ANZAMEMS Conference Revised CFP, Extended Deadline

ANZAMEMS Conference 2024
Ōtautahi Christchurch, New Zealand
8 – 11 February 2024

Legacies & Relevance

In addition to encouraging papers related to the theme, the ANZAMEMS conference welcomes paper and panel proposals on all aspects of medieval and early modern studies, including medievalism.

Submissions for individual papers and panels should be made by 15 October via the conference website: https://www.anzamems2024.co.nz/

Confirmed Keynote Speakers

Tarren Andrews, Yale University
Assistant Professor of Native American and Indigenous Studies in the program in Ethnicity, Race, and Migration at Yale University

Tarren is a Bitterroot Salish scholar and documented descendant of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. Her forthcoming book brings Indigenous studies questions and methods to Old English law and literature with the aim of understanding how Anglophone settler colonial ideologies developed in the early medieval North Atlantic, long before the first contacts between Europe and North America. 

Wallace Cleaves, University of California, Riverside
Associate Dean and Director of the University Writing Program at UC Riverside, Director of the California Center for Native Nations

Wallace’s work, teaching, and research centre around the fields of composition, medieval literature, and Indigenous methodologies. He is a member of the Gabrieleno/Tongva Native American tribe, the Indigenous peoples of the Los Angeles area, and is the co-founder and president of the Tongva Taraxat Paxaavxa Conservancy which received the first land return for the Tongva people. He is co-author of the 13th edition of St. Martin’s Guide to Writing.

Natasha Hodgson, Nottingham Trent University
Associate Professor and Director of the Centre for Research in History, Heritage, and Memory Studies at Nottingham Trent University

Natasha’s research and teaching focus mainly on the medieval period, with a special interest in the crusades, gender, and social and cultural history. She is the author of Women, Crusading and the Holy Land in Historical Narrative (Boydell, 2017), co-editor of Crusading and Masculinities (2019) and most recently edited Miracles, Political Authority and Violence in Medieval and Early Modern History (2021) for Routledge.

CONFERENCE THEME: Legacies and Relevance – Exploring the Medieval & Early Modern World Beyond Europe

How does pre-modern European History “add value” in Australasia? Is its study the vestige of an outdated colonial legacy? Or is it something else? Where does it stand in a world of toppled statues and questioned legacies? In the face of a previous Australian government overtly committed to defunding the Arts and a New Zealand government with similar aims (but a less confrontational way of putting it), and universities in both countries cutting staff, should we now re-focus the curricula of universities across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand on what matters? But what does matter? And who should decide?

In the wake of a global pandemic, which has re-written “business as usual,” is it time for a reformation or for holding fast? This conference will showcase the best of scholarship across a range of disciplines pursued by medieval and Early Modern scholars, but will also seek to ask complex and challenging questions about the future of our discipline. Can the study of medieval and Early Modern Europe help to meet the needs of our times? What is the role of the medieval or Early Modern scholar in Australasian society? Indeed, what was it? In considering these issues, we encourage the exploration of questionable as well as positive legacies, and offer a forum to consider the possible future(s) of our discipline.

ANZAMEMS SEMINAR: A seminar for PG and ECRs will take place at the University of Otago, Dunedin on 13 February. Further details to follow via the conference website.

For all academics enquiries, please contact the conference co-convenors:

Chris Jones (chris.jones@canterbury.ac.nz)
Madi Williams (madi.williams@canterbury.ac.nz)

For all practical enquiries (submission, accommodation, etc.), please contact the conference manager:

Mandy Train (mandy@conference.nz)

Public Statement on ACU’s Change Plan

The Australia and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies (ANZAMEMS) urges management at the Australian Catholic University (ACU) to reverse the proposed disestablishment of its Medieval and Early Modern Studies (MEMS) program, and its wider projected cuts to academic jobs across the Humanities as well as in Social Sciences and in Health. We are particularly dismayed by the planned damage to our field, which in recent years had greatly benefited from the work of brilliant ACU colleagues, and the university’s innovative strategic vision for investment in the humanities.

MEMS research at the ACU is interdisciplinary, conducted by scholars in the named program as well as the Gender and Women’s History Centre, Religious Studies, and Literary Studies. It is particularly clustered in disciplines targeted for job losses, the effects of which will be keenly felt by all staff. With current work from scholars in targeted positions on urgently topical matters including hope, humility, and faith in secular times, queer medievalism, and the history of conspiracy theories and racism, MEMS research at the ACU exemplifies the need for historically-informed approaches to understanding modern and contemporary life and addressing its most pressing problems. Moreover, MEMS scholars’ research on Reformation history and theology, medieval and early modern religious histories, the history of the crusades, women’s spirituality and writing, crucially supports the university’s engagement with the Catholic intellectual tradition. The collective and individual work of MEMS scholars across multiple disciplines has continued to deliver new energy and critical visibility to the ACU’s values-based commitment to human dignity, the common good and to equity, diversity, accessibility, wellbeing and sustainability.

If the ACU is committed to continuing the Catholic intellectual tradition by its mission, and to “building on the ancient tradition which gave rise to the first universities in medieval Europe” as articulated in its Faith and Values statement, then MEMS must be central to its vision.

Further, ANZAMEMS wishes to emphasise the extreme dissonance between the proposed plans and ACU’s state mission to act “in Truth and Love” and to be “committed to human dignity.” The lack of any acknowledgement of the human impact on lives, careers, and wellbeing of staff that remain as well as those who may lose their jobs as a result of the Change Management Plan suggests that this guiding statement has been forgotten in the implementation of an ill-considered managerial process.

National and international MEMS experts, including ANZAMEMS members, were recruited to the ACU in recent years as part of a dedicated project to strengthen its research profile and contributions in the humanities and social sciences. They joined the institution in good faith. Some left tenured positions at other institutions, some relocated internationally, some were offered exciting opportunities to develop their promising careers. All now face intense distress and uncertainty with career curtailment and ruin on the near horizon for many. The speed of reversal from recruitment to redundancy must call into question any commitment the ACU makes to academics and their personal and professional wellbeing. This is particularly the case for the entire MEMS team who have been targeted in the current plan.

The ACU’s investment in the Humanities in general and MEMS in particular made it distinctive in the Australian tertiary landscape, offering invaluable clusters of disciplinary and interdisciplinary expertise that were promising to colleagues nationally and internationally as well as to those who went to work there. ANZAMEMS was proud to award funding for a career-building initiative for academic women in 2022, and a training workshop for Australian and New Zealand postgraduates in 2023, both hosted by the MEMS program. In the future, if these changes are implemented, ANZAMEMS and other potential partner organisations will find it difficult to commit to working with the ACU as a result of this sudden and unheralded change in circumstances.

ANZAMEMS stands in solidarity with all staff at the ACU, both academic and professional, and urgently calls on the Vice Chancellor, Deputy Vice Chancellor Research and ACU Senate and Corporation to change these plans which attack MEMS in particular, the humanities in general, and undermine the ACU’s mission and values.

Contact:

Dr Helen Young

President, the Australia and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies

president@anzamems.org

Download a copy of this statement as a PDF.

Parergon Performance Pop-up – ANZAMEMS Conference

Call for participants for the Parergon Performance Pop-up! 

The “Parergon Performance Pop-up!” is a series of staged readings curated around the theme Women and Agency. This event is directed by the Parergon early career committee and will be performed live at the 2024 ANZAMEMS conference in Christchurch, New Zealand.  

A series of readers will perform 3–5-minute segments of medieval or early modern poetry, prose or drama that engages with the theme. As this is a staged reading, performers are not expected to costume or memorise their segments. Performers are welcome to propose duologues if they are able to rehearse with their partner in advance of the conference. 

Participants with performance or public speaking experience who would like to participate in this event are invited to contact Anna-Rose (a.k.shack@uva.nl) to register their interest and receive further information. We look forward to hearing from you! 

ANZAMEMS Reading Group

The next session of the semester 2 ANZAMEMS ECR/Postgraduate reading group is scheduled for Tuesday, September 26, on the topic “Violence and Behavioural Control.”

Please find all further details, including the session reading and time, in the attached schedule. Email Emma.Rayner@anu.edu.au / Emily.Chambers@nottingham.ac.uk with any questions.

SEMESTER-2-Schedule-with-Readings-UPDATED-SESSION-ON-MUGHAL-INDIA-POSTPONED-1Download

ANZAMEMS Publication Prizes Open

We are pleased to announce that four ANZAMEMS publication prizes are now open for applications. All prizes are valued at AUD 1000.

Entry for all prizes closes on Monday 30 October 2023, 5:00pm (AWST).

Constant Mews Early Career Publication Prize

The Constant Mews Early Career Publication Prize will be 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 between 1 January 2022 and 31 August 2023 (inclusive of early online publication).

Philippa Maddern ECR Publication Prize

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 between 1 December 2021 and 31 August 2023 (inclusive of early online publication).

Patricia Crawford Postgraduate Publication Prize

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 between 1 December 2021 and 31 August 2023 (inclusive of early online publication).

Anne M. Scott Parergon Journal Prize

The Anne M. Scott Parergon Journal Prize is awarded to an honours student, postgraduate student, or Early Career Researcher (ECR) for the best article-length scholarly work published in Parergon between 1 January 2021 and 31 December 2022.

Further information on eligibility and application processes can be found here. All prize-related queries should be directed to info@anzamems.org.

2023 ANZAMEMS Early Career Fellows Announced

In 2023 ANZAMEMS will fund three Early Career Fellowships to support the development of early career researchers in pursuing advanced research and publication in medieval studies, early modern studies, and medievalism.

We are very excited to announce the following scholars have been appointed ANZAMEMS Early Career Fellows for 2023.

  • Dr Matthew Firth (Flinders University): ‘Medieval Life Writing and the Construction of Reputation’
  • Dr Roberta Kwan (Macquarie University/University of Sydney): ‘Ancient Ethic for Uncertain Times: Reimagining Neighbourliness with Shakespeare’
  • Dr Amy Sinclair (The University of Melbourne/Deakin University): ‘Risk and Dissimulation in Early Modern Feminism’

Parergon Next Gen Plenary Panel, ANZAMEMS Conference 2024

The editors of Parergon, in conjunction with our Early Career Committee members, are hosting an inaugural Next Generation Plenary Panel at the upcoming ANZAMEMS conference, 8-11 February 2024.

This is an exciting opportunity to showcase the work of new scholars in early modern and medieval studies, and selection to present on the panel will be a prestigious addition to any graduate student or early career researcher’s curriculum vitae.

We are soliciting abstracts from scholars who are developing new methodologies, researching new materials and looking at traditional issues in new ways.

Next Gen Plenary papers will be selected via an anonymous screening process following submission through the conference portal: https://www.anzamems2024.co.nz.

Please indicate at the end of your abstract that you would like to be considered for the Next Gen Plenary Panel. If you have already submitted an abstract, please contact Marina Gerzic to inform her that you would like it to be considered for this panel (info@anzamems.org).

Abstracts will be anonymised by the conference organisers and assessed by a panel made up of the editors of Parergon and a representative from the Parergon ECC committee. The George Yule Prize winner may be invited to be part of the panel.

Next Gen plenary speakers must be either graduate students undertaking a PhD, or scholars who have received their PhD in the last 10 years. All panellists must be current members of ANZAMEMS.

Submissions are due September 15, 2023.

Prizes and Bursaries: ANZAMEMS Conference 2024

The prizes and bursaries for ANZAMEMS 2024 in Canterbury, New Zealand are now open, these include:

  • George Yule Essay Prize
  • ANZAMEMS Conference Bursaries
  • ANZAMEMS Carer Bursaries
  • Kim Walker Postgraduate Travel Bursary
  • Maddern Crawford Network Conference Bursaries

Applications will close Friday 6 October 2023 (11:59pm AWST).

Guidelines and application Forms for the George Yule Prize and all the conference-related bursaries can be found on the ANZAMEMS website.

Details will also be updated shortly on the ANZAMEMS 2024 Conference website: https://www.anzamems2024.co.nz/.

Please note that there is only ONE application form for all the conference bursaries. If you wish to apply for more than one type of bursary, please use the same application form – do not submit multiple forms.

Should you have any questions, please contact info@anzamems.org

Member Publication: The Psychology of Avicenna – An English Version of the Liber de Anima

ANZAMEMS member Simon Kemp is pleased to announce the publication of The Psychology of Avicenna. In it, he presents a new translation of Avicenna’s Liber de Anima. The text was enormously influential on medieval thinking about psychology, and many of the ideas it contains have emerged or re-emerged in psychological research over the last fifty years.

The book will normally cost US $0.99 but is presently offered on AMAZON as a free download.