Monthly Archives: January 2014

2014 Environmental Humanities Conference – Call For Papers

Affective Habitus: New Environmental Histories of Botany, Zoology and Emotions
The Fifth Biennial Conference of The Association for the Study of Literature, Environment and Culture, Australia and New Zealand (ASLEC-ANZ)
Humanities Research Centre, Australian National University, Canberra
19-21 June 2014

An Environmental Humanities collaboratory with the ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions, and Minding Animals International.

Convenor: Dr Tom Bristow, ANU Research Fellow (June 2014).

Perceptions, values and representations of our relationship with the physical environment have been read anew in the Anthropocene century through the lens of ecocriticism and affect theory. At present we are witnessing a turn in ecocritical theory to the relevance of empathy, sympathy and concordance, and how these move across flora and fauna; yet ecocriticism has not thoroughly considered whether human and non-human affect are reducible to a theory of the emotions. This conference both seeks to refine the theoretical turn and to address the interdisciplinary shortcoming, while ecocritically articulating the contemporary expansion of the analysis of the humanities.

Invited speakers include: Tom Griffiths, Michael Marder, John Plotz, Will Steffen and Gillen D’Arcy Wood.

Areas for consideration include:

  • Anthropocene aesthetics
  • Archives, encyclopaedias and images of the natural world
  • Colonialism: pre-histories and the present
  • Cultural studies: art, dance, film, literature, music, new media, photography, theatre
  • Ecocriticism and Critical Animal Studies: theory and practice of empathy
  • Ecopsychology
  • Emotions and the environment: learned feelings and historical variability
  • Environmental history: from the Middle Ages to the present
  • Global Ecologies
  • Green pedagogy: agency, senses and the lifeworld
  • Indigenous ecologies
  • Open to others: more-than-human worlds in non-western spaces
  • Seeds and seed banks
  • Studio based inquiry in one of the following fields: (i) climate change; (ii) botany; (iii) fauna – either extinction or migration

ASLEC-ANZ membership comprises writers, artists, cinematographers, and musicians as well as academics working in and across several areas of the Environmental/Ecological Humanities, including ecocritical literary and cultural studies, environmental history and the history of science, anthropology and ecophilosophy.

Inquiries, and paper and panel proposals to: josh.wodak@anu.edu.au

The deadline for submission of abstracts (c. 200 words) is March 30, 2014.

Selected conference papers will be published in Animal Studies Journal, and Australasian Journal of Ecocriticism and Cultural Ecology.      

Essay Collection on Grief and Gender in the Middle Ages – Call For Paper

This proposed collection seeks to explore the intersections of grief and gender in the Middle Ages across a variety of texts and disciplines, including literature, history, medicine, law, art, and religion. Perhaps the most commonly held assumption about the expression of grief by men and women in the Middle Ages is that men express their grief through violence or stoicism, while women grieve in a much more emotional manner, namely, through the shedding of tears. While these two representations of gendered grief reflect, to a certain degree, well-established gender norms, they are too reductive of the human experience of loss and its attendant grief. The expression of grief in the Middle Ages, as one would expect, assumed a variety of forms, some of which conformed to established gender norms and some of which did not. This collection will examine the question of how grief relates to gender identity in the Middle Ages and how men and women perform this grief within the seemingly rigid gender framework constructed by medieval culture. Of interest are papers that explore not only how men and women grieve in medieval texts, but also how this grief affects their gender identity.
Among the questions the collection will address include but are not limited to: How is grief represented in the literature; art; medical, historical, and legal documents; and religious writing of the Middle Ages? How are these representations informed and/or constrained by gender? What role does gender play in public and private displays of grief? How do representations of grief reveal dissonances, contradictions, and anxieties surrounding culturally sanctioned gender norms?
While the primary focus of the collection will be on the Middle Ages (1000-1500), a few essays investigating these concerns within the context of the early modern period will be considered.
Please submit a proposal of approximately 300 words, as a Word attachment, by Friday, March 14, 2014 to:
Lee Templeton, Ph.D.,
North Carolina
Wesleyan College

Medieval and Modern Manuscript Studies in the Digital Age – Call For Applications

Medieval and Modern Manuscript Studies in the Digital Age (MMSDA)
Cambridge & London
28 April ­ – 2 May, 2014

We are very pleased to announce the fifth year of this course, funded by the Digital Scholarly Editions Initial Training Network (DiXiT), and run by DiXiT with the Institute of English Studies (London), the University of Cambridge, the Warburg Institute, and King¹s College London. For the first time, the course will run in two parallel strands: one on medieval and the other on modern manuscripts.

The course is open to any arts and humanities doctoral students working with manuscripts. It involves five days of intensive training on the analysis, description and editing of medieval or modern manuscripts to be held jointly in Cambridge and London. Participants will receive a solid theoretical foundation and hands-on experience in cataloguing and editing manuscripts for both print and digital formats.

The first half of the course involves morning classes and thenafternoon visits to libraries in Cambridge and London. Participants will view original manuscripts and gain practical experience in
applying the morning¹s themes to concrete examples. In the second halfwe will address the cataloguing and description of manuscripts in a digital format with particular emphasis on the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI). These sessions will also combine theoretical principles and practical experience and include supervised work on computers.

The course is free of charge but is open only to doctoral students (PhD or equivalent). It is aimed at those writing dissertations relating to medieval or modern manuscripts, especially those working on literature, art or history. Some bursaries will be available for travel and accommodation. There are eighteen vacancies across the medieval and modern strands, and preference will be given to those considered by the selection panel likely to benefit most from the course. Applications close on 14 February 2014 but early registration is strongly recommended.

For further details see http://dixit.uni-koeln.de/mmsda.html or contact dixit-mmsda@uni-koeln.de

PhD Position: Religious Polemics – Call For Applications

The Department of History at the University of Muenster, Germany, offers up a position as Doctoral researcher (Ph.D. candidate).

The position is part-time (0.5 fte), at a TV-L 13 salary, for two years with the possibility of extension for a third year.

The position is part of the junior research group Diversitas religionum. Thirteenth-century foundations of European discourses of religious diversity, funded by the Volkswagen Foundation. The task of the doctoral researchers in this group is to contribute to the study of twelfth- to fourteenth-century religious polemics in the Euro-Mediterranean area. Preparing their own dissertations, the candidates are expected to study an aspect of anti-heretical, anti-clerical, anti-mendicant, anti-Islamic or anti-Christian polemics and perceptions. The research should concern at least one of the following aspects:

  • The relationship between intra-Christian and inter-religious conflicts and polemics,
  • The transmission and adaptation of religious polemics between learned and unlearned audiences (including questions of media, e.g. oral transmission through preaching, images or manuscript tradition),
  • Religious polemic concerning concepts of gender, sexuality and bodily purity, especially polemics debating masculinity.

The candidate is expected to have completed an MA degree or equivalent in Medieval history or another discipline of Medieval Studies, and to possess excellent command of Latin or another medieval language, as well as interest in interdisciplinary theoretical and methodical approaches. The candidate should have good communication skills and be able to present ongoing research to various (including non-specialist) audiences. The research group will engage in a regular work programme held at Muenster.

For more details and to apply, please visit: http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/chancen/id=9622&type=stellen

Applications close March 31, 2014.

Donald Bullough Fellowship for Medieval Historian – Call For Applications

Donald Bullough Fellowship for Medieval Historian
University of St Andrews
St Andrews Institute of Mediaeval Studies

The St Andrews Institute of Mediaeval Studies invites applications for the Donald Bullough Fellowship in Mediaeval History, to be taken up during either semester of the academic year 2014-15.

The Fellowship is open to any academic in a permanent university post with research interests in mediaeval history. The financial aspect of the fellowship is a subsidy (up to £3000) towards the cost of travel to St Andrews and accommodation during your stay. Previous Fellows have included Dr Christina Pössel, Professor Cynthia Neville, Dr Ross Balzaretti, Dr Marlene Hennessy, Professor Warren Brown. The fellowship is currently held by Dr Edward Coleman.

The Fellowship carries with it no teaching duties, though the Fellow is expected to take part in the normal seminar life of the mediaeval historians during their stay in St Andrews. Weekly seminars, held on a Monday evening, run from September – December, and February – May. You will also be invited to lead a workshop on your chosen research theme during your stay. Fellows are provided with computing facilities and an office alongside the mediaeval historians in the Institute. The university library has an excellent collection for mediaeval historians.

You should send a letter of application by the advertised closing date, together with a scheme of research for the project on which you will be engaged during your time in St Andrews. You should also enclose a CV, together with the names of two academic referees, who should be asked to write by the closing date. All correspondence should be addressed to saimsmail@st-andrews.ac.uk

The closing date for applications is 31 March 2014.

Further enquiries may be addressed to the Director, Professor Simon MacLean (saimsmail@st-andrews.ac.uk) or to colleagues in the Institute, whose contact details may be found on http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/saims/

Dig It Journal – Call For Papers

Dig It: the Journal of the Flinders Archaeological Society
Call for Papers – 2014 edition

The editing committee of Dig It is delighted to invite undergrad and postgrad students and recent graduates from all around the world to submit a contribution for consideration in our 2014/1 edition, to appear in May 2014.

Dig It is a student‐run journal of the Flinders Archaeological Society. The publication began in 1997 and after a hiatus of eight years, it was relaunched in 2012. The purpose of Dig It is to provide students, from undergrad through to postgrad and recent graduates, with the opportunity to practise and familiarise themselves with writing, publishing, editing and the reviewing process involved in professional publications. In addition, it aims to keep aspiring archaeologists connected and informed about what is happening in the archaeological community.

Dig It accepts original research articles, research essays, personal opinion pieces, book reviews and thesis abstracts. Details about the guidelines for contributors can be found here: http://flindersarchsoc.org/digit/guidelinesforcontributors.

All contributions are reviewed by the editors and a panel of reviewers; however original research articles and essays additionally undergo a stricter and anonymous peer review process also involving external experts.

We welcome contributions from local, interstate and international undergrad and postgrad students and recent graduates. If you want to contribute a research article or essay to Dig It 2014/1, please send an abstract of 200 words. For personal opinion pieces, book reviews and thesis abstracts, a more informal expressions of interest is sufficient.

The submission deadline for abstracts (for original research papers and essays) or expressions of interest (for other contributions) is 4th February 2014. Both should be emailed to dig.it@flindersarchsoc.org. Please mind that when sending an abstract for a research article or essay, contributors must provide names and email addresses of three persons with expertise in the field the paper relates to, which can be contacted by the editors of Dig It about peer reviewing. Reviewers can be of any academic status, however students or recent graduates are preferred in agreement with the mission statement of Dig It as providing the opportunity for professional training to students.

The editing committee of Dig It will inform you about whether or not your contribution will be considered within three weeks after 4th February and advise you on the further production schedule.

Professor Helen Hills, ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions lecture

ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions lecture
“Miraculous Affects: Inventing Corpses in Baroque Italy”, Professor Helen Hills (The University of York)
 
Date: Monday 10 February 2014
Time: 5:30pm
Venue: Napier Building, Level 1, Room 102, The University of Adelaide
Enquiries: Janet Hart, Tel: (08) 8313 2421

By what awakening is this blood kindled to see again the bitter hours of its torments? By what heat is it rarefied, what virtue makes it move, and from where does it draw such beauty?’

This paper examines the interplay between affect and religion through materiality in order to bring into relation material and spiritual approaches that have too often excluded each other.  Thus in investigating the interplay between emotion and religion in baroque Italy and their material implication, I focus on the miracle and affect and the divergent ways in which they come to matter in art and architecture. At the heart of this paper is the slippery question of the relic. At once the remains of a human, marked by deeds of a saint, and left behind as ‘deposit’ or pledge of the saint now glorified in heaven, relics occupied many registers simultaneously and ambiguously in early modern Europe. They are fertile ground for the scholar interested in emotions and power—divine and mundane – and their material intersection, including their intersection in and implication in material form in art and architecture. I take miracles seriously. Thus the paper seeks to draw into relation matters that may seem to be mutually exclusive: the material and the spiritual. What are the affective requirements each places on the other; how is the material implicated; how are miracles, sacrifice, and sanctity entailed in materiality? Thus how might we reconsider these miracles in relation to affect, ritual and architecture?

My paper takes two contrasting case studies to prise open these complex issues. The first is the miraculously liquefying bloods of St John the Baptist and of San Gennaro (St Januarius) in Naples and affective responses and materializations to them and of them. The second is Stefano Maderno’s St Cecilia (1600) in the basilica of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, one of a series of curious sculptures, made partly to celebrate the finding of the relics of saints in 17thC Rome, that stage the body of the saint as dead.  In both cases, I seek to treat the superlative richness of baroque architecture and sculpture as also affectively productive, including productive of new forms of religious authority and civic power in the baroque city.

Wellcome Library – High Resolution Images From Collection Now Available For Free

The Wellcome Library in London has recently announced that over 100,000 high resolution images including manuscripts, paintings, etchings, early photography and advertisements are now freely available through Wellcome Images: http://wellcomeimages.org
 

“Drawn from our vast historical holdings, the images are being released under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) licence.

This means that they can be used for commercial or personal purposes, with an acknowledgement of the original source (Wellcome Library, London). All of the images from our historical collections can be used free of charge.

The images can be downloaded in high-resolution directly from the Wellcome Images website for users to freely copy, distribute, edit, manipulate, and build upon as you wish, for personal or commercial use. The images range from ancient medical manuscripts to etchings by artists such as Vincent Van Gogh and Francisco Goya.”

For more on this announcement, please visit: http://blog.wellcomelibrary.org/2014/01/thousands-of-years-of-visual-culture-made-free-through-wellcome-images

Associate Professor Tracy Adams – PMRG/CMEMS@UWA/ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions lecture

PMRG/CMEMS@UWA/ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions lecture
“Marriage Passion and Love”, Associate Professor Tracy Adams (The University of Auckland)

Date: Monday 10 February 2014
Time: 6:30 – 7:30pm
Location: Webb Lecture Theatre, G21, Geography Building, The University of Western Australia**

This project follows the careers of a female network originating at the court of Anne of France (1461-1522), regent for her brother Charles VIII, and mentor to many girls who went on to illustrious careers: Marguerite of Austria, Louise of Savoy, Diane de Poitiers and Anne of Brittany. To this original circle I add the next generation: Anne of Brittany’s daughters Claude, Queen of France and Renée, Countess of Ferrara, together with Louise of Savoy’s daughter, Marguerite de Navarre, who in turn trained her own daughter, Jeanne d’Albret. Master of politics, Anne passed on knowledge about succeeding in a man’s world. Her father Louis XI chose her to be unofficial regent on his deathbed, apparently believing that in this way she would encounter less opposition than if she were formally appointed. Although female regency in France continued to be exercised unofficially, it was an important institution. From the beginning of Anne’s regency until Louis XIV came of age, ending the regency of Anne of Austria, the kingdom was for all practical purposes ruled by women for about 42 years, which is to say that, in a kingdom that prohibited female rule, women ruled about 25% of that time.

I examine Anne of France’s extended circle as an “emotional community” with the goal of understanding how members were prepared emotionally to exercise power while conforming to a repertoire of female stereotypes. Their libraries are of special interest, because in the works they shared we find models for ideal emotional modulation. I will present from a chapter on marriage, passion, and love. Passionate love was the result of an imbalance of humors; marital affection was an idealized, modulated emotional state between spouses in dynastic marriages. I compare some idealized representations of marital relationships in works from the libraries of the women with reports about these relationships from chronicles and ambassadors’ letters. These sources are all “texts”, of course, but I believe that, in comparing what was perceived as an ideal with impressions of the women, we find clues as to how they assimilated and manipulated their emotional models. 

This public seminar is hosted by the Perth Medieval and Renaissance Group (PMRG), The Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies (CMEMS) and the ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions.

**Associate Professor Tracy Adams will also be delivering this lecture at both the University of Sydney (4 Feb.) and the University of Melbourne (14 Feb.)

book:logic 2014 – Call For Papers

book:logic 2014
University of Newcastle, Australia
April 26, 2014

Keynote speakers:

  • Thomas August (Associate Professor of English, New York University, National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow)
  • Molly O’Hagan Hardy (Digital Humanities Curator, American Antiquarian Society, American Council of Learned Societies Fellow)

Hosted by Rosalind Smith and Patricia Pender of the University of Newcastle.

Do conventional and digital humanities scholarship grapple with the materiality of texts in different ways? What challenges and possibilities do print and electronic environments pose for the presentation, editing and analysis of literary texts?

We welcome proposals for 20 minute papers or panels on the symposium theme, “Literary Histories, Material Cultures, Digital Futures” or any topic associated with book:logic symposia in the past.

Please send abstracts and a short bio to wendy.alexander@newcastle.edu.au by February 23, 2013. As in the past, the event itself is free but numbers are limited. To avoid disappointment please register early with Wendy at the above address.

The symposium this year falls in the post-Easter mid-semester break, and also the ANZAC Day long weekend. We hope that this will facilitate rather than prohibit travel to Newcastle, and apologise if the date presents a conflict with prior commitments. The city itself is well worth a weekend (or even long weekend) visit and the symposium hotel is opposite Newcastle beach. A range of accommodation options will be available and the symposium will be followed by a dinner locally.

Please do not hesitate to contact Rosalind Smith and Patricia Pender if you have any questions.