Call for Papers – Delaware Valley Medieval Association (DVMA) Graduate Workshop

Posted on June 21, 2021 by Chris

Delaware Valley Medieval Association Graduate Workshop
October 17, 2021
Villanova University 
Villanova, Pennsylvania 
Location TBD
10am-3pm  

The DVMA invites 250-word abstracts for 20-minute talks or 5-minute flash presentations by graduate students in any discipline and on any topic that pertains to medieval studies. Global medieval submissions are welcome and encouraged!  

The purpose of this event is to provide graduate students with an opportunity to connect with an interdisciplinary community of graduate students and professors who specialize in the Middle Ages from other universities in the region, to gain experience presenting in a conference setting, and to receive feedback on their work in a casual environment.  Hence, this call for papers is intentionally open-ended: the work you present at this event could include a developing chapter in your dissertation, a completed seminar paper, a work in progress, or simply a new line of inquiry that you would like to pursue.  

This year’s event will be held in conjunction with the 46th annual Patristic, Medieval, and Renaissance Conference at Villanova University.  

To submit a proposal or request more information please contact Ailie Posillico and Margo Weitzman at APosill3@villanova.edu. The deadline to submit an abstract is July 19.  

To join or for more information about the DVMA visit http://dvmamedieval.com.  

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Jobs for Medievalists

Posted on June 21, 2021 by Chris

The Jill and Paul Ruddock Curator, Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Deadline: Review of applications will commence July 16, 2021
Please submit a letter of interest, CV and names of at least 3 references through the Met’s LinkedIn job portal:

About the opportunity:

The medieval collections at The Metropolitan Museum of Art comprise one of the world’s finest, most comprehensive collections of medieval and Byzantine art. Presented in galleries at Met Fifth Avenue and The Met Cloisters, these collections offer unparalleled opportunities to situate the medieval period within a global context and to explore its connection to contemporary concerns and ideas. The Jill and Paul Ruddock Curator will have specialized knowledge of late medieval art and an interest in working broadly across the collection in support of departmental and Museum activities. With an office at The Met Cloisters, the curator will be a senior member of the curatorial team of the Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters. The Ruddock Curator will be responsible for performing all curatorial duties, including: researching, studying, and publishing works in the collection under his/her curatorial responsibility; recommending  acquisitions to complement the existing collection; proposing future exhibitions and publications; and maintaining positive and fruitful relations with colleagues in the Museum and in the academic world, with dealers and auctioneers, and with Museum trustees and other supporters. The ideal candidate will be an experienced, published scholar passionately interested in the arts of the later Middle Ages, its making and its context, and in improving the collection through gift and purchase, and deeply committed to the Museum’s mission of public outreach. The successful candidate will have expertise in late medieval art and will also be open to global and transhistorical projects. A commitment to social engagement is essential, as is a willingness to critique and reimagine the traditional museum. Given the renewed commitment to forging strong relationships with the vibrant and vital neighborhoods to which The Met Cloisters belongs, the successful candidate must also be committed to collaborating with and learning from local artists and activists and the surrounding community.

Requirements and Qualifications

  • Minimum of ten (preferably fifteen) years of museum or experience directly related to the duties and responsibilities required, a demonstrated track record of scholarly research and publication; experience with community engagement;
  • Demonstrated experience working directly with objects with a track-record of accomplishing and leading original research around works of art in area of specialization;
  • Commitment to exploring diverse approaches to the Middle Ages, and to engaging directly with diversity, equity, access, and inclusion (DEIA) initiatives in museum and professional community;
  • Proven ability to conceive and develop and execute complex projects, preferably exhibitions or other public-facing initiatives;
  • Excellent interpersonal and communication skills with colleagues across a complex organization and externally with scholars, donors, dealers and the general public;
  • Ability to work closely with all staff within the department and with colleagues throughout the Museum;
  • Strong computer skills and an interest contributing to the Met’s social media platforms;
  • D. in the history of art or equivalent through publications;
  • Proficiency with languages and international experience desired.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art provides equal opportunity to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, age, mental or physical disability, pregnancy, alienage or citizenship status, marital status or domestic partner status, genetic information, genetic predisposition or carrier status, gender identity, HIV status, military status and any other category protected by law in all employment decisions, including but not limited to recruitment, hiring, compensation, training and apprenticeship, promotion, upgrading, demotion, downgrading, transfer, lay-off and termination, and all other terms and conditions of employment.

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Dominican Culture, Dominican Theology: The Order of Preachers and Its Spheres of Action (1215-ca. 1600)

Posted on June 15, 2021 by Chris

Dominican Culture, Dominican Theology:
The Order of Preachers and Its Spheres of Action (1215-ca. 1600)
Virtual conference
29 June – 2 July, 2021
Annual meeting of IGTM – International Society for the Study of Medieval Theology
Hosted by the Faculty of Theology at the University of Copenhagen.

In the high Middle Ages, a novel concept of religious community overran the occidental world: the Dominican Order. Unlike earlier religious orders who confined monks to the purview of praying the liturgy and living a life of contemplative seclusion, the Dominicans focused on engaging with the broad community beyond the convent walls. The result was a hitherto unseen interpenetration of a religious order into the intellectual and cultural realities surrounding it.

This conference aims at stimulating interdisciplinary debate on Dominican culture and Dominican theological thought, seen as two aspects of the same medieval and early modern reality. The conference thus strives to bridge a gap between cultural and intellectual history that often has characterized modern scholarship on the history of the Dominican Order.

The conference has six sessions:
A: Dominican Theology and Its Production
B: Theology and Culture of Dominican Preaching
C: The Institutional and Legal Constitution of the Order
D: The Materiality of Dominican Culture and Theology
E: Dominicans in Debate
F: Dominicans and ‘The Other(s)’

Across the sessions, more than 60 papers will be read and discusssed. Keynote lectures will be given by Isabel Iribarren (Strasbourg), Carolyn Muessig (Calgary), Marika Räsänen (Turku), Volker Leppin (Tübingen), and Johnny G.G. Jakobsen (Copenhagen). See the whole conference programme here.

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Call for Papers – Cultures of Exchange: Mercantile Mentalities Between Italy and the World

Posted on June 11, 2021 by Chris

The 41st Annual Conference of
Fordham’s Center for Medieval Studies
Saturday-Sunday March 26-27, 2022

website: https://mvstconference.ace.fordham.edu/culturesofexchange/

Call for Papers (due September 15, 2021)

Recent scholarship has shed light on the complexity of medieval Italy’s multifaceted political and intellectual landscape and attempted to place it within a Mediterranean and global context. At the heart of this landscape was an innovative, linguistically and culturally diverse mercantile culture, fundamentally urban and rooted in a culture of exchange, which integrated merchants and mercantile mentalities into the fabric of government, politics, and society. Positioned at the crossroads of many cultures of exchange, Italy’s mercantile culture was embedded within and contributed to broader, global networks. This conference aims to investigate the practices and values pioneered by merchants, both in Italy and beyond, their impact on political and economic life, as well as on the development of the arts and society’s response to catastrophic upheaval.

We welcome papers that consider the following or related questions:

  • How should we define a medieval “Italian” mercantile culture, and what would it include? What were the continuities and changes that occurred in this culture between the Middle Ages and the modern world?
  • How did mercantile culture influence structures of power in Italy, whether urban, royal, or ecclesiastical?
  • How did mercantile patronage of the arts, architecture, and urban infrastructure influence the physical shape and appearance of the city?
  • To what extent were innovative business practices and technologies instrumental to intercultural exchange, and how did practitioners adapt them in different religious or cultural contexts?
  • What role did the agents of Italian mercantile culture play in African, Asian, and European networks of traders, travelers, and pilgrims, and what sorts of people, goods, and ideas moved within these networks?
  • How do we write the medieval history of slavery and enslaved people, and what role did these people play in mercantile cultures?
  • How was this mercantile culture expressed in the arts and literature in different Italian regions and elsewhere? How did Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarch engage critically with mercantile culture in their works?
  • How did women and men depict themselves, their families, and urban life in the merchant world? What role did literature on travel and exploration, household management, business practice, accounting and mathematics, or works of history and cartography play in the formation of mercantile identity?
  • What role did women play as economic actors (e.g. laborers, artisans, consumers, professionals, business owners, players or objects in the marriage market, and members of merchant households) in mercantile culture and society?
  • How did mercantile culture relate to ideas about race, gender, and identity in Italy, Europe, and elsewhere?
  • What were the ethical responses to mercantile society (theological, philosophical, and in humanist literature), including attempts to address poverty and charity, civic education, or the ethos of the marketplace?
  • What was the impact of mercantile culture on the development of professions? How did professions (e.g. legal, medical, or diplomatic) contribute to public policy and regulation?
  • How did mercantile society revive and restructure itself in response to challenges (plague, banking collapse, war, social unrest, etc.)? How did writers envision society emerging from crises and rebuilding in material, literary, political, moral, ethical terms?
  • How have our own experiences of pandemic reshaped readings of Italian mercantile sources on plague, catastrophe, and recovery? How can medievalists who study these sources contribute to society’s recovery from its current crises?

Please submit an abstract and cover letter with contact information by September 15, 2021 to Center for Medieval Studies, FMH 405B, Fordham University, Bronx, NY 10458, or by email to medievals@fordham.edu, or by fax to 718-817-3987.

Conference location:  Fordham University, Lincoln Center Campus, 113 W. 60th St., New York, NY 10023, United States

Conference dates: March 26-27, 2022

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Two-day workshop on the Thirteenth-Century Mediterranean

Posted on June 10, 2021 by Chris

Interested in cross-cultural contacts in the medieval Mediterranean? Don’t miss the workshop “Pluriversality at Play: Art and Material Culture in the Thirteenth-Century Mediterranean,” organized by the School of Art History, University of St Andrews, on June 17-18 via MS Teams. The workshop is sponsored by the British Academy and registration is free:

https://events.st-andrews.ac.uk/events/pluriversality-at-play/

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CARA News – Medieval Institute summary for 2019–20

Posted on June 10, 2021 by Chris

The 2020–21 academic year proceeded quite differently for the Medieval Institute, as it did for everyone, yet the silver lining of Zoom meant we could offer our programming to a global audience and broaden our community in wonderful ways. We hosted and sponsored virtual lectures with Dag Nikolaus Hasse (Würzburg), “Andrea Alpago in Damascus: Politics, Medicine and Philosophy around 1517”; Warren Zev Harvey (Hebrew U of Jerusalem), “Maimonides on Legislating the Love and Awe of God”; and Hussein Fancy (U of Michigan), “The Impostor Sea: The Making of the Medieval Mediterranean,” this last one part of our annual Graduate Student Invitation Lecture Series. Our two annual colloquia, typically held in the spring, were held instead in October 2020. The 19th Annual Mellon Colloquium [https://medieval.nd.edu/news-events/annual-events/mellon-colloquium/], “Clerics, Courts, and Legal Culture in Early Medieval Italy,” featured our 2019–20 Mellon Fellow, Michael Heil (University of Arkansas, Little Rock) together with speakers Maria Cristina La Rocca (Università degli studi di Padova), Abigail Firey (University of Kentucky), and Warren C. Brown (California Institute of Technology). Our Third Annual Byzantine Postdoctoral Fellowship Workshop [https://medieval.nd.edu/news-events/annual-events/byzantine-postdoctoral-fellowship-seminar/], “Memory and Cognition in Byzantium,” featured our 2019–20 Byzantine Postdoctoral Fellow Nicole Paxton Sullo (Yale) together with speakers Rossitza Schroeder (St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary), Wiebke-Marie Stock (University of Notre Dame), and Roland Betancourt (University of California, Irvine). Our annual Conway lectures [https://medieval.nd.edu/news-events/annual-events/conway-lectures/], this year on the theme of “Race in the Middle Ages,” took a new form of three speakers plus a roundtable. We hosted virtually three distinguished speakers: Sara Lipton (Stony Brook), Cord J. Whitaker (Wellesley), and Suzanne Akbari (Institute for Advanced Study). Select recordings of these virtual lectures are available on our YouTube channel [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeLWdfGnJuDY_A9hjHGoIag]. In the 2021–22 year the Medieval Institute will be celebrating its 75th anniversary, and we look forward to holding our 2021 Conway Lectures on both this anniversary and the 700th anniversary of the death of Dante Alighieri. You can read more about these events, our visitors, and the Institute on our website [http://medieval.nd.edu], and you can follows us on Twitter [https://twitter.com/MedievalND], Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/MedievalND], and YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeLWdfGnJuDY_A9hjHGoIag].

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Call for Papers – Perspective, n° 2022 – 2 RACONTER / NARRATIVE(S)

Posted on June 7, 2021 by Chris

The journal Perspective : actualité en histoire de l’art will explore, in its 2022 – 2 issue, the relationships between narration, art and art history.

From the stories that inspire images and art objects, to those (re)constituted by its viewers, to the “story-telling” of art historians, this issue is intended to make use of the act of narrating as a productively destabilizing heuristic tool. Even in the absence of figured diegetic content, the image and the art object narrate, if only as witnesses of an era or practices, as vehicles of narrativity.

The history of art, rooted in the works of Giorgio Vasari and Karel van Mander, is based on a narrative exercise, from the ekphrasis of Antiquity to the epic narratives of modernist autonomy, but also anecdotes and biographical legends. The way art historians have forged their discipline by freeing themselves from a willfully mythical literary practice and gradually adopting, fashioning, and discussing “scientific” methods bears witness to a complex relationship with the narrative and narration – otherwise stated, a kind of fiction.

While no one will deny that the image and the narrative act go hand in hand, the precedence of one over the other remains an eternal subject of debate, as are the relaying and embedding processes that engender them, from the time of the paragone to modernist discourse predicting the end of narrative artworks. These different oppositions and complex transmission phenomena can be approached from a variety of vantage points, provided that the analysis is situated within a historiographical perspective addressing the narrative processes at work in the creation and reception of art from the origins to the present day, from symbolic Paleolithic expressions to contemporary cinema.

Proposals should correspond to the journal’s editorial policy, which is aimed at going beyond simple case studies in order to bring out specific historiographical issues and, in this instance, analyze the ways art history, cultural heritage history and archeology make use of the relationships between narration, art and art history in order to rethink their methods and scholarly frameworks.

Please submit your proposal ( 2,000-3,000-character / 350 to 500-word summary, with a provisional title, a short bibliography on the topic, and a 2-3 line biography) to the editorial address (revue-perspective@inha.fr) by July 1st, 2021.
Authors of selected articles will be informed of the committee’s decision by the end of July 2021. Full texts of accepted contributions will need to be sent by December 15, 2021. These will be definitively accepted after the journal’s anonymous peer-review process.

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Opportunity for Scholars at IAS

Posted on June 4, 2021 by Chris

INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY, School of Historical Studies, Opportunities for Scholars 2022-2023. The Institute is an independent private institution founded in 1930 to create a community of scholars focused on intellectual inquiry, free from teaching and other university obligations. Scholars from around the world come to the Institute to pursue their research. Candidates of any nationality may apply for a single term or a full academic year. Scholars may apply for a stipend, but those with sabbatical funding, other grants, retirement funding, or other means are also invited to apply for a non-stipendiary membership. Some short-term visitorships (for less than a full term and without stipend) are also available on an ad-hoc basis. Open to all fields of historical research, the School of Historical Studies’ principal interests is the history of western, near eastern and Asian civilizations, with particular emphasis upon Greek and Roman civilization, the history of Europe (medieval, early modern, and modern), the Islamic world, East Asian studies, art history, the history of science, and late modern history. Support is available each year for one scholar in music studies. Residence in Princeton during term time is required. The only other obligation of Members is to pursue their research. A Ph.D. (or equivalent) and substantial publications are required. Scholars can find further information in the announcement on the web at https://www.hs.ias.edu/mem_announcement or on the School’s website, www.hs.ias.edu. Inquiries sent by post should be addressed to the School of Historical Studies, Institute for Advanced Study, Einstein Dr., Princeton, N.J. 08540 (Email address: hsappquery@ias.edu.) Deadline: October 15, 2021.

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Conferences – Brut in New Troy (virtual conference)

Posted on June 4, 2021 by Chris

Brut in New Troy (virtual conference)
25–28 June 2021

From at least the twelfth until well into the seventeenth century, the ‘standard’ version of Britain’s history held that the realm’s founder was an exiled descendant of Aeneas called Brutus (or Brut), who came to the island with a band of Trojans, conquered the hostile giants living there, and named the land ‘Britain’ (or ‘Britannia’) after himself. The moment that marks Brut’s transition from warrior to king is his foundation of the capital city of New Troy, later known as London.

Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia regum Britanniae (c. 1138) first popularized this matter and offered a history of Britain until its conquest by the Saxons, thus giving rise to the long-lived and diverse Brut tradition of the ‘legendary history’ of Britain. In the high and late Middle Ages, on both sides of the Channel, lay and clerical writers translated and transformed Geoffrey’s Historia according to their own interests and purposes, in prose and in verse, and in Latin, continental and Anglo-Norman French, English, Welsh, and several other European languages. Many of these writers extended the narrative far beyond its original conclusion, bringing the story past the fall of the ancient Britons and all the way up to contemporary times. Britain’s legendary history continued to be reimagined after the medieval period. Writers as late as John Milton (in his 1677 History of Britain) and even Charles Dickens (in his 1851-53 Child’s History of England) continued to draw on the Brut tradition: its profound and lasting influence on conceptions of Britain’s earliest past cannot be overstated.

‘Brut in New Troy’ is the first scholarly conference devoted to the Brut tradition as a whole. With over 30 papers running the chronological and disciplinary gamut, the conference provides a forum for comparative, multilingual, cross-period, and cross-disciplinary discussion of Brut-related works and manuscripts, both canonical and less familiar, and by no means limited to ‘legendary’ material. It features keynote addresses by Professor Jane Roberts, esteemed scholar of Lawman’s Brut and Old and Middle English language and literature, and Professor Christopher Baswell, renowned expert of medieval literature and manuscript studies, especially narratives about the classical and legendary pasts.

The conference will take place via Zoom. Registration is free but required for access to sessions. To register, and to view the provisional programme, please visit the conference website: www.brutinnewtroy.co.uk.

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MAA News – From the Executive Director

Posted on June 3, 2021 by Chris

Dear Colleagues,

I hope you are all well as we slowly emerge from The Long 2020. I’m writing to inform you of some important changes to our Governance structures that have recently been approved by the Council.

In recent years, the Medieval Academy of America has had to become a more outward-facing organization even as we continue our long tradition of supporting, publishing, and promoting exceptional scholarship in Medieval Studies. Our field, and our members, face growing threats, from white supremacy to fiscal precarity to the adjunctification of academia, a shriveling academic job market, cuts to the humanities, and so on. The Medieval Academy has responded by expanding programming and grantmaking to offer support and a scholarly platform to a broader base of medievalists, including working to make space for BIPOC scholars and scholars working beyond the tenure track. I believe that we are becoming a place where otherwise-disenfranchised medievalists feel like they have a home. But our governance structure, as laid out in our bylaws, has not kept up with these changes.

Effective governance should be facilitated by comprehensive and appropriate bylaws. Our current bylaws were written several decades ago, when we were a very different kind of organization governed by a largely homogenous group of Councilors. The bylaws weren’t designed for the kind of organization that we are and that we want to be in the present moment. Our Council isn’t homogenous anymore. MAA members have elected leaders from varied demographics, from varied professional and personal backgrounds, all of whom bring their valuable experience and perspective to the table. But the bylaws haven’t kept up. We’ve made some important policy changes in recent years, but there is significant deeper work to do. It begins here, with a series of structural changes that were approved by the Council on June 1:

1) The number of Fellows and Corresponding Fellows has been expanded to 150 and 100 respectively in response to a recommendation by the Fellows themselves. This numeric expansion (in conjunction with other Fellows reforms) is intended to broaden the scope of medievalists elected to the corps of Fellows each year.

2) Elections and Voting: Last year, the ballot for Council and the Nominating Committee required ranked-choice voting. In response to the historically-low voter turnout and feedback from members who found the necessity of ranking eight Council candidates to be overly-burdensome, we will be returning to a simple majority vote in the upcoming election. Members will be asked to vote for one of three candidates for 2nd Vice-President; four of eight candidates for Council; and two of four candidates for the Nominating Committee.

3) Filling vacancies on the Council: Our past Bylaws stated that when a midterm vacancy occurred on the Council, the Council was to appoint someone to serve out the term. The current Council was not comfortable with that policy, as they felt it served to disenfranchise MAA members. In accordance with the new policy, when a vacancy occurs among the elected officers or Councilors, the Nominating Committee will nominate three members of the Academy to stand for Special Election to fill the vacancy. The Council will vote to approve the slate, and the Executive Director will facilitate a Special Election among the Membership. There is currently one midterm vacancy on the Council; a Special Election will therefore be held in a few months to fill the seat.

4) Structure of the Council: Previously, the Council was divided into two bodies: the Executive Committee and the Committee on Committees. This division was, in a word, divisive. Going forward, the duties of both of these subgroups will be taken on by the full Council as a unified body.

5) Meetings: Instead of meeting as a whole body only once per year in conjunction with the Annual Meeting, the Council will meet at least once per quarter, with other meetings as necessary. With the exception of the meeting in conjunction with the Annual Meeting, these meetings will be virtual.

These new policies, which will be codified pending review by our attorney, may seem insignificant to you, and you might not have even known how our governance worked in the first place. But these are indeed major changes. By uniting the Council into a single governing body and meeting more frequently, we hope to make our governance more lithe, effective, cooperative, and transparent.

These changes are just the beginning of a long-term system-wide review of all MAA policies and procedures as we move towards our second century. This review will help us continue the work of making the Academy a place where all are welcome and where we actively work towards inclusion, diversity, justice, and equity. I am grateful for the leadership of President Tom Dale and all of the MAA Councilors, and I look forward to working with them, and with you, as this process moves forward. I encourage you to reach out to me at any time with your thoughts and suggestions.

I hope you will enjoy a safe and relaxing summer.

– Lisa

Lisa Fagin Davis
Executive Director
LFD@TheMedievalAcademy.org

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