Professor Charles Zika, Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions (Melbourne Node) Free Public Lecture

“The Kerry Stokes Schembart Book: Festivity, Fashion and Family in the Late Medieval Nuremberg Carnival”, Professor Charles Zika (ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions, The School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at The University of Melbourne)

Date: Tuesday, 10 November
Time: 6:15pm
Venue: Theatre A, Elisabeth Murdoch Building, The University of Melbourne
More info: http://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/5416-the-kerry-stokes-schembart-book-festivity-fashion-and-family-in

Schembart was the name given to the carnival parade held in the city of Nuremberg on the day before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the church season of Lent. In the late middle ages Nuremberg was a wealthy economic and cultural centre in the German-speaking Holy Roman Empire, and its carnival was one of the most extravagant. It is also the best known, because of the Schembart books created by its leading families between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries.

This lecture will focus on the richly illustrated Schembart book in the Kerry Stokes collection, with reference to some of the other eighty manuscripts that survive. These record the sixty-five carnival parades held between 1449 and 1539, the year when they were permanently banned. They depict the different costumes of the so-called Runners who danced their way through the city, the floats that were pulled to the town square and ritually destroyed, and other pranksters and revelers dressed in exotic costumes. These manuscripts testify to the central role of carnival in the city’s festive life, the use of fashion and display in supporting the status of its leading families, and their emotional investment in ensuring that memories of carnival survived.

Charles Zika is Professorial Fellow, School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, University of Melbourne, and Chief Investigator, ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions.

Meanings of Time and Self in Early Modern Europe (1500-1800) – Call For Papers

This collection seeks to open the closely related notions of time and self in Early Modern European culture to new, interdisciplinary and cross-national scrutiny. Time is a constantly changing entity and people’s perceptions of it are fluid and relative; the study of historical time, therefore, can reveal much about the political, religious and cultural experiences of people from all levels of society during the medieval and Early Modern periods. As part of this focus, the collection will explore how scholars from different disciplines encounter and overcome the obstacles of studying time in the Early Modern period with its problematic dating and chronology conventions.

The collection will also include a study into the performance of self during the Early Modern period, in particular the existence of anxiety surrounding internal truth and external covering. This concept will be explored in specifically literary sources as well as non-literary ones. The anxiety of self-representation speaks directly to our own moment in time during which, one could argue, the rapid development of social media has triggered an equivalent crisis over the performance of identity. People’s everyday performance of self in Early Modern Europe therefore invites close scholarly attention, especially international comparisons which highlight the construct of selfhood as a signifier of cultural relativity.

In uniting the study of these two concepts, both of which are particularly relative cultural constructs, the collection aims to provide a unique and more sophisticated understanding of early modern world-views of people at all levels of society across Europe.

Potential themes may include but are not limited to:

  • politics and leadership gender and perception of time and/or identity
  • community and domestic life
  • authorship and self-identity
  • popular media fame and celebrity
  • reformation of religion
  • dress, codes of conduct
  • uses of place and space
  • arts and material culture
  • law and personal identity
  • times of national or communal conflict

We welcome submissions from early career researchers and distinguished colleagues in history and literature, art history, archaeology, language and translation studies, political, cultural and gay studies, music, psychology, sociology and philosophy. Authors may wish to present a comparative study. The focus of this volume will be European and interdisciplinary, and will aim to reflect on recent trends in cultural perspectives. The book will be edited by Nadia van Pelt (University of Leiden) and Clare Egan (University of Huddersfield), and has been encouraged by the Ashgate Society for Renaissance Studies Monograph Series.

Chapter proposals should be 250-500 words in length, give a proposed title and outline the key premise/argument of the chapter. Please also provide a short biography, including research interests and not exceeding 250 words.

Please email your proposals to the editors at n.t.van.pelt@hum.leidenuniv.nl and C.Egan@hud.ac.uk by 1 February 2016. If accepted, final contributions would be between 8,000 and 10,000 words (including notes and bibliography), although shorter pieces will be considered, and would be due on 1 December 2016. An approximate publication date is Autumn or Winter 2017.

Christopher Dawson Centre: Annual Summer School in Medieval and Church Latin

Christopher Dawson Centre
Annual Summer School in Medieval and Church Latin
Jane Franklin Hall, 4 Elboden Street, South Hobart
18-22 January, 2016

Latin is arguably the mother tongue of Europe. Its literature is immensely rich. In a sense it never died; original work continued to be written in Latin up to modern times. This course will offer a general introduction to Latin with particular emphasis on medieval and ecclesiastical literature. We shall read easy original passages from Scripture, liturgy, history, theology and poetry, both secular and religious. There will also be an introduction to palaeography, including an opportunity to handle original medieval manuscripts. There will be a strong emphasis on the pronunciation of Latin in speech and music.

Designed for students of all standards, absolute beginners should purchase a self-instruction primer and work on the basics between now and the start of the course. Participants will never be embarrassed by their shaky Latin: the teaching method leaves the entire task of translation and exposition to the Lecturer. This approach has been useful to relative beginners as well as those who are more experienced.

THE PROGRAMME
There will be four lectures a day on each of the five days, from Monday 18 to Friday 22, starting at 9.00 am. There will be only one lecture after lunch each day, to free up the afternoons for private study.

Day 1 Liturgy and Scripture.
Day 2 Latin prose narrative, incl. Bede, Brendan, Isidore, Grosseteste
Day 3 Hymns and religious poetry, incl. Ambrose, Fortunatus, Aquinas.
Day 4 Secular Poetry, incl. pieces from the Carmina Burana
Day 5 Theology and patristics, incl. Aquinas, Benedict, Thomas a Kempis.

Any Latin Primer designed for self-instruction can be used, but F. Kinchin Smith’s Teach Yourself Latin (out of print, but cheap copies are easily available from internet sites such as www.abebooks.com) is in many ways the best. Participants should bring both their grammar and a small dictionary to classes.

The cost of the course will be $350. A concessional rate is available. Meals and accommodation are not included. PROCEEDS FROM THIS COURSE GO TO THE CHRISTOPHER DAWSON CENTRE (http://www.dawsoncentre.org).

To enrol and for further information contact d.daintree@campion.edu.au

Texts and Transformations: Medieval and Early Modern Cultures – Call For Papers

Texts and Transformations: Medieval and Early Modern Cultures
23rd Biennial Southern Africa Society of Medieval and Renaissance Studies Conference
Mont Fleur, Stellenbosch, South Africa
26–28 August, 2016

Medieval and Early Modern societies weathered various socio-cultural transformations, ranging from economic developments to religious conflicts, across a range of different geographies and in urban and rural spaces. How did poetry, theatre, prose, visual art, architecture, and other forms of art respond to such changes? How do we historically understand and assess various kinds of social transitions?
Topics for this conference can include but are not limited to:

  • Adaptions of classical texts and artworks
  • Translation of texts and ideas
  • Contemporary readings of old texts
  • Cross-cultural interactions and influences
  • Historical transitions and periodisation
  • Religious reform
  • Urban renewal and development
  • Medieval and Early Modern studies in contemporary education
  • Appropriations of Medieval and Early Modern culture
  • Cultural responses to economic change
  • Representations of political dissent and rebellion
  • Utopias and dystopias
  • Gender, sexuality, and social change

Deadline: A conference proposal and a short biography to derrick.higginbotham@uct.ac.za by 30 November, 2015. Any inquires can be directed to the same email address.

Professor Jennifer Radden, Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions (UWA Node) Free Public Lecture

“Folly, Melancholy, Madnesse, are but one disease: Feelings and Reasoning Norms in the Anatomy of Melancholy and today’s Mind Sciences”, Professor Jennifer Radden (University of Massachusetts)

Date: Monday 9 November 2015
Time: 6:00pm
Venue: Webb Lecture Theatre, Geography and Geology Building, The University of Western Australia
Contact: Pam Bond (pam.bond@uwa.edu.au)

Relying on Stoic philosophical ideas, Burton’s Anatomy (1621) presents the case that the unavoidable sadness and sorrow we feel in response to life’s vicissitudes are matched by, and tied to, unavoidably errant and mistaken reasoning. In this respect, I show, the Anatomy anticipates findings and debates in the mind sciences of today. Disputes over distresses that are normal and adaptive rather than pathological (“normal sadness,” not depression), are the focus of one of these; the second involves the finding that bias and inaccuracy are built into the structure of normal thought patterns. Using Stoic ideas, Burton links the norms guiding feeling and reasoning, and the aim of this paper is to critically evaluate that relationship and the Stoic claims in light of contemporary discussions.

Jennifer Radden is Professor and Chair of the Philosophy Department at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, USA. Her teaching and research interests include moral philosophy, particularly the moral and philosophical foundations of public policy, the ethics of policy analysis and decision-making, feminist theory, and the ethics of psychiatry and mental health policy. Her articles include “Choosing to Refuse: Patients’ Rights and Psychotropic Medication,” in Bioethics, and “Chemical Sanity and Persona Identity,” in Public Affairs Quarterly. She is the author of Divided Minds and Successive Selves: Ethical Issues in Disorders of Identity and Personality, and The Nature of Melancholy.

Inertia: Momentum – Call For Papers

Inertia: Momentum, A Conference on Sound, Media, and the Digital Humanities
University of California, Los Angeles
April 28-30, 2016

Keynote Speaker: Michael Scott Cuthbert (MIT)

As the modern experience becomes increasingly immersed in technology, digital tools also allow us to archive, recreate, remix, and revive material artifacts, sound objects, and soundscapes. In recent years, music, media, and the digital humanities have become intertwined, creating new modes of scholarship that move beyond the written page to incorporate performers, designers, and engineers of digital spaces and sounds.

Last year’s inaugural Inertia Conference asked what the digital humanities and sounds studies could offer to each other; this year we build on that momentum by asking what these disciplines can offer to our understanding of the past. How do we tell stories of sound and what kinds of stories does sound tell? How can digital technology (re)constitute historical practices and new paradigms of historical thinking? Can these new approaches broaden our definition of sound—and if so, should they?

Inertia: Momentum welcomes submissions on a broad range of topics related to sound, music, and multimedia. We are particularly interested in alternative format presentations, including workshops, lecture-demonstrations, roundtable discussions, performances, poster sessions, and other collaborative activities. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Reconstruction of the past through digital media and the digital humanities
  • The imagined past in sound and media: antiquarianism, medievalisms, romanticism, modernism
  • Histories of sound and music within and without the digital
  • Sounding texts and the textuality of sound: manuscripts, notation, software, and code for sound design, archival, curation, and production
  • Social media and social justice: the sounds of politics and protest, online and off
  • Soundscapes and virtual worlds in architecture, archaeology, sound engineering, and beyond
  • Digital approaches to queer(ed), racialized, and gendered soundscapes, including contested sites of speech and expression within the academy
  • Open source, open access, copyright, and the politics of information architecture
  • Theory and practice in production cultures, from musical performance to multimedia composition and editing
  • GIS, locative media, and musical geographies: charting musical networks, old and new
  • Digital pedagogy: incorporating technology into learning environments

Please send 300-word proposals as a Word document [last name_first name.docx] to inertiaconference2016@gmail.com by 1 December, 2015. Along with your name, affiliation, and email address, indicate any audio, visual, or other needs for the presentation.

Inertia: Momentum is co-sponsored by Echo: A Music-Centered Journal, Ethnomusicology Review, and the Digital Humanities Working Group at UCLA. For more information about the conference and to view last year’s program, please visit our website at http://www.inertiaconference.com or find us on Twitter @Inertia_UCLA.

Revelation Academic Conference 2016 – Call For Papers

Revelation Academic Conference
Part of the Revelation Perth International Film Festival (7-17 July, 2016)
Perth, Western Australia

Conference Website

Students, academics, independent researchers, filmmakers and film fans are invited to submit papers and proposals for the Revelation Academic Conference to be held as a part of the Revelation Perth International Film Festival (7-17 July 2016).

Returning for its fifth year, the conference is uniquely positioned as the only academic forum affiliated with a film festival in Australia, offering an opportunity for academics, filmmakers and audiences alike to come together and explore the possibilities of cinema. Over previous years we’ve seen papers on all manner of topics, and have had attendees coming from Europe, USA and across Australia. All registered attendees receive mini-passes for the festival.

There are no limits on topics, but we are especially interested in papers that explore modern independent film, world cinema, documentary movies, new and emergent genres, neglected cinema histories, and alternative perspectives on any aspect of film and film theory. This year we are also seeking papers on games and gaming, these may include papers on game culture, narrative in games, game design, alternative games, acting for games, and so on.

Abstracts (no more than 200 words please) and proposals for panels (no more than 300 words) should be submitted to jack@jacktext.net by the end of April 2016.

ANZAMEMS PATS 2016: The Manuscript Book

The Manuscript Book | University of Sydney (2016)

Date: February 9, and Wednesday, February 10, 2016
Time: 9am–5pm
Venue: Seminar Room, Level 2, Fisher Library, The University of Sydney
More information: patssydney2016@gmail.com

Does your research involve using or learning from manuscripts? Or are you interested in gaining hand-on experience working with primary sources transmitted from the Middle Ages?

This Postgraduate Advanced Training Seminar (PATS) at the University of Sydney is open to postgraduate students and early career researchers in any field who are engaged in a study of the manuscript book, broadly speaking, and is designed to equip the student with the requisite skills and care necessary for the proper use and study of manuscript materials.

This PATS consists of an intensive two-day course run by Professors Margaret Manion and Rod Thomson. It will be devoted to a full range of activity involved with working with manuscript evidence and utilize the collection of books and fragments of books preserved at the University of Sydney. Beginning with a study of the raw materials, we run through codicology and old bindings, palaeography, decoration and illumination, to contents and provenance history. Additionally there will be also two special plenary sessions, run by experts in their fields, showcasing aspects of the Fisher’s rich collection.

Cost

There is no cost for students to attend this PATS, but places are strictly limited. Lunch and refreshments will be provided; advise of any dietary requirements when applying.

Accommodation Grants

Rooms are available at St. John’s College, within the University. The cost of $99 per night includes wifi and breakfast. A limited number of accommodation grants will be available to students from outside Sydney.

Travel Grants

Eight travel grants are available for Australian students, and two grants are available for New Zealand students. If you are intending to apply for a grant, please submit your application together with an academic reference before 4 December, 2015. Applicants will hear back shortly after 4 December.

Application forms for the PATS at the University of Sydney can be downloaded HERE.

The Sherry L. Reames Graduate Student Travel Award for Hagiographical Studies – Call For Applications

The Hagiography Society is pleased to invite applications for the Sherry L. Reames Graduate Student Travel Award for Hagiographical Studies. Named in honor of the beloved founder and long-time leader of the Society, the award provides $300 to be used toward travel to present at the International Congress on Medieval Studies, held annually at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, MI.

Eligibility: Students enrolled in a graduate program (anywhere in the world) are eligible to apply if their paper, on a topic involving hagiography, has been accepted for inclusion in the program of the International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, MI, at the time of application. Preference may be given to Hagiography Society members. For complete information on how to apply, please visit: http://www.hagiographysociety.org/Awards.

Deadline: November 1, 2015.

Shakespeare: The Next 400 Years – Call For Papers

Elsinore Conference 2016
Shakespeare – The Next 400 Years
Kronborg Castle, Helsingør, Denmark
22-24 April, 2016

Conference Website

During his lifetime William Shakespeare was already being hailed as the greatest writer of his day, and the intervening 400 years have only increased his reputation. No other literary figure has affected world culture so profoundly, or has had such a widespread influence on other thinkers and artists. William Shakespeare is the most universally recognised, culturally iconic figure in the world. But why?

For three days in April 2016, on the 400th anniversary of his death, actors and academics, scholars and writers, historians, comic artists, game designers and film makers will be coming together from all over the world, meeting at Elsinore – ‘Hamlet’s castle’ – to discuss and debate the legacy, and the future, of Shakespeare’s work.

This conference/festival will explore two great questions: why, after 400 years, do we continue to read, study, perform, and enjoy the work of this playwright and poet, and how, in the next 400 years, will we continue to do so? Will we present Shakespeare in new ways? Will we use new technologies? New media? Will Shakespeare become a basis for further new works which use him as a launch pad, or even as raw material, or will we go back to the simplicity of his words themselves?

This historic conference truly is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, offering a chance to be part of a worldwide commemoration of the death of the writer who, ironically, more than any other, deserves the title of immortal. Participants and contributors from every corner of the globe have already signed up.

Confirmed keynote speakers include: Professor Richard Burt (USA); Professor Judith Buchanan (UK); Professor Alexa Huang (Taiwan); Professor Mahmood Karimi-Hakak (Iran)

Panels/seminars include:

  • Global Shakespeare
  • Shakespearean Rediscoveries
  • Shakespeare, Saxo and Elsinore
  • Shakespeare in Translation
  • Shakespeare and the Internet
  • Shakespeare in Manga, Comics and Graphic Novels
  • Shakespeare in Animation and Game Design
  • Shakespeare and Technology
  • Shakespeare Director’s Forum
  • Twenty Minute Shakespeares
  • Shakespeare in the World’s Classrooms

In addition there will be two seminars aimed specifically at postgraduate students:

  • Shakespeare and Gender
  • Shakespeare’s Villains

Call for papers

We invite papers, performances and provocations. Please visit the website for full details, including the forthcoming CFP: http://www.tees.ac.uk/elsinore/