Ad Vivum?
The Courtauld Institute of Art, Somerset House, Strand, London
21-22 November, 2014

The term ad vivum and its cognates al vivo, au vif, nach dem Leben and naer het leven have been applied since the thirteenth century to depictions designated as from, to or after (the) life. This one and a half day event will explore the issues raised by this vocabulary in relation to visual materials produced and used in Europe before 1800, including portraiture, botanical, zoological, medical and topographical images, images of novel and newly discovered phenomena, and likenesses created through direct contact with the object being depicted, such as metal casts of animals.

It is has long been recognised that the designation ad vivum was not restricted to depictions made directly after the living model, and that its function was often to advertise the claim of an image to be a faithful likeness or a bearer of reliable information. Viewed as an assertion of accuracy or truth, ad vivum raises a number of fundamental questions about early modern epistemology – questions about the value and prestige of visual and/or physical contiguity between image and original, about the kinds of information which were thought important and dependably transmissible in material form, and about the roles of the artist in this transmission. The recent interest of historians of early modern art in how value and meaning are produced and reproduced by visual materials which do not conform to the definition of art as unique invention, and of historians of science and of art in the visualisation of knowledge, has placed the questions surrounding ad vivum at the centre of their common concerns.

This event will encourage conversation and interchange between different perspectives involving a wide range of participants working in different disciplines, from postgraduate students to established academics. It seeks to encourage dialogue and debate by devoting a portion of its time to sessions comprising short, 10-minute papers, which will allow a variety of ideas and areas of expertise to be drawn into the discussion.

Topics may include, but are not limited to:

• The role of images, including book illustrations, described as ad vivum in early modern natural history, geography, cosmography, medicine and other investigative disciplines;
• The meanings of ad vivum in relation to sacred images, portraiture, landscape depiction, animal imagery, and other types of subject matter involving a claim to life-likeness;
• The connections between ad vivum and indexical images: death masks; life casts; the moulage; auto-prints made from natural phenomena;
• The connections between concepts of ad vivum and graphic media: the print matrix; imitation and reproduction in print; drawings, diagrams which claim to be ad vivum;
• The concept of ad vivum in cabinets of curiosities, sets and series, other groupings and collections;
• The application of the phrase ad vivum and its cognates to specific images, and usages and discussions of the terminology in early modern texts;
• The use of ad vivum in relation to images of the marvellous and the incredible, including monsters and other prodigies of nature.

The organisers invite proposals for:

• 20-minute papers
• Short, 10-minute (maximum 1,000-word) papers which will address one example or theme, or make one argument persuasively.

Please send proposals of no more than 250 words, together with a brief CV, by 15 August 2014 to joanna.woodall@courtauld.ac.uk and thomas.balfe@courtauld.ac.uk

‘Sagas and Space’: 16th International Saga Conference
University of Zurich and University of Basel
August 2015

Conference Website

Presentation formats
Participants may propose papers, roundtables, posters, or project presentations. There will also be daily keynotes, given by invited speakers. Descriptions of the presentation formats are available on the website. Please read the descriptions before selecting the format for your presentation.

Themes
The organizers suggest as the main theme of the Sixteenth International Saga Conference ‘Sagas and Space’. A broad and open theme has been selected so that as many participants as possible have the opportunity to present their research in one of the eight strands. These are devoted to the following themes: ‘Constructing Space’, ‘Mediality’, ‘Textuality and Manuscript Transmission’, ‘Reception’, ‘Continental Europe and Medieval Scandinavia’, ‘Literatures of Eastern Scandinavia’, ‘Bodies and Senses in the Scandinavian Middle Ages’, and ‘Open’. The strands are described in more detail on the conference website.

Call For Papers
If you would like to give a paper, roundtable contribution, poster or project presentation at ‘Sagas and Space’ , please submit an abstract (300-­500 words) via email to: sagaconference@unibas.ch by 15 October 2014. Don’t forget to note in the accompanying email:

1. which presentation format you prefer (paper, roundtable, poster, or project)
2. which strand you wish to participate in (Constructing Space; Mediality; Textuality and Manuscript Transmission; Reception; Continental Europe and Medieval Scandinavia; Literatures of Eastern Scandinavia; Bodies and Senses in the Scandinavian Middle Ages; and Open)

We will send all abstracts out for anonymous peer review, and notify of acceptance by email ,
at the latest on 15 January 2015. Abstracts will be published online on the conference website in February, and in a hard copy volume which may be per-­ordered for pickup at registration. As we will be publishing the abstracts, we ask that you use the Stylesheet, downloadable from the conference website, when formatting your abstract.

Practicalities
Please book your accommodation in Zurich soon! As there is no conference block booking, it is
essential to reserve your room early so as not to miss out. Advice and links to booking sites are on the conference website. Details of the conference fee will be published on the website in the autumn. The Swiss National Science Foundation has some funding available to support scholars from Eastern Europe . Applications will need to be made early; let us know as soon as possible if you would like to apply under this programme. It may be possible to organize free childcare
for conference participants. Again, if this would be of interest to you, let us know as soon as you can.

The Third Circular will be sent out in February 2015 and will contain information about the
registration process. Conference registration will be open from February to May 2015.

Grounding the Sacred Through Literature and the Arts Conference
Australian Catholic University, Sydney
23-26 July, 2015

Conference Website

The Grounding the Sacred conference invites papers and presentations from artists, writers, musicians, academics and religious who are interested in the interplay between the arts and the sacred. The conference asks how literature and the arts can make the sacred tangible: do they enable us to touch the sacred? Do they offer a way of structuring our experiences of the sacred? Do they provide a common ground for people of different faiths – or none – to explore the ineffable? And where does creativity sit in relation to religion and the search for meaning? Are a sense of the sacred and the means to express it essential for human flourishing?

Abstracts of 250 words are invited for 20 minute papers and presentations that address the conference theme. They may be from creators talking about their work as it expresses the sacred; from researchers seeking to explain the relationship between creativity, religion and well-being; and from interpreters bringing to light the sacred dimensions of pre-existing creative works. Submissions should include the author’s name, affiliation, email address, title of abstract, body of abstract, and a short biography. Potential presenters who wish to have their work considered for inclusion in a special Australian issue of Literature and Theology should forward full papers.

Abstracts should be sent to Elaine Lindsay at slaconference@acu.edu.au by 27 February 2015.
Full papers intended for Literature and Theology are due by 13 March 2015.

Inquiries can be made of the conveners, michael.griffith@acu.edu.au or elaine.lindsay@acu.edu.au.

Criminal Law and Emotions in European Legal Cultures: From 16th Century to the Present
Center for the History of Emotions, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin
21-22 May, 2015

Keynotes:

• Elizabeth Lunbeck (Vanderbilt University)
• David Sabean (UCLA)

Roundtable Discussion

• Dagmar Ellerbrock (MPIB/TU Dresden)
• Terry Maroney (Vanderbilt University)

Legal institutions and jurists have often perceived themselves and promoted an image of their
role and activity as essentially ‘rational’. Yet, emotions have always been integral to the law,
particularly in the case of criminal law. Emotions were and are taken explicitly or implicitly into
consideration in legal debates, in law-making, in the codified norms and in their application,
especially in relation to paramount categories such as free will, individual responsibility and
culpability, or the aggravating and mitigating circumstances of a crime. Emotions could directly
or indirectly play a role in defining what conduct was legally relevant, worthy of legal
protection or in need of legal proscription; in why and how it was necessary to punish, and what
feelings punishment was meant to evoke.

Legal scholars in the past did not shun the complex relationship between law and emotions. Yet
it is in the last two decades that specialists from different disciplines, from law theory to
psychology, from philosophy to history, have shown an increasing and lively interest in
unravelling the role played by passions, feelings and sentiments in criminal law. Special
attention has been focused on three key areas: norms, practices and people.

This two-day conference seeks to historicize the relationship between law and emotions,
focusing on the period from the sixteenth century to the present. It aims to ask how legal
definitions, categorizations and judgments were influenced by, and themselves influenced,
moral and social codes; religious and ideological norms; scientific and medical expertise; and
perceptions of the body, gender, age, social status. By examining the period between the
sixteenth century and the present day, this conference also seeks to challenge and problematize the demarcation between the early modern and the modern period, looking at patterns and continuities, as well as points of fissure and change, in the relationship between law and emotions. In particular, it seeks to question the extent to which ideas about law and emotions fundamentally shifted around the eighteenth century—the traditional marker of the ‘modern’ period.

This conference will explore how legal professionals, as judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys
and other legal officials, handled different forms of knowledge about emotions in the practice of law, in accordance with, or in opposition to, general social and cultural attitudes and public
opinion. It will further investigate the presence and absence—and their meanings—of emotions
in the courtroom, as a fundamental aspect of criminal law practices. It will take into
consideration not only the emotions which were shown, expected and provoked but also the
ones which were repressed, controlled or proscribed by different legal actors and the public.
Finally it will also include analysis of how legal understandings of emotions were portrayed in
the media and in the wider society.

We invite submissions from scholars of different historical disciplines, working on early modern
and modern periods and particularly encourage proposals from scholars working on Northern,
Central and Eastern European countries, and the non-Western world. The conference will be held in English.

Accommodation and travel expenses for those presenting will be covered by the Max Planck
Institute for Human Development. If you are interested in participating in this conference,
please send us a proposal of no more than 300 words and a short CV by 1 October 2014 to cfp-emotions@mpib-berlin.mpg.de. Papers should be no longer than 20 minutes, in order to allow time for questions and discussion.

Convenors:

• Dr. Laura Kounine, Center for the History of Emotions, Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin
• Dr. Gian Marco Vidor, Center for the History of Emotions, Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin

The Tales After Tolkien Society will be sponsoring two sessions at the Kalamazoo ICMS, May 14-17th, 2015: one of papers, and one round table. Twenty-first century popular culture is structured by genres; they shape its processes, products, and reception. Neomedievalisms permeate most if not all major pop culture genres, from historical, fantasy, and crime, to children’s, science fiction, and westerns. In these two panels, the Tales After Tolkien Society seeks to explore the profound ways in which genre influences contemporary representations an readings of the Middle Ages, and, conversely, how ideas about the Middle Ages might shape genres. Both sessions will ask, for example, how contemporary social and cultural trends and concerns intersect with the medieval in genre fiction.

Proposals from scholars and professionals at any stage of their careers with an interest in these topics are welcomed. People of color, LGBTQ people, and members of other marginalized groups are encouraged to propose papers. Submissions must follow the rules as set out by the Medieval Institute http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/submissions/index.html. An abstract of 250-300 words accompanied by a Participant Information Form, available from the submissions website, should be sent to Helen Young at helen.young@sydney.edu.au by Monday 15th September, 2014. Submissions should clearly state which of the following panels they are intended for.

Session of Papers: Martin and More: Genre Medievalisms

George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire novels are among the most visible and popular medievalist works in the present day, but they are not the be-all and end-all of genre medievalisms. The session of papers, focused on genre fiction, seeks in-depth explorations which focus on a single twenty-first-century work, series, or author’s corpus. They may consider Martin’s work, compare and contrast it with that of another author, or examine a completely different contemporary literary re-imagining of the Middle Ages. Questions which might be considered include, but are not limited to the following. How do genre conventions shape the use of medieval material and vice versa? How do technological developments and the explosion of multi-media genre products including film, television and video-gaming engage with literature? How do representations of race, gender, and class intersect with medievalism in contemporary fiction genres? Papers examining cross- and multi-genre works are welcomed, as are interdisciplinary approaches.

Round Table: From Frodo to Fidelma: Medievalisms in Popular Genres

The round table aims to compare and contrast the medievalist conventions and practices of a wide range of genres, which might include but are not limited to not fantasy, children’s television, crime, role-playing games, and romance literature, examining examine genre conventions, phenomena and trends. By doing so, the session seeks seeks to identify cross-genre trends, as well as to highlight the multiplicities of contemporary medeivalisms. Presentations focussing on the medievalisms of a single genre – which may be loosely or closely defined – across a decade or more of the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries are sought. Tightly focussed explorations of, for example, medievalism and gender, violence, race, or dis/ability in a given genre or across multiple genres are also welcome. Presentations may take a single work/series/corpus as an example, but these should illustrate broader points about the given genre. Papers in the session witll be 7-10 minutes in length.