Dear members, please find below some reflections on the recent ANZAMEMS conference at the University of Queensland in July 2015, by, Professor Sybil Jack. Thank you for taking the time to give us this short report on the conference.
Thoughts on the 10th ANZAMEMS conference
When you have helped plant something it is impossible not to check from time to time on how it is growing. This large and diverse conference run by a professional conference organisation which by defining me, and some contemporaries, as students or unwaged suitably prevented hubris while suggesting that research is never complete – and that academic life is poorly remunerated— is remarkably different from the various early conferences that were unprofessionally managed by us. Like all conferences its most useful real purpose is to bring together those who, despite the merits of email, can rarely profitably talk at length about their work and shared interests. One can only hope that this is not turning into the job-seeking competition of so many American conferences. The committee’s desire to promote job finding for postgraduates as an alternate reality is admirable in principle but Sisyphus may have had a better chance of true success.
The papers, of course, were the main focus and amongst the many, when one could attend only a few, my interests drew me to those on subjects not currently fashionable especially music and liturgy, law and economy. No-one could resist Jessie Ann Owens introduction on Cypriano de Rore but later papers had enthusiastic but small audiences. Francis Yapp on the Paris Concert Spirituel was outstanding, as was Paul McMahon on how Handel used rhetorical devices to move the affections of his listeners. Claire Renkin cast new light on the tradition of the relationship of Mary and the Magdalen. Marika Räsänen explained how the liturgy might be adapted to create the presence of a physically absent saint, while Leah Morrison enlightened us on Carthusian liturgical practice. Eric Palazzo used liturgical manuscripts to reveal what Dominic’s nine ways of prayer meant to devotional practice. And, if death is the end Cyril Caspar explored how it was tied to ideas of pilgrimage. Carole Carson explained why types of wall paintings were found on particular sides of East Anglian churches in which Irena Larking’s communities were reconstructing their communities in post reformation England. Marcus Harmes showed that bishops without positions could still influence the church raising interesting questions about church/state relations. Lindsay Breach re-examined how the legal ‘use’ came into law in England, and Peter Cunich offered a new idea about monastic economy on the eve of the Dissolution.
These and other papers made the time stimulating and informative the dinner and all the other moments of entertainment only added to the enjoyment.
Professor Sybil Jack’s research focus is on Europe during the 16th and 17th century. She taught in the history department at the University of Sydney. She obtained her degrees from Oxford University, and later completed her Diploma in Education at the University of New England. Sybil Jack began teaching at Sydney University in 1963 as a senior tutor in Economic History, in the faculty of Economics. In 1971 she joined the Arts faculty, upon being appointed lecturer in the History department. She was promoted to senior lecturer in 1975, and to associate professor in 1985. She was Dean of the Faculty of Arts from 1986-1989. A year after retiring in 1997, she became an honorary research associate. She is a long-standing ANZAMEMS member.
