MAA News – Upcoming Grant Deadlines

Posted on December 1, 2023 by Chris

The Medieval Academy of America invites applications for the following grants. Please note that applicants must be members in good standing as of September 15 in order to be eligible for Medieval Academy awards.

The Inclusivity and Diversity Research Grant

The Inclusivity and Diversity Research Grant of up to $3,000 will be granted annually to a scholar, at any stage in their career, who seeks to pursue innovative research that will broaden the scope of medieval studies. Projects that focus on non-European regions or topics under the Inclusivity and Diversity Committee’s purview such as race, class, disability, gender, religion, or sexuality are particularly welcomed. The grant prioritizes applicants who are students, ECRs, or non-tenured. Click here for more information. (Deadline 31 December 2023)

Belle Da Costa Greene Award

The Belle Da Costa Greene Award of $2,000 will be granted annually to a medievalist of color for research and travel. The award may be used to visit archives, attend conferences, or to facilitate writing and research. The award will be granted on the basis of the quality of the proposed project, the applicant’s budgetary needs (as expressed by a submitted budget and in the project narrative), and the estimation of the ways in which the award will facilitate the applicant’s research and contribute to the field. Special consideration will be given to graduate students, emerging junior scholars, adjunct, and unaffiliated scholars. Click here for more information. Click here to make a donation in support of the Greene Award. (Deadline 15 February 2024)

Olivia Remie Constable Award

Four Olivia Remie Constable Awards of $1,500 each will be granted to emerging junior faculty, adjunct or unaffiliated scholars (broadly understood: post-doctoral, pre-tenure) for research and travel. Click here for more information. (Deadline 15 February 2024)

MAA Dissertation Grants:

The nine annual Medieval Academy Dissertation Grants support advanced graduate students who are writing Ph.D. dissertations on medieval topics. The $2,000 grants help defray research expenses. Click here for more information. (Deadline 15 February 2024)

Schallek Awards

The five annual Schallek awards support graduate students conducting doctoral research in any relevant discipline dealing with late-medieval Britain (ca. 1350-1500). The $2,000 awards help defray research expenses. Click here for more information. (Deadline 15 February 2024)

MAA/GSC Grant for Innovation in Community-Building and Professionalization

The MAA/GSC Grant(s) will be awarded to an individual or graduate student group from one or more universities. The purpose of this grant is to stimulate new and innovative efforts that support pre-professionalization, encourage communication and collaboration across diverse groups of graduate students, and build communities amongst graduate student medievalists. Click here for more information. (Deadline 15 February 2024)

Applicants for these and other MAA programs must be members in good standing of the Medieval Academy. Please contact the Executive Director for more information about these and other MAA programs.

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MAA News – Call for Summer Mentoring Program Applications

Posted on December 1, 2023 by Chris

The Medieval Academy of America’s Mentoring Program Committee is excited to announce the 2024 Summer Research and Professional Development Workshop for PhD-track students. This program is designed to foster the growth of essential skills and mentorship relationships, and improve the educational experiences for graduate students in fields intersecting with Medieval Studies. Our primary goals are to facilitate the development of successful dissertation projects, foster networking and community-building, and improve competitiveness for grants and academic positions.

In Zoom sessions over the summer, and then at the in-person event, workshop leaders will help student participants learn about the range of available grants, develop successful strategies for securing these funding opportunities, and begin to work with them to produce their own grant proposals (with specific attention on identifying the broader contributions of their research, developing budgets, and proposing viable schedules). The in-person event for US, Canadian, and Mexican participants will take place at the University of California at Berkeley on August 1-4 (participants from other regions will join via Zoom).

We are accepting applications for twelve student participants and two workshop leaders, all of whom will receive stipends and, for those attending the culminating event in person, travel and lodging funds. Click here for more information and to apply.

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MAA News – MAA Centennial Grants

Posted on December 1, 2023 by Chris

Are you planning an exhibit, symposium, performance, workshop, or other event in 2025, our Centennial year? Apply for a Centennial Grant!

In celebration of its upcoming 2025 Centennial, the Medieval Academy of America is pleased to announce funding for Centennial Grants of up to $5,000 each supporting the planning and implementation of local events and projects celebrating and promoting medieval studies in education and the arts. For performances and lectures, the event must be scheduled for 2025. Educational resources must be open access and meet the MAA’s Standards for Web Publication. Applications in the first round (for which five awards will be granted) must be submitted by 15 December 2023.

Click here for more information and to apply!

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MAA News – “Race & Gender in the Global Middle Ages” Working Group

Posted on December 1, 2023 by Chris

Friday, December 8, 2023 at 12pm-1:30pm EST

Denva Gallant, Assistant Professor of Art History, Rice University

“The Black Body as Site of Conversion: Race and Ethnicity in Late Medieval Italy.”

How might we understand the racialization in medieval Italy or ethnicity as a meaningful and applicable categorization during the period and place? While scholars such as Nicole Lopez-Jantzen have applied racial concepts to the study of identity formation in the early Middle Ages, the Italian peninsula during the later Middle Ages still requires thorough treatment. In this essay, intended for an audience of scholars who are not already experts in this area but who want to address themes of medieval ethnicity and/or race in their research or teaching, I trace the evolution of the study difference and representation on the Italian peninsula. While this essay will serve more as a reference guide than scholarly critique, it will hopefully speak to new avenues of research.

Respondent: Dr. Pamela Patton, Director of the Index of Medieval Art, Princeton University

Click here for more information and to register.

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MAA News – Call for Submissions: GSC’s Digital Humanities Showcase

Posted on December 1, 2023 by Chris

The GSC is seeking presenters for the second edition of its Digital Humanities Showcase, scheduled to take place over Zoom on 30th January, 2024. We invite scholars in any field or discipline of global medieval studies who use innovative technologies in their study or teaching of the Middle Ages to share their work with a broad audience of medievalists. This virtual gathering will serve as a forum for scholars, both emerging and established, to gather and learn about, as well as celebrate, their achievements and work in the digital humanities, broadly conceived. Above all, the GSC’s Digital Humanities Showcase is meant to be fun and exciting, giving participants and presenters alike the chance to share ideas and connect. Presentations should be no more than ten minutes in length and explain the impact of the applied technologies on medieval studies. The content of the presentations should be accessible to scholars from all disciplines while also maintaining a high quality of research. If possible, we encourage presenters to include a demonstration of their technology, methodology, or approach.

Applications should include a 2-page CV as well as a brief abstract of no more than 200 words. Submissions should be sent to William Beattie at wbeattie@nd.edu and gsc@themedievalacademy.org by Friday, 15 December 2023. Selected speakers will be notified by the end of December.

Possible topics could include, but are not limited to:

  • Digital modelling of religious and secular spaces
  • Virtual reconstructions of manuscripts
  • New innovations in mapping
  • Immersive technologies such as mixed- or virtual-reality headsets
  • Sensory recreations—spaces, sounds, textures, tastes, etc.
  • Classroom or research applications for technology
  • X-ray, imaging, and other scientific analyses to research palimpsests, artworks, and manuscripts
  • Examinations of medieval technologies through modern reconstructions and analyses
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Call for Participation – Digital Medieval Studies Institute (DMSI) 2024

Posted on November 28, 2023 by Chris

Digital Medieval Studies Institute (DMSI) 2024
Wednesday, March 13, 2024
Sponsored by The University of Notre Dame,
The Medieval Academy of America, and Digital Medievalist
Organizers: Laura K. Morreale and N. Kıvılcım Yavuz
South Bend, IN

Call for Participation

As a collaborative effort between the University of Notre Dame, Digital Medievalist, and the Medieval Academy of America, a one-day, pre-conference workshop in digital scholarly methods will be held before the annual MAA meeting in March 2024. The event is tailored especially to medievalists, their sources, and their scholarly concerns and will feature established approaches in digital medieval studies.

There are two ways to participate in DMSI 2024.  

First, five separate day-long workshops will be offered accompanied by two sessions of lightning talks, followed by a social hour.

Second, participants can give a short presentation about any project in digital medieval studies they have been involved in; the topic of a short presentation does not have to be the same as the workshop in which the participant enrolls. Participants will be able to present a lightning talk only if they are accepted to attend the full-day workshop.

Options for workshops (with instructor name) are as follows:

  • Accessible Geospatial Tools for Mapping and Sharing Medieval Information (Matthew Sisk)
    This workshop will cover the basics of geospatial data and how best to create maps using them. Focusing on geospatial and mapping tools that are low or no cost, the participants will work on analysis and sharing of spatial data for medieval sources.
  • Transcribing and Marking-up Medieval Texts (Dan Johnson)
    This workshop will serve as a primer to text encoding, illuminating the challenges of representing pre-modern works digitally. Drawing on practices and standards developed in part by digital medievalists, participants will get a taste for transcribing and marking up text, annotations, and other paratextual elements using the TEI (Text Encoding Initiative) Guidelines.
  • Working with Medieval Manuscripts or Art Historical Images using IIIF  (Caterina Agostini)
    This workshop will allow participants to explore medieval manuscripts or art historical images and find out more about the International Image Interoperability Framework community of scholars and practitioners. Participants will discover innovative techniques and master essential skills to view, compare, and annotate texts, illuminations, and fragments, whether as isolated components or within their original contexts.
  • Forensic and Digital Approaches to Fragmentology (David Gura, Scott Gwara)
    This workshop aims to provide participants with the knowledge and tools to work with medieval manuscript fragments in forensic and digital capacities. Topics and applications include: analytical manuscript description, identification of contents and genres, theories of origin, biblioclasty, provenance research, and digital resources which may complement traditional paleographical and codicological methods. Each participant will work with a number of manuscript fragments in situ drawn from the collection of University of Notre Dame’s Hesburgh Library.
  • Introducing Medieval Liturgy: Tutorials for Students and Teachers (Cara Aspesi, Katie Bugyis, Margot Fassler, Kristina Kummerer Nicoll)
    Hosted by Notre Dame’s Medieval Institute, Medieval Liturgy is a teaching website that aims to offer practical demonstrations of the skills and tools necessary to work with relevant manuscripts and fragments. It is fully linked to the Cantus Database. We will familiarize participants with the taxonomy of medieval liturgy that serves as the site plan and provide hands-on instruction in the use of our template to prepare teaching videos. Participants who are interested in developing courses at their home institutions for making videos for Medieval Liturgy will also get an opportunity to discuss their plans.

All may apply, but preference will be given to applicants who illustrate the ability to apply what they have learned in their research, teaching, or professional practice. A maximum of 8-10 participants will be accepted into each workshop. It will only be possible to enroll in one workshop. We are offering a small bursary for five participants (one per class) to cover the participation fee; the bursary is needs-based.

To apply, please fill out the DMSI 2024 application form, which will require the following:

  • Contact information
    -preferred email
    –    first name
    –    last name
    –    current affiliation (if applicable, if currently unaffiliated, please include hometown)
    –    mailing address
    –    preferred phone number
  • A 2 paragraph statement of interest indicating three workshops you would like to attend (in order of preference), and explaining how you intend to apply what you will learn during the day’s workshop.
  • A short CV (1 page maximum).
  • Optional: If the applicant would like to apply for a bursary, a brief, 1-2 sentence indication of financial need is required (no documentation, please). The bursary will cover the $100 cost of participation ONLY (no funds are available for travel or accommodation).

PLEASE NOTE: Workshops will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Applicants will be admitted to each workshop on a rolling basis.

All registered participants will be charged a fee of $100 to participate in DMSI 2024.

Applications are due by January 5, 2024.

Please note that the cost of lodging is not covered in the institute fee, and individuals arriving in South Bend early for DMSI should be prepared to make arrangements for accommodations accordingly.

For all questions and/or concerns, please contact dmsi.hello@gmail.com.

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Online Lecture: Language Care and Community: The Fashioning of Middle Armenian into a Courtly Vernacular

Posted on November 20, 2023 by Chris

The Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture and the Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies at Harvard University are pleased to announce the next lecture in the 2023–2024 East of Byzantium lecture series.

Tuesday, December 5, 2023 | 12:00 PM (EST, UTC -5) | Zoom
Language Care and Community: The Fashioning of Middle Armenian into a Courtly Vernacular
Michael Pifer, University of Michigan

The medieval vernacular of Middle Armenian was fashioned by many communities, beginning perhaps with the court of the Kingdom of Armenia in Cilicia, in Sis, in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. Here a cohort of nobles, priests, and physicians collectively translated, composed, commissioned, and studied a wide array of texts, subtly aligning the status of their “rustic” vernacular into a companion of stately power. Yet although the last Armenian kingdom would fall to the Mamluks in 1375, Middle Armenian did not die with it. Instead, the language continued to travel and circulate in unlikely places. This talk takes a selective and comparative look at two of the communities that formed around this unruly and unstandardized tongue, before and after the fall of its kingdom. It argues that while these communities were different, a shared ethos of language care, or an attentiveness that shapes the social and epistemic uses of language in a particular time and place, can be teased out in each.

Michael Pifer is Assistant Professor of Armenian Language & Literature at the University of Michigan. Dr. Pifer is a specialist in Armenian cultural production with an emphasis on the development of vernacular Armenian literature during the medieval period. His work focuses on how Armenian literature developed alongside neighboring literary traditions within shared spaces. His interests turn around questions of multilingualism, mixed-script writing, and the ways in which premodern poets attempted to accommodate certain forms of cultural difference within their compositions. By decentering monolingual approaches to literary history, his research aims to contribute to knowledge about cross-cultural dialogism across the literary landscapes of premodern Armenia and its adjacent regions. He is the author of Kindred Voices: A Literary History of Medieval Anatolia (Yale University Press, 2021) and a coeditor of An Armenian Mediterranean: Words and Worlds in Motion (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018).

Advance registration required. Register: https://eastofbyzantium.org/upcoming-events/

Contact Brandie Ratliff (mjcbac@hchc.edu), Director, Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture with any questions.

An East of Byzantium lecture. EAST OF BYZANTIUM is a partnership between the Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies at Harvard University and the Mary Jaharis Center that explores the cultures of the eastern frontier of the Byzantine empire in the late antique and medieval periods.

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Call for Papers – The 2024 Conference on John Milton

Posted on November 14, 2023 by Chris

The 2024 Conference on John Milton
June 10-12, 2024

Saint Louis University
St. Louis, Missouri

CALL FOR PAPERS

Papers (not to exceed twenty minutes reading time) are invited on any aspect of Milton studies, from close readings of particular works to broader investigations of themes and trends. The conference will be held on the campus of Saint Louis University, in conjunction with the annual Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies.

Please submit a 250-word abstract using the Milton Conference tab at the SMRS conference website: https://www.smrs-slu.org/submit.html. Proposals for sessions and round-table discussions are also welcome. The submission portal will open on November 1, 2023. The deadline for submissions is December 31, 2023.

Keynote Speaker: Stephen B. Dobranski, Regents’ Professor of English, Georgia State University and Editor-in-Chief of Milton Studies

Featured event: The John Geraghty Symposium on “Ephemera.” (Speakers to be confirmed)

Sponsored by Saint Louis University and Washington University in St. Louis.

For more information, please contact Sara van den Berg (sara.vandenberg@slu.edu), Jonathan Sawday (jonathan.sawday@slu.edu), or Ryan Netzley (rnetzley@siu.edu).

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Call for Papers – Boethius 2024: The 1500 Year Memorial Conference @ The 11th Annual Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies

Posted on November 14, 2023 by Chris

In 524, Boethius authored the Consolation of Philosophy on the eve of his unjust execution. Fifteen centuries later, Boethius remains a figure of inspiration and fascination in his own right, and as a profoundly influential figure through the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and beyond. In 2024, this memorial conference will consider that wide ranging legacy, hosted at the Symposium of Medieval and Renaissance Studies held annually at St. Louis University in June. The International Boethius Society has had a presence at the SMRS since the symposium started and is pleased to organize this memorial to the life, works, and influence of a writer who shaped medieval and Renaissance thinkers so profoundly.

Abstracts of 250-300 words for proposed papers are due December 31, 2023 in the SMRS online submission portal. Papers should be 15 to 20 minutes in length. All relevant disciplines are welcome. Topics include but are not limited to:

  • Fresh examinations of any of Boethius’s works, including his theological writings, work in the liberal arts, and The Consolation of Philosophy
  • Consideration of the influence of those texts in medieval authors and genres, such as:
    • The early Middle Ages, such as Notker Labeo, Alcuin, and the Old English Boethius
    • The 12th century revival in writers such as Bernardus Silvestris, Adelard of Bath, and Alan de Lille
    • Chaucer and the Chaucerians or other Middle English literature
    • Arthuriana and medieval romance
    • Personification allegory, dream visions, and dialogues
  • Boethius in Renaissance figures such as Thomas More, Edmund Spenser, or William Shakespeare
  • Translation studies of any of the many translations of The Consolation of Philosophy
  • Studies of Boethius as represented in art and music
  • Boethius in later periods (Romantic, Victorian, Modern, etc.), especially as connected to medievalism

The International Boethius Society and the Symposium of Medieval and Renaissance Studies (http://smrs-slu.org) welcome you to join us for this special memorial celebration of the last of the Romans and first of the scholastics! Questions should be sent to the International Boethius Society’s liaison to the SMRS, Anthony G. Cirilla acirilla@cofo.edu.

For more information about the Society, go to our blog: http://boethius.blogspot.com/.

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Call for Papers – Eleventh Annual Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies

Posted on November 14, 2023 by Chris

Eleventh Annual Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies
June 10-12, 2024
Saint Louis University
St. Louis, Missouri

The Eleventh Annual Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies (June 10-12, 2024) is a convenient summer venue in North America for scholars to present papers, organize sessions, participate in roundtables, and engage in interdisciplinary discussion. The goal of the Symposium is to promote serious scholarly investigation into all topics and in all disciplines of medieval and Renaissance studies.

The plenary speakers for this year will be Cynthia J. Hahn, of Hunter College and the City University of New York, and John Witte, Jr., of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University.

The Symposium is held annually on the beautiful midtown St. Louis campus of Saint Louis University. On campus housing options include affordable, air-conditioned apartments as well as a more luxurious hotel. Inexpensive meal plans are also available, and there is a wealth of restaurants, bars, and cultural venues within easy walking distance of campus.

While attending the Symposium, participants are free to use the Vatican Film Library, the Rare Books Division, and the general collection at Saint Louis University’s Pius XII Memorial Library. These collections offer access to tens of thousands of medieval and early modern manuscripts on microfilm as well as strong holdings in medieval and Renaissance history, literature, languages, manuscript studies, theology, philosophy, and canon law. The Jesuit Archives & Research Center is adjacent to the university and also accessible to Symposium attendees.

We invite proposals for papers, complete sessions, and roundtables. Any topics regarding the scholarly investigation of the medieval and early modern world are welcome. Papers are normally twenty minutes each and sessions are scheduled for ninety minutes. Scholarly organizations are especially encouraged to sponsor proposals for complete sessions, and organizing at least two sessions in coordination with each other is highly recommended. All sessions are in-person.

Mini-conferences hosted by societies or organized around a theme occur in the context of the SMRS. Paper submitters are welcome to submit their paper for general consideration at the Symposium or for one of the mini-conferences. This year’s mini-conferences are:

  • 49th Annual St. Louis Conference on Manuscript Studies
    • All areas of manuscript studies, including but not limited to paleography, textual criticism, codicology, preservation and curation, and art history, are welcome
    • Lowry Daly, SJ Plenary Speaker: Daniel Hobbins (University of Notre Dame)
  • Boethius 2024: The 1500-Year Memorial Conference (see details below)
  • The 2024 Conference on John Milton (see details below)

The submission portal will open on November 1. The portal has buttons for submission to the main SMRS and for each of the mini-conferences. The deadline for all submissions is December 31, 2023. Decisions will be made by the end of January and the final program will be published in March.

For more information or to submit your proposal online go to: https://www.smrs-slu.org/.

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