Monthly Archives: June 2016

ANZAMEMS Conference Panel: Alchemical Knowledge: Production and Transfer – Call For Papers

ANZAMEMS 2017 Panel CFP: Alchemical Knowledge: Production and Transfer

In the past decades, alchemy has been finally established as a legitimate subject of scholarly interest. Instead of arguing for its acknowledgement as such, research can now focus on details and aspects that have not yet been fully explored. Alchemy was pursued in a variety of ways by a variety of practitioners belonging to different social groups in Europe and beyond.

Proposals are invited for a panel on late medieval and early modern alchemy with a special focus on the ways alchemical knowledge was produced and transferred between geographical regions, practitioners of various disciplines and social groups.

The panel will convene at the ANZAMEMS Eleventh Biennial Conference at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, 7–10 February 2017.

Potential topics for papers include, but are not limited to:

  • Places of alchemical knowledge production: laboratory, households, purpose-built buildings, imaginary spaces
  • Material culture of alchemical experimentation: the tools of the alchemists
  • Transfer of knowledge between practitioners: humanists and artisans, princes and intellectual vagabonds
  • Knowledge transfer between geographical areas
  • From alchemical theory to practice, from bookish knowledge to hands-on experience
  • The transfer of medieval alchemical knowledge and its reception in the early modern period

If you would like to contribute a paper to this panel, please send the following to Dr. Dora Bobory, dora.bobory@gmail.com, by 1 August, 2016, with ‘Alchemical Knowledge’ in the subject line:

  1. Paper title
  2. Abstract (up to 150 words)
  3. Your name, affiliation, and email address
  4. A brief CV (2 pages maximum)
  5. An indication of AV requirements

Passions: Healthy or Unhealthy? Workshop @ The University of Melbourne

Passions: Healthy or Unhealthy?

A workshop that will consider ‘passion’ and ‘emotion’, exploring their significance for contemporary philosophy, psychology, psychiatry

Speaker: Louis C. Charland, Partner investigator, ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions, Professor, Departments of Philosophy and Psychiatry, School of Health Studies Western and Rotman Institute of Philosophy, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada.

Date: Tuesday 19 July, 2016
Time: 10:00am- 1:00pm
Venue: Fourth Floor Linkway room, John Medley Building, The University of Melbourne
Register: This is a free event. Register HERE.
More info: http://www.historyofemotions.org.au/events/passions-healthy-or-unhealthy/?date=2016-07&pastdates=1

The term and concept ‘passion’ no longer figures in contemporary scientific efforts to understand emotion or other related phenomena in the affective domain. ‘Emotion’ now is the keyword and paradigm theoretical posit of the affective sciences, although ‘feeling’, ‘mood’ and ‘affect’ also play a significant role. The verdict appears to be that ‘passion’ is now a matter of historical interest only, and can otherwise be ignored, although admittedly, the term is sometimes still employed in everyday discourse and some academic research, to refer to very intense and powerful emotional states.

With the help of detailed case studies that range from the history of emotion and the affective sciences to present day psychiatry and psychology, I have argued that this relegation of ‘passion’ to the proverbial ‘dustbin’ of history represents an important loss, not only for the history of ‘emotion’, but also for contemporary science and philosophy. In particular, the omission leaves us without adequate conceptual resources to properly describe and explain the nature and organisation of long term affective states and processes. ‘Passion’ has also proven helpful in understanding the nature of mental disorders such as anorexia nervosa, substance use disorders, gambling and other forms of addiction, as well as healthy long-term life projects that endow life with meaningful activities and purpose.

I argue that we must reinstate ‘passion’ into contemporary science and philosophy. No doubt, this is a call for reform on a grand scale. It is also a telling lesson on the importance of historical studies for present-day science and philosophy – and our common folk psychological understanding of ‘emotion’ in everyday life. Indeed, love and hate, two of the West’s most famous emotions, are better understood as passions rather than emotions.

The purpose of this workshop is to inquire into this distinction between ‘passion’ and ‘emotion’ and explore its significance for contemporary philosophy, psychology, psychiatry, and literary and historical studies. After some introductory remarks, participants will be invited to share their own examples of what they consider to be passions and how these might be judged healthy or unhealthy.

Louis Charland is a CHE International Partner Investigator. He is a Professor in the Department of Philosophy, a joint appointment with the Faculty of Health Sciences and a cross appointment in the Department of Psychiatry in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at Western University in Ontario, Canada. He was previously a member of the Biomedical Ethics Unit and the Clinical Trials Research Group in the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University, Montreal.

ANZAMEMS 2017 – Applications for Bursaries and Prizes Now Open

Applications for the following ANZAMEMS 2017 conference related bursaries and prizes are now open.

For full information about each prize, including how to apply, please visit the Bursaries & Prizes page on the ANZAMEMS 2017 website: https://anzamems2017.wordpress.com/bursaries-prizes

    • The George Yule Prize [AUD$500, and a year’s free subscription to Parergon]

The George Yule Prize is awarded to the best essay written by a postgraduate. It is awarded biennially, at each ANZAMEMS conference.

    • The Kim Walker Travel Bursary [AUD$500]

The Kim Walker Travel Bursary is awarded in honour of Kim Walker, who taught in the English Programme at Victoria University of Wellington

    • ANZAMEMS Postgraduate / Recent Graduate Travel Bursaries

A limited number of open Postgraduate / Recent Graduate Bursaries may be provided, depending on donations received through the registration process.

    • Philippa Maddern Travel Bursaries [AUD$500 for applicants travelling from within New Zealand, AUD$750 for applicants from eastern Australia, and AUD$1,000 for applicants from Western Australia]

Generously funded by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions, Europe 1100-1800, the Philippa Maddern Travel Bursaries support postgraduates giving papers on topics related to the history of Emotions.

Journal of Historical Fictions: Narrative Constructions of the Past – Call For Papers

The Historical Fictions Research Network (historicalfictionsresearch.org) is pleased announce the arrival of the Journal of Historical Fictions. The Journal will be published twice a year, with the first issue to be presented in February 2017 at the second conference of the Network.

Call for abstracts: 1:1 Narrative Constructions of the Past

In the study of historical fictions, there is increasing critical recognition of convergences between the philosophy of history, narratology, popular literature, historical narratives of national and cultural identity, and cross-disciplinary approaches to narrative constructions of the past in diverse media.

Narrative constructions of the past constitute a powerful discursive system for the production of cognitive and ideological representations of identity, agency, and social function, and for the negotiation of conceptual relationships between societies in different times and lived experience. The licences of fiction, especially in mass culture, define a space in which the pursuit of narrative and meaning is permitted to slip the chains of sanctioned historical truths to explore the deep desires and dreams that lie beneath all constructions of the past. Historical fictions measure the gap between the pasts we are permitted to know and those we wish to know, interacting between the meaning-making narrative and the narrative-resistant nature of the past.

This journal welcomes inter-disciplinary and cross-disciplinary articles from (but not confined to) archaeology, literature, film, history, media studies, art history, musicology, reception studies, and museum studies. We welcome proposals that cross historical periods, and encourage ambitious approaches of high quality, using new methodologies to support research into larger trends. The journal aims to foster more theoretically informed understandings of the mode across historical periods, cultures, media and languages.

The journal is supported by an inter-disciplinary core of researchers, to generate a collective discourse around historical fictions in a range of media and across period specialities.

Please send abstracts of no more than 800 words for articles for this Open Access, peer-reviewed journal, to journalhistfics@gmail.com, by 30 June, 2016, with a view to submitting a full article of 6000-8000 words by 30 September 2016.

Global Byzantium: 50th Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies – Call For Papers

Global Byzantium: 50th Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies
Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham
25-27 March, 2017

For its 50th anniversary, the Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies returns to the University of Birmingham, where it began in 1967. On this anniversary of the discipline we ask what the language of globalism has to offer to Byzantine studies, and Byzantine studies to global narratives. How global was Byzantium? Our understanding of the links which Byzantium had to far-flung parts of the world, and of its connections with near neighbours, continues to develop but the significance of these connections to Byzantium and its interlocutors remains keenly debated. Comparisons from or to Byzantium may also help in thinking about globalism, modern and historical. How, for example, might Byzantine legal structures, visual culture or military practice contribute to debates about the role of the medieval state or the relationship between modern cultural and national identities? Finally, Byzantine studies has always been an international discipline, marked by the interaction of its different national, regional and linguistic traditions of scholarship, as well as its highly interdisciplinary nature. How has this manifested in the interpretation of Byzantine history and how might practices of global scholarship be pursued in the future? The 50th Spring Symposium invites contributions for communications on any of these themes and warmly invites abstracts from scholars outside the UK and in fields linked to Byzantine studies.

The call for communications is now open. If you would like to offer a 10-minute communication on the theme of the symposium, please send an abstract of no more than 250 words to Daniel Reynolds atd.k.reynolds@bham.ac.uk by 1 September, 2016.

Successful submissions will be informed no later than 1 October 2016. Some bursaries will be available to selected speakers, especially to attendees from outside the UK. If you would like to be considered for a bursary please indicate this on your abstract and we will send you further information about the application process if appropriate.

Dunedin Australasian Rare Book School 2017 – Call For Applications

Dunedin Australasian Rare Book School
Central Library, the University of Otago, Dunedin, NZ
30 January-3 February, 2017

The Dunedin Australasian Rare Book School will be held the week of 30 January to 3 February 2017. Full descriptions of the three papers on offer are linked below, and each provides details of an advance reading list.

The following papers will be offered in 2017 in Dunedin. Please follow the links for details about any of them.

Practical information:

All classes offer a list of advance readings that students are expected to complete prior to beginning the class.

Classes run 9–5 Monday through Friday, with an opening reception on Sunday evening, 29 January, and a closing reception late Friday afternoon. All classes include morning and afternoon teas and a public lecture on Wednesday evening by Professor Rosamond McKitterick of Cambridge University.

Tuition for the week is NZ$1000 (c. AUS$940; US$685; £470; €600). Applications close 1 November, 2016. For full information, and to apply, please visit: https://blogs.otago.ac.nz/cfb/rbs2017

Extend Your Visit:

Why not combine attendance at ARBS with a NZ conference? Medievalists and Romanticists are both holding conferences at Victoria University of Wellington soon after ARBS concludes. For more details, see

 

Interpreting Shakespeare Professional Learning Day @ Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne

Interpreting Shakespeare Professional Learning Day

Date: 28 July, 2016
Time: 9:30am–3:30pm
Venue: ACMI Cinema 2, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Federation Square Melbourne, Australia
Admission Cost: Teacher: $110 ($95 early bird registration closes 30 April 2016); Student teacher: $70
More info. and registration: https://www.acmi.net.au/education/teacher-programs/interpreting-shakespeare

In conjunction with La Trobe University, ACMI invites teachers to bring Shakespeare back to life in their classrooms by attending professional learning day Interpreting Shakespeare.

To mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death in 2016, this one-day professional learning program offers teachers stimulating and thought-provoking approaches to reading and teaching Shakespeare texts. Focusing on moving image and theatrical interpretations of Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet, this all-day program offers a range of perspectives
to re-enliven this educational rite of passage.

Presenters include members of the English, Drama and Cinema programs at La Trobe, ACMI’s team of expert educators and special guest, Dr David McInnis, Gerry Higgins lecturer in Shakespeare Studies, University of Melbourne. Registration includes morning tea, lunch and resource pack.

British Library: Internship in Ancient, Medieval and Early Modern Manuscripts – Call For Applications

Intern in Ancient, Medieval and Early Modern Manuscripts

Full Time (36 hours per week over 5 days)
Fixed Term for 9 months
Salary: £9.40 per hour (London Living Wage)
Location: St Pancras, London
Start date: October 2016

Thanks to external funding, the British Library is pleased to be able to offer an internship in the Ancient, Medieval and Early Modern Manuscripts section of the Western Heritage Department for a post-graduate or post-doctoral student in History, Art History, Medieval Language or Literature or other relevant subject.

The primary focus of the internship will be to enhance our Explore Archives and Manuscripts online catalogue, by creating catalogue entries for medieval manuscripts from the Harley collection. In addition, the intern will be involved in all aspects of the work of the Ancient, Medieval and Early Modern Manuscripts section, including responding to enquiries, providing talks for students and patrons, selecting and presenting manuscripts for display in our exhibition gallery, and cataloguing, thereby gaining insight into various curatorial duties and aspects of collection care.  During the internship at the Library, the intern will enjoy privileged access to printed and manuscript research material, and will work alongside specialists with wide-ranging and varied expertise.

This internship is designed to provide an opportunity for the student to develop research skills and expertise in medieval history and manuscripts, and in presenting manuscripts to a range of audiences.  Previous interns have given feedback that they felt a valued member of the team, gained professional confidence and developed their career by carrying out a ‘real’ job with specific duties.

The programme is only open to students who are engaged actively in research towards, or have recently completed a PhD in a subject area relevant to the study of medieval manuscripts and who have a right to work in the UK full time.

The term of internship is full time (36 hours per week over 5 days) for 9 months.  The salary is £9.40 per hour, which is the current London Living Wage. The internship will start in October 2016 or as soon as relevant security checks have been completed.

To apply, please visit www.bl.uk/careers.

Applicants are asked to include answers to the following questions within their Supporting Statement:

  1. Please give examples of your experience in cataloguing medieval manuscripts. 
  2. Please provide examples of your experience in writing about your research for a general audience.

Closing Date: 15 July, 2016


Interviews will be held on 16 August. The selection process may include questions about the date and origin of a particular manuscript to be shown at the interview.

Superhero Identities Symposium – Call For Papers

Superhero Identities Symposium
Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI), Melbourne, Australia
8-9 December, 2016

It is hard to imagine a time when superheroes have been more pervasive in popular culture. As one of our most beloved folkloric traditions these costume-clad adventurers have become a means to negotiate and articulate identities in response to fictional heroes. Superhero identities range from those that symbolise a nation, to web communities that use cosplay to challenge gender roles, and the people of a city coming together under the banner of a caped crusader. This symposium will examine the many intersections between superheroes and identity. From big screen heroes to lesser-known comic book vigilantes and real-life costumed heroes, the symposium will include papers that consider superheroes across all eras and media platforms

We are inviting submissions for individual research papers of 20 minutes as well as pre-formed panels. Proposal topics might include, but are not limited to, the following areas:

Super-Activism

One of the central tenets of the superhero story is the transition of unassuming civilians into costume-clad heroes. This narrative is not confined to the comic book page as the people of San Francisco demonstrated when they came together to realise the adventures of Batkid. Proposals are invited that consider how superheroes have become icons of activism and community engagement.

National and Regional Identities

Comic books are often considered an American form, and the medium’s most popular character, the superhero, did much to affirm that link with dozens of star-spangled heroes created during the industry’s Golden Age. However, the superhero has been reimagined in a range of contexts to respond to local cultures, politics, and traditions. Papers that consider how superheroes engage with national and regional identities are welcome.

Secret Identities

The masquerade and imaginative possibilities of superheroes, coupled with their high concept settings, have allowed these characters to engage with issues and interests that were often difficult to tackle in more “grounded” stories. Papers that consider how superheroes address topics such as gender, sexuality, and ethnicity are invited.

Audiences, Fans, and Superheroes

Whether it is t-shirts adorned with a familiar logo or convention cosplay and fan fiction, superheroes compel participation. We encourage papers that examine the range of this engagement from casual movie audiences to avid consumers.

Supervillains

The supervillain is often understood as the hero’s dark double. This symposium welcomes papers that consider the identities of the supervillains, and their relationship to the above topics.

The Superhero Identities symposium is organised by the Superheroes & Me research team – Angela Ndalianis (University of Melbourne), Liam Burke (Swinburne University of Technology), Elizabeth MacFarlane (University of Melbourne), Wendy Haslem (University of Melbourne), and Ian Gordon (National University of Singapore) – and supported by the Australian Research Council (ARC) and Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI).

Proposals of 250-300 words for individual presentations or full panels, as well as any queries, should be sent to wburke@swin.edu.au by June 24, 2016, along with a 150-word bio.

Keynote Speakers and Industry Guests

Professor Henry Jenkins

Henry Jenkins joined USC from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was Peter de Florez Professor in the Humanities. He directed MIT’s Comparative Media Studies graduate degree program from 1993-2009, setting an innovative research agenda during a time of fundamental change in communication, journalism and entertainment.

As one of the first media scholars to chart the changing role of the audience in an environment of increasingly pervasive digital content, Jenkins has been at the forefront of understanding the effects of participatory media on society, politics and culture. His research gives key insights to the success of social-networking websites, networked computer games, online fan communities and other advocacy organizations, and emerging news media outlets.

Paul Dini

Paul Dini is the Emmy, Eisner, and Annie Award-winning writer of some of the most popular superhero stories ever across animation, film, comics, and games. He is co-creator of the Batman: The Animated Series and related shows and films Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, Superman: The Animated Series, and Batman Beyond. While working on Batman, Dini co-created fan favourite character Harley Quinn who makes her film debut in August’s Suicide Squad. Moving to games, Dini is the writer of the best-selling Batman: Arkham Asylum game.

His 2016 graphic novel Dark Night: A True Batman Story is a harrowing and eloquent autobiographical tale of Dini’s courageous struggle to overcome a desperate situation.

Other credits include ABC’s Lost, Star Wars spin-offs Ewoks and Clone Wars, Tiny Toons Adventures, Animaniacs, Freakzoid!, Ultimate Spider-Man, DC Comics Harley Quinn, Superman: Peace on Earth, and Mad Love.

Hope Larson

Hope Larson is the New York Times bestselling author of six graphic novels, notably her graphic novel adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), and co-creator of Boom! Comics’ Goldie Vance. Forthcoming projects include two graphic novels, Compass South and Knife’s Edge (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) and, starting in July 2016, a reimagining of DC Comics’ Batgirl. Her short comics have been published by the New York Times, Vertigo, and in several anthologies, including Flight and DC Comics’ Gotham Academy Yearbook.

In addition to her comics work, Larson has explored filmmaking. She is the writer and director of two short projects. Bitter Orange, starring Brie Larson, James Urbaniak and Brendan Hines, is a tale of crime in 1920s Hollywood. Did We Live Too Fast is a Twilight Zone-inspired music video created for Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Dan the Automator’s band, Got A Girl; it was used as the centerpiece of their 2015 tour.

Larson has been nominated for cartooning awards in the US, Canada and Europe, and is the recipient of a two Eisner Awards and an Ignatz. She holds a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She currently lives in Los Angeles.

The Great Fire: Reconsidered – Call For Papers

The Great Fire: Reconsidered
Wren Suite, St Paul’s Cathedral
3 September, 2016

The Great Fire of London has long been held as a watershed moment in London’s history. Over the course of four days in September 1666, an infernal blaze claimed over 13,000 houses, 87 churches and 52 livery halls, and rendered an estimated 70,000 people homeless. Yet while cellars still burned there were whispers at court that the conflagration might actually be ‘the greatest blessing that God ever conferred’ upon King Charles II because it had crippled the ‘rebellious’ City of London; forever opening its gates to royal power.

Three hundred and fifty years on, The Great Fire: Reconsidered aims to re-examine the impact of the Great Fire of London and explore its wide-ranging legacy. This interdisciplinary conference will focus on the political, cultural and architectural impact of the fire; the way in which the ever-adapting Restoration stage laboriously and brilliantly reworked the topography of London to accommodate specific needs of its audience; and the religious ramifications of heightened anti-papist feelings.

We are inviting proposals for 20-minute papers on any of the aforementioned themes across all disciplines from established scholars, graduate students and early career researchers.

Papers proposals of up to 250 words, accompanied by a short biography should be submitted to Gabriella Infante (gabriella.infante@kcl.ac.uk) and Rebecca Rideal (thehistoryvault@gmail.com) by Thursday 30 June.