The first session of the 2025 ANZAMEMS reading group is on Tuesday 25 March at 1-2pm Melbourne time (UTC+11). This will be on Extinction and Fish Hunting. See schedule below.
Call for Papers: Marginalia and the Early Modern Woman Writer, 1500-1700 National Library of Australia, August 7-8 2025
Early modern women marked their books in myriad ways, and their marginalia provide evidence of their book ownership, their reading, writing and drawing practices, their acquisition of literacy, and the interrelation of body, book, and material world. This symposium invites papers and panels interpreting this exciting new textual corpus and discussing the theoretical and methodological challenges involved in locating, attributing and analysing marginalia by early modern women, elite and non-elite, known and unknown. What can marginalia tell us about women’s textual agency, education and literacy, their use of books, their lived experience of household economics, organization and technologies, and their interpersonal, affective and social relationships? What evidence does marginalia provide for women’s engagement with orality, performance, print, and scribal cultures? How can marginalia help us position women as humanist, political and religious agents and understand their worlds of work and leisure? And how can such new analyses of early modern women’s marginalia reshape early modern marginalia studies more broadly?
20 minute papers and panels are invited on any aspect of early modern women’s marginalia, but might consider the following topics:
Marginalia, book ownership, book collecting, and provenance
Marginalia as evidence of early modern women’s reading
Marginalia as evidence of early modern women’s writing
Visual and material cultures in early modern women’s marginalia
Authorship, attribution and agency
Form and genre
Marginalia and sociability
Marginalia, politics and power
Marginalia and race
Non-elite women’s marginalia
Marginalia, education and literacy
Marginalia, emotion and affect
Marginalia and haptics
Marginalia and heuristics
Invited speakers include Professor Micheline White (Carleton University), Professor Katherine Acheson (University of Waterloo), Professor Paul Salzman (La Trobe University), Professor Sarah Ross (Victoria University of Wellington), and Dr Hannah August (Massey University)
The symposium will also launch the database Early Modern Women’s Marginalia: The Library of Libraries, with over 3000 examples of early modern women’s marginalia from 100 archives worldwide, hosted by the Centre for Early Modern Studies at the Australian National University. Please send a 200 word abstract (or panel proposal) plus a short biography to admin.cems@anu.edu.au by 31 March 2025.
The next cycle of the ANZAMEMS Peer Support Group will begin on Friday 21 February.
The Peer Support Group is a writing and discussion space for postgraduate members of ANZAMEMS. The group will run online, via Zoom, and is open to postgraduate members at any stage from honours to PhD. Attendance across all sessions is not mandatory. This is an informal support group, and we welcome drop-ins as much as regular attendance. See our website for further information.
If you would like to participate or have any questions, please contact ANZAMEMS Postgraduate Representative (AUS) Jenny Davis Barnett at j.barnett@uq.edu.au.
Nominations for the Australian Academy of the Humanities’ 2025 Grants and Awards Program are now open and will close on Friday 28 March 2025. Our prestigious awards and grants promote international engagement, embrace emerging fields of humanities research and scholarship and support early and mid-career researchers.
This year, the Academy will accept nominations for the:
Max Crawford Medal Australia’s most prestigious award for achievement and promise in the Humanities, the Max Crawford Medal recognises an early-career scholar in the humanities whose publications contribute towards an understanding of their discipline.
John Mulvaney Fellowship Awarded to an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander early-career researcher or PhD student working in any area of the humanities, the John Mulvaney Fellowship provides $4,000 to support research or fieldwork in Australia or overseas. This award accepts self-nominations.
McCredie Musicological Award Recognising outstanding contributions in musicology by an Australian early career scholar. It is one of Australia’s most prestigious awards for the study of musicology — from performance practice, music in the cultural context, through to the theory, analysis and composition.
Publication Subsidy Scheme The Publication Subsidy Scheme supports early-career researchers with costs of up to $3,000 associated with the publication of scholarly works that advance knowledge of the humanities.
Humanities Travelling Fellowships Awarded annually, the Humanities Travelling Fellowships supports early-career researchers with costs of up to $4,000 to undertake research overseas.
Parergon, the journal of the Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies (ANZAMEMS), seeks nominations for interested early career scholars within ANZAMEMS to participate as members of the 2025 Early Career Committee (ECC). The aim of this committee is to recognise and support early career researcher contributions to ANZAMEMS, and specifically, Parergon.
The ECC meets three times a year and offers an opportunity to provide advice to the Editorial team and gain a deeper understanding of the detailed intellectual and practical processes of production of a prestigious, peer-reviewed scholarly journal.
Additionally, participation in the ECC will provide valuable service experience for those interested in pursuing academic and publishing career pathways. Membership of the ECC is not a paid position.
Terms are for a calendar year, with a possible maximal renewal of an additional, immediate year.
Nominations are sought from late-stage doctoral students through to those five years post PhD or equivalent), who are current members of ANZAMEMS.
Applications should consist of a CV, and a covering email outlining disciplinary expertise to the Editors of Parergon, info@anzamems.org.
Doctoral students wishing to apply should also provide an email from their supervisor indicating support for their application.
Nominations close on Friday 7 March 2025. Successful candidates will be notified in late March.
Selection criteria:
Candidates are expected to be available to make 3 meetings a year by Zoom link.
No prior experience is necessary
The Editorial team will seek to achieve a broad disciplinary spread among the committee.
Parergon Early Career Committee Terms of Reference Version: 2 February 2024
Purpose The Committee’s purposes are: a) to provide advice to the Editor and Reviews Editor on the content, production and promotion of Parergon. b) to give the opportunity for early career researchers to gain experience in the intellectual and practical processes of production of a high-quality international peer- reviewed journal. c) to support the aims of the association with regard to the publication of its journal.
Membership The members of the Committee are: 2.1 The Parergon Editor 2.2 The Parergon Reviews Editor 2.3 The ANZAMEMS Communications Officer 2.4 Up to 12 persons appointed by the Editor and Reviews Editor for one year. Persons appointed in category 2.3: a) must be members of ANZAMEMS; and b) must be early career researchers (within five years of achieving a doctoral qualification) or currently enrolled doctoral students (with support of a doctoral supervisor) c) are eligible for reappointment for a further term of one year.
Meetings 3.1 The Parergon Editor is the Chair of the committee. 3.2 The Committee normally meets three times a year. 3.2 The Committee reports
ANZAMEMS is pleased to announce that applications for a number of its publication prizes and subventions are now open!
New for 2025 are:
2025 Chris Jones Book Prize: closing date for applications 1 August 2025 The Chris Jones Book Prize is awarded to the best first book published in any discipline/topic falling within the scope of medieval, early modern, or medievalism studies, published between 1 January 2024 and 31 July 2025.
2025 ANZAMEMS subvention for the publication of a first book: closing date for applications 1 November 2025 The subvention is intended to support the publication costs of a first book by an ANZAMEMS member. It is a fund for authorial costs relating especially to images or copyright permissions that a publisher may not be covering. Applications for subventions should only be for books that have already been approved for publication.
Applications are also open for the following publication prizes:
2025 Anne M. Scott Parergon Journal Prize: closing date for applications 1 August 2025 The Anne M. Scott Parergon Journal Prize is awarded to an emerging scholar for the best article- length scholarly work accepted to be published in Parergon within the previous two years (2023–2024).
2026 Constant Mews Early Career Publication Prize: closing date for applications 1 August 2025 The Constant Mews Early Career Publication Prize is awarded to an Early Career Researcher (ECR) for the best article-length scholarly work in Constant’s broad areas of scholarly interest: the medieval history of religions, intellectual history, and textual editing and translation, published in the period 1 September 2023–1 May 2025.
2025 George Yule Prize: closing date for applications 24 November 2025 The George Yule Prize is awarded to the best paper given at the next ANZAMEMS conference by a postgraduate student. NB: The application process for the George Yule Prize has been revised for 2025.
2025 Patricia Crawford Postgraduate Publication Prize: closing date for applications 1 August 2025 The Patricia Crawford Postgraduate Publication Prize is awarded to a postgraduate student for the best article-length scholarly work in any discipline/topic falling within the scope of medieval and early modern studies, published in the period 1 September 2023–1 May 2025.
2025 Philippa Maddern ECR Publication Prize: closing date for applications 1 August 2025 The Philippa Maddern ECR Publication Prize is awarded to an Early Career Researcher (ECR) for the best article-length scholarly work in any discipline/topic falling within the scope of medieval and early modern studies, published in the period 1 September 2023–1 May 2025.
Flinders University is currently advertising a HDR scholarship opportunity as a part of Dr Matthew Firth’s Australian Research Council DECRA Fellowship project ‘Contesting Conquests: Pre-Modern Attempts to Come to Terms with the Past’.
This scholarship is for a candidate wishing to pursue a PhD in history, with a relevant undergraduate or masters degree in history or a cognate discipline.
The larger project looks at how societies experience and remember the trauma of conquest and colonisation, taking an especial interest in England’s early medieval histories of invasion (pre-1066) and how these were received and transmitted in the historiography of the later Middle Ages and early modern period.
The scholarship opportunity is to conduct a PhD project that either:
examines the distinctive contributions to English historiography of twelfth-century historians. This HDR project would consider:
what social contexts and authorial interests encouraged the unprecedented volume of history writing that was produced in this period
what role these histories had in shaping common perceptions and subsequent accounts of England’s pre-Conquest past
OR
examines the links between narrative genres, such as hagiography, and traditions of history writing in the medieval or early modern period. This HDR project would consider:
the extent to which the chosen narrative genre can be (or was) considered a form of history writing
how these texts shaped narratives of England’s pre-Conquest past and can so be located within wider networks of medieval history writing
The recipient of this scholarship will be able to design the scope of their project within these frameworks.
Congratulations to Pippa Salonius and her co-editor, Mike Bintley, whose collection, Trees as Symbol and Metaphor in the Middle Ages: Comparative Contexts, has been awarded the 2024 Best Book in Medieval Art prize by the Association of Friends of the Center for Early Medieval Studies. The judges concluded:
This profoundly researched, well written, and clearly composed book has been deemed outstanding for its stimulating contribution to a nuanced and profound understanding of the nexus between nature and human creativity as expressed through various media in the visual arts and literature as well as theology and cosmology. Although mainly focusing on the European continent, it also comprises analyses of Maori and Islamic cultures for comparison and thereby embraces a ‘global’ approach to its common arboreal focus.
The book is now available in harcover and ebook formats through Boydell & Brewer.
