Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship: 2015 Prize for Best First Feminist Book on the Middle Ages – Call For Applications

The Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship announces the 2015 competition for the best first monograph on feminist scholarship on the Middle Ages. The Prize alternates every other year between a published essay and a first book.

The SMFS Awards Committee solicits nominations for Best First Feminist Book in any area of medieval studies.

Nominated books should represent the best in feminist scholarship published in 2014 and 2015. The Prize, which includes an award of $500, will be announced at the SMFS reception at the 2016 International medieval Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamzoo, UI. Self-nominations are acceptable.

Please send at least two copies (more if available) of nominated books, along with a brief covering letter summarizing the book’s merits and contributions to feminist scholarship by 31 December, 2015 to:

In the UK/Europe: Professor Liz Herbert McAvoy, Department of English Language and Literature, 212 Keir Hardie Building, Swansea University, Singleton Park Campus, Swansea SA2 8PP.

Elsewhere (including North America): Professor Bonnie Krueger, Department of French, 198 College Hill Road, Hamilton College, Clinton, NY 13323, USA.

University of Southern California, LA: Assistant Professor History of Art (Including Early Modern Period) – Call For Applications

The Department of Art History in the Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences at the University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA) invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position in the history of art (including but not limited to visual and/or material culture) of the early modern period (ca. 1500-1800). This position is expected to begin August 2016. The area of expertise is open, and various methodological and theoretical approaches are welcome.

The successful candidate will teach courses at the undergraduate and graduate level and participate actively in the intellectual life of the department and the university. Candidates must possess a Ph.D. at the time of appointment and show exceptional scholarly promise.

Interested candidates should provide :
1) a cover letter that includes a discussion of research and teaching,
2) a curriculum vitae,
3) two writing samples, at least one of which should be a chapter from a dissertation or book manuscript,
4) the names and contact information of three referees who will be contacted in a system-generated email to provide letters. In order to be considered for this position, applicants are required to submit an electronic USC application; follow this job link or paste in a browser: http://jobs.usc.edu/postings/53205.

Review of applications will begin on November 2. Questions about the position can be directed to Professor Daniela Bleichmar, bleichma@usc.edu.

USC is an equal-opportunity educator and employer, proudly pluralistic and firmly committed to providing equal opportunity for outstanding persons of every race, gender, creed and background. The University particularly encourages women, members of underrepresented groups, veterans and individuals with disabilities to apply. USC will make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with known disabilities unless doing so would result in an undue hardship. Further information is available by contacting uschr@usc.edu.

Professor mso of History and Philosophy of Science – Call For Applications

The Department of Science Education, University of Copenhagen, Denmark (http://www.ind.ku.dk/english/) invites applications for a permanent position in history and philosophy of science beginning March 1, 2016, or as soon as possible thereafter.

We seek a candidate that can act as chair of the research group in science studies and create an active research environment for the group’s researchers. The successful candidate will collaborate with the Head of Department on the future development of the research group and is expected to participate actively in fundraising, and in developing new teaching initiatives in history and philosophy of science at the Faculty of Science.

Applicants must document a strong international research record within history and philosophy of the natural sciences (including mathematics), preferably with a specialization within areas of relevance to scientific practice and/or to science education (e.g. philosophy of science in practice, socially relevant philosophy of science, integrated history and philosophy of science, or similar).

Applicants are required to have university level teaching experience, documented teaching competencies and must be able to explain and reflect upon own teaching practice and portfolio. Formal pedagogical training or supervision equivalent to the University of Copenhagen teacher training programme for assistant professors is required. Teaching duties include courses in history and philosophy of science at a broad range of natural science programs offered at the Faculty of Science, especially mandatory courses in philosophy of science tailored to BSc programs in the natural sciences as well as courses in history and philosophy of science for science students aiming for careers in science teaching. The submitted teaching portfolio must include reflections on the possible roles of history and philosophy of science in science education at various levels and on how to teach history and philosophy to science students.

Duties include the applicant’s own research, development of the field, assessment tasks, grant applications, and research management such as supervision and training of research fellows and other staff. The successful applicant must also teach, supervise, prepare and participate in examinations, and fulfill other tasks requested by the Department.

For full details and to apply, please visit: http://jobportal.ku.dk/videnskabelige-stillinger/?show=767248

The deadline for applications is the 22th of November, 2015, 23:59 GMT +1. Interviews/trial lectures will be held in February 2016.

University of Sydney Workshop: The Fortunes of the Speculative Sciences in the Early Modern Period

This workshop is being run in conjunction with the visit to the Centre of Professor Mordechai Feingold from Caltech.

Date: Friday 30 October 2015
Time: 9:00am-3:50pm
Venue: Rogers Room, Woolley Building A22, The University of Sydney
RSVP: Click here to RSVP
More information: For more information please contact Professor Peter Anstey (peter.anstey@sydney.edu.au)

The category of the Speculative Sciences has a long pedigree going all the way back to Aristotle. However, in the seventeenth century the status and classification of the speculative sciences underwent significant change. Natural philosophy, for example, moved from being a speculative science to an experimental or practical science. Furthermore, in some quarters there was increasing hostility to ‘speculative philosophy’ and a general devaluing of the epistemic status of the speculative sciences. This workshop will examine the causes and implications of such changes, the defenders of the speculative sciences, and the various reconfigurations of this category in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Program

  • 9.00–9.50
    James Franklin (UNSW)
    ‘Late scholastic successes in the speculative sciences’
  • 10.00–11.00
    Mordechai Feingold (Caltech)
    ‘Experimental philosophy in seventeenth-century England’
  • 11.10–12.00
    Paul Oslington (Alphacrucis)
    ‘Speculation about economic order in 18th century Britain’
  • 12.00–2.00
    Lunch in the Philosophy Common Room, Quadrangle
  • 2.00–2.50
    John Gascoigne (UNSW)
    ‘The teaching of natural philosophy and natural history in the dissenting academies of the late 17th and 18th centuries’
  • 3.00–3.50
    Peter Anstey (Sydney)
    ‘The role of principles in the speculative sciences’

Space and Time in the Early Medieval World: 11th Conference of the Australian Early Medieval Association (AEMA) – Call For Papers

Space and Time in the Early Medieval World
The 11th Conference of the Australian Early Medieval Association (AEMA)
Medieval and Early Modern Centre, The University of Sydney
11–12 February, 2016

Throughout history humans have struggled to describe the world, but the concepts of space and time have persisted as touchstones. The 11th annual conference of the Australian Early Medieval Association in February 2016 at the University of Sydney will explore medieval conceptions of space and time across all disciplines.

Submissions are invited for papers on the broad theme of space and/or time in all aspects of the Late Antique and Early Medieval periods (c. 400–1150) in all cultural, geographic, religious and linguistic settings:

  • issues of chronology and historiography
  • literary representations of space and time
  • calendars and cartography
  • cosmology, theology, science, and philosophy
  • town and country divides; rural and urban landscapes
  • colonisation and postcolonial attitudes
  • architecture and art history
  • rituals and traditions
  • religion and space
  • cultural spaces
  • timekeeping; recordkeeping
  • archaeological issues
  • the dating of sources

Abstracts of 250-300 words for 20-minute papers should be submitted online at http://aema2016.net/submission by 11 December, 2015.

The conference will also include some special sessions on digital methods related to the conference theme. If you would like to contribute to these, or for more information about the conference, please contact the conference organisers at conference@aema.net.au.

A Postgraduate Advanced Training Seminar on manuscripts (sponsored by ANZAMEMS, full details TBA) will be held prior to the conference at the University of Sydney. For information about the PATS please contact Nicholas Sparks: nicholas.sparks@sydney.edu.au.

Limited financial assistance may be available for postgraduates and early career researchers travelling interstate or from New Zealand for this conference. For more information, please contact the conference organisers.

Religious Materiality and Emotion: CFP Due 31 October and Postgrad/ECR Travel Bursaries Now Available

Proposals for papers for symposium on Religious Materiality and Emotion are due by 31 October 2015.

View the CFP here: http://anzamems.org/?p=5097

The event will be hosted by the Centre for the History of Emotions at The University of Adelaide, on 17 and 18 February 2016.

We are pleased to announce that we are now able to offer travel bursaries for postgraduates and ECRs to present a paper at the symposium. Applications for a travel bursary should be made with the proposal.

Further details about the call for papers and travel bursaries are available on the symposium website: http://www.historyofemotions.org.au/events/religious-materiality-and-emotion/

Please direct any queries to the symposium organisers Claire Walker (claire.i.walker@adelaide.edu.au) and Julie Hotchin (julie.hotchin@anu.edu.au).

Performance and Materiality in Medieval and Early Modern Culture – Call For Papers

Performance and Materiality in Medieval and Early Modern Culture
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
March 11-12, 2016

Conference keynotes:

  • Professor Jill Stevenson (Department of Theatre Arts, Marymount Manhattan
    College)
  • Professor Andrew Sofer (Department of English, Boston College)

Recent years have seen an explosion of interest in the agency of nonhuman objects. Practitioners of “New Materialism” such as Bill Brown, Graham Harman, Jane Bennett, and Bruno Latour have provided scholars with tools for investigating the relationships between things both material and immaterial. The questions posed by these figures have challenged preconceptions about subject/object distinctions in disciplines including Archeology, History, Musicology, Literature, Philosophy, Science Studies, and many more. Likewise, in the field of medieval and early modern performance studies, scholars such as Seeta Chaganti and Claire Sponsler have interrogated the generic boundaries of dramatic texts, and embraced a wider field of texts and traditions, while scholars such as Jonathan Gil-Harris and Andrew Sofer have used the concept of “stage property” to explore the semiotics and ritual actions of drama.

This conference will dialogue between performance studies and material culture, two fields that have proven especially fruitful for early modern and medieval scholars in the past years, and we are looking for papers that engage either or both of these fields. Some questions this conference hopes to pose include: how is medieval and early modern performance shaped by material conditions? How are props and other performing objects contributing to theories of materiality? What role do nonhuman objects such as props, costumes, devotional objects, art, and architecture play in premodern performance? How can we best understand the agency of nonhuman objects in these environments? What do recent theories like Object-Oriented-Ontology or Extended Cognition have to offer thinking about past performances?

Please submit 250-300 word abstracts for 15-20 minute papers to Sheila Coursey (scoursey@umich.edu) or Tony Gillum (gillanth@umich.edu) with the subject heading “EMC Conference” by January 10, 2016. The Early Modern Colloquium is an interdisciplinary graduate student group at the University of Michigan and will give priority to abstracts submitted by graduate students.

ANZAMEMS Member News: Charlotte Rose Millar, Thoughts on the 10th ANZAMEMS Conference @ UQ, July 2015

Charlotte Rose Millar, Early Career Researcher, The University of Melbourne

I always look forward to ANZAMEMS. This year’s Brisbane offering provided the same wonderful mix of amazing papers, friendly people and intellectual debate that I have come to associate with any ANZAMEMS conference. Thanks to the generous support of the ANZAMEMS committee, I was able to attend the conference for the full five days. As much as I was looking forward to the conference, I did not expect to experience the profound sense of belonging and purpose that I came away with. Perhaps I should provide some context. Almost a year ago, I submitted my PhD and I graduated in March this year. With the exception of RSA in March this year, which I attended in somewhat of a post-PhD haze, ANZAMEMS was the first conference I attended as an early career researcher. As many reading will know, this post-PhD period is a difficult time, financially, emotionally and academically. Like many recent graduates, I experienced a strange sense of loss after submitting my thesis and found it difficult to focus on the next project. ANZAMEMS reinvigorated me. Although I already had an idea of what direction I wanted my research to take, talking to ANZAMEMS delegates allowed me to shape my ideas into a much fuller form. It reminded me of my love of academia and academic research and gave me the energy and focus I needed to get working on my book proposal. In the two months since ANZAMEMS I have regained my sense of focus, my engagement with my sources, and my drive to pursue my research and am now completely re-immersed in academic life.

This would not have happened at any conference. ANZAMEMS reminds us of the wonderful scholarly community that we have in Australia. Although small, it is this smallness that makes it so valuable. ANZAMEMS delegates were intellectually rigorous, always encouraging, constructively critical, and, perhaps most importantly, genuinely interested in advancing the careers and research of early career researchers. This was particularly notable in Brisbane with the launch of the Maddern-Crawford Network for advancing female academics, a development that was met with overwhelming support. This network formalises what many ANZAMEMS members already do and could only have come out of a scholarly community that is genuinely committed to helping each other. I would like to thank the ANZAMEMS conference committee for their fantastic work in bringing the conference together and to all the delegates who made it such a wonderful experience. Here’s to another fabulous event in Wellington 2017.

ANZAMEMS PATS 2015: Medieval and Early Modern Digital Humanities

Medieval and Early Modern Digital Humanities: Postgraduate Advanced Training Seminar | University of Canterbury

Date: Wednesday 18 November, 2015
Time: 9am–5pm
Venue: The Undercroft, University of Canterbury
More information: Dr. Francis Yapp

Does your research involve digital methodologies? Or are you interested in learning how digital tools can help us answer new and existing questions in Medieval and Early Modern Studies?
This Postgraduate Advanced Training Seminar (PATS) at the University of Canterbury will bring students together with established scholars to discuss digital research in Medieval and Early Modern Studies.

The PATS will consist of two keynote presentations, an interactive session, and a panel discussion. The two keynotes will focus on using digitised sources in researching the medieval and early modern periods, and on the key issues and digital archival work on the digital English Broadside Ballad Archive respectively. The panel discussion will focus on digital humanities project management, and students will have the opportunity to discuss their own research and gain hands-on experience of digital tools in the interactive session.

Cost
There is no cost for postgraduate students attending this PATS. However, places are limited to ensure the day is focused. Lunch and refreshments will be provided; please advise of any dietary requirements when applying.

Travel Grants
Travel grants are available for students from outside the Christchurch area. Ten travel grants are available for New Zealand students, and two grants are available for Australian students. If you are intending to apply for a travel grant, please submit an application form plus a short academic reference before 26 October 2015. Applicants will hear back shortly after 26 October.

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

CANCELLED EVENT: Professor Michael Schoenfeldt, Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions (UWA Node) Free Public Lecture

Unfortunately Professor Michael Schoenfeldt has had to cancel his trip to Australia at short notice.  Regretfully therefore the following  event has been cancelled.  Apologies for any inconvenience.

CHE Public Lecture with:

Professor Michael Schoenfeldt (John Knott Professor of English Literature at the University of Michigan)

Date: Wednesday 21 October, 2015
Time: 6:00pm
Venue: Webb Lecture Theatre, Geography and Geology Building, The University of Western Australia