‘Memory and Foresight in the Celtic World’
The Ninth Australian Conference of Celtic Studies
University of Sydney
27-30 September, 2016

Submissions are invited for twenty-minute papers addressing any scholarly aspect of Celtic Studies, including, but not limited to, the areas of: archaeology, folklore, history (including modern diaspora history), language, literature (including literature in English) and music. Abstracts of up to 250 words should be emailed to Professor Jonathan Wooding: jonathan.wooding@sydney.edu.au.

The final date for abstracts to be received will be Monday 2 May 2016. Acceptances will be communicated on Monday 16 May 2016. Potential contributors in need of earlier acceptance (for funding applications &c.) may request it with their submissions. Potential participants are invited to have their names added to a conference database from which we will send updates and reminders of approaching deadlines.

The 2016 Australian Conference of Celtic Studies is jointly sponsored by the Foundation for Celtic Studies of the University of Sydney and the Humanities Research Centre of the Australian National University. All sessions will be held on University of Sydney’s Main Campus in Camperdown, Sydney

Working with Complexity
The University of Tasmania, Hobart
20-23 June, 2016

Conference Website

The Australasian Association for Digital Humanities (aaDH) is pleased to announce its third conference ‘Working with Complexity’.

Regardless of disciplinary interests, problems and debates, one concern that humanists and creative artists share is their engagement with complexity. Using digital technologies presents technical challenges, but arguably more significant are the intellectual and conceptual complexities that realising their creative and analytical potential present. We invite proposals on all aspects of digital humanities, but encourage papers and birds of a feather sessions focusing on working with complexity.

Among the issues we would especially like to explore at DHA 2016 are:

• Analysis: complexities in linguistic, historical, environmental and cultural scholarship
• Visualisation: spatial-temporal analysis of complex human and environmental phenomena
• Engagement science: public engagement with digital culture
• Evaluation: digital humanities, institutional ambitions and research integrity
• Disciplines: intellectual traditions and new formations in the age of research complexity
• Infrastructure: socio-cultural complexities and informatics
• Rights: ensuring recognition and the integrity of artistry digitised in humanities research

DHA 2016 will held in conjunction in Hobart with Digital Panopticon: Penal History in a Digital Age, 22-24 June 2016, see: http://www.digitalpanopticon.org/?p=934. This conference focuses on digital humanities and the history of prisons, the law, courts and convict transportation systems. Papers and presentations will address ways in which the data generated by criminal justice systems that is increasingly becoming available in digital form can be used to shed light on the past.

SUBMISSIONS FOR DHA 2016: Abstracts of no more than 500 words, together with a biography of no more than 100 words, should be submitted to the Program Committee by 19 February, 2016.

All submissions will be fully refereed. Submissions (i.e. abstracts) should be submitted via the online form on the conference registration and program website at: http://www.uqhistory.net/web/dha2016/index.php/dha2016/dha2016/schedConf/cfp.

Please indicate whether you are proposing a short paper (10 mins + 5 mins questions), a long paper (25 mins + 5 mins questions), a panel or forum session (60 mins), lightning talk (5 mins) or poster.

Submissions 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 submission by 18 March 2016.

WORKSHOPS

We are keen to have proposals for half-day workshops. Please send expressions of interest to Paul Turnbull.

SUBMISSION TYPES:

Poster presentations

Poster presentations may include work-in-progress as well as demonstrations of computer technology, software and digital projects. A separate poster session will take place during one day of the conference, during which time presenters will need to be available to explain their work, share their ideas with other delegates, and answer questions. Presenters are encouraged to provide material and handouts with more detailed information and URLs. Poster guidelines will be posted on the conference website to help you prepare your poster.

Lightning Talks

We plan to have several sessions devoted to short 5 minute talks on any matter of relevance to Digital Humanities.

Short papers

Short papers will be allocated 10 minutes (plus 5 minutes for questions) and are suitable for describing work-in-progress and reporting on work in the early stage of development.

Long Papers

Long Papers will be allocated 25 minutes (plus 5 minutes for questions) and are intended for presenting substantial unpublished research, new digital resources or addressing broader questions of interest to digital humanists.

‘Birds of a Feather’ Sessions

‘Birds of a Feather’ sessions will be allocated 60 minutes to be used as participants decide, although ensuring that time is allocated for questions and questions. A session could take the form of a panel or an array of formats, such as lightning talks or an open mike event.

BURSARIES:

A limited number of travel bursaries (AUD $500) are available on a competitive basis for students and early career researchers whose conference paper has been accepted (lead author only). Bursaries will be awarded on the basis of merit and need, with consideration given to issues of gender equality and economic, ethnic, cultural, and linguistic diversity. Applicants are requested to supply a 500 word statement of their interests in digital humanities broadly defined (apply through the online form when submitting your paper). The best student/ECR paper presented at the conference will receive the John Burrows Award, named after an Australian pioneer in computational methods in the humanities. All student papers are eligible for consideration for the award, whether they receive travel bursaries or not. For more information, see: http://aa-dh.org/conferences/john-burrows-award.

The Materiality of Mourning: A 2-Day Interdisciplinary Workshop
The University of Warwick
19-20 May, 2016

Funded by the Wellcome Trust

Organiser: Dr Zahra Newby, Dept of Classics and Ancient History, University of Warwick, UK.

Papers are invited for this interdisciplinary workshop, which aims to bring together scholars and practitioners across a range of disciplines for a two-day workshop exploring the roles and uses of images and objects in contexts of grief and mourning. Speakers’ UK travel and accommodation expenses will be met by funding provided by the Wellcome Trust.

Grief and bereavement are human constants, affecting all of us, across time, religions and cultures. Yet our responses to them are both emotionally and culturally conditioned, and can take a variety of forms. For historians, the remnants of past grief are often revealed to us through physical memorials: a tombstone, a carved epitaph, or a cherished possession which passes into the ownership of the bereaved. The physical object stands as a tangible remnant of embedded sets of relationships, emotions and desires which it is the job of the he historian to unpick.

This workshop sets out to explore the role of material objects and images in the processes of grief, mourning and commemoration, across a range of time periods and cultures. The aim is to open up awareness of the different ways of studying this material, allowing for cross-disciplinary insights which will deepen our understanding of both present and past societies, while allowing for the recognition of social and cultural differences. Papers are invited from both academic researchers and practitioners involved in supporting the bereaved, or the terminally ill and their families.

There are two main themes:

1: Objects and images in grief, mourning and remembrance.

This session will explore the use of material objects in contexts of grief, mourning and memory in both contemporary society and the past, from a number of different perspectives: how are tangible objects, mementoes and memorials seen as beneficial aids to the process of mourning? What roles can they play in the different rituals around death? Papers may include examinations of group responses to death, as well as those of individuals and families. Discussions of the ways material objects are presented in the contexts of grief in literature and thought are also welcome.

2: Embodied Emotion: accessing historic grief and mourning through material remains?

This session will ask how far we can gain access to the lived experience of grief and mourning through the material remains of the past. Archaeologists, historians and art historians often seek to understand past societies and cultures through the physical remains they have left behind; yet cultural values and practices around death and mourning can vary widely from one society to another, and issues such as changing rates of mortality can affect the ways in which societies approach death and bereavement. Papers will address the question of how much we can glean about past emotions through the physical monuments which remain, and the representation of such objects in literature or philosophy, as well as the question of agency and responsibility: whose grief is expressed; to what extent is it ‘real’, or the reflection of societal expectations, and which agents are involved in the creation of the tomb and its imagery?

Confirmed Speakers:

• Sarah Tarlow, Professor of Archaeology, University of Leicester: ‘Body, Thing, Memory’
• Michael Brennan, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Liverpool Hope University. ‘Why materiality matters’
• Douglas Davies, (Professor of the Study of Religion, Durham): ‘Grave and hopeful emotions’
• Lucy Noakes (History, Brighton): Memorials and grief in WWII Britain
• Su Chard (independent funerary celebrant) ‘When the mantelpiece spoke.’
• Dawn Nevin, Director of Counselling and Family Support at Myton Hospices, Warwickshire.
• Pam Foley, Sculptor ‘Routes of Sorrow: grieving without finality’

Academics and practitioners across all disciplines are warmly invited to offer papers exploring the research questions outlined above. PhD candidates and Early Career Researchers are particularly welcome. Disciplines may include, but are not limited to: Psychology, Sociology, History, Medical Education, Philosophy, Bereavement Counselling, Religious studies, History of Art and Architecture, Classics and Ancient History, Literary studies, Politics and Public policy. Please send a title and brief abstract (up to 200 words) to Zahra.newby@warwick.ac.uk by 29 February, 2016.

Gender and Transgression in the Middle Ages
University of St Andrews
April 26-28, 2016

Conference Website

We are pleased to announce the call for papers for Gender and Transgression in the Middle Ages 2015, an interdisciplinary conference hosted by the University of St Andrews Institute of Mediaeval Studies (SAIMS). Entering into its seventh year, this conference welcomes participation from postgraduate, postdoctoral and early career researchers interested in one or both of our focal themes of gender studies or more general ideas of transgression in the mediaeval period.

This year’s conference will have a keynote presentation by Dr Rob Meens of the Utrecht Universiteit. Other speakers include Dr Liana Saif (University of Oxford), Dr Megan Cavell (Durham University) and Dr Zubin Mistry (Queen Mary University of London).

We invite proposals for papers of approximately 20 minutes that engage with the themes of gender and/or transgression from various disciplinary standpoints, such as historical, linguistic, literary, archaeological, art historical, or others. Possible topics may include, but are by no means limited to:

• Depictions of violence: visual and literary images of violence, verbal and non-verbal violence, gendered violence
• Legal Studies: women in the courtroom, gendered crimes, law breaking and law making
• Penance: men, women and penance, penance as punishment, rituals of penance, penitential discourses and ideals, penance and power
• Orthodoxy and Heresy: transgressing orthodox thought, portrayals of religious ‘outsiders’, monasticism, lay religion, mysticism
• Moral transgression
• Homosexuality and sexual deviancy
• Masculinity and/or femininity in the Middle Ages: ideas of gender norms and their application within current historiography

There will be four set strands of Medieval Law and Literature, Transgression in the Medieval East (with Liana Saif), Bodies and Violence (with Megan Cavell), and Crimes of
Sex (with Zubin Mistry). There will be several other sessions within the broader conference theme.

Those wishing to participate should please submit an abstract of approximately 250 words to genderandtransgression@st-andrews.ac.uk by 13 February, 2015. Please attach your abstract to your email as a Microsoft Word or PDF file and include your name, home institution and stage of your postgraduate or postdoctoral career.

Registration for the conference will be £15. This will cover tea, coffee, lunch and two wine receptions. All delegates are also warmly invited to the conference meal on Friday 8 May. Further details can be found at our website, http://www.standrews.ac.uk/saims/gender/index.html as they become available. Please also follow us on Twitter @standgt and find us on Facebook!

Beyond Borders: Mutual Imaginings of Europe and the Middle East (800-1700)
Barnard College’s 25th Biannual Medieval and Renaissance Studies Conference
December 3, 2016

Recent scholarship is challenging the stark border between Europe and the Middle East during the long period between 800-1700. Rather than thinking of these areas in isolation, scholars are revealing the depth of their mutual influence. Trade, war, migration, and scholarly exchange connected Europe and the Middle East in ways both cooperative and adversarial. The distant world was not only an object of aggression, but also, inextricably, of fantasy and longing. Jewish, Muslim, and Christian thinkers looked to each other to understand their own cultural histories and to imagine their futures. Bringing together art historians, literary scholars, historians, scholars of the history of science, and scholars of religious thought, this interdisciplinary conference will explore the real and imaginary cultural interchanges between Europe and the Middle East during their formative periods. The conference will feature plenary lectures by Professors Nancy Bisaha of Vassar College, and Nabil Matar of the University of Minnesota.

This conference is being organized by Professors Rachel Eisendrath, Najam Haider, and Laurie Postlewate of Barnard College.

Please send an abstract (with title) of approximately 200 words and CV to lpostlew@barnard.edu. Presentations should be 20 minutes.

Deadline: April 10, 2016.

Myth and Emotion in Early Modern Europe
Upper East Room, University House, Professors Walk, The University of Melbourne
10 March, 2016

Symposium Website

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Greek and Roman classics became increasingly central to the European literary imagination, being referenced, translated, adopted and reshaped by a huge range of authors. In turn, current criticism of early modern literature is ever more concerned with the period’s reception and appropriation of the classical past. Greek and Roman myths held a two­fold appeal for authors: they were ‘known’ stories, culturally iconic and comfortingly familiar to the educated reader, but readerly knowledge could also be manipulated, and the myths reshaped in emotionally provocative and iconoclastic ways. This one day symposium at the University of Melbourne will be an investigation into early modern use of classical myths, asking how myth was used both ‘privately’, to excite emotional effect, and ‘publically’, to respond to political, religious, or social events. This symposium will focus on how and why myth was used specifically to excite and manipulate emotional responses in early modern readers and audiences: responses that might run counter to the original, classical focus of such stories.

Papers may consider, but are not limited to, the following questions:

• Which classical myths were most popular, among authors seeking emotional effect?
• How were myths rewritten to alter or increase the emotional impact? Could comic myths become tragic, or was it more likely for tragic myths to become comic?
• How did authors working with the burgeoning genre of tragicomedy, a form that by its very nature demands a bifurcated emotional response from the auditor, adapt classical myth?
• Why did authors choose to rewrite known stories in this way? How does an iconic reshaping of a classical story’s emotional impact (such as Shakespeare’s rewriting of Pyramus and Thisbe into a comic interlude) affect our perception of the original myth, or hypotext?
• How has our emotional response to myth and its rewriting altered, from the sixteenth century to the twenty-first? Do we laugh at Pyramus and Thisbe, or Venus and Adonis, in the same way that Shakespeare’s readers and audiences might have done? Is the rape of Lavinia in Titus Andronicus less disturbing, if we are less familiar with Ovid’s underlying tale of Procne and Philomela? Do modern adapters of myth, such as Ted Hughes and Carol Anne Duffy, handle its emotive potential in the same way as their early modern forebears?
• What might the ‘emotionalising’ of a particular myth (for example by giving the reader access to a character’s previously unspoken thoughts or feelings) have to tell us about the cultural or literary context in which it was written? (for example, what might it suggest about attitudes to women; to the foreign; to the relationship between reader and audience).

Abstracts of no more than 200 words, and a short biography, should be emailed to both Gordon Raeburn (gordon.raeburn@unimelb.edu.au) and Katherine Heavey (katherine.heavey@glasgow.ac.uk) by 12 February, 2016.