Call for Papers – Sam Houston State University’s First international Conference on Medieval and Renaissance Thought

April 4-6, 2013

Featuring Plenary Speaker

Dr. Richard North,
Professor of Old English Literature, University of London

The conference is slated to be held on our beautiful campus in Huntsville, Texas.

Deadline to propose a Special Session: July 15, 2012
Deadline for abstracts: October 15, 2012
Notification of acceptance: December 15, 2012

You are invited to send your 250-300-word abstract to Dr. Darci Hill, Conference Coordinator, on any topic dealing with Medieval and/or Renaissance thought.  If you would like to propose a special session, you are welcome to do that as well.  We welcome papers, posters, and performances on any aspect of this time period.  Papers dealing with language and linguistics, literature, music, philosophy, history, art, music, and theatre are all equally welcome.

Please send all inquiries and abstracts electronically to:

Dr. Darci Hill,
Eng_dnh@shsu.edu

Conference Coordinator,
Department of English
Sam Houston State University
Huntsville, Texas 77340
Phone: 936-294-1473

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Call for Papers – Eco-Critical Approaches to Medieval Art: East and West

ICMA Panel @ 48th International Congress on Medieval Studies
May 9-12, 2013 at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI
Organizers: Anne Harris and Nancy Sevcenko

How did the use of natural materials affect the meaning of medieval works of art? How did the act of representing nature construct the concept of the natural?  What do medieval works of art reveal about the interaction of natural forces and human agents? Ecocriticism explores conceptualizations of nature, both in its material presence and in its abstract representations.  It invites a study of medieval art with a keen interest in the “stuff” of nature used in the fabrication of art (wood, stone, glass, gem, metal, vellum, and ivory) as well as in the “image” of nature produced by visual representations (in the form of landscapes, gardens, animals, stones, trees, flowers, the human body, the cosmos).  Personified as the “Child of God and Mother of things” by Alain of Lille, Nature transmitted a divine agency into the material world. In Christian Materiality, Caroline Walker Bynum argues for devotional objects as “disclosures of the sacred through material substance.”  How can we investigate medieval art objects at their point of intersection with natural matter and human experience?

This panel seeks to reassert and explore the agency of natural matter upon its human “interactors” through both devotional and secular works of art. We invite papers that explore the materiality of works of art as it relates to the natural world, that analyze the representation of nature as it conceptualizes nature, and/or that localize works of art within cultural constructions of the natural.  Beyond being curious about the ability of works of art to “reflect” attitudes to nature, this panel asks how works of art in the European, Byzantine and Islamic Middle Ages shaped conceptions of the natural, made nature present within a devotional or secular context, and evoked the divine agency of nature through its materiality.

Please send paper proposals consisting of a one-page abstract and a complete Participant Information Form (available on the Congress website) by September 15 to either one of the organizers:

Anne Harris: aharris@depauw.edu
Nancy Sevcenko: nsevcenko8@gmail.com

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Conference – Working Group in Medieval Sculpture, 1100-1550 – A Transatlantic Dialogue: Sculptural Reception

November 2-4, 2012

Working Group in Medieval Sculpture, 1100-1550 – A Transatlantic Dialogue: Sculptural Reception

After conferences in Paris (January 2012) on sculptural media and in Kalamazoo (May 2012) on sculptural objecthood, the third and final installment of this Working Group’s Transatlantic Dialogue will be held in Philadelphia by the University of Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  Papers will examine sculptural uses and contexts and consider the affective, social, and economic responses they engendered.  Presentations will also consider the influence on later artistic works, as well as the modern reception of medieval sculpture, including issues of display, museography, and conservation.  Speakers include leading scholars and curators from across Europe and North America whose Working Group projects include a range of media— stone, wood, ivory, bronze—and approaches.

This symposium is offered in conjunction with the Fourth Annual Anne d’Harnoncourt Symposium, held in honor of the late director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and presented by the University of Pennsylvania History of Art Department, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Institut national d’histoire de l’art, Paris.

For registration (required) and fuller details, please visit: http://www.philamuseum.org/calendarEvents/adults/symposia.html

(See our calendar for more conferences)

 

 

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Identifying and recording bookbinding structures for conservation and cataloguing and the history of European bookbinding 1450-1830

Paris, Institut National du Patrimoine and Centre Culturel des Irlandais, 3-7 and 10-14.IX.2012 : Identifying and recording bookbinding structures for conservation and cataloguing and the history of European bookbinding 1450-1830, Ligatus Summer School 2012. –http://www.ligatus.org.uk/summerschool/node/add/application

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Jobs for Medievalists

Assistant Professor, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto

About this job

Faculty/Division: Arts & Science

The Graduate Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto, and the Celtic and Medieval Studies programs in St. Michael’s College, Toronto, invite applications for a tenure-stream appointment in the field of medieval Celtic languages and literature.  The appointment will be at the rank of Assistant Professor and will begin on July 1, 2013.

The successful candidate will have demonstrated expertise in the Old Irish and Middle Welsh languages and literature, and there will be a strong preference for applicants who also work with Hiberno- and Insular Latin sources.  Candidates are expected to have outstanding research records, with refereed publications, and to have demonstrated evidence of excellence in teaching.

The successful candidate must have a Ph.D. in a discipline relevant to the requirements of the position, an established record of excellence in scholarly research and publication, and a demonstrated commitment to excellence in both undergraduate and graduate teaching.  We are seeking applicants who show a serious commitment to development of the undergraduate Celtic and Medieval Studies programs in St. Michael’s College, and to research-intensive graduate instruction and supervision within the Centre for Medieval Studies.  Medieval Studies at Toronto is a broadly interdisciplinary enterprise that offers the opportunity to work in collaboration with a wide range of departments and academic disciplines.  The successful candidate will hold a joint appointment between the Centre for Medieval Studies (51%) and St. Michael’s College (49%).  Salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience.  The University of Toronto and St. Michael’s College offer the opportunity to teach and conduct research in one of the most diverse and culturally vibrant universities in the world.

Please submit your application online by visiting www.uoftcareers.utoronto.ca. Please see Job#1200873.  Applications should include a Curriculum Vitae, a statement outlining current and future research interests, examples of publications, and materials relevant to teaching experience.

Applicants should also ask three referees to email letters directly to Prof. John Magee, Search Committee Chair, at director.medieval@utoronto.ca by the closing date of Nov. 15, 2012.

The UofT application system can accommodate up to five attachments (10 MB) per candidate profile; please combine attachments into one or two files in PDF/MS Word format. Submission guidelines can be found at http://uoft.me/how-to-apply

For more information about the Centre for Medieval Studies please visit our homepage at http://www.medieval.utoronto.ca.

The University of Toronto is strongly committed to diversity within its community and especially welcomes applications from visible minority group members, women, Aboriginal persons, persons with disabilities, members of sexual minority groups, and others who may contribute to further diversification of ideas. All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadians and permanent residents will be given priority.

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Call for Papers – 47th International Congress on Medieval Studies

The Medieval Club of New York is sponsoring two sessions in Kalamazoo in 2013 on “Lateran IV: Before and After.”  Abstracts from a variety of disciplines are welcome.

As the 800th anniversary of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) fast approaches, it is important to consider both the forces that led Urban III to convene the council and the wide-ranging consequences of its canons.  From transubstantiation to confession, from the Albigensian Crusades to the founding of the Dominican Order, from distinctions between Christians and Jews, Saracens, and others to condemnations of heresy, the canons of the council were far-reaching, with enormous impact on (to name just a few areas) ecclesiastical organization, clerical behavior, the sacraments, the relations of Christians to non-Christians, inquisitions, crusades, etc.  The aim of these two interdisciplinary sessions, therefore, is to bring together scholars who approach Lateran IV from a variety of perspectives, including history, theology, art and architecture, literature, etc., with the aim of developing a more complete understanding of this historic assembly.

For more information on the conference and the general call for papers, see: http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/files/call-for-papers-2013.pdf

Deadline for submission of abstracts to these two sessions is September 15, 2012.  Please send them directly to me, at the email address below.

Sylvia Tomasch
Professor
Department of English
Hunter College (CUNY)
695 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10065
(212) 772-4052
fax: (212) 772-5411
stomasch@hunter.cuny.edu

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Fourteenth international congress of medieval canon law

5.-11.VIII.2012 : Fourteenth international congress of medieval canon law (Toronto, University of Toronto).   http://medieval.utoronto.ca/events/ICMCL/Congress_program.pdf

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Conference – Christian-Muslim Dialogue in the Late Middle Ages

WHEN     October 12-14, 2012

WHERE   Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, PA

DESCRIPTION   Thirteenth Biennial Conference of the American Cusanus Society

Christian-Muslim Dialogue in the Late Middle Ages

The program includes plenary lectures by Thomas Burman (University of Tennessee Knoxville) and Asma Afsaruddin (Indiana University)

We shall explore the complex relations between Christians and Muslims at the dawn of the modern age.  Our focus will be on two works by Nicholas of Cusa:  De pace fidei, a dialogue seeking peace among world religions written after the Turkish conquest of Constantinople in 1453, and the Cribratio Alkorani (1460-61), which attempts to confirm Gospel truths within a critical reading of the Qur’an.  As we consider Nicholas, his sources and contexts, we shall encounter the tangled realities of Christian and Muslim efforts at polemic, translation and dialogue. To do justice to the range of perspectives involved, we shall also consider the Qur’an’s portrayal of Jesus and other Muslim responses to Christianity.  In the end, we hope that our discussions will contribute to today’s urgent need for improved understanding between Muslims and Christians.

For information, contact Donald Duclow, donduclow@earthlink.net.

(See our calendar for more conferences)

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Exposition “The word, ink and blood. Dead Sea scrolls to Gutenberg”

Anaheim (CA), Muzeo, 3.II – 9.IX.2012 : The word, ink and blood. Dead Sea scrolls to Gutenberg. – http://www.muzeo.org/exhibit_current.html

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Exposition “The art of devotion in the Middle Ages”

Los Angeles, The Getty Center, 28.VIII.2012 – 3.II.2013 : The art of devotion in the Middle Ages. – http://www.getty.edu/visit/exhibitions/future.html

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