Call for Papers – Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts Sponsored Session

Call for Papers
Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts Sponsored Session
at the 52st International Congress on Medieval Studies
Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, May 11-14, 2017

We seek proposals for the following session:

Networks of Transmission: Histories and Practices of Collecting Medieval Manuscripts and Documents

This session will focus on the mapping of those networks of sale and purchase through which medieval manuscripts have been pursued and on the collectors and collecting that have catalyzed this transmission across the centuries. This session – like The Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts itself – is rooted in the belief that studying manuscripts’ provenance can have dynamic and profound effects not only on our understanding of these medieval materials as objects to be bought and sold but also on their texts through mapping their circulation and reception. We particularly welcome proposals that explore diverse topics from the role of digital technologies such as the SDBM in conducting provenance research, the relationship between institutional and private ownership of manuscripts, specific case studies of collecting practices, the transatlantic travels of medieval materials, collectors’ roles in the dispersal of libraries and the fragmentation of manuscripts, collectors and manuscript preservation, and how a manuscript’s provenance history can affect its value and collectability on the rare books market, to how collectors and the act of collecting can shape and influence interpretations of manuscript evidence.

Please send proposals with a one-page abstract and Participant Information Form (www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/submissions/index.html) to Lynn Ransom (lransom@upenn.edu ) by September 1, 2016.

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National Humanities Center Call for Applications

NATIONAL HUMANITIES CENTER

Fellowships 2017-2018

The National Humanities Center will offer up to 40 residential fellowships for advanced study in the humanities for the period September 2017 through May 2018. Applicants must have a doctorate or equivalent scholarly credentials. Mid-career scholars as well as senior scholars are encouraged to apply. Emerging scholars with a strong record of peer-reviewed work are also invited to apply. The Center does not normally support the revision of a doctoral dissertation. In addition to scholars from all fields of the humanities, the Center accepts individuals from the natural and social sciences, the arts, the professions, and public life who are engaged in humanistic projects. The Center is international in scope and welcomes applications from scholars outside the United States.

Areas of Special Interest. Most of the Center’s fellowships are unrestricted. Several, however, are designated for particular areas of research, including fellowships for environmental studies, English literature, art history, Asian Studies, theology, and a young woman in philosophy. The Center also invites applicants from scholars in inter-disciplinary fields, including African American Studies, area studies, Cultural Studies, and Media Studies.

Stipends. The amounts awarded are individually determined, according to the needs of the Fellow and the Center’s ability to meet them. The Center seeks to provide at least half salary and covers travel expenses to and from North Carolina for Fellows and dependents.

Facilities and Services. The Center provides a rich environment for individual research and the exchange of ideas. Located in the progressive Triangle region of North Carolina, near Chapel Hill, Durham, and Raleigh, the Center affords access to the rich cultural and intellectual communities supported by the area’s research institutes, universities, and dynamic arts scene. The stunning Archie K. Davis building includes private studies for Fellows, conference rooms, a central commons for dining, lounges, and reading areas. The Center’s unparalleled, comprehensive library service supports Fellows by fulfilling thousands of requests for books and other research materials from out partner institutions in the Triangle, usually within 24 hours, and libraries around the world. Library staff also provide reference assistance and instruction in new online research tools.

Support. Fellowships are supported by the Center’s endowment, private foundation grants, contributions from alumni and friends, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Deadline and Application Procedures. Applicants submit an application form, a curriculum vitae, a 1000-word project proposal, and three letters of recommendation. The application form and instructions may be found at the Center’s website: http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org. Applications and letters of recommendation must be submitted online by October 18, 2016.

http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org
e-mail nhc@nationalhumanitiescenter.org

The National Humanities Center does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex, gender identity, religion, national or ethnic origin, handicap, sexual orientation, or age. We are dedicated to fair treatment, diversity, and inclusion.

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43rd Saint Louis Conference on Manuscript Studies, 14–15 October 2016

43rd Saint Louis Conference on Manuscript Studies, 14–15 October 2016
Vatican Film Library, Saint Louis University
St. Louis, Missouri

Organized annually since 1974 by the Vatican Film Library, part of the Saint Louis University Libraries Department of Special Collections, this two-day conference features papers on a wide variety of topics in medieval and Renaissance manuscript studies — paleography, codicology, illumination, book production, texts and transmission, library history, and more.

2016 Guest Speaker:
Madeline H. Caviness (Mary Richardson Professor Emeritus, Tufts University)

“Medieval German Law and the Jews: The Sachsenspiegel Picture-Books”

2016 Conference Sessions:

All Things Visible and Invisible: Illuminating Working Practices in Manuscript Making

Creating Memory, Creating Identity

Pages with Extended Pedigree: Second-Hand Manuscripts and Their Owners

Illuminating Metalwork: Representations of Precious-Metal Objects in Medieval Manuscript Illumination

Revelations of Codicology

Manuscripts for Travelers

Beyond Arbiters of Lay Piety and Ambassadors of Culture: Revisiting Bell’s Medieval Women Book Owners

Conference Program and Registration Information

For further information, visit the conference webpage< http://lib.slu.edu/special-collections/programs/conference > or contact vfl@slu.edu or 314-977-3090.

The Vatican Film Library< http://lib.slu.edu/special-collections/collections/vfl > is a research library for medieval and Renaissance manuscript studies that holds on microfilm about 40,000 manuscripts, principally from the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. In addition to its annual conference, the library also publishes twice yearly “Manuscripta: A Journal for Manuscript Research< http://lib.slu.edu/special-collections/publications/manuscripta >,” the monographic series “Manuscripta Publications in Manuscript Research< http://lib.slu.edu/special-collections/publications/manuscripta-research >,” and offers fellowships< http://lib.slu.edu/special-collections/research/fellowship > for research in its collections. It is part of Special Collections< http://lib.slu.edu/special-collections > in the Saint Louis University Libraries. Keep in touch with us through our blog, “Special Collections Currents,”< http://pius7.slu.edu/special_collections > or Twitter<https://twitter.com/SLUSpecColl>.

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Call for Papers – Rethinking the Post-Gothic in Medieval Iberia

CFP: Rethinking the Post-Gothic in Medieval Iberia

Special Session, 52nd International Congress on Medieval Studies
May 11-14, 2017
Organizer: Ksenia Bonch Reeves, Wright State University, xenia.bonch@wright.edu

Call for proposals

Mid-eighth century Iberian chronicles famously describe post-Visigothic Spain as a landscape of ruins. The period “after the Visigoths”, which began with the Arab and Muslim invasion and settlement of the Iberian Peninsula (711) and fortuitously ended with the presumed reestablishment of the Visigothic royal bloodline in Asturias, was long considered an unfortunate stumbling block in the otherwise straightforward process of Spanish nation-building. As these foundational narratives came under scrutiny, the Iberian post-Gothic has emerged as an area of inquiry in its own right. Rather than just a hiatus, the period encompassing the Iberian eighth and ninth centuries is now being seen as a crucial one for our understanding of ideological support mechanisms of Christian survival in al-Andalus and the emergence of new centers of power and sovereignty in the post-Visigothic Iberian Peninsula.

In the newly fragmented and unstable Iberian landscape, Visigothic heritage becomes an anchor of stability and continuity, with Christian as well as Muslim ruling elites claiming Visigothic legacy. The legitimation mechanisms varied greatly, with some of the principal vehicles having been chronicle writing, royal ceremonial, construction and consecration of buildings in Asturias; oral traditions in Muslim al-Andalus; hagiography among the Mozarabs; and legislative activity in Gothic Septimania and the Hispanic March. Much of our knowledge of these mechanisms remains work in progress, but claims of Visigothic heritage are by no means consigned to the distant past. Since 2003, by sponsoring efforts to preserve a collection of Arabic manuscripts from Timbuktu, Mali, Spain has embraced the narrative of Visigothic origins put forth by manuscript owner and curator Ismael Diadié Haidara, who asserts himself to be a modern-day descendant of King Rodrigo through his ancestor, Muslim judge ‘Ali ibn Ziyad of Toledo. The involvement of the Spanish government and private entities in the support and preservation of this African library, known as the ‘Kati (‘Gothic’) Fund’, is yet another example of powerful ways in which the post-Gothic narrative continues to shape Spain’s historical mythology.

Given these new developments, how can we explain the extraordinary success of the Asturian royal myth of direct Visigothic descendancy? What was the contribution of the Mozarabs, the other, forgotten descendants of Visigoths, to the post-Visigothic Iberian theological, political, literary, and cultural landscape? What were the mechanisms by which both Iberian Christians and Muslims claimed Visigothic heritage throughout history? Which other individuals and groups legitimized themselves as descendants of Visigoths, in and outside the Iberian Peninsula, and how were these claims expressed at various times in literary, historiographical, legal, and theological testimonies, songs and folklore, theatrical works and novels, as well as art and architecture? How can we continue to critically engage with historical claims of Spain’s Visigothic origins in today’s post-national, global, and interconnected world?

Please e-mail proposals for 20-minute paper presentations to xenia.bonch@wright.edu.
Deadline: Thursday, September 15, 2016.

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MAA News – 2016 International Medieval Congress, Univ. of Leeds

treharneThe 2016 Medieval Academy Annual Lecture at the Leeds International Medieval Congress was presented by Elaine Treharne (Stanford University), titled “Manuscript Edges, Marginal Time: Why Medieval Matters.” An abstract is online here.

In a thought-provoking presentation that found connections between newly-announced discoveries, the FemFog conversations, and the Brexit vote, among other issues, Treharne demonstrated the importance of considering all of the evidence presented to us – material and textual, obvious and obscure – in the critical and ongoing effort to find traces of the marginalized and give them a voice, whether in a medieval manuscript, academia, or society at large.

The lecture was very well-attended and -received, and was followed by a crowded and lively Medieval Academy reception. If you missed it, we hope you will be able to join us next year. Our thanks to the Leeds Program Committee (chaired this year by Helen Fulton (Univ. of Bristol)) for inviting Prof. Treharne to address the Congress.

The Graduate Student Committee roundtable “More Famine than Feast?: Preparing for the Academic Job Search” was a standing-room-only session, in the wake and uncertainty of the Brexit vote. Participants prepared and distributed much useful information about the UK and EU job markets; this material will soon be available on the Medieval Academy website. The GSC reception afterwards continued the discussions.

Finally, the GSC arranged eleven mentoring “matches” between students and faculty at this year’s IMC. The mentoring program has been a great success and continues to grow every year. Please watch for announcements of the 2017 mentoring program and take advantage of this opportunity at the Medieval Academy Annual Meeting, Kalamazoo, and Leeds.

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MAA News – Digital Humanities Prize

Cod. Pal. germ. 848, Große Heidelberger Liederhandschrift (Codex Manesse), Zürich, c.1300-c.1340, fol. 82v.

Cod. Pal. germ. 848, Große Heidelberger Liederhandschrift (Codex Manesse), Zürich, c.1300-c.1340, fol. 82v.

We are very pleased to announce that, beginning in 2017, the Medieval Academy of America will add a Digital Humanities Prize to its suite of publication honors, to be awarded alongside the Haskins Medal, the Brown Prize, and the Elliott Prize. The annual Medieval Academy of America Digital Humanities Prize will be awarded to an outstanding digital research project in Medieval Studies created and launched within the last five years. The Prize – an award of $1,000 – will be presented at the Medieval Academy of America’s Annual Meeting.

The Digital Initiatives Advisory Board (DIAB) of the Medieval Academy of America will select the award-winning project based on DIAB’s established criteria for high-quality digital medievalist projects, considering the following criteria, among others: quality of research and contributions to Medieval Studies; goals and methodologies of the project; design, presentation, and accessibility of the project; sustainability of the project and compatibility of its metadata.

Nominations are now being accepted online and must be submitted by midnight on October 15. Click here for more information about the DH Prize.

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MAA News – Upcoming MAA Fellowship and Grant Deadlines

Tripoli, Bohemond VI or VII, gold bezant, 1251-87. Courtesy of Princeton University Numismatic Collection.

Tripoli, Bohemond VI or VII, gold bezant, 1251-87. Courtesy of Princeton University Numismatic Collection.

The Medieval Academy of America has long provided a variety of benefits of membership, including numerous fellowships, prizes and grants for travel, research and publications. Please see the list below for prizes and fellowships with looming deadlines, then follow the links for complete descriptions and application information. We encourage all eligible members to apply for these grants. Please note that you MUST be a member in good standing as of Sept. 15 in order to be eligible for MAA awards.

We are pleased to announce that as of August 2015 all applications for Medieval Academy prizes, awards, and fellowships can (and must) be submitted using our online application system. Links to each form can be found on the Awards section of our website.

Schallek Fellowship

The Schallek Fellowship provides a one-year grant of $30,000 to support Ph.D. dissertation research in any relevant discipline dealing with late-medieval Britain (ca. 1350-1500). (Deadline 15 October 2016)

Travel Grants

The Medieval Academy provides a limited number of travel grants to help Academy members who hold doctorates but are not in full-time faculty positions, or are adjuncts without access to institutional funding, attend conferences to present their work. (Deadline 1 November 2016 for meetings to be held between 16 February and 31 August 2017)

Kindrick-CARA Award for Outstanding Service to Medieval Studies

The Robert L. Kindrick-CARA Award for Outstanding Service to Medieval Studies recognizes Medieval Academy members who have provided leadership in developing, organizing, promoting, and sponsoring medieval studies through the extensive administrative work that is so crucial to the health of medieval studies but that often goes unrecognized by the profession at large. This award of $1000 is presented at the Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy. (Deadline 15 November 2016)

CARA Award for Excellence in Teaching

The CARA Award for Excellence in Teaching Medieval Studies recognizes Medieval Academy members who are outstanding teachers who have contributed to the profession by inspiring students at the undergraduate or graduate levels or by creating innovative and influential textbooks or other materials for teaching medieval subjects. (Deadline 15 November 2016)

Please see the MAA website for other grants and prizes offered by the Academy.

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MAA News – Book Prize Deadlines

Haskins Medal

The Haskins Medal is awarded annually by the Medieval Academy of America for a distinguished book in the field of medieval studies. First presented in 1940, the award honors Charles Homer Haskins, the noted medieval historian, who was a founder of the Medieval Academy and its second President. The award is announced at the annual meeting of the Academy each spring. The medal was designed in 1939 by Graham Carey. (Deadline 15 October 2016)

John Nicholas Brown Prize

The John Nicholas Brown Prize, established by the Medieval Academy of America in 1978, is awarded annually for a first book or monograph on a medieval subject judged by the selection committee to be of outstanding quality. To be eligible, the author must be resident in North America.

John Nicholas Brown was one of the founders of the Medieval Academy and for fifty years served as its Treasurer. The prize established in his name consists of a certificate and a monetary award of $1,000. It is announced at the annual meeting of the academy each spring. (Deadline 15 October 2016)

Van Courtlandt Elliott Prize

The Van Courtlandt Elliott Prize, established by the Medieval Academy of America in 1971, is awarded annually for a first article in the field of medieval studies, published in a scholarly journal, judged by the selection committee to be of outstanding quality. To be eligible, the author must be resident in North America. Van Courtlandt Elliott was Executive Secretary of the Academy and Editor of Speculum from 1965 to 1970. The prize that bears his name consists of a certificate and a monetary award of $500. It is announced at the annual meeting of the academy each spring. (Deadline 15 October 2016)

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MAA News – Awards Available to Medievalists

The Academy encourages its members to apply for grants and residential fellowships in these and other programs:

The American Academy in Rome

The American Council of Learned Societies

The American Philosophical Society

Getty Research Fellowships

Guggenheim Foundation

Institute for Advanced Study

Mellon Foundation

National Endowment for the Humanities

National Humanities Center

Additional funding opportunities for medievalists are posted on our blog. Please contact us at info@TheMedievalAcademy.org with additional programs and awards.

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MAA News – Good News From Our Members

Debby Banham (Cambridge University) and Martha Bayless (University of Oregon) have won ACLS Collaborative Research Fellowships to collaborate on a book on bread as a cultural force in Anglo-Saxon England (see https://www.acls.org/research/cr.aspx?id=4378)

Thomas Barton (Univ. of San Diego) was awarded the Best First Book Prize in Iberian History for 2015-2016 from the Association for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies for his monograph, Contested Treasure: Jews and Authority in the Crown of Aragon (Penn State, 2015). This award considers all first books on Iberian history, from ancient to modern, written in English, Spanish, or Portuguese published between January 1, 2013, and December 31, 2015.

Cristina Maria Cervone (Univ. of Memphis) received a fellowship from the Stanford Humanities Center and will be working on Vernacular Poetics of Metaphor: Middle English and the Corporate Subject there next year.

Therese Martin was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and was awarded a Spanish National Excellence in Research Grant (2016-2018) to direct a research project on “The Medieval Treasury across Frontiers and Generations: The Kingdom of León-Castilla in the Context of Muslim-Christian Interchange, c. 1050-1200.” The interdisciplinary team of scholars consists of Silvia Armando, Jerrilynn Dodds, Amanda Dotseth, Julie Harris, Jitske Jasperse, Elise Morero, Lawrence Nees, Pamela Patton, Mariam Rosser-Owen, David Wasserstein, and Ittai Weinryb. The first fruits of their research will be presented at a conference, with additional papers by María Judith Feliciano, Maribel Fierro, Eva Hoffman, Eduardo Manzano, and Ana Rodríguez, at Princeton University 19-20 May 2017.

Karen Pinto (Boise State Univ.) was awarded a 2016 Franklin Grant to conduct Islamic map research in Oriental manuscript libraries in Europe and the Middle East.

Lori J. Walters (Florida State Univ.) was awarded a twelve-month fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Council of Learned Societies to work on her new project, The Female Creator: Christine de Pizan and her Books.

The following members recently received awards from the American Council of Learned Societies (other ACLS awardees were announced in previous newsletters):

Melodie H. Eichbauer (Florida Gulf Coast Univ.), ACLS Collaborative Research Fellowship: “Codes, Communities, and Church: The Cultural Contexts of Medieval Law”

Dyan H. Elliott (Northwestern Univ.), ACLS Fellowship program: “Sexual Scandal and the Medieval Clergy”

Margaret Gaida (Univ. of Oklahoma), Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship: “Encounters with Alcabitius: Reading Arabic Astrology in the Latin West, 950-1560”

Jacob Hobson (Univ. of California, Berkeley), Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship: “Exegetical Theory and Textual Communities in Late Anglo-Saxon England”

Kathryn Kerby-Fulton (Univ. of Notre Dame), ACLS Fellowship program: “Medieval Interiorities and Modern Readers: Recovering Medieval Reading Practices for Understanding the Self”

Rebecca Maloy (Univ. of Colorado, Boulder), ACLS Fellowship program: “Sung in Honor of Sacrifice: Text, Melody, and Exegesis in the Iberian Offertory”

John K. Moore (Univ. of Alabama, Birmingham), ACLS Fellowship program: “His Majesty’s Prosecutor v. José Soller, Mulatto Pilgrim, for Impersonating a Priest and Other Crimes”: A Study, Critical Edition, and Translation

Congratulations to all! If you have something you’d like to share, please send your good news to Executive Director Lisa Fagin Davis (LFD@TheMedievalAcademy.org).

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