (PATS) on 27/28 November 2013. This is timed to precede the conference ‘Textuality, Technology, and Materiality in the Medieval and Early Modern World’ to be held at the University of Western Australia, Perth, 29-30 November 2013.
This two-day event will comprise hands-on work with manuscripts and incunables held at UWA, and will cover palaeography, scribal practice, material features of manuscripts, and the technology of the book.

We are most fortunate to have secured the services of the internationally renowned manuscript scholar, Professor Michelle Brown, Curator of Illuminated Manuscripts at the British Library (1986-2004), and now Professor of Medieval Manuscript Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. Prof. Brown will coordinate the PATS, with contributions by UWA experts in palaeography, editing, and the technology of the book.
 
This PATS is generously sponsored by ANZAMEMS to provide travel and accommodation bursaries for Postgraduates and Early Career Researchers who wish to attend the PATS and the associated 2-day conference.
ANZAMEMS sponsorship means that there will be no registration fee for the PATS, but bursaries for travel and accommodation are restricted to members of the association. Student and unwaged membership fees are a very reasonable $36.30, and can be paid online at: http://www.anzamems.arts.uwa.edu.au/membership
If you wish to apply for an ANZAMEMS bursary for the PATS and linked conference, please apply by 1 September 2013. Applications, no longer than 400 words, should contain:
  1. Proof of status as postgraduate student (PG) or early career researcher (ECR)
  2. Reasons for wishing to attend
  3. Current research interests
  4. Endorsement by supervisor (PGs) or senior colleague (ECRs)
Please address applications, by email, to Dr Anne Scott: anne.scott@uwa.edu.au

Textuality, Technology, Materiality In the Medieval and Early Modern World – Call For Papers

Textuality, Technology, Materiality In the Medieval and Early Modern World
University of Western Australia, Perth
28-30 November, 2013

Conference Website

Confirmed plenary speakers:

  • Professor Michelle Brown (University of London)
  • Professor Tim Fitzpatrick (University of Sydney)

The convenors of the 19th Annual Conference of the Perth Medieval and Renaissance Group, co-sponsored by the UWA Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, welcome abstracts (c.200 words) for 20-minute papers exploring medieval and early modern cultures of technology, textuality, and materiality, c.600 to 1800 CE. We welcome proposals for papers (or panels of 3 papers) which consider:

  • The social and cultural lives and afterlives of medieval and early modern material objects
  • Manuscripts, inscriptions, illustrations, letters, the printing press and other medieval and early modern communication technologies
  • The production, transmission, and mediation of medieval and early modern texts
  • The application and/or impact of modern technologies to medieval and early modern materials

Abstracts and panel proposals (along with titles and brief bios for speakers) should be emailed to conference@pmrg.org.au addressed to the convenors — Professor Andrew Lynch, Dr Anne M. Scott, and Dr Brett D. Hirsch — by no later than 1 September 2013.

The Early Modern Hand on Stage and in Art – ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions lecture

ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions lecture
“The Early Modern Hand on Stage and in Art”

Date: Tuesday 13 August, 2013
Time: 1:00pm-2:00pm
Venue: Eileen Joyce Studio, School of Music, The University of Western Australia.

All welcome.

Presentations:

  • “Reading Tactility in the Early Modern Playhouse”, Dr Farah Karim-Cooper, Head of Higher Education and Research, Shakespeare’s Globe.

  • “Noli me tangere: interpreting a taboo”, Prof. Ian Donaldson, Honorary Professorial Fellow, University of Melbourne & Emeritus Professor of the Australian National University.

Dr Mary Flannery – ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions lecture

ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions lecture
“Getting Emotional About Shame in Middle English Literature”, Dr Mary Flannery (University of Lausanne, Switzerland)

Date: Wednesday 14 August,
Time: 5:30pm-7:00pm
Venue: Woolley Common Room, University of Sydney

All welcome.

A burning blush, a wave of self-loathing, a powerful urge to cringe–all of these are recognizable symptoms of shame. Shame overlaps with and inspires a host of responses and emotions, from anger and annoyance to fear and frustration. This was as much the case in the Middle Ages as it is today; indeed, one scholar has suggested that ‘we might even call shame the primal medieval emotion, so
ubiquitous and various are its implications’. This paper endeavours to unpack some of the emotionality surrounding shame in medieval English literature by focusing on the concepts of
shamefastness and shamelessness, as well as their close involvement in the construction of medieval gender.

——

Mary Flannery is a scholar of medieval literature and cultural history. A maître assistante (lecturer) at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, her work focuses on the history of emotion and on fame, gossip, and deviant speech in late-medieval literature and culture (c. 1300-1500). Her first book, John Lydgate and the Poetics of Fame (Boydell & Brewer, 2012), identifies the subject of
fame as key to understanding the poetics of fifteenth-century England’s most important author, arguing that Lydgate conceived of the poet as someone in a unique position to aid his patrons not only by responding to the political pressures of fame, but by generating good fame for his employers and, ultimately, for himself.