The Medieval Academy Blog

Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey, June 27-July 12, 2011

Summer Program and Workshop for Graduate Students Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey

[1] 2011 June 27th – July 29th

A Graduate Summer School Program by Koç University:

Istanbul Through the Ages

For Summer 2011, Koc (pronounced “Coach”) University is offering a specialized five-week seminar examining Istanbul from pre-history to the present.  Open to graduate students from all around the world, the program presents the best of Koc University faculty sharing their perspectives on what is the center of several empires through time, with a history spanning

millennia: Istanbul.

Koc University is among the most elite institutions of Turkey, with a portfolio of professors who are leaders in their field.  The university’s Office of International Programs, along with the Graduate School of Social Sciences and Humanities, and its Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (RCAC), is excited to extend an invitation to you to participate in a dynamic, in-depth program geared toward graduate students, all the while spending the summer in an exotic city bursting with energy, history, spontaneity and endless roads to travel and discover.  With over 12 million inhabitants representing a true melting pot of cultures and faiths, Istanbul—supplemented by the contents of this unique summer program— gives you the chance to enrich your academic pursuits while concurrently enriching your mind and soul.

For the program see: http://istanbulprogram.ku.edu.tr

The Kunsthistorisches Institute in Florence, Max-Planck-Institute, together with The Getty Foundation

5-15 May 2011, Summer School

Crossing the Strait of Gibraltar: Art Histories Between Morocco and Al-Andalus

Mobility starts with traveling, be it the physical transfer of men, things and thoughts or even with one’s travel in mind and memories. “I was moved to go back by my memories of my land, which, in my opinion, was better than any other,” said Ibn Batutta, one of the famous travelers of Arab history. After his great Rihla (travel) to Mecca, Constantinople, Turkey, Delhi, China and Persia, Ibn Batutta decided to return to his homeland, to Tangiers, the city in which he was born in 1304. But very soon after, in 1350, he left Tangiers again, this time for Muslim Spain, in order to join the intellectual climate of Nasrid Granada. There he briefly met the young Ibn-Juzayy, an Andalusian scholar who two years later would move to Fez, a centre of learning under the patronage of the Marinid rulers, where, in the service of Abu’

Inan, they would write down Ibn Battuta’s extraordinary travel accounts.

This is only one of the many moments of interplay, control, connections and a poetics of culture between Morocco and Spain across the strait of Gibraltar over the centuries. The summer school to be held in Tangiers, Rabat, Fes, Marrakesh, Seville, Cordoba, Madinat-al-Zahra and Granada focuses on key moments and monuments of these interactions at the very ‘Western End’ of the Mediterranean basin, from the Umayyad period to the early modern period, including the Berber states, the Almohads, the Marinid dynasty, the Nasrid culture of Granada and the reign of Charles V. Alliances often crossed religious borders (for example, that between the rulers of Granada and Genoa), and conflicts were frequent among the Muslims or among the Christians.

The summer school will question the traditional narrative of dynastic representations through a thorough examination of the monuments in a comparative perspective, analysing specific constructions of and references to the past, as well as the mobility of forms and aesthetic values in a broader Mediterranean context. It will also include a critical discussion of the historiography of this geo-cultural space and the making of its past.

The summer school is part of the research program “Art, Space and Mobility in Early Ages of Globalization. The Mediterranean, Central Asia and the Indian Subcontinent 400-1650” directed by Gerhard Wolf, Hannah Baader and Avinoam Shalem from the KHI in Florence, in collaboration with the Getty Foundation. It welcomes students and young scholars working in Western, Islamic, Asian or Byzantine Art History, including graduate students, doctoral candidates and scholars embarking on post-doctoral research. Each participant is expected to contribute to the success of the course not only by presenting a paper but also by actively participating in discussions, which will be held in English and French. Accommodation and travel costs will be covered. Applications should include a letter of interest, a curriculum vitae and the name of a referee. Graduate students not yet involved in dissertation research should attach a summary of their course work. Pre- and post-doctoral applicants should provide a brief summary of their research project

(250-300 words). Topic suggestions will be provided, but all participants are encouraged to include their own proposal (250-300 words), which we will try to include in the program.

Applications should be sent via email to asm@khi.fi.it before 15th March 2011. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by 25th March 2011.

From June 27 to July 1, 2011, the 2nd International Septuaginta | summer school will be held in Göttingen, one of Europe’s nicest university towns located in the heart of Germany.

The summer school is organised by the Septuaginta-Unternehmen of the Academy of Sciences and Humanities of Göttingen, which represents more than a century of critical study of the Septuagint. Cooperation partner is the Faculty of Theology of the Georg August-Universität Göttingen.

Students from European and other universities who are interested in the development and history of biblical texts will be given the opportunity to study selected passages of the David and Batseba narratives (2 Sam 11-12) and to form themselves a detailed and nuanced impression of this book’s text history, which is as complex as it is fascinating.

The cultural programme will offer the participants an exclusive insight into the university town of Göttingen by following the trail of great scholars who built the rich tradition of the city and its university and shaped the reputed biblical research projects of the Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

The Septuaginta | summer school will take place at the Faculty of Theology of the Georg August-Universität Göttingen:
Platz der Göttinger Sieben 2
D-37073 Göttingen
Room E 19

The participation fee for the Septuaginta | summer school is 350,- Euro. This fee covers:
*5 nights (Sunday, June 26—Friday, July 1, 2011) in a single room (breakfast incl.) in a 3*-hotel
*an attractive cultural programme
*14 seminar sessions à 90 minutes
*course materials

Travelling costs, lunch and dinner will not be
covered.

All seminar sessions during the Septuaginta | summer school will be given both in English and in German.

The number of participants of the Septuaginta | summer school is limited to 20.

Applications should be made before March 15, 2011 to the Septuaginta-Unternehmen, attn. of Mr. Schäfer (Christian.Schaefer@mail.uni-goettingen.de). They have to contain a statement of the personal motivation for participating in the summer school as well as a curriculum vitae and previous student record.

Succesful applicants will receive the binding authorisation to participate as well as detailed course information by post between March 20—25, 2011.

Contact
Christian Schäfer
0049 (0) 551 50 42 96 9 6
Christian.Schaefer@mail.uni-goettingen.de

18-23.VII.2011 : Summer School in Medieval Codicology and Palaeography (Budapest, Central European University). – Deadline for applications : 15.II.2011 – http://www.summer.ceu.hu/codicology

Liebe Kolleginnen und Kollegen,

vom 25. September bis 2. Oktober 2011 wird an der Universitätsbibliothek Leipzig der erste Alfried Krupp-Sommerkurs für Handschriftenkultur stattfinden, der sich an fortgeschrittene Studierende und Graduierte richtet und als Einführung in die mittelalterliche Handschriftenkunde konzipiert ist. Er wird in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Mediävistenverband durchgeführt und von der Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach-

Stiftung großzügig gefördert. Sie finden die Ausschreibung unter:

http://www.ub.uni-leipzig.de/bin/allgemein/ausschreibung_hsskurs_2011.pdf .

Es wäre sehr freundlich, wenn Sie den Hinweis auf die Ausschreibung innerhalb Ihrer Institution oder Fachdisziplin weiterverbreiten und an interessierte Personen weiterleiten könnten.

Mit Dank und freundlichen Grüßen

Ursula Kundert
Nachwuchsbeauftragte des Mediävistenverbands