Manuscript Studies in the Covid-19 Age

Posted on October 1, 2020 by Chris

The Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries is pleased to announce the 13th Annual (Virtual) Schoenberg Symposium on Manuscript Studies in the Digital Age:

Manuscript Studies in the Digital Covid-19 Age

November 18-20, 2020

In the early spring of 2020, as the world shut down, scholarship and teaching were thrown into a virtual, online world. In the hands-on world of manuscripts studies, students, teachers, researchers, librarians, and curators lost physical access to the very objects upon which their work centered. But we were ready. Thanks to world-wide digitization efforts over the past twenty years, scholars at all levels and around the world have, by all counts, virtual access to more manuscripts and manuscript-related metadata than even a generation ago and are benefited by a broad array of digital tools, technologies, and resources that allow them to locate, gather, analyze, and interrogate digitized manuscripts and related metadata.

But in a Covid-19 Age, have these resources and tools been enough to continue manuscript research and study? Has scholarship and teaching been supported by these resources and tools in the ways that those who created them intended? Has access to these artifacts of our shared intellectual heritage become more open and equitable or are there still hurdles for scholarship around the world to overcome? Has a forced reckoning with digital tools, technologies, and resources spurred new questions or avenues of research or thrown up barriers? As creators and users of digital tools, technologies, and resources, have we learned anything since March about the success or failure of such projects? We will consider these questions and the opportunities and limitations offered by digital images and manuscript-related metadata as well as the digital and conceptual interfaces that come between the data and us as users. Our goal is to offer a (virtual) space to discuss lessons learned since March and how those lessons can push us to better practice and development of strategies in the future.

The symposium will take Wednesday, November 18 to Friday, November 20. Each day will consist of a 90-minute session with papers in the morning, followed by a 90-minute panel discussion led by invited moderators in the afternoon. All sessions will be recorded and made available after each session.

Two events will be held conjunction with the symposium:

* Scholarly Editing Covid19-Style: Laura Morreale will lead a 3-day crowd-sourcing effort to transcribe, edit, and submit for publication an edition of Le Pelerinage de Damoiselle Sapience, from UPenn MS Codex 660 <https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p3cr5nc34> (f. 86r-95v).

* Virtual Lightning Round: Pre-recorded 5-minute lightning round talks featuring digital projects at all stages of development, from ideas to implementation. Want to feature your digital project? Submit your proposal here <https://forms.gle/aW4eRSr8fKtU6kPq8> by Friday, October 28, to be considered.
For program information and to register, go to: https://www.library.upenn.edu/about/exhibits-events/ljs-symposium13. Registration is free and open to the public but required. A Zoom link for all three days will be provided upon registration.

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Call for Papers – Tra liti sì lontani … Dante for the Americas

Posted on October 1, 2020 by Chris

“Tra liti sì lontani … Dante for the Americas”
An international symposium marking the 700th anniversary of Dante’s death
6-8 May 2021
Hosted by Harvard University and the Dante Society of America

To mark the 700th anniversary of the poet’s death, the Dante Society of America and Harvard University are together organizing an international symposium on the reception and influence of Dante and his work from Canada to Chile from May 6-8, 2021. This collaboration commemorates the origins of “The Dante Society” in nineteenth-century Cambridge, but aims also to display the wider range of Dante’s presence as found in the Harvard collections. Yet our main goal is to highlight the reception of Dante in all parts of the Americas, and among readers of different intersectional identities. We welcome contributions that consider the poet’s legacy in a variety of different spheres – from the historical to the artistic, and from the private and to the public. We look for work that explores Dante in the life and imagination of the Americas, both learned and popular.

Contributions treating the reception of Dante in the Americas outside an Anglophone context are of particular interest. We encourage creative proposals, and will accommodate virtual formats as well as in-person presentations for those who may not be able to attend. Travel funds, especially for emerging scholars, may be available on a case-by-case basis.

Please note: The response to COVID-19 is a continuously evolving process. The organizers will continue to monitor local, national and international policies in order to guarantee speakers, colleagues and students the most productive conditions for both in-person and virtual participation, adopting if necessary a hybrid format.

Proposals must be submitted by October 15 via the conference website: https://dante2021.pubpub.org/

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Call for Papers – Redefining the Middle Ages

Posted on September 25, 2020 by Chris

A virtual graduate student conference, March 11-12, 2021

Featuring keynote addresses by Dr. Carissa M. Harris and Dr. Nicole Lopez-Jantzen
And a workshop led by Dr. Sarah Davis-Secord and Dr. Nahir Otaño Graci

The field of medieval studies is changing. Recent scholarly initiatives have successfully
resituated Europe in a more holistic global position, reevaluated how constructs of race
were formed by medieval peoples, and elucidated the processes through which these same
peoples developed their own identities, among similar lines of inquiry. These trends
challenge academic thought previously considered canonical about medieval Europe. To
this end, there is also a reckoning occurring within medieval studies relating to what
terminologies, theories, and methodologies used in the study of medieval Europe are most
appropriate, and how to encourage participation by scholars whom the field has historically marginalized.

Therefore, seeking to reevaluate the cultural, social, and demographic composition of medieval Europe, the Medieval Studies Student Association at the University of New Mexico invites paper proposals from graduate students. Potential paper topics include,
but are not limited to:

● How race-making was expressed in various forms of
medieval media
● The presence of minorities in medieval Europe
● Global North-South interconnectivity
● Non-Western influences on Western society
● Development of identity in intercultural contact zones
● Racism and prejudice, both explicit and implicit, in
medieval studies
● Modern legacies of medieval acts of violence
● The negative consequences of modern medievalism

Interested participants should please submit an abstract of no more than 250 words to
redefiningconference2021@gmail.com by November 13. Authors of accepted abstracts
will be informed by December 22. Additional questions may also be directed to the above
email address.

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Apply for a Rome Prize! Deadline: November 1

Posted on September 25, 2020 by Chris

AAR invites applications for the 2021 Rome Prize competition!

For over a century, the American Academy in Rome has awarded the Rome Prize to support innovative and cross-disciplinary work in the arts and humanities. Thirty fellowships, which are either five or eleven months in length, include a stipend, room and board, and individual work space at the Academy’s eleven-acre campus in Rome.

Rome Prizes are awarded in the following disciplines:

* Ancient Studies
* Architecture
* Design (includes graphic, industrial, interior, exhibition, set, costume, and fashion design, urban design, city planning, engineering, and other design fields)
* Historic Preservation and Conservation
* Landscape Architecture (includes environmental design and planning, landscape/ecological urbanism, landscape history, sustainability and ecological studies, and geography)
* Literature
* Medieval Studies
* Modern Italian Studies
* Musical Composition
* Renaissance and Early Modern Studies
* Visual Arts (includes painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, film, video, installation, new media, digital art, and other genres)

The application deadline is Sunday, November 1, 2020. To read the guidelines and begin your application, please visit aarome.org/apply/rome-prize.

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MAA Co-Signs AHA Statement on the recent White House “Conference on American History”

Posted on September 25, 2020 by Chris

The American Historical Association has issued a statement on last week’s “White House Conference on American History” deploring the tendentious use of history and history education to stoke politically motivated culture wars.

Along with twenty-seven of our sister learned societies, the Medieval Academy of America “deplores the use of history and history education at all grade levels and other contexts to divide the American people, rather than use our discipline to heal the divisions that are central to our heritage. Healing those divisions requires an understanding of history and an appreciation for the persistent struggles of Americans to hold the nation accountable for falling short of its lofty ideals. To learn from our history we must confront it, understand it in all its messy complexity, and take responsibility as much for our failures as our accomplishments.”

Read the full statement here: https://www.historians.org/news-and-advocacy/aha-advocacy/aha-statement-on-the-recent-white-house-conference-on-american-history-(september-2020)

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ASCSA William Sanders Scarborough Fellowships

Posted on September 21, 2020 by Chris

The William Sanders Scarborough Fellowships

Deadline: November 1, 2020

This fellowship is intended to honor Professor William Sanders Scarborough’s memory and to help foster diversity in the fields of Classical and Hellenic Studies and the Humanities more broadly by supporting students and teachers from underrepresented groups in their study and research at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens.

William Sanders Scarborough (1852–1926), the son of an enslaved woman and a freedman, was a pathbreaking African American Classical scholar and public intellectual. Scarborough’s scholarship included philological works on Greek and Roman authors, as well as studies of African languages and African American folklore. His First Lessons in Greek (1881) was the first foreign language textbook by an African American author. He taught at Ohio’s Wilberforce University and Payne Theological Seminary, serving as Wilberforce’s president from 1908–1920. At least twice in his life (1886 and 1896), Scarborough hoped to attend the American School, with the encouragement of the School’s Managing Committee. Lack of funding, coupled with his many professional responsibilities, kept Scarborough from realizing his dream of going to Greece.

Eligibility:  Graduate students, faculty, and independent scholars residing in the United States or Canada, regardless of citizenship, whose geographic origin, diverse experiences, and socio-economic background are underrepresented at the School (including persons from the Black, Indigenous, and Persons of Color communities), and whose studies, research, or teaching would benefit from residency at the School. Fellowship recipients need not be specialists in the field of Classical Studies. The School welcomes applicants from public and private universities, colleges, and community colleges, and particularly encourages those from Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Terms and Duration:  The fellowship supports up to three months in residence at the School to carry out proposed research projects and/or join the School’s academic programs (field trips and seminars during the regular academic year or the summer, excavations at the Agora or Corinth, scientific field schools, etc.). Applicants interested in using the fellowship to participate in summer programs should submit separate applications to programs of interest. The summer programs for 2021 are already largely filled with deferred applicants from 2020. Applicants to the Scarborough fellowship program wishing to be considered for summer programs in 2021 should contact the ASCSA Programs Administrator at application@ascsa.org for further guidance. Awards granted in the 2020 competition should normally be used between June 1, 2021 and May 30, 2022.

Each of the awards provides for $1500 per month (rounded upwards to the nearest whole month to a maximum of 3 month) as a stipend. The fellowship covers the costs of room and board in Athens, a waiver of any applicable School fees, and one roundtrip economy-class airfare to Athens. The School intends to make up to four such awards each year.

Application: Submit an online application here, https://ascsa.submittable.com/submit/171376/william-sanders-scarborough-fellowship. A complete application will include:

  • A 2-page, single-spaced, statement indicating your eligibility, describing the proposed use of the fellowship including any formal program at the School you plan to apply for, the proposed timeframe for your work at the School, and your research project (as applicable).
  • A curriculum vitae.
  • A copy of current transcripts (for student applicants).
  • Arrange for two letters of recommendation. Once an online application is submitted, recommenders will be sent an automated email with instructions about how to submit their letters of recommendation. Recommenders will be asked to upload their letters via the online application system, Submittable. It is also acceptable for recommenders to submit letters directly to this email address: application@ascsa.org.

Web site: https://www.ascsa.edu.gr/fellowships-and-grants/graduate-and-postdoctoral
E-mail: application@ascsa.org
Award decisions will be announced in March 2021.

The American School of Classical Studies at Athens does not discriminate on the basis of race, age, sex, sexual orientation, color, religion, ethnic origin, or disability when considering admission to any form of membership or application for employment.

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Harvard-DSA 2021 Conference Call for Proposals

Posted on September 21, 2020 by Chris

To commemorate the 700th anniversary of Dante’s death and explore his reception and influence on the literatures and cultures of the American continents, the Dante Society of America is collaborating with Harvard University to present an international symposium, “Tra liti sì lontani … Dante for the Americas,” on 6-8 May 2021.

As we note in the call for papers, the response to COVID-19 is an ongoing process. We will continue to monitor local, national, and international policies in order to guarantee sound conditions for our speakers, colleagues, and students, whether that be through in-person and/or virtual participation. If necessary, we will adopt a hybrid format, making every effort to highlight the historic origins of the Dante Society and Harvard’s magnificent Dante collections while supporting the well-being of our community.

We are very grateful to Carol Chiodo and Ambrogio Camozzi-Pistoja of Harvard University for leading the complex efforts to plan the symposium program and logistics, and to secure local funding support. A website for the symposium has just been launched. It presently includes a Call for Papers (deadline 15 Oct 2020) – in 5 languages! – with programming details to follow:

https://dante2021.pubpub.org/

Please visit and bookmark the website and share it with your colleagues and friends. Please help to spread the word by posting the Call for Papers below to departmental and other mailing lists, or by retweeting the posting on our Dante Society Twitter account (@TheDanteSociety).

Very truly yours,

Alison Cornish
Professor and Chair of Italian Studies
The Dante Society of America, President

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Call for Papers – 2020 New England Medieval Conference

Posted on September 18, 2020 by Chris

RACE AND THE MIDDLE AGES
The 46th Annual New England Medieval Conference
Virtual Meeting Thursday, December 3, 2020

Keynote Speaker: Geraldine Heng, The University of Texas at Austin, “The Politics of Race in the European Middle Ages”

With the world-wide resurgence of anti-racist activism following the killing of George Floyd, we as medievalists feel compelled to reexamine notions of race in the pre-modern period. Can speaking of “race” in the Middle Ages help us today? How was race conceived in the Middle Ages? Did race already dictate the lives of men and women in medieval Europe? To what extent did race and religion overlap in the Middle Ages? We invite medievalists of all disciplines and specializations to explore these and other questions relating to the topic of race. We welcome papers that deal with the origins and development of race from a variety of different perspectives. We are likewise very interested in essays focusing on the treatment of race without medieval Western Europe.

Please send an abstract of 250 words and a recent CV to Meriem Pagès (mpages@keene.edu). Please make sure to provide your name and full professional affiliation (institution and level of study) in your proposal. Abstracts are due October 15, 2020.

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Julius Lecture in Byzantine Art – Heaven on Earth: Justinian’s Hagia Sophia

Posted on September 18, 2020 by Chris

October 12, 2020 5:00 PM

Zoom Webinar Register Here

This talk addresses the transformation of the basilica as an architectural form and its subsequent impact on architecture in the eastern Mediterranean. Justinian’s Hagia Sophia represents a critical moment in architectural history in terms of form, meaning, and aesthetics.

Robert Ousterhout is professor emeritus in history and art at the University of Pennsylvania, where he taught from 2007-2017 and also served as director of the Center for Ancient Studies. He taught previously at the University of Illinois, where he received his PhD. Ousterhout’s fieldwork has concentrated on Byzantine architecture, monumental art, and urbanism in Constantinople, Thrace, Cappadocia, and Jerusalem.

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CFA: Rare Book School’s Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography

Posted on September 18, 2020 by Chris

Rare Book School’s Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography (SoFCB) invites applications for its 2021–23 cohort of junior fellows. The deadline is Monday, 2 November 2020.

Continuing the work of the Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship in Critical Bibliography (2012–17), this scholarly society works to advance the study of texts, images, and artifacts as material objects through capacious, interdisciplinary scholarship—and to enrich humanistic inquiry and education by identifying, mentoring, and training promising early-career scholars. Junior Fellows will be encouraged and supported in integrating the methods of critical bibliography into their teaching and research, fostering collegial conversations about historical and emerging media across disciplines and institutions, and sharing their knowledge with broader publics.

The fellowship includes tuition waivers for two Rare Book School courses, as well as funding for Junior Fellows to participate in the Society’s annual meeting and orientation. Additional funds are available for fellows to organize symposia at their home institutions, and fellows will have the option of attending a bibliographical field school to visit libraries, archives, and collections in a major metropolitan area. After completing two years in good standing as Junior Fellows, program participants will have the option to become Senior Fellows in the Society.

The Society is committed to supporting diversity and to advancing the scholarship of outstanding persons of every race, gender, sexual orientation, creed, and socioeconomic background, and to enhancing the diversity of the professions and academic disciplines it represents, including those of the professoriate, museums, libraries, archives, public humanities, and digital humanities. We warmly encourage prospective applicants from a wide range of disciplines, institutions, and areas of expertise.

For more information and to apply, please visit: http://rarebookschool.org/admissions-awards/fellowships/sofcb/

For more information about diversity and the SoFCB, please visit the SoFCB Diversity & Outreach Committee’s Welcome Letter: https://rarebookschool.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/SoFCB_Welcome_Letter_2020.pdf

Inquiries about the SoFCB Junior Fellows Program can be directed to Sonia Hazard, SoFCB Selection Committee Chair, at shazard@fsu.edu, or Donna Sy, SoFCB Administrative Director, at rbs-mellon@virginia.edu.

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