The Medieval Academy Blog

Administrative accountability in the later Middle Ages

Records, procedures, and their societal impact

Bucharest, 16-17 November 2018

The emergence of new types of financial records, the creation of institutional procedures, and the birth of a bureaucratic corps in a society in which accountability had been largely social and moral represent key developments in the history of the later Middle Ages. The colloquium will explore the multifaceted reality of administrative accountability in Western Europe, c. 1200-1450. Because the renewed interest in the subject makes methodological exchanges all the more timely, the colloquium will provide a venue for testing new approaches to the sources. Special attention will be given to underexplored archival documents, such as the castellany accounts (computi) of late-medieval Savoy, and to topics that have hitherto received less attention, such as the social impact of institutional consolidation. Comparisons with better-known texts, such as the English pipe rolls, are also encouraged.

The colloquium is organised in the frame of the European Research Council Starting Grant no. 638436, ‘Record-keeping, fiscal reform, and the rise of institutional accountability in late-medieval Savoy: a source-oriented approach’ (University of Bucharest)

Record-keeping, fiscal reform, and the rise of institutional accountability in late-medieval Savoy: a source-oriented approach

Proposals for 30-minute papers are invited on topics including:

 the institutional dialogue between the central and local administration

 the impact of administrative and fiscal reform on local communities

 accounting practices and the auditing of financial records

 the cultural underpinnings of medieval accountability

 prosopography: background and career of administrators, from auditing clerks to castellans

 methodological advances, from manuscript studies to sociological frameworks

 the transfer of administrative models across medieval Europe

The colloquium papers, which will collected in an edited volume published with an international academic press, should reflect original, unpublished research. The authors will be given the opportunity to revise their contributions for publication.

Papers can be presented in English or French; if delivered in French, it is the author’s responsibility to have the paper translated into English for publication.

For inquiries, contact Ionuț Epurescu-Pascovici (ionut.epurescu-pascovici@icub.unibuc.ro) or Roberto Biolzi (roberto.biolzi@unil.ch).

Proposals of circa 300 words, outlining the source material, methodology, and anticipated findings, should be emailed to ionut.epurescu-pascovici@icub.unibuc.ro by 30 March 2018.

The organisers will provide three nights hotel accommodation and help defray travel expenses.

Angelical Conjunctions: Crossroads of Medicine and Religion, 1200-1800

to be held at McGill University on April 13-15, 2019

“Angelical Conjunction” was the term coined by the seventeenth-century New England Puritan Cotton Mather to denote the mutual affinity of medicine and religion. Indeed, medical and spiritual practices have a long history of coexistence in many religious traditions. This connection took many forms, from the pious provision of health care (in person or through endowed charity), to the archetypal figure of the healing prophet. Yet despite decades of specialized research, a coherent and analytical history of the “angelical conjunction” itself remains elusive.   This conference therefore aims to explore the connection between medicine and religion across the time-span of the late medieval and early modern eras, and  from an intercultural perspective. Taking as our focus the Mediterranean, the Islamic World and Europe, and the various Christianities, Islams and Judaisms that flourished there, we aim to develop methodological and theoretical perspectives on the “angelical conjunction(s)” of these two spheres. How did the entanglement of religion and medicine shape epistemologies in both of these spheres? What are the conceptions of the body and its relationship to the soul that these entanglements assumed or envisioned? What were the limits to coexistence? How did the “conjunction” change over time?

We invite papers on a range of themes that include, but are not limited to:

–         The relationship between spiritual charisma and medical practice
–         The involvement of medical practitioners in theological debates
–         Medicine and “fringe” religious traditions (e.g. Hermetic, heretical, “occult”…)
–         Representations of the healer-prophet or healer-saint in art
–         Debates on body and soul informed by medical and theological knowledge
–         Spiritualization of physical illness
–         Devotion as therapy, and (the provision of) therapy as devotion

Accommodation and meals will be provided. We are seeking grant support to subsidize travel.

Please submit an abstract of 300 words and a CV to Dr. Aslıhan Gürbüzel at angelicalconjunctions@gmail.com by January 10, 2018.

Call for Papers
Southern African Society for Medieval and Renaissance Studies Conference

23 – 26^th August 2018

We are pleased to announce that the 24^th biennial conference of SASMARS will be held at Mont Fleur in Stellenbosch, South Africa from Thursday the 23^rd to Sunday the 26^th of August 2018.

“Ancestry and Memory in Medieval and Early Modern Worlds”

Keynote Speaker:  Professor Alexandra Walsham, University of Cambridge

Medieval and early modern societies weathered various socio-cultural changes, including religious, economic, and political transformations, across a range of different geographies and in both urban and rural spaces.  We seek papers from any applicable discipline that explore ancestry and memory within a variety of geographic locales in the medieval and/or early modern eras. We shall welcome broad and imaginative interpretations of “ancestry” and “memory”.

Deadline:  Please send a conference proposal and a short biography to Retha Knoetze:  knoetr@unisa.ac.za by 18 February 2018.  Any inquiries can be directed to the same email address.

REFRAMING MEDIEVAL BODIES
35th Annual Meeting of the Illinois Medieval Association
Loyola University Chicago, Watertower Campus, 16-17 Februrary, 2018

Medievalists have long engaged in the study of the body, producing some of the most influential contributions to the “bodily turn” of the 1980s and 1990s. The multidisciplinary conference “Reframing Medieval Bodies” invites reflection on past scholarship in this area and elaboration of new approaches and methods. We invite papers from the full range of disciplines in medieval studies, exploring bodies in their physiological, symbolic, political, economic, and performative capacities. Papers that revisit “the body” in light of bioarchaeological research and the history of medicine are especially welcome, as are papers that engage recent research on disability, gender, and race.

We are delighted to announce our keynote speaker: Peggy McCracken, Domna C. Stanton Professor of French, Women’s Studies, and Comparative Literature at the University of Michigan.

We welcome proposals for either individual papers or whole sessions. Proposals for individual papers should be limited to 300 words. Session proposals should include abstracts for the three papers as well as the contact information for all presenters.

Abstracts on any aspect of medieval studies are welcome, but we will give preference to submissions related to the conference theme. Submit proposals to ima2018loyola@gmail.com no later than December 1, 2017.

Papers presented at “Reframing Medieval Bodies” are eligible for publication in the journal Essays in Medieval Studies. Visit our website at https://www.luc.edu/medieval/imaconference/​ and/or contact tstabler@luc.edu or icornelius@luc.edu.

CALL FOR PAPERS: THE WORLDS THAT PLAGUE MADE

Deadline: January 15, 2018
Conference: April 13-14, 2018

The Annual Conference at the Medieval and Renaissance Center will be held on April 13th and 14th. This year’s theme will be “The Worlds That Plague Made: Cultures of Disease in the Medieval and Early Modern Period.” Keynote speakers will be Ann Carmichael, Indiana University, and Susan Jones, University of Minnesota.

We invite submissions from any discipline in Medieval and Renaissance Studies on any aspect of the history of plague and disease.

Submissions will be accepted on a rolling basis until January 15th 2018. Please submit a 250 word abstract and a brief CV to marc.center@nyu.edu (put “Conference Submission” in the subject line).