The Medieval Academy Blog

Call for Papers – Artificial Light in Medieval Churches between Byzantium and the West

Posted on June 27, 2022 by Chris

Artificial Light in Medieval Churches between Byzantium and the West
Online workshop | Tufts University & Accademia di architettura di Mendrisio | 9-10 February 2023

Organizers:
Alice Isabella Sullivan, PhD, Tufts University
Vladimir Ivanovici, PhD, University of Vienna | Accademia di architettura di Mendrisio

Throughout the Middle Ages, artificial illumination was used to draw attention to and enhance the symbolism of certain areas, objects, and persons inside Christian sacred spaces. The strategies usually found in Latin and Byzantine churches have been analyzed in recent decades. However, the cultures that developed at the crossroads of the Latin, Greek, and Slavic spheres, particularly in regions of the Balkan Peninsula and the Carpathian Mountains, have received less scholarly attention. The uses of artificial light in churches were likely shaped by aspects such as inherited practices, the imitation of other societies, as well as by local climatic, economic, and theological parameters.

Following a similar workshop that focused on natural light, which showed how uses of sunlight reveal patterns of knowledge transfer and cultural interaction between Byzantium, the West, and the Slavic world throughout the Middle Ages, this workshop invites papers on the economy of artificial light in medieval churches across Eastern Europe, from the Balkans to the Baltic Sea. Whether innovative or inspired by the more established traditions on the margins of the Mediterranean, local customs are to be examined in order to understand how artificial light was used in ecclesiastical spaces, and how it brought together the architecture, decoration, objects, and rituals.

Following the workshop, select papers will be revised and published in a volume that will complement the edited collection that resulted from the workshop on natural light, which is currently in print with Brill.

Proposals for 20-min. papers in English should include the following: an abstract (300 words max.) and a brief CV (2 pages max.). Proposals should be emailed to the organizers of the workshop at alice.sullivan[at]tufts.edu and vladimir.ivanovici[at]usi.ch by 1 September 2022. Please include in the email subject line “Artificial Light Proposal.”

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Call For Papers: “Marching on Rome” — An SIHS Conference

Posted on June 17, 2022 by Chris

Title: “Marching on Rome: Contesting the Eternal City through the Centuries”

Location: Italian Academy, Columbia University, New York City

Date: October 28, 2022

October 28, 2022 marks the centenary of Mussolini’s March on Rome and the Fascist accession to power. Yet the Fascists were not the first, nor the last, to stage a symbolic assault on the Eternal City; indeed, marches on Rome have been a mainstay of Italian political life for centuries. For figures as diverse as Julius Caesar, Cola di Rienzo, Petrarch, Charles V, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Umberto Bossi and Beppe Grillo, the Urbs Caput Mundi has variously served as a prize, a source of inspiration, and a nemesis. Marching on Rome is a tradition since antiquity that has inspired medieval, early modern, and modern versions of this important political ritual.

In its first standalone conference, cosponsored with the Italian Academy at Columbia University, the Society of Italian Historical Studies (SIHS) seeks to investigate Rome’s function as a contested space—both symbolic and physical—across the longue durée of Italian history. Topics may include, but are not limited to:

Political, cultural and social movements directed “toward” or “against” Rome.
Rome’s histories of warfare, insurgency, and protest.
Contests over religion and secularism, and over Rome’s local, national, Mediterranean, and global identities.
Regionalist and federalist critiques of Rome as a locus of centralized authority and corruption.

The SIHS seeks to foster dialogue and exchange amongst scholars of medieval, early modern and modern Italian history, working across a diverse array of thematic and methodological approaches. We especially welcome proposals from early career scholars in the field.

The SIHS anticipates being able to offer modest subventions for younger and independent scholars in order to facilitate their travel to and from New York City.

Additionally, there will be an opportunity to publish a select number of the conference’s papers via an Open Access journal. Conference presenters will be invited to submit their papers for potential inclusion in a special issue of California Italian Studies, which will be edited by Brad Bouley and Claudio Fogu.

Please submit your proposal by July 1, 2022 (including your name, affiliation, email, paper title, and ca. 250 word abstract) to: conference@italianhistoricalstudies.org. The Conference Committee will send out its decisions by July 15, 2022.

Registration will be open to the public. The following will be the costs of registration according to professional category:

Graduate students and independent scholars: $0
Assistant professors: $50
Associate and Full Professors: $150

Financial donations are welcome on a voluntary basis. Registration fees will be used to support the conference, including a reception for attendees and the establishment of a fund to offer modest travel grants for graduate students and independent scholars who will be presenting their papers at the conference.

For any general questions, please write to: info@italianhistoricalstudies.org.

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Call for Papers – 32nd Annual Conference of the Texas Medieval Association

Posted on June 10, 2022 by Chris

32nd Texas Medieval Association Annual Conference
Virtual Meeting
October 21-22, 2022
Hosted by the Unviersity of Dallas, Dallas, TX

The 32nd Annual Conference of the Texas Medieval Association will be held virtually, via an online platform, and hosted by The University of Dallas.

The 2022 TEMA program committee is pleased to invite papers and sessions on all topics in medieval studies. We especially invite papers and sessions contributing to the 2022 conference theme of Violent Clerics, Victimized Religious as well as papers and sessions that contribute to the permanent theme of Race and Medieval Studies.

TEMA recognizes diversity as a critical component of medieval studies. Therefore, the organizers of the 2020 TEMA meeting established a permanent strand of linked thematic sessions on Race and Medieval Studies that will be part of all future meetings. Papers, sessions, roundtables, and other events that engage with any aspect of this theme are very welcome.

Papers may be submitted in any language, but if you wish to present in a language other than English, please specify this preference. Send title and abstract of approximately 200 words to Dr. Donald Kagay (donkagay@gmail.com; dkagay@udallas.edu) or Dr. Kelly Gibson (kgibson@udallas.edu) (with TEMA 2022 PROPOSAL in the subject line) no later than September 1, 2022. Early submission is encouraged: rolling acceptance will begin on July 1, 2022. Among proposals for full sessions, those including participants from more than one institution will be given priority. Those wishing to propose a panel should submit a session title, along with the paper titles, abstracts, and speakers.

A prize will be awarded for the best paper by a graduate student. For more information, visit the Texas Medieval Association website [www.texasmedieval.net].

TEMA Values
Founded in 1986 to promote medieval studies in Texas, TEMA invites medieval scholars throughout Texas and the Southwest to gather annually to share ideas, collaborate on publications, and mentor students in a safe, nurturing community in which everyone may participate. In our formal statement of policies, we assert our belief that diversity is crucial to medieval studies. TEMA supports a learning community that embraces our members for their individual differences and offers respect for their unique perspectives. In support of this academic vision, TEMA does not tolerate discrimination based on academic status, gender identity, sexual orientation, political affiliation, religious belief, or racial/ethnic background. Moreover, TEMA has a strong history of collegiality and mentoring. We welcome papers from medievalists at every point of their professional development, from graduate students to emeritus scholars; from K-12 and secondary teachers to those at the collegiate level; from affiliated scholars to those currently unaffiliated. TEMA has built a friendly and non-threatening conference atmosphere that treats everyone as a colleague, no matter their “rank.” The purpose of our annual conference is to help each medievalist further develop their ideas, while benefitting from the feedback of a diverse, encouraging community.

For more information, visit the Texas Medieval Association website [www.texasmedieval.net].

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Jobs for Medivalists

Posted on June 10, 2022 by Chris

Click here for more information:

The project is recruiting 3 PhD fellows with an employment rate of 75% (30 hours per week) and limited to 4 years.

research field: diplomatics of the late Middle Ages
research field: computer vision applied to historical documents (charters) of the Middle Ages and early modern times
research field: computational linguistics or natural language processing applied to historical documents (deeds) of the Middle Ages and early modern times

The application deadline is 16 June 2022. We are looking forward to your applications!

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Jobs For Medievalists

Posted on June 9, 2022 by Chris

The French National Research Center is opening a position for a PhD candidate in digital paleography. Applications are to be submitted by June 24th, 2022 for a start in the autumn 2022. The PhD candidate will work in the context of an interdisciplinary research project of the IRHT (Institute for Research and History of Texts, CNRS UPR841) and the Laboratoire d’Informatique Gaspard Monge (CNRS UMR8049) . The PhD candidate will be supervised by myself as a primary supervisor and Mathieu Aubry as co-supervisor.

This research will aim at studying the creation and formal developments of signs used in the Middle Ages for the Latin scripts, and at understanding their correlations. The historical and paleographical research will be supported by artificial vision (Artificial intelligence based image analysis) and this research will contribute to the developments of dedicated tools.

More infos and application: https://emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/Doctorant/UPR841-DOMSTU-008/Default.aspx (French and English)

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A Speculum Webinar: “Emerging Issues in Medieval Iberian Studies”

Posted on June 9, 2022 by Chris

“Emerging Issues in Medieval Iberian Studies”
A Speculum Webinar
25 August 2022
12:00 PM -1:30 PM EDT
Via Zoom

The Medieval Academy of America will host a Speculum webinar to launch the July themed issue of the journal: “Emerging Issues in Medieval Iberian Studies” on 25 August, 12:00 PM -1:30 PM EDT. The contributing authors, representing various disciplinary approaches, will give 10-minute TED-style talks to present their research articles. Their presentations will be followed by a Q&A session with the audience. The presenters are:

Yosi Yisraeli and Yanay Israeli on “Defining ‘Conversos’ in Fifteenth-Century Castile: The Making of a Controversial Category”

Pamela A. Patton on “What Did Medieval Slavery Look Like? Color, Race, and Unfreedom in Later Medieval Iberia”

María Jesús Torrens-Álvarez and Donald N. Tuten on “From ‘Latin’ to the Vernacular: Latin-Romance Hybridity, Scribal Competence, and Social Transformation in Medieval Castile”

Linda G. Jones on “Representations of Hegemonic Masculinities in Medieval Leonese-Castilian and Almohad Chronicles”

The webinar is free and open to the public. Registration is required. Click here to register.

The webinar will be recorded and posted on the Medieval Academy of America’s YouTube channel.

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Jobs for Medievalists

Posted on June 8, 2022 by Chris

Early Materials Cataloger
Beinecke Library – Rare Book Cataloging

Position Focus:
Reporting to the Head of the Bibliographic Description Unit, the Early Materials Cataloger creates, enhances, and maintains original and complex bibliographic and authority records for manuscript items and printed works, chiefly from the medieval through the early modern periods, in the fields of British and European literature, history, and the humanities. Plans, directs, and reviews work of cataloging assistants and student assistants. Assists in the ongoing development of the unit’s cataloging procedures for related collections. Completes special projects as assigned. Contributes to Yale University Library and University-wide initiatives and is expected to be active professionally.

This position will be assigned a rank of Librarian 1 to Librarian 3. Librarian ranking information can be found below.

This position represents an exciting opportunity for a scholar-librarian to work at the intersection of early materials cataloging and scholarship. We seek applicants interested in the politics of metadata, the materiality of the textual object, trends in forensic analysis, and the broader questions relating the creation, survival, transmission, ownership, description, and use of special collections to their understanding within scholarship, the classroom, and the public spheres of the humanities. Applicants that meet the minimum education/experience qualifications are encouraged to apply. The successful applicant will receive intensive on-the-job training in manuscript and print cataloging and paleography if needed, according to the protocols of the department and library. The Bibliographic Description Unit, part of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library’s Technical Services Department, is responsible for cataloging material in all formats, ranging from medieval manuscripts to twenty-first century publications.

Click here for more information.

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Jobs for Medievalists

Posted on June 7, 2022 by Chris

The Institute is an independent private institution founded in 1930 to create a community of scholars focused on intellectual inquiry, free from teaching and other university obligations. Scholars from around the world come to the Institute to pursue their research. Candidates of any nationality may apply for a single term or a full academic year. Scholars may apply for a stipend, but those with sabbatical funding, other grants, retirement funding, or other means are also invited to apply for a non-stipendiary membership. Open to all fields of historical research, the School of Historical Studies’ principal interests is the history of western, near eastern and Asian civilizations, with particular emphasis on Greek and Roman civilization, the history of Europe (medieval, early modern, and modern), the Islamic world, East Asian studies, art history, the history of science, and late modern history. Support is available each year for one scholar in music studies. A Ph.D. (or equivalent) and influential publications are required.

For the current admission cycle, two postdoctoral fellowships in the disciplines of History of Science and Medieval Studies will also be available. Applicants for postdoctoral fellowships must have received their Ph.D. degrees after 1 July 2020 and before 1 September 2022. Postdoc fellowships are for one year and renewable for a second. Residence in Princeton during term time for both members and postdoc fellowships is required. The only other obligation of Members is to pursue their research. Scholars can find further information in the announcement on the web at https://www.hs.ias.edu/mem_announcement or on the School’s website, www.hs.ias.edu. Inquiries by post should be addressed to the School of Historical Studies, Institute for Advanced Study, Einstein Dr., Princeton, N.J. 08540, or by email address: hsappquery@ias.edu. Deadline: 15 October 2022.