Monthly Archives: May 2015

Law, Custom and Ritual in the Medieval Mediterranean – Registration Open

‘Law, Custom and Ritual in the Medieval Mediterranean’
Fourth International Conference of the Society for the Medieval Mediterranean
The University of Lincoln
13-15 July, 2015

Keynote speakers:

    • Professor Simon Doubleday (Hofstra University, NY), 13 July, 5:30- 6:30pm (public lecture, free event open to everybody)
    • Dr Andrew Marsham (University of Edinburgh), 14 July, 4:00-5:30pm

The programme is available online: http://msrg.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/events/conference-b-2/society-for-medieval-mediterranean-conference-2015

To register and for more information: http://www.lincoln.ac.uk/home/campuslife/whatson/eventsconferences/society-for-the-medieval-mediterranean.html

Curtin University: Research Fellowships – Call For Applications

Curtin University is now calling for applicants for its Research Fellowships, including streams for early career researchers, senior researchers and Indigenous researchers. Fellows are funded for four years(research only) or five years (research and teaching), including additional research fund support. Prospective Fellows must be able to demonstrate an exceptionally strong record of research, according to opportunity.

Information is available at: http://research.curtin.edu.au/conducting-research/curtin-research-fellowships

Applications open Friday 29 May 2015

Applications close: Friday 10 July, 2015

The Faculty of Humanities at Curtin is providing support for applicants from humanities-related disciplines for these Fellowships. We are particularly interested in supporting applicants whose research addresses priority areas identified by the University, the Faculty of Humanities and/or its constituent schools. Details of these areas can be found here:

Curtin research areas: http://research.curtin.edu.au/about/

Faculty of Humanities research: http://research.humanities.curtin.edu.au/research_priorities/

School of Built Environment research: https://humanities.curtin.edu.au/schools/BE/sobe_research_priorities.cfm

School of Education research: http://humanities.curtin.edu.au/schools/EDU/education/current_research.cfm

School of Media, Culture and Creative Arts research: http://humanities.curtin.edu.au/schools/MCCA/research_creative.cfm

School of Design and Art: http://humanities.curtin.edu.au/schools/DA/

Any applicant outside of Western Australia who is sponsored by the Humanities Faculty and shortlisted for an interview for a Fellowship, will be able to access funding to help cover related travel and accommodation to attend the interview.

Further information and support for humanities research applicants can be obtained by contacting Dr Tim Pitman tim.pitman@curtin.edu.au

University of Copenhagen: Tenure-Track Assistant Professor in Old Norse Philology – Call For Applications

The Department of Nordic Research, Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen (UCPH), Denmark, invites applications for a tenure-track assistant professorship in Old Norse philology to be filled by 1 January 2016 or as soon as possible thereafter.

The Department of Nordic Research, with a total number of staff approximating 100, comprises four sections: the Arnamagnæan Institute, the Section for Danish Dialectology, the Section for Onomastics, and, from January 2015, the Centre for Language Technology. The department specialises in the fields of Early Scandinavian language and literature, manuscript studies, Danish dialectology and socio-linguistics, onomastics, runology, language technology and computational linguistics.

The successful candidate will be attached to the Arnamagnæan Institute, established in 1956 with the aim of preserving, publishing and furthering the study of the manuscripts in the Arnamagnæan Manuscript Collection, bequeathed by the Icelandic philologist and historian Árni Magnússon to the University of Copenhagen in 1730. The academic staff of the section is responsible for research and instruction in the areas of Old Norse-Icelandic, Old Danish and Old Swedish, as well as Modern Icelandic and Faroese language and literature. The section also houses the Dictionary of Old Norse Prose and attached to the section there is a photographic studio and a conservation workshop. The section publishes a series of scholarly monographs under the general title Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana and a series of critical editions of Old Norse-Icelandic texts, Editiones Arnamagnæanæ; a new series of digital editions is planned.

Application deadline: 3 August, 2015

For full details and to apply, please visit: http://employment.ku.dk/tenure-track/?show=734816

Library of Congress: Kluge Fellowships – Now Open

The John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress invites qualified humanities scholars to conduct research at the Kluge Center using the Library of Congress collections and resources for a period of four to eleven months. Applications are open to foreign nationals as well as US citizens, closing 15 July, 2015.

Visit the Library’s website: http://www.loc.gov/loc/kluge/fellowships/kluge.html for further information.

Auckland Library: Researcher in Residence Scholarship, 2015/16 – Call For Applications

The Auckland Library Heritage Trust is pleased to announce the award of an annual scholarship of $1000 to assist with scholarly research and promotion of the material held in the Libraries’ special collections.

Every year, the Trust will award $1000 to a research scholar with a particular interest in the collections of Auckland Libraries given by Sir George Grey and added to by others in the decades since.

The award is open to overseas visitors to New Zealand, as well as to New Zealand citizens and residents.

Applications should be made in writing to:

The Chair of the Auckland Library Heritage Trust, c/o Auckland Libraries, Private Bag 92300, Auckland 1142.

Applications should include:

    • A specific indication of the material the applicant wishes to use
    • A brief account of the project to be undertaken
    • A brief CV
    • The names of two referees, who may be asked to confirm that the applicant has the necessary background to complete and present the project satisfactorily.

Applications for 2015/16 close on 31 May, 2015.

For full details, please visit: http://www.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz/EN/heritage/sirgeorgegrey/researchinresidence/Pages/researchinresidence.aspx

Professor Michelle P. Brown, National Library of Australia Public Lecture

“The Prayer Book and World of AD1500”, Professor Michelle P. Brown (University of London)

Date: 11 June 2015
Time: 6:00pm-7:00pm
Venue: Foyer, Theatre, Ground floor, National Library of Australia
RSVP: Cost is $10 (includes refreshments), Book Now

Professor Emerita Michelle P. Brown explores the world of medieval illuminated manuscripts, their makers and readers, in the context of the famous Rothschild Prayer Book.

Widely published, Michelle Brown is Professor of Medieval Manuscript Studies at the University of London, and was previously Curator of Illuminated Manuscripts, British Library.

Bloody Passions: Extreme Emotions in Early Modern Literature and Culture – Call For Papers

Bloody Passions: Extreme Emotions in Early Modern Literature and Culture
Centre for Studies in Literature Symposium 2015
Centre for Studies in Literature, University of Portsmouth
31 October, 2015

Symposium Website

Keynote speaker

  • Dr Bridget Escolme (Queen Mary, University of London)

In James Shirley’s 1631 tragedy The Traitor, the villainous Lorenzo advises his angered target:

… master your high blood
Till I conclude, Sciarrha. I accuse not
Your noble anger, which I have observed,
Is not on every cheap and giddy motion
Inflamed; but, sir, be thrifty in your passion,
This is a petty trespass.
(The Traitor, Act 2, scene 1)

This conflation of blood and passion highlights their conceptual overlap in the early modern period, and identifies blood as both a marker of status and a marker of emotion. Cultural understandings of the meanings of blood and passion shifted during this period, bringing multiple interpretive fields into dialogue and conflict, and such explorations of emotional, humoral and anatomical selfhood figure prominently in early modern interrogations of the individual and of society.

Early modern literature is rife with bloody passions and extreme emotions, from the violent excesses of tragic drama to the passionate outpourings of sermons. Recent scholarship has considered individually the shifting interpretative grounds of passion, blood and emotion in this period. This one day symposium, hosted by the Centre for Studies in Literature at the University of Portsmouth, seeks to bring these areas of study into fruitful dialogue to consider the intersections of blood and passion in extreme emotions in early modern literature and culture. Through exploring the representation and effect of these intersections, the symposium will interrogate the construction and deconstruction of the inner and outer, physical and spiritual early modern subject.

Call for papers

We invite individual papers of 20 minutes or proposals for panels on topics including, but not restricted to:

  • Conceptions of self in blood, passion and/or emotion
  • Rage and violence
  • Performing Passions
  • Excessive desires
  • Grief and its responses
  • Humoral theories
  • Medical or quasi-scientific approaches
  • Reason and Passion

Please send abstracts of 250-300 words to Dr Jessica Dyson (University of Portsmouth) and Dr Stephen Curtis (Lancaster University) at bloody-passions@port.ac.uk by July 15th 2015.

Michelle P. Brown FSA, Sydney University Medieval and Early Modern Centre Free Lecture

“Words to be seen and images to be read: decoding the Lindisfarne Gospels“, Michelle P. Brown FSA (Professor Emerita, SAS, University of London; Visiting Professor, University College London; Visiting Professor, Baylor University)

Date: Wed. 24 June 2015
Time: 6:30pm, Wednesday
Venue: N395 – Woolley Lecture Theatre, University of Sydney

All Welcome

Sponsored by the Medieval and Early Modern Centre

The Lindisfarne Gospels mirrors the world at a time of transformation from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. Made on Holy Island in the north of Anglo-Saxon England during the early 8th century, it blends cultural, artistic, theological and spiritual ingredients of Celtic, Germanic, Roman and Near Eastern origin to create a world view that stretches from the Atlantic seaboard to the deserts of the East. In this lecture its former curator will show how excavation of the layers of evidence that it contains can help us to access aspects of its making and meaning and to decode its rich visual messages.

Michelle P. Brown FSA was until 2012 Professor of Medieval Manuscript Studies, School of Advanced Study (SAS), University of London. She was Curator of Illuminated Manuscripts, British Library (1986-2004), and specialises in cultural & book history. Media appearances include Time Team, In Our Time, Christianity: a history and Secrets of the Saxon Gold. Extensive publications include studies of the Lindisfarne Gospels, Luttrell Psalter and Holkham Bible. Exhibitions include ‘The World of the Lindisfarne Gospels’ (BL) and ‘In the Beginning: Bibles Before the Year 1000’ (Smithsonian). She is Professor Emerita at SAS and Visiting Professor at University College London and Baylor.

New Publication on the History of the Book in New Zealand: “Hocken, Prince of Collectors”

A new publication which may interest members, from Dr. Donald Kerr, Special Collections Librarian at the University of Otago, that enhances our knowledge of the history of the book in New Zealand:

Hocken. Prince of Collectors, by Donald Kerr
Otago University Press http://www.otago.ac.nz/press
Jacketed hardback, 155 x 240 mm
424 pp & 40 pp photos
ISBN 978-1-877578-66-3, $60.00
IN-STORE: JUNE 2015

Dr Thomas Morland Hocken (1836–1910) arrived in Dunedin in 1862, aged 26. Throughout his busy life as a medical practitioner he amassed books, manuscripts, sketches, maps and photographs of early New Zealand. Much of his initial collecting focused on the early discovery narratives of James Cook; along with the writings of Rev. Samuel Marsden and his contemporaries; Edward Gibbon Wakefield and the New Zealand Company; and Maori, especially in the south. He gifted his collection to the University of Otago in 1910.

Hocken was a contemporary of New Zealand’s other two notable early book collectors, Sir George Grey and Alexander Turnbull. In this magnificent piece of research, a companion volume to his Amassing Treasures for All Times: Sir George Grey, colonial bookman and collector (2006), Donald Kerr examines Hocken’s collecting activities and his vital contribution to preserving the history of New Zealand’s early post-contact period.

Ordering information: Order all Otago books from Nationwide Book Distributors/ www.nationwidebooks.co.nz/ books@nationwidebooks.co.nz/ Ph: 03 312 1603/ Fax: 03 312 1604

Reflections on Magna Carta in Australasia – Call For Papers

“Reflections on Magna Carta in Australasia” Panels at NZHA
University of Canterbury, New Zealand
2–4 December, 2015

The New Zealand Historical Association and the Magna Carta 800 Committee for New Zealand will host a series of panels at the NZHA’s biennial conference to celebrate Magna Carta
on its 800th anniversary. As a living text, Magna Carta connects both New Zealand and Australia to their colonial pasts. We invite submissions for papers that deal with the impact of this
unique historical document, especially those with a particular focus on New Zealand. We invite papers that discuss the historical context of the charter, its influence on social and legal history,
and its continued relevance to Australasian law and society.

The 2015 NZHA will be held between the 2–4 December (Wednesday – Friday) 2015. The organisers also invite submissions from postgraduates for a mini-conference dedicated to Magna Carta and its legacy to be held on Tuesday 1 December.

We will be particularly keen to consider all submissions with a New Zealand focus for a planned collection of peer-reviewed essays. We will be happy to consider the inclusion of papers by those unable to attend the NZHA.

Expressions of interest and/or paper titles, a 200 word abstract, and 50 word biography should be sent to: magnacartauc@gmail.com by 15 June, 2015.