The Medieval Academy Blog

Viking and Medieval Norse Studies and Medieval Icelandic Studies

Posted on January 9, 2014 by Chris

The University of Iceland is now accepting applications for Viking and Medieval Norse Studies and Medieval Icelandic Studies:

(1) Medieval Icelandic Studies is a three-semester (90 ECTS) graduate program, with two semesters’ (60 ECTS) worth of course work and one semester’s worth (30 ECTS) master’s thesis. The summer semester is the thesis semester, which means that the program can be completed in 12 months.

See http://english.hi.is/school_of_humanities/faculty_of_icelandic_and_comparative_cultural_studies/medieval_icelandic

(2) Viking and Medieval Norse Studies is a four-semester (120 ECTS) graduate program run in cooperation with the University of Oslo in Norway, Aarhus University and Copenhagen University in Denmark. The first year–60 ECTS’ worth of course work–takes place in Iceland, but the third semester is spent either in Oslo, Aarhus, or Copenhagen, completing 30 ECTS of courses. The fourth semester is devoted to writin the master’s thesis, and can be spent in Iceland or Oslo.

See http://oldnorse.is/

Application deadline for both programs is February 1, 2014.

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Call for Papers – Language as Culture in the Eastern Mediterranean (330-2013)

Posted on January 9, 2014 by Chris

Language as Culture in the Eastern Mediterranean (330-2013)

The students of the Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies at the University of Birmingham are proud to announce the 15th Annual Postgraduate Colloquium, which will take place on Saturday, 24th May 2014.

Keynote speaker: Dr Maria Georgopoulou

(Director of the Gennadius Library, The American School of Classical Studies at Athens)

The colloquium will bring postgraduate students together to discuss the significance of language in the eastern Mediterranean from Late Antiquity to the Modern Age. Beginning with the observation that all studies are routinely possessed by language, it is important to understand the relationship between language and culture. A major goal is to examine the role of culture in linguistic meaning, language use and, conversely, the role of linguistic form and culture in social action and in cultural practices. Language is a key to understanding the social, symbolic and expressive lives of members of society.

How, we will ask, can we learn more about language, and, what can we say about language in the Mediterranean basin?

Studies of ritual and performance, of patronage and status often draw on linguistic evidence to talk about various forms of cultural production: attesting to the crucial and hitherto unacknowledged role of language in the creation of cultural subjectivities. Language as a term should not be limited to literary forms, as verbal products, but may be extended to encompass a broader range of visual narratives, including, potentially, painting, architecture and other kinds of material culture. We are interested in the production, interpretation and reproduction of social meanings, as expressed and accrued through language and in exploring the relation to culture and society.

We invite proposals for 20-minute papers in all fields of Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies. Topics may include but are not limited to:

*   Language ideology
*   Ideological context of architecture
*   Visual culture
*   Literacy and education
*   Literary analysis
*   Multicultural communities
*   Objects and words as symbols of identity
*   Representation, power and social status
*   Theories and practices of image-making
*   Ideas about communication or trade
*   Perceptions and sounds of speech
*   Cultural history of texts

Please send an abstract of no more than 250 words to George Makris at GTM036@bham.ac.uk by Monday, 24th March 2014.

Registration is free.

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Applications Open for London Rare Books School

Posted on January 9, 2014 by Chris

Applications are now invited for London Rare Books School (LRBS), from 23 – 27 June 2014 and 30 June – 4 July 2014.

The application form is available from the LRBS website: http://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/london-rare-books-school

Courses are £600, and a £100 deposit is requested upon application.

Early bird special: Two courses for £1000 (until 15 April 2014)

A limited number of partial bursaries are available. Placements are offered on a first-come, first-served basis, and courses are restricted to a maximum of twelve students. Courses may be taken for academic credit toward a postgraduate diploma in the History of the Book, or as part of the Institute’s MA in the History of the Book.

The courses are taught by internationally renowned scholars, using the unrivalled library and museum resources of London, including the British Library, the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Senate House Libraries, and many more.

Applications should be submitted to IESEvents@sas.ac.uk.

The course programme is below. For further details, see the LRBS website or contact the Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London at IESEvents@sas.ac.uk or +44 020 7862 8679

WEEK ONE: 23 – 27 June 2014
Children’s Books, 1470-1980
European Bookbinding, 1450-1820
A History of Maps and Mapping
The History of Readers and Reading, 1770-2010 *new course
An Introduction to Bibliography
The Medieval Book
The Printed Book in Europe, 1450-2000

WEEK TWO: 30 June – 4 July 2014
The Book in the Ancient World
The Early Modern Book in England
The History and Practice of Hand Press Printing
An Introduction to Illustration and its Technologies
Modern First Editions: Dealing, Collecting, and the Market
The Printed Book in the East: China, India, and Japan *new course
Western Historical Scripts from Antiquity to 1600

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Call for Papers – 41st Saint Louis Conference on Manuscript Studies

Posted on January 9, 2014 by Chris

41st Saint Louis Conference on Manuscript Studies, 17–18 October 2014

Vatican Film Library—Saint Louis University Libraries Special Collections

Saint Louis University
St. Louis, MO

The Saint Louis Conference on Manuscript Studies is organized annually by the Vatican Film Library and its journal, Manuscripta, and is the longest running conference in North America devoted exclusively to medieval and Renaissance manuscript studies. The two-day program each year offers sessions on a variety of themes relating to medieval book production, distribution, reception, and transmission in such areas as paleography, codicology, illumination, textual transmission, library history, cataloguing, and more.

2014 Guest Speaker: Richard H. Rouse (University of California, Los Angeles)

CALL FOR PAPERS

The Vatican Film Library invites submissions of papers in the following sessions at the 41st Saint Louis Conference on Manuscript Studies, to be held at Saint Louis University in St. Louis, MO, 17–18 October 2014.

Captions and their Functions in Medieval Manuscripts
Captions may be found in a variety of manuscript genres and fulfill a range of functions. Papers could address their roles in explicating or defining texts and images and their transmitted messages—or could suggest and discuss their alternate dimensions.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Depicting (and Stereotyping) Gender and Race
Papers in this session will focus on visual, rather than textual representations, drawing on images that illustrate chronicles, maps, narratives, and other expository works.

Games People Played
Medieval leisure hours were frequently spent in recreational activities: board and dice games, sporting events, and hunting and trapping excursions. Rather than simply describing these games and their activities, this session could be devoted to exploring the material and conceptual technology supporting these pursuits: traps, weapons, jousting equipment, dice and chess/checker pieces; strategies, procedures, and techniques—as expressed in medieval and Renaissance manuscripts.

Please send a title and an abstract of not more than 200 words to Susan L’Engle (lengles@slu.edu) by 15 February 2014. Each session consists of three 20-minute papers. If you are interested in organizing one of these sessions yourself, please contact us as soon as possible. Those whose proposals are accepted are reminded that travel and accommodation expenses for the conference are the responsibility of speakers and/or their institutions.

For more information, contact Erica Lauriello, Library Associate for Special Collections Administration, at 314-977-3090 or elauriel@slu.edu . Conference information is posted at http://libraries.slu.edu/special_collections/stl_conf_manu.

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MAA News – Membership Renewals

Posted on December 25, 2013 by Chris

All members should have received by now the following message from the Academy with information about membership renewal for 2014:

To the Members of the Medieval Academy,

The end of the year is now quickly approaching, and we encourage you to renew your membership in the Medieval Academy for 2014 as soon as possible. If you have not already paid your 2014 membership dues, please do so by 31 December 2013. Remember to take advantage of the reduced subscriptions to several online bibliographies and the ACLS Humanities E-Book Library that are available to Medieval Academy members.

We are pleased to report that in 2013, with your contribution, the Academy increased its support of members, especially graduate students, through the numerous awards and fellowships offered annually. Funds awarded to graduate students topped $100,000 this year, and we are poised to do even more in 2014. The Academy will also be able to give increased support to the efforts of its numerous volunteer committees that are responsible for so much of the work of the Academy, from the Speculum boards to the many awards committees, from the Committee on Centers and Regional Associations (CARA) to the Graduate Student Committee. We are doing all this while continuing to streamline administrative functions and expand digital offerings.

Since the Medieval Academy is a membership organization not affiliated with any other institution, we rely upon the income received annually from member dues to maintain our program of publications, awards, grants, and conferences.

You can now pay your dues through the robust and expanded MAA website. You will need to sign in with your username and password to renew online. If you have forgotten either, please contact us at info@themedievalacademy.org. The dues and donations categories are outlined on the website with links you can follow for further explanation. If you have already renewed, thank you. If you are a Corresponding Fellow, an Honorary Life Member, or a Life Member, no dues are payable, but we hope that you will consider making a gift to the Academy here. We encourage all members to consider supplementing their membership by becoming a Sustaining or Contributing member or by remembering the Academy with a bequest as part of our Legacy Society.

If you prefer to renew by mail, our traditional paper membership form can be printed here.

With a healthy fiscal outlook, increased digital offerings, and expanded services, the Medieval Academy has more to offer members than ever before. We sincerely hope that you will renew soon and continue your valued membership in the Academy. We look forward to working with you in developing the future of the Medieval Academy of America and of medieval studies in North America and beyond.

Richard Unger, President
Lisa Fagin Davis, Acting Executive Director

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Call for Papers – International Medieval Meeting Lleida 2014

Posted on December 18, 2013 by Chris

The Consolidated Medieval Research Group “Space, Power and Culture” of Lleida University is currently organising the fourth International Medieval Meeting Lleida, which will be held at Lleida’s Facultat de Lletres on 25, 26, 27 June 2014. Like the last IMMLleida, this event will featurefour different conferences, each of them focusing on a different aspect of “POTESTAS” and different papers on a different aspects of medieval studies (i.e. history, art history, archaeology, philology and literature).
Furthermore, there will be sessions about research management, as well as sessions introducing the activities of research institutions,
presentations by companies dedicated to the management and promotion of heritage, and other activities related to the Middle Ages.

Anyone interested in any aspect of Medieval History is welcome to participate in the IMMLleida! We would like to encourage you to present a paper or organise a session or, if applicable, introduce your research group, your publications, or simply come along to enjoy the conference and take part in the free cultural events we have organised for those summer nights.

To enrol, simply fill in the relevant form on our website: www.internationalmedievalmeetinglleida.udl.cat

If you have any queries at all, please contact us: immlleida@historia.udl.cat

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Duke University Rubenstein Library, History of Medicine Collections Travel Grants

Posted on December 18, 2013 by Chris

The History of Medicine Collections in the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Duke University is pleased to announce our new travel grant program.

The History of Medicine Collections offers research grants of up to $1,000 to researchers whose work would benefit from access to the historical medical collections at the Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Our holdings include over 20,000 print items and 4,500 unique manuscripts along with prints, photographs, and approximately 500 medical instruments and artifacts including a large collection of ivory anatomical manikins. Collection strengths include but are not limited to pediatrics, psychiatry, human sexuality, yellow fever, and materia medica.

Any faculty member, graduate or undergraduate student, or independent scholar with a research project requiring the use of materials held by the History of Medicine Collections is eligible to apply. All applicants must reside outside of a 100-mile radius of Durham, NC.

We encourage each prospective grant applicant to discuss his or her research project and the collections that might support it with the Curator before submitting an application.

The travel grant may cover:

Transportation expenses, including air, train, or bus ticket charges; car rental; mileage using a personal vehicle; and parking fees
Accommodations
Meals

To apply:

Review the application instructions carefully. A sample application form is available as a PDF for reference purposes only.
Complete the online application form, which includes your C.V. (You may start the form and return to it later, but it must be completed within a week from the same computer and browser.)
Graduate and undergraduate students must ask a faculty advisor to write them a letter of recommendation. We will not consider an application complete until we receive the recommendation.
Advisors may submit a letter of recommendation as an e-mail attachment to rachel.ingold@duke.edu or mail a hardcopy letter to:

History of Medicine Collections
Attn: Research Grant Program
David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library
Box 90185
Duke University
Durham, NC 27708-0185

The deadline for applications is January 31, 2014 by 5:00 PM EST. Grant recipients will be announced by March 28, 2014. Grants must be used between April 2014 and June 2015.

Please view our website for further details or feel free to contact the Curator of the History of Medicine Collections at rachel.ingold@duke.edu or (919)684-8549.