Tenth Annual Symposium on Medieval & Renaissance Studies
St. Louis University
Saint Louis, Missouri
12-14 June 2023
The Annual Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies provides a convenient summer venue in North America for scholars in all disciplines to present papers, organize sessions, participate in roundtables, and engage in interdisciplinary discussion. The goal of the symposium is to promote serious scholarly investigation on all topics and in all disciplines of the medieval and early modern world.
The plenary speakers for 2023 will be Uta-Renate Blumenthal, of Catholic University of America, and Lia Markey, Director of the Center for Renaissance Studies at the Newberry Library.
This year, alongside general sessions, three mini-conferences going on within the bounds of the symposium: the long-running St. Louis Conference of Manuscript Studies, now in its 48th year; the International Arthurian Studies conference; a conference on Late Medieval Philosophy. An exhibit,“The Nature of Things: Medieval Art and Ecology, 1100-1550,” is also at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation, which is within walking distance. A curator’s talk is scheduled there Tuesday late afternoon.
Of particular interest for ICMA members is:
Thursday, June 13, 2023 - Wine Reception: Co-Sponsored by International Center of Medieval Art, New York, 6:00-7:30 p.m. Center for Global Citizenship
More information is available from the event program and the symposium website.
Panels involving medieval art include:
Monday, 12 June 2023 - M5: Roles of the Manuscript - 48th Annual Saint Louis Conference on Manuscript Studies - Père Marquette Gallery
“North Africa and its Peoples in the Book of Games by Alfonso X: Reimagining Thirteenth-Century Court Culture in the Western” - Alexandra Peters, Bowdoin College
“Tasting the Fruit of the Orchard: Interpretive Agency, Authorial Will, and Organizational Failure in Pierpont Morgan Library MS M.162” - Elissa Johnston, Fordham University
“Queering the Manuscript: a Study of Morgan Library MS G.47” - Vivian Brown, Trinity College Dublin
Monday, 12 June 2023 - M8: Art in the Renaissance - Morrissey 0600 - Chair: Allen Loomis, Binghamton University
“Extravagant Violations and Visual Tropes: Lucas Cranach the Elder's Semiotic use of Dress in the Budapest Martyrdom of Saint Catherine” - Sophia Feist, Cambridge University
“Claude Dodieu's Portrait Medal (1532)” - Jan Pendergrass, University of Georgia
“‘A Face of Muche Nobillitye Lie in a Little Roome’, Re-Imaging the Tudor Dynasty: Renaissance Repetition and the Portraiture of Henry VIII's Family” - Jean Marie Christensen, Southern Methodist University
Monday, 12 June 2023 - M14: Roundtable: Digital Humanities and Opportunities for Studying Texts and Glosses – Successful NEH Grants and Possibilities Ahead - Morrissey 0600 - Chair: Margaret K. Smith, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
Panelists: Atria Larson, Theological Studies, Saint Louis University; Lia Markey, Newberry Library; John McEwan, Walter J. Ong Center for Digital Humanities, Saint Louis University; Patrick Cuba, Research Computing Group, Saint Louis University; Geoff Brewer, English, Saint Louis University; Ahlam Jaber, English, Saint Louis University; Ryan Prewitt, English, Saint Louis University
Monday, 12 June 2023 - M16: Plenary Session in Manuscript Studies - 48th Annual Saint Louis Conference on Manuscript Studies - Père Marquette Gallery
“Compiling Spheres of Knowledge: Medieval Creativity in the Astronomical Arts” - Eric Ramirez-Weaver, University of Virginia
Tuesday, 13 June 2023 - T5: Revelations of Codicology - 48th Annual Saint Louis Conference on Manuscript Studies - Père Marquette Gallery
“The 19th Century Medieval: The Inserted Illuminations of the Fisher Antiphonarium” - Risa de Rege, University of Toronto
“Wars in the Workshop: Digitising Manuscript Rolls” - Natasha Hodgson, Nottingham Trent University
“Fragmented Hours: The Biography of a Printed Devotional Book” - Stephanie Haas, University of South Florida
Tuesday, 13 June 2023 - T11: The Infinite Ingenuity of Authors and Artisans - 48th Annual Saint Louis Conference on Manuscript Studies - Père Marquette Gallery
“Examining the Scientific Illustration Method in Various Ajayeb Nameh Manuscripts” - Fahimeh Zarezadeh, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
“Visions of Silver: 17th-18th Century Armenian Silver Bindings from Kayseri, Ottoman Empire” - Sylvie Merian, The Morgan Library & Museum
“Playful Experimentation in Medieval Chemistry: The case of ‘The 88 Natural Experiments of Rasis’” - Vanessa Baptista, University College London
Tuesday, 13 June 2023 - T14: Academic Polymaths: Roundtable on Leveraging Medieval Adjacent Skills in Career Advancement - Morrissey 0200 - Chair: Edward Holt, Grambling State University
Panelists: Amy Boland, Briar Cliff University; Edward Holt, Grambling State University; Kyle Lincoln, Southeastern Oklahoma State University; Margaret K. Smith, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
Tuesday, 13 June 2023 - T16: The Nature of Things: Art, Culture, and Environment in the Medieval East and West - Morrissey 0600 - Chair: Heather Alexis Smith, Pulitzer Arts Foundation
“Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: Rethinking Spolia and the Luxury Marble Trade in the Early Middle Ages” - Nathan S. Dennis, University of San Francisco
“Assemblage and Symbiosis: Matter as Maker in Medieval Art” - Anne F. Harris, Grinnell College
“Medieval Art and Ecology: Ecocriticism and the Museum Exhibition” - Heather Alexis Smith, Pulitzer Arts Foundation
Tuesday, 13 June 2023 - T18: Demons and Death in Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts - 48th Annual Saint Louis Conference on Manuscript Studies - Père Marquette Gallery
“Demons at Court: An Exploration of 14th-century Iconography” - Lyle Dechant, DePauw University
“Punished Demons: Illuminations of Divine Retribution in Late Medieval Manuscripts” - Layla Seale, University of North Texas
“‘As We Are Now, So Shall You Be’: Depictions of Liminality in Manuscript Images of the Three Living and Three Dead” - Delaney Finau, Winston-Salem State University
Tuesday, 13 June 2023 - Optional Excursion and Curator's Talk: Pulitzer Arts Foundation Exhibition: “The Nature of Things: Medieval Art and Ecology, 1100- 1550”
3716 Washington Ave. St. Louis MO 63108
Doors open 3:45 p.m.
Tour and curator’s talk by Heather Alexis Smith at 4:30 p.m.
Admission is free; pre-registration is not required.
Wednesday, 14 June 2023 - W7: Power and Pageantry: Political Philosophy and Displays of Power I Morrissey 0400 Chair: Jean Marie Christensen, Southern Methodist University
“The King's Two Bodies, Twice” - Sophia Feingold, Independent Scholar
“Looking for Forgiveness in the Tudor Myth” - Andrew Shifflett, University of South Carolina
“Transparent Glass and the Spectacle of Sovereignty: Kenilworth Castle Entertainment of 1575” - Allen Loomis, Binghamton University
Wednesday, 14 June 2023 - W8: Scotland: Concrete Evidence and Presentation - Morrissey 0600 - Chair: Nicholas Babich, University of Notre Dame
“The Picts in Perspective: How Heritage Professionals Can Revitalize Modern Connections with this Early Medieval Civilization” - Claire Reinert, McKendree University
“The Early Christian Cross-Marked Stones that were Erected on the West Coast of Scotland: A New Methodological Approach” - Alla Kurzenkova, University of Glasgow