Daily Archives: 23 August 2018

Faking It: Manuscripts for the Margins, Macquarie University, 22 Sept

On Saturday 22 September a day of public lectures on forgery and fake manuscripts will be held at Macquarie University in Sydney. ‘Faking it: Manuscripts for the Margins’, convened by Malcolm  Choat and Rachel Yuen-Collingidge, will take place in the Australian Hearing Hub, Level 1 lecture theatre at Macquarie University from 9.30 am–5 pm, with an evening reception and a viewing of an associated exhibition of forgeries and questioned objects in the Museum of Ancient Cultures to follow.

This public event brings together twelve speakers to present diverse perspectives on forgery, authenticity, and related issues. The keynote speaker is Professor Professor Christopher Rollston, Associate Professor of Northwest Semitic languages and literatures at George Washington University, Washington D.C., who will be joined by eight other international scholars of forgeries, and experts from Macquarie and other Australian institutions.

The event will feature presentations of fake texts in Egyptian, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and English on stone, papyrus, parchment, and paper, as well as discussions of forgery as the construction of history in the Middle ages; the way we assess authenticity; public controversies over questioned manuscripts; the effect of forgeries on antiquities markets, scholarship, and public discourse; and the relationship between fake and replica in the age of 3D replicas. Throughout the event will examine the importance of forgeries for the way we assess and communicate history, and how they effect our view of both the past and the present. A list of speakers and titles may be found below. Further information about the event, including abstracts, may be found at http://www.forgingantiquity.com/conference2018#Fakingit 

Admission is free, but registration is required. To register, go to http://events.mq.edu.au/Faking-It-2018. For inquiries, please contact malcolm.choat@mq.edu.au

Funding for this event has been generously provided by the Ian Potter Foundation, the Australian Research Council, the MQ Ancient Cultures Research Centre, the Sir Asher Joel Foundation, and the Society for the Study of Early Christianity.

Speakers and Titles

Forging Fakes and Just Plain Faking. Thoughts on a Range of Forgery Types
Rodney Ast, University of Heidelberg

Forgery or restoration? Fake inscriptions in Grand Tour collections.
Caroline Barron, Birkbeck, University of London

New Testament Textual Criticism and Forgery
Stephen Carlson, Australian Catholic University

Once a forger, always a forger. How to deal with fake inscriptions
Lorenzo Calvelli, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice

Fan Fiction: Evangelicalism, Inerrancy, and the Marketplace for Modern-day Relic Hunters.
Kipp Davis, Trinity Western University

The Jerusalem Papyrus, Israel, and UNESCO
Michael Langlois, University of Strasbourg

3D printed replicas vs their originals for the study and preservation of ancient Egyptian antiquities
Rita Lucarelli, University of California Berkeley

Fake Founders and Counterfeit Claims: Forging the Past in the Middle Ages
Levi Roach, University of Exeter

Emotional Authenticity: Anne Boleyn’s Letter from the Tower
Stephanie Russo, Macquarie University

Fires in the sky: the “Tulli Papyrus”, an alleged Egyptological forgery
Nicola Reggiani, University of Parma

The Future’s Perfect Forgery (and the Way for You to Debunk It).
Christopher Rollston, George Washington University

Faking it: Reflections on a theme
Rachel Yuen-Collingridge (Macquarie University)

CFP for Queens in Waiting: Potential and Prospective Queens, Ambitions and Expectations

We are seeking proposals for essays to be included in a proposed volume on ‘Queens in Waiting’ to be submitted to the Queenship and Power series (Palgrave). The collection seeks to explore the processes of becoming or attempting (successfully or not) to become queen through a collection of case studies of individual women or comparative groupings of women. Potential topics could include but are not limited to:

  • Female heirs (and spares) to the throne
  • The wives of heirs (and spares) to the throne
  • Child Queen regnants waiting to come of age/ wield independent power
  • Female claims in succession wars/disputes
  • Betrothals to / child brides of, Kings or heirs to the throne
  • Wives or mothers of monarchs who had to wait for elevation of status or coronation (for example until the birth of an heir or the death of a husband)
  • The role of potential and rival queens (whether rival or consort) in usurpation or succession wars/disputes
  • Aspirations to queenship
  • Education/preparation of female relatives for queenship
  • Linguistic and cultural preparation of foreign brides for queenship in a new realm
  • Recognition (or not) of status as future queen through title/ grant of wealth or official influence/ status at court / legal status in wills/succession acts etc
  • Assessing and negotiating ‘worthy’ marriages for royal women/ potential brides for a king or heir to the throne.
  • Attempts of non-royal women (or their families) to marry into the succession
  • Careers of women who became or attempted to become queen serving at court
  • Precedence at court between Queens past, present and future (for example relations between queens and their mothers or daughters-in-law, or scenarios where a long-reigning monarch has several generations of potential future Queens in line for the throne)
  • Expectations of/from a future queen – ‘suitability’ for queenship
  • Agency (or not) of individual women in becoming Queen through marriage or through assertion of their own succession rights etc.
  • Multiple attempts by the same woman to become Queen of the same or different realms
  • Understandings of Queenship as a vocation or destiny
  • ‘Pretender’ Queens, exiled Queens

Proposals which cover political, ceremonial and/or representational aspects of any of these topics will be considered and we are open to essays considering different cultural, geographical or chronological contexts.

Proposals of 350-500 words along with a brief CV should be sent to Sarah Betts and Chloë McKenzie at queensinwaiting2018@gmail.com by 15 November 2018.