Richard III: Histories — Transformations — Afterlives
A one-day conference at De Montfort University, Leicester
Trinity House, The Newarke, Leicester
25 March 2015

Coinciding with the interment of King Richard III in Leicester, De Montfort University’s Centre for Textual Studies and Centre for Adaptations are co-hosting a one-day conference called “Richard III: Histories–Transformations–Afterlives”.

20-minute papers are invited on all topics related to:

• The historical King Richard III
• Dramatic/fictional Richards onstage and elsewhere
• The genre of the history play in its own time and after
• Textual problems in the editions of Shakespeare’s history plays
• The relationship between history and tragedy then and later
• How Richard III changes in adaptations
• History plays and the shifting geographies of England, Great Britain, the United Kingdom and beyond.

Please send proposals for papers comprising titles and abstracts (100-300 words) to Prof Deborah Cartmell (djc@dmu.ac.uk) and Prof Gabriel Egan (gegan@dmu.ac.uk) by 15 January 2015.

The conference day programme and the registration fee include a private guided tour of the newly opened King Richard III Visitor Centre in Leicester city centre, which commemorates the discovery in 2012 of Richard III’s remains, just 200 metres from the De Montfort University campus.

Heroes – Heroizations – Heroisms
Transformations and Conjunctures from Antiquity to the Modern Day
Freiburg, Germany
19–20 November, 2015

The discussion in history and the cultural sciences usually views heroic figures and their deeds as manifestations of human autonomy and agency. The planned conference confronts this viewpoint with the question of how the heroic is intertwined with material objects across various epochs and cultures. The goal is to gain a new perspective on assumptions concerning heroic agency and inquire into the relevance of current theoretical approaches (such as actor network theory, assemblage theory, new materialism) for discussions on the heroic as well as on the challenge the heroic presents for the material turn.

By virtue of their physicality, heroic figures themselves have a material dimension that influences their actions. But the capacity for heroic agency is also linked to the world of things and determined in a positive and a negative sense by artefacts and other objects, technologies, and media as well as their structures. The basic thesis of the conference is that the capacity for heroic agency manifests itself in charged assemblages of human and nonhuman protagonists, in the complex interactions between heroic figures and the influence of things they make use of, take action against, or even fuse with: from Hercules’ club to “machine heroes.” The conference invites papers focused on history, society, aesthetics, and the media that explore the following central aspects of this premise:

1) Things as conditions, extensions, and potentialisations of heroic agency: How dependent are heroic figures on their material attributes (weapons, armour, other implements)? Are things what make the hero into a hero in the first place? What material attributes are associated with the charisma of heroic figures? How and under what conditions do things and technologies serve to extend or augment the capacity for heroic agency? When and how do such extensions become catalysts for characterising the heroic? Is it possible to make out historical trends for such processes?

2) Things as resistance to and limitation of heroic agency: Under what circumstances are the possibilities of heroic agency limited by material circumstances? What natural objects or artefacts must heroes clash with to prove their exceptional abilities? What does it mean when heroes are confronted with the agency of artefacts or natural objects? How do technological and scientific innovations affect the possibilities of heroic agency (e.g., weapons of mass destruction or surveillance technologies that limit autonomous agency)? Which technologies tend to promote individual heroism and which collective heroism? Under what social or political conditions did or does this happen? Can heroism be paid for or rewarded by material means?

3) Things as modifications, optimisations, or substitutions of the hero’s body: How does the materiality of the hero’s own body limit his or her capacity for agency, and how is it possible to compensate for this limitation through modification of the hero’s body? How far do imagination and reality go in this respect? When and with what consequences for our understanding of the heroic does the body of the hero finally itself become a thing (machine heroes, cyborgisation) and at what point is the hero substituted entirely by things (drones instead of soldiers)?

4) Things as heroes: Can nonhuman agency be heroised or become the hero’s antagonist? Under what circumstances and with what intentions are things themselves heroised in reality or in the imagination?

The conference will be held in English and German (with translations).

Please send your abstract of up to 300 words by 15 November 2014 to info@sfb948.uni-freiburg.de.

New Perspectives on Gerald of Wales: Texts and Contexts
Harvard University
10-11 April, 2015

Gerald of Wales, also known as Giraldus Cambrensis or Gerald de Barri, is one of the most widely referenced authors of the twelfth century, and an important source of information for life in the insular medieval world. Much of his work, however, remains understudied, with scholarly focus usually limited to his works on Ireland and Wales, while his religious and other writings remain almost untouched. Recent scholarship on the complete manuscripts of his works by Catherine Rooney at the University of Cambridge, however, as well as recent studies on his ethnographic writings and the vernacular transmission of his work, has opened up new possibilities and renewed interest in his life and writings, including several forthcoming new editions. This conference seeks to bring together scholars of Gerald of Wales from around the world, considering this remarkable writer in his own right, both in the context of the twelfth century and throughout the later Middle Ages, stimulating new dialogue and allowing a platform for new work in the future.

This conference invites papers on any aspect of Gerald’s writing, especially welcoming new approaches to his religious writings; the transmission of his work in manuscript, including the construction of stemma; his relationship to other writers of the twelfth century, whether scholastic, historical or otherwise; his relationship with the Angevins; and the legacy of his reception in vernacular languages.

The conference will be hosted by Harvard University’s Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures and the Standing Committee on Medieval Studies. We are pleased to announce that our plenary addresses will be given by Robert Bartlett (University of St Andrews) and Huw Pryce (Bangor University). Potential presenters should submit an abstract of no more than 250 words to harvardgerald@gmail.com by 31 October 2014. Presentations should be no more than 20 minutes in length.