Call for Applications: The National Humanities Center 2023–24 Fellows, Due 5 October 2023

Call for Applications

The National Humanities Center 2023–24 Fellows

Due 5 October 2023

The National Humanities Center (NHC) is pleased to announce the appointment of 34 Fellows for the academic year 2023–24. These leading scholars will come to the Center from universities and colleges in 16 US states as well as Canada, Nigeria, Singapore, South Africa, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom. Chosen from 541 applicants, they represent humanistic scholarship in African American studies; anthropology; archaeology; Asian American studies; East Asian studies; ethnomusicology; gender and sexuality studies; history; history of art and architecture; information studies; languages and literature; media studies; medieval studies; music history and musicology; philosophy; psychology; religious studies; and Slavic studies. Each Fellow will work on an individual research project and will have the opportunity to share ideas in seminars, lectures, and conferences at the Center.

These newly appointed Fellows will constitute the forty-sixth class of resident scholars to be admitted since the Center opened in 1978. “We are extremely pleased to be able to support the exciting work of these scholars,” said Robert D. Newman, president and director of the National Humanities Center. “They were selected from a truly exceptional field of applicants spanning the wide range of humanities disciplines. We look forward to their arrival in the fall as they pursue their individual projects and form a robust intellectual community.”

The National Humanities Center will award over $1,550,000 in fellowship grants to enable the selected scholars to take leave from their normal academic duties and pursue research at the Center. This funding is provided from the Center’s endowment and by grants and awards from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, the Geiss Hsu Foundation, the Henry Luce Foundation, the UNCF/Mellon Programs, and the National Endowment for the Humanities, as well as contributions from alumni and friends of the Center.

The Center will begin accepting applications for the 2024–25 academic year on July 1, 2023 with a deadline of October 5, 2023. Details about NHC fellowships, including application instructions, are available here.

For more information, including the projects of previous winners, visit https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/national-humanities-center-announces-2023-24-fellows/.

Christopher de Hamel Public Lecture By Centre for the Book, City Library, Dunedin, New Zealand, 16 August 2023, 5:30-7:30 PM

Christopher de Hamel Public Lecture

By Centre for the Book

Wednesday, August 16, 5:30pm-7:30PM
Dunningham Suite, 4th Floor, City Library, Dunedin, New Zealand

FREE

Our friends at Centre for the Book have invited Dr. Christopher de Hamel to present a public lecture entitled, “Medieval Manuscripts in Dunedin in the 1960s” at the Dunningham Suite on Wednesday, August 16th at 5:30-7:30 pm. The event is free and all are welcome.

Dr. de Hamel is an Otago graduate and recipient of a DLitt from the University in recognition of his expertise on medieval manuscripts. He is a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and former Fellow Librarian of the Parker Library.

More information is available here.

Call for Proposals: Social Sculpture in the Middle Ages, Special issue of Different Visions, Due By 1 October 2023

Call for Proposals

Social Sculpture in the Middle Ages

Special issue of Different Visions

Abstracts Due By October 1, 2023

1: Donatello, articulated crucix under restoration, ca. 1415, Basilica of Santa Croce, 2: Joseph Beuys, MANRESA performance, 1966, Photograph by Ute Klophaus, 3: Festival of Santiago, Lampa, Peru, 2014.

This special issue of Different Visions seeks to address the methodological unity between sensory experience, reader response, and performance studies through the paradigm of “social sculpture.” Since Joseph Beuys introduced the term “social sculpture” in the late 1960s, contemporary art historians have investigated the potentialities of bodies-as-sculpture to shape social communities and identity through performance. Beuys’ expanded denition of artistic creativity no longer limited art to the creation of tangible objects; instead, the social realm became a stage for embodied performance that actively required the participation of its audience for its completion.

This methodological approach has the potential to usher medieval studies outside the archive and into the embodied repertoire, yet social sculpture has never been explored within the context of medieval art history. For medieval art historians, social sculpture can provide a paradigm to rethink our approach to medieval materials, documents, and objects by reframing these extant materials as only one actor within the greater collage of embodied participation that shaped medieval religious, political, and social communities.

We seek to open this relatively new eld of study through a diverse and interdisciplinary special issue incorporating scholars’ work across the medieval world (broadly dened). As an online, open-access journal, Different Visions accommodates dynamic and interactive media. We invite submissions that include digital content such as video and audio clips or three-dimensional models.

Paper proposals should consider the intersections between embodied action and material culture, including but not limited to:

  • Participatory objects, performance, and spectacle

  • The role of the sculpted body-in-space in structuring religious and civic ritual

  • Animated images and automata

  • The migration and performative uses of portable objects along pilgrimage, procession, and trade routes

  • The various publics of medieval social sculpture

  • The representation and/or interaction of the body with ephemeral or recyclable materials, such as votive offerings in shrine space(s) and on cult objects

  • Delimiting premodern racial and religious communities through public oaths and acts of conversion

  • Manipulation of the body in penitential and confessory settings

Different Visions believes that peer review should be an open, productive, and reciprocal process. Submissions are reviewed by the editors, and then sent to external reviewers. The first stage of the external review will be double blind. Following the first review, author and reviewer(s) are invited to communicate and collaborate during the remaining review process.

Please submit a proposal of no more than 300 words to differentvisionsjournal@gmail.com by October 1, 2023. First drafts of accepted essays of approximately 10,000 words will be due in Fall 2024.

For questions please reach out to differentvisionsjournal@gmail.com.

You may also reach out to the special issue editors: Kris Racaniello at kris.racaniello@gmail.com and Ariela Algaze at aalgaze1@jhu.edu.

Different Visions is supported by St. Olaf College and Oklahoma State University.

For more information, see https://differentvisions.org/proposals-social-sculpture/.

For a PDF of the Call for Proposals, click here.

Call for Papers: MANUSCRIPT MANIFESTATIONS: POST-MEDIEVAL PERCEPTIONS OF MEDIEVAL MATERIAL CULTURE (I & II), Sessions at the 59TH ICMS, Kalamazoo (9-11 May 2024), Abstracts Due 15 September 2023

Call for Papers

MANUSCRIPT MANIFESTATIONS: POST-MEDIEVAL PERCEPTIONS OF MEDIEVAL MATERIAL CULTURE (I & II)

Sessions at the 59TH International Congress on Medieval studies, KALAMAZOO (MAY 9-11, 2024)

Abstracts due 15 September 2023

Literature, art, and, more recently, film have used the invented medieval manuscript to signal, construct, or untangle a relationship to a distant past. These two sessions seek to investigate the effects of these “manuscript manifestations” appearing after the Middle Ages. Who writes them? How do they appear? Most importantly, how do they reimagine a medieval past, and how does that imagined past reshape understandings of the present?

We welcome 15-20 minute papers from any discipline that examine post-medieval perceptions and deployments of manuscripts and manuscript culture. Abstracts of no more than 300 words must be submitted by 15 September 2023 via the Congress proposal portal: icms.confex.com/icms/2024/cfp.cgi

Questions may be directed to the session organiser, Catrin Haberfield: catrinh@stanford.edu

Call for Papers: Early Christmas Customs and Practices, Online Conference (16 December 2023), Abstracts Due By 1 September 2023

Call for Papers

Orthodox Academy of Crete, Medievalists.net, and After Constantine Journal

Early Christmas Customs and Practices

Online Conference, 16 December 2023 17:00 EET (11:00 ET)

Abstracts Due by 1 September 2023

The Orthodox Academy of Crete, Medievalists.net, and the After Constantine Journal are organizing an online conference entitled Early Christmas Customs and Practices, which will take place on Zoom on December 16, 2023, at 17:00 (Athens Time).

Early Christmas customs and practices varied across different regions and communities. Over time, these early traditions evolved and were influenced by cultural, religious, and historical factors, shaping the Christmas celebrations we know today.

This online conference intends to underline this variety of celebrations and traditions during Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages and create an ecumenical discourse around the subject.

The topics of the conference (without being limited) are:

  • The role of the church in shaping Christmas rituals

  • Nativity scenes and the portrayal of the birth of Jesus

  • Caroling and the singing of Christmas hymns

  • The development of Christmas feasting

Scholars are welcome to submit their abstracts to the journal’s email address (info@afterconstantine.com) by September 1st 2023, in Word format.

For more information, click here.

Online Lecture: Modern Games, Medieval Wireframes, The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2 August 2023 11 AM PT

Modern Games, Medieval Wireframes

Wednesday, August 2, 2023, at 11 am PT (2 pm ET)

The J. Paul Getty Museum, ONLINE ONLY
Free | Advance sign-up required

Key art from Inkulinati, Developed by Yaza Games Sp. z o. o. © 2023 Daedalic Entertainment GmbH. All rights reserved.

Ever wonder why knights, dragons, and wizards abound in role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons and popular video games like Assassin’s Creed? The medieval period offers alluring prospects for exciting visuals and dramatic storytelling, from the glowing colors of stained glass and tapestries to the visceral violence offered by swordfight duels and epic battles. This online conversation focuses on the ways in which medieval manuscripts in particular serve as a rich source of inspiration for modern gamemakers who reinterpret the period to appeal to contemporary audiences. Game specialists discuss how the imagery of the Middle Ages plays an integral role in helping games capture a sense of the medieval.

Compliments the exhibition Play and Pastimes in the Middle Ages.

PARTICIPANTS

Dorota Halicka is art director of Yaza Games, producers of Inkulinati, an ink-based digital strategy game based on medieval manuscripts.

Hannah Kennedy is art director of Pentiment, an adventure role-playing video game developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Xbox Game Studios.

Alf Seegert is a board game designer and professor at the University of Utah. His board games The Road to Canterbury and Illumination (Gryphon Games) are inspired by Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and medieval illuminated manuscripts.

Dr. Nava Streiter (moderator) is a medieval scholar and curator of the current Getty exhibition Play and Pastimes in the Middle Ages.

For more information, https://www.getty.edu/visit/cal/events/ev_3909.html

Call for Papers: FATE AND FORTUNE, Perth Medieval and Renaissance Group, Incorporated, 2023 Annual Conference, Due By 21 August 2023

Call for Papers

Perth Medieval and Renaissance Group, Incorporated, 2023 Annual Conference

FATE AND FORTUNE

UWA, Saturday 21 October 2023

Due By 21 August 2023

Renaissance thinkers were interested in moral philosophy, and they found inspiration in both ancient and medieval sources. How should one conduct themselves to be happy and useful within society? What will the future bring for us in a time of deep transformation? An image of a new world to be discovered; changed perspectives in astronomy and medicine; Renaissance humanity wondered whether they were able to influence their path in life, whether their decisions were dependent on a free will as Pico della Mirandola stated in his Oration on the Dignity of Man or were but the choice of an omnipotent God, as Catholics, and even more strongly Protestants, each emphasised. The role of Providence would become prevalent across European culture, from visual art to Shakespeare's plays, gradually replacing the capricious Wheel of Fate which was equally central to medieval thought.

This conference will broadly discuss themes concerning human destiny and the possibility of executing our own will, placed within the attempt to acquiesce to, to acquire, or to enforce a vision of peace and harmony within the constant social and political metamorphosis of the Renaissance, and of the world today.

Perth Medieval and Renaissance Group Incorporated welcomes abstracts which address the theme of 'Fate and Fortune' in the medieval and Renaissance periods including:

  • Representations of Providence, of destiny, or of doom in literature and literary works.

  • Paintings and sculpture relating to fate, divine or otherwise.

  • Philosophical works or analyses of Fate and Fortune, or those relating to ethics and utopias.

  • Astrology, which enjoyed a blooming during the

  • Renaissance much as it has today, with people turning to psychics, magic, and the stars to search for answers to important questions.

  • Political writings depicting the perfect ruler, a utopian vision, or condemning contemporary tyranny.

  • Social ideals that valorised the reception of an ancient wisdom, from the Stoics, Plato, Aristotle, or others.

  • Educational ideas inspired by Renaissance or classical philosophy, such as liberal and postcritical education.

We welcome abstracts for twenty-minute papers. This is an interdisciplinary conference, and we encourage abstracts from beyond the humanities. We particularly welcome submissions from undergraduate, honours, and postgraduate students, even if beyond the scope of the conference theme.

The conference will take place in hybrid form. Please specify in your submission whether you would attend in-person or online.

Please send abstracts of 150-200 words with your affiliation and a short (up to 50 words) biography to the conference subcommittee at pmrg.committee@gmail.com by 21 August 2023.

For further details, please see https://www.pmrg.org.au/conference2023.

Call for Papers: After Abu-Lughod: Comparative Frames for a Global Middle Ages, Exemplaria: Medieval / Early Modern / Theory, Due By 1 August 2023

Call for Papers

Exemplaria: Medieval / Early Modern / Theory

After Abu-Lughod: Comparative Frames for a Global Middle Ages

Due By 1 August 2023

Exemplaria is pleased to announce a call for a Special Issue examining the legacy of Janet Abu-Lughod’s landmark text of global medieval studies, Before European Hegemony, on the eve of the 35th anniversary of the book’s publication.

Scholars across disciplines continue to draw upon Janet Abu-Lughod’s book Before European Hegemony, published in 1989, as a means of conceptualizing the premodern world. We propose a discussion of emerging frameworks as well as revisions to or new applications of Abu-Lughod’s groundbreaking ideas. As a journal devoted to the intersection of theory and medieval studies, we invite panelists to theorize their approach to the Global Middle Ages or to reflect on the legacy and impact of Janet Abu-Lughod’s influential work. We welcome extensions of and revisions to her prescient model of medieval globalism, including interrogation of its temporal and spatial boundaries or its critical blindspots. We also welcome discussion of Abu-Lughod’s other writings beyond (or in relation to) Beyond European Hegemony.

Abu-Lughods’s ideas have found application in a wide array of disciplines—history, sociology, literature, art history, music, development studies and more—and we hope to draw scholars from an equally wide range of disciplines to contemplate her legacy.

If accepted, papers would be 7000-8000 words in length, with drafts due by July 1, 2024. Please send brief proposal Abstracts (250 words) by August 1, 2023 to Shirin Khanmohamadi (shirin1@sfsu.edu).

Call for Session Papers and Round Table Participants: Society for the Study of Disability in the Middle Ages, 59th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Due By 15 September 2023

Call for Session Papers and Round Table Participants

Society for the Study of Disability in the Middle Ages

59th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo

Due By 15 September 2023

Session: “Intersections of Medieval Dis/Ability and Race/Making”
This panel examines what it means to think about premodern race and premodern dis/ability together.


Session: “Making Sense of Medieval Sensory Disabilities ”
This panel explores medieval representations of sensory disabilities such as visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile, and proprioceptive impairments and their profound implications for social, cultural, historical, philosophical, and religious paradigms. Direct questions to Margaret McCurry at margaret.mccurry@nyu.edu.


Roundtable: “Accessible Practices in Academia” (Hybrid)
This roundtable seeks to bring together diverse voices to discuss issues related to accessibility in the work of academia, including, but not limited to, scholarship, research, teaching, service, conferences (presentation and travel), etc.

To submit a proposal by September 15, 2023: https://icms.confex.com/icms/2024/cfp.cgi
For questions: email Kisha Tracy at ktracy3@fitchburgstate.edu

For an image of the call for papers, click here.

Call for Papers: Monastic libraries and book collections in times of crisis, c. 1000- c. 1600, Session at International Medieval Congress, Leeds (1-4 July 2024) Due By 12 September 2023

Call for Papers

Monastic libraries and book collections in times of crisis, c. 1000- c. 1600

Session at International Medieval Congress, Leeds 1-4 July 2024

Due By 12 September 2023

Schedel, Hartmann. Liber chronicarum (Nuremberg:Anton Koberger, VII, 1493), f. 92v © BSB/ Rar. 287.

The proposed session(s) focuses on religious communities’ responses to crisis in relation to convent libraries and book collections. We aim to investigate what happened to medieval convent libraries and book collections in times of peril during the Middle Ages, but also the early modern period and up until our time. At certain times, these changes were detrimental and meant the original context of collections was lost. On other occasions, crises' effects were incremental in book collections of various religious institutions.

Written documents and book collections were used to address the economic, social, political, and cultural crises that affected religious communities. We aim to discuss how manuscripts and book collections were used to mitigate or reject the impact of external or internal crises, to create a narrative about these upheavals and to foster renewal.

We aim to establish a broader comparative and geographical approach opening new perspectives, provoking new questions, and reformulating questions widely debated in the historiography.

Suggested topics on book collections in times of crisis from any geographic area and encompassing a wide chronological framework may include, but are not limited to:

  • Dismembering and dispersion of manuscripts in times of peril. How could these collections be interpreted anew? What happened to the identity of these collections in their new surroundings? How were these ‘orphan’ collections used by their, potentially, new owners? Was there re-assembly?

  • The post-medieval life and Nachleben of book collections. Dispersion and loss as a result of wars, turmoil, and ecclesiastical suppression during the modern times.

  • Assembling of manuscripts as a result of crisis. Medieval and early modern recycling history of manuscripts, and how these processes inform not only medieval book culture but also religious communities’ identities and religious and cultural networks more broadly.

  • Assembling versus dismembering manuscripts as a result of crisis. Analysis of the factors that led to one or the other option. Did these occur at the same time in the same community?

  • Crisis, continuities, and disruptions in production of manuscripts, re-use, and function of books within religious communities.

  • Interplay between manuscript production and the making of other ornamenta sacra in times of crisis.

  • The role of manuscripts and book collections in the creation of crisis narratives among religious communities. Who is to blame during crisis? Entangled scales and agents involved at micro and macro levels.

  • Explicitly gendered approaches to crises in religious communities. In what way religious women, including nuns and mulieres religiosae, used manuscripts and book collections.

We welcome papers from a variety of disciplines including but not limited to history, art history, material culture, codicology, cultural history, musicology, history of liturgy, anthropology, literature, gender studies with a focus on religious communities from different orders/religions, different territories, and geographical regions exploring what happened to medieval book collections (c. 1000-c. 1600) during and beyond the Middle Ages. We invite speakers to explore the impact of crisis in book collections from religious communities and these communities’ management of their libraries in times of peril.

Please submit an abstract of no more than 300 words and a short bio to Julie Beckers (julie.beckers@kuleuven.be) and Mercedes Pérez Vidal (mercedes.pvidal@uam.es) by September 12. All proposals should include your name, email address and academic affiliation (if applicable), and whether you would prefer to present your paper or session in-person or virtually.

Organisers:

Dr Mercedes Pérez Vidal (Autonomous University of Madrid) mercedes.pvidal@uam.es

Dr Julie Beckers (KU Leuven) julie.beckers@kuleuven.be

A PDF of the call for papers is available.

Call for Papers: STUDYING EAST OF BYZANTIUM X: COMMUNITIES, East of Byzantium Workshop, Due 18 September 2023

Call for Papers

STUDYING EAST OF BYZANTIUM X: COMMUNITIES

EAST OF BYZANTIUM WORKSHOP

MICHAEL PIFER, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
SALAM RASSI, UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH

Due 18 September 2023

Studying East of Byzantium X: Communities is a three-part workshop that intends to bring together doctoral students and recent PhDs studying the Christian East to reflect on the usefulness of the concept of “Community” in studying the Christian East, to share methodologies, and to discuss their research with one another and senior specialists in the field. The workshop continues the efforts of East of Byzantium, the partnership between the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture at Hellenic College Holy Cross and the Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies at Harvard University (from 2022–), to foster an interdisciplinary community of early career scholars engaged in the study of the diverse traditions of the medieval Christian East, including Syria, the South Caucasus, Mesopotamia, and Egypt.

What is the meaning of the term “Community” in the context of the medieval Christian East? What kinds of communities existed, and how were they formed? Recent research has used the concept of community to explore a range of social experiences, including textual, religious, and visual communities, genealogical communities, and monastic and urban communities, among others. How useful is this concept, and what are its limits within and across the vast and diverse spaces of the Christian East?

This year we invite all graduate students and recent PhDs working in the Christian East whose work considers, or hopes to consider, the theme of communities in their own research to apply.

Eligibility
Doctoral students or recent PhDs studying the Christian East. All disciplines are welcome. Early career researchers should have received their PhD in 2023. Priority will be given to graduate students.

Abstracts
Interested students should submit a C.V. and a 200-word abstract no later than September 18, 2023. Papers should be based on the dissertation project. The final output may be in the form of a conference paper, a dissertation chapter or excerpt, or an article.

Complete Papers
Papers should not exceed 5,000 words in length including footnotes. Complete papers must be submitted to all workshop participants no later than May 5, 2024.

SUBMIT AN ABSTRACT

For more information, https://eastofbyzantium.org/upcoming-events/studying-east-of-byzantium-x-communities/

Call for Papers: Virgin Mary’s relics – Prestige, Rivalry, Forgery and Reproducibility, Special Online Session at the 59th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Due By 15 September 2023

Call for Papers

Virgin Mary’s relics – Prestige, Rivalry, Forgery and Reproducibility

Special Online Session at the 59th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo (Hybrid Event - 9-11 May 2024)

Due By 15 September 2023

This special online session wishes to analyze the power of the Virgin Mary’s relics as triggers not only to processions and pilgrimages but also to Marian cults competition. The scientific importance of the session lies in understanding how these devotional objects could be perceived as activators of civic prestige. The possession of these relics encouraged a deep local cohesion outside the church. Therefore, how did the custody of a Marian relic interact and enhance rivalry between cities? And finally, how did the forgery and reproducibility of these relics contribute to developing the Marian cult by enhancing the creation of sacred topographies?

The session will encourage an interdisciplinary approach. Civic, political, and religious powers were deeply interconnected to control devotion to Marian relics. For this reason, these aspects will be examined in relation to the instauration of civic identity and religious authority to understand the adaptation of the Virgin’s cult to the local needs. This approach provides the groundwork for new perspectives on Medieval relics’ devotion in general. Moreover, the analysis of case studies will not only aim to highlight specific aspects and general phenomena in Late Medieval Europe but also to define identities and devotees’ experiences about relics.

Scholars are invited to submit a 300-word abstract, excluding references. Proposals should also include name, affiliation, email address, the title of the presentation, 6 keywords, a selective bibliography, and a short CV. Please send the documents to maryandthecity.imc2022@gmail.com by 15 September 2023.

Schweizerische Burgenverein / Konferenz der Schweizer Kantonsarchäologen und Kantonsarchäologinnen (KSKA) u.a.: Burgen und Ruinen – Baudenkmal, Attraktion, Habitat; Bern, 31 August - 01 September 2023

Schweizerische Burgenverein / Konferenz der Schweizer Kantonsarchäologen und Kantonsarchäologinnen (KSKA) u.a.

Burgen und Ruinen – Baudenkmal, Attraktion, Habitat

31 August - 01 September 2023

Hochschulzentrum vonRoll (Bern)

Zwischen 2003 und 2005 thematisierten die Vortragsreihe «Die Burg: Umgang mit dem Baudenkmal. Konservieren, konstruieren oder konsumieren?» (Institut für Denkmalpflege der ETHZ/ Vereinigung Schweizer Denkmalpfleger / ICOMOS Suisse), das Kolloquium «Finanzierung von Erhaltungsmassnahmen an Ruinen» (EKD) und die Publikation «Gesicherte Ruine oder ruinierte Burg? Erhalten – Instandstellen – Nutzen» (Schweizerischer Burgenverein) den Stand von Forschung und Erhaltungspraxis. Die neue Tagung bietet eine Aktualisierung, denn einerseits gibt es neue Erkenntnisse zur Erhaltung von Ruinen und Burgen und andererseits schafft die ökologische Debatte zusätzliche Randbedingungen. Es geht um die Pflege wichtiger Bestandteile unserer
Kulturlandschaften, die mit populären Geschichtsbildern und Nutzungsansprüchen ebenso wie mit Flora und Fauna eng verzahnt sind. Als Referent*innen bieten erfahrene Fachleute aus den Bereichen Denkmalpflege und Archäologie, Restaurierung und Konservierung, Landschaftsschutz und Ökologie die Möglichkeit zum Austausch zu Ansprüchen und Zielen, Best Practices und Erfahrungen bei der Erhaltung von Burgen und Ruinen in der Schweiz.

Programm und weitere Informationen: Tagungsprogramm

Tickets verfügbar

For more information: https://burgenverein.ch/tagung_burgen_und_ruinen/

Upcoming Exhibition: Graphic Design in the Middle Ages, The Getty Center, Los Angeles, 29 August 2023 - 28 January 2024

Upcoming Exhibition

Graphic Design in the Middle Ages

29 August 2023–28 January 2024

The Getty Center, Los Angeles, California

Medieval scribes and artists were some of the world’s first graphic designers, planning individual pages and whole books in creative ways. Exploring the idea of designing a medieval book, from the layout of the page to text as graphic organizing tool, and the role of ornament in the structure of the finished product, this exhibition reveals the ways that design influenced the reading and interpretation of medieval books.

Upcoming Exhibition: Glänzende Begegungen. Die Domschätze von Münster und Paderborn, 02 September 2023 - 07 January 2023

Upcoming Exhibition

Glänzende Begegungen. Die Domschätze von Münster und Paderborn

02 September 2023 - 07 January 2023

Diazösanmuseum Paderborn, Paderborn, Germany

Reliquienkreuz mit abbasidischem Bergkristallfuß des 9./10. Jahrhunderts

Der Bestand des Kathedralschatzes des St. Paulus-Doms zu Münster zählt mit seinen einzigartigen Werken der Goldschmiede- und der Textilkunst zu einer der bedeutendsten Schatzkammer-Sammlungen Europas. Von kostbaren Reliquiaren des 11. Jahrhunderts über wertvolle liturgische Geräte und Paramente des Mittelalters, der Renaissance und des Barock spannt sich der Bogen bis ins 20. Jahrhundert.

Momentan ist der Schatz nicht zu sehen, sondern wegen des geplanten Neubaus der Domschatzkammer Münster eingelagert. Hochrangigen Museen – z. B. dem Catherijneconvent Utrecht oder dem Cleveland Museum of Art – wurde exklusiv die Gelegenheit geboten, Teile des Bestandes in ihren Häusern zu präsentieren.

Ab September wird er nun erstmals seit Schließung der Münsteraner Domkammer beinahe in Gänze für vier Monate wieder öffentlich zu sehen sein und ausgewählten Stücken des Paderborner Domschatzes begegnen: zwei kostbare Kathedralschätze erstmals in einer gemeinsamen Ausstellung.

For more information, https://dioezesanmuseum-paderborn.de/der-schatz-von-muenster/

Exhibition Closing: Feared and Revered: Feminine Power Through the Ages, National Museum Australia, Canberra, Until 27 August 2023

Exhibition Closing

Feared and Revered: Feminine Power Through the Ages

National Museum Australia, Canberra

UNTIL 27 August 2023

Feared and Revered: Feminine Power through the Ages celebrates the power and diversity of female spiritual beings in cultural traditions and beliefs across the globe.

Through universal themes of creation, passion, war, justice and mercy, Feared and Revered highlights the many faces of feminine power – ferocious, beautiful, creative or hell-bent – and its profound influence through the ages.

Feared and Revered showcases more than 160 objects from the British Museum’s exceptional collection, spanning six continents and 5,000 years, from 2800 BCE to the present day.

The exhibition presents a fascinating range of monumental sculpture, sacred artefacts and contemporary artworks, alongside Australian Indigenous representations of female ancestral figures and popular culture embodiments of the divine.

For more information, https://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/feared-and-revered

Call for Papers in German and English: Netzwerk ‚Das Komische als Kulturwissenschaft‘, Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Essen, Due By 15 August 2023

Call for PApers in German and ENglish

Netzwerk ‚Das Komische als Kulturwissenschaft‘

Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Essen, Essen

Due By 15 August 2023

Für ein geplantes DFG-Netzwerk, das Komik als eigenständige kulturelle Praxis begreift, sich unter Berücksichtigung des historischen und medialen Wandels mit ihren Formen, Konfigurationen und Verfahren, ihren Wirkungen und Funktionen, ihren Extremen, Grenzen und blinden Flecken auseinandersetzt, werden Projekte aus den Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften gesucht.

Von Spottgedichten und scherzhaften Drucken über Lustspiele und Vaudevilles bis zu Stand-Up-Comedy, witziger Werbung und Memes: Um bei Rezipient*innen zu wirken, muss das Komische auf kulturelles Wissen referieren und konventionalisierte Erwartungen aufrufen, um Letztere enttäuschen oder konterkarieren zu können, bisweilen in spektakulärer Art. Einerseits werden damit soziale Konstruktionen und Konflikte sichtbar, bspw. die Ein-/Ausschlüsse entlang von Differenzkategorien wie race, class, gender oder disability. Indem Komik etwa unerwartet abweichende Kultur- und Körpertechniken durchspielt, schickt sie sich andererseits aber auch an, alternative Modelle des gesellschaftlichen Zusammenlebens zu imaginieren und zu gestalten. Lustige Alltagssituationen und populärkomische Genres eröffnen daher wirkmächtige Verhandlungsorte kulturellen Wissens. Darin stehen sie den sog. hochkulturellen Produktionen in nichts nach.

Wir möchten einen transdisziplinären Rahmen etablieren für Wissenschaftler:innen mit kulturwissenschaftlichen Forschungsvorhaben, die weniger auf komiktheoretische Universalismen abzielen, sondern die die historisch-kulturellen Spezifika komischer Ereignisse in den Blick nehmen. Vielfältige Untersuchungsgegenstände, ästhetische wie epochale Schwerpunkte von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart sowie methodische und theoretische Anliegen sind willkommen. Grundlegendes Ziel des Netzwerks ist es:

  • das in vielen Fachdisziplinen vernachlässigte Komische als einen strukturell komplexen, ästhetisch reichhaltigen und gesellschaftlich hochrelevanten Forschungsgegenstand zu verankern,

  • das besondere kulturanalytische Potenzial des Komischen in seinen verschiedensten Präsentationsformen und -verfahren sowie im Hinblick auf diverse Wissenskontexte zu beleuchten,

  • etablierte Ansätze und aktuelle Forschungsrichtungen im gemeinsamen transdisziplinären Austausch kritisch zu reflektieren, zu nuancieren und zu erweitern, um neue Impulse für eine dezidiert kulturwissenschaftliche Komikforschung zu generieren.

Das Netzwerk kann bis zu 20 Mitglieder umfassen (darunter Forschende außerhalb Deutschlands) und nimmt seine Arbeit nach erfolgreicher Einwerbung für bis zu drei Jahre auf. Als Arbeitssprachen sind Deutsch und Englisch vorgesehen.

Interessierte bitten wir um eine kurze Projektskizze von etwa 1500 Zeichen und um eine biografische Notiz, die ggf. Vorarbeiten benennt. Beides kann, am besten zu einer PDF gebündelt, bis zum 15. August 2023 bei Roxanne Phillips (roxanne.phillips@kwi-nrw.de) eingereicht werden.

For more information, https://www.kulturwissenschaften.de/cfp-netzwerk-das-komische-als-kulturwissenschaft/#

Call for Papers: Revue de l’Association des jeunes chereurs d’e l’Ouest - Varia, Due By 28 July 2023

Call for Papers

Revue de l’Association des jeunes chereurs d’e l’Ouest - Varia

Due By 28 July 2023

Présentation

L’Association des Jeunes Chercheurs de l’Ouest (AJCO), créée en 2020 par d’anciens masterants en histoire de l’université d’Angers, aide les jeunes chercheurs traitant de questions d’histoire à valoriser leurs premiers travaux de recherche. L’AJCO a ainsi lancé plusieurs projets dont le principal est la publication d’articles de jeunes chercheurs en histoire, toutes thématiques et périodes confondues. Un à deux articles sont ainsi publiés chaque mois sur son site Internet.

Ce projet s’inscrit dans une démarche pédagogique et permet une première approche de l’exercice particulier de la rédaction d’un article scientifique. Conscients des difficultés de valorisation des mémoires de recherche, nous avons construit une plateforme contributive numérique alimentée par des articles écrits par de jeunes chercheurs. Pendant un master ou éventuellement un doctorat, l’écriture des premiers articles scientifiques et académiques peut sembler difficile. L’AJCO accompagne et conseille ainsi de jeunes chercheurs dans leur rédaction d’un article et le publie ensuite.

La revue de l’AJCO participe également à la vie de la recherche. Les mémoires de master sont souvent mal connus et peu diffusés, alors que les résultats obtenus sont souvent solides et pourraient contribuer à la recherche en histoire. Par la publication en ligne, la communauté scientifique et le public de façon générale peuvent accéder à ce que la recherche propose de plus actuel.

Modalités de contribution

L’AJCO donne la possibilité aux masterants, doctorants et jeunes diplômés en histoire de publier un article d’environ 30 000 signes, accompagné d’une bibliographie indicative d’une page. L’article doit s’inscrire dans la continuité des travaux universitaires ou reprendre les idées et thématiques développées dans les mémoires de recherche.

Les jeunes chercheurs souhaitant contribuer doivent envoyer une proposition d’article d’une page maximum, en mettant l’accent sur les questionnements autour desquels s’articulera la réflexion.

Date limite d’envoi des contributions : 28 juillet 2023

Les propositions doivent être envoyés à l’adresse suivante : contact@ajco49.fr

Merci d’indiquer dans votre email votre nom et prénom ainsi votre parcours universitaire (niveau d’étude et université de formation).

Le comité de lecture de l’AJCO est composé d’anciens masterants pour chaque période historique. Votre proposition sera étudiée et si vous êtes sélectionné pour rédiger un article, ces membres seront à votre disposition pour vous accompagner dans son écriture et répondre à vos questions éventuelles. Nous vous invitons également à faire appel à vos directeurs de recherche dans la mesure du possible, ces derniers étant les plus aptes à vous conseiller sur les questions de fond de votre réflexion.

Calendrier

  • 28 juillet 2023 : fin de l’appel à contributions

  • 28 juillet – 31 juillet 2023 : discussion collégiale autour des auteurs retenus

  • 31 juillet : envoi des réponses aux auteurs

  • 1er décembre 2023 : dernier délai pour récupérer le premier jet

  • 1er décembre 2023 – 1er mars : navette de relecture

  • 1er mars – 15 mars 2024 : processus d’édition

  • 15 mars 2024 : début des publications numériques

Des appels à contributions sont publiés plusieurs fois par an.

Comité de lecture

  • Matteo ANTONIAZZI, docteur en Histoire Ancienne, enseignant contractuel à l’Université d’Angers

  • Veronika BRANDL-MOUTON, maîtrise de recherche en Histoire Contemporaine

  • Béranger CHAUVIN, master de recherche en Histoire Ancienne

  • Matthieu CICHON, doctorant en Histoire Contemporaine

  • Philippe DUCHESNE, master de recherche en Histoire Ancienne

  • Laurène GARREAU, master de recherche en Histoire Moderne

  • Malo JEZEQUEL, master de recherche en Histoire Contemporaine

  • Alexis KOWALCZYK, master de recherche en Histoire du Moyen Âge

  • Lucie LAMPÉRIÈRE, maîtrise de recherche en Histoire Contemporaine

  • Roxanne LOUOT, master de recherche en Histoire Moderne

  • Justine MORENO, docteure en Histoire du Moyen Âge

  • Élise PIEDFORT, master de recherche en Histoire Moderne

CONTACT(S)

A PDF of the call for papers is available, and for more information, visit https://ajco49.fr/

Call for Papers: Luxury details in Medieval and Renaissance banquets, Karlštejn Castle, Prague (24 January 2024), Due By 30 July 2023

Call for Papers

Luxury details in Medieval and Renaissance banquets

Karlštejn Castle, Prague, Czech Republic, Jan 24, 2024

Due By 30 July 2023

Luxury in banquets is a topic that have been fascinating scholars in the last decades, with the result of bringing to the attention of the public the importance of specific objects, materials, ritual and diplomatic procedures or ingredients within these feasts. The sources employed were many and heterogenous, ranging from documents - including inventories, payment receipts, letters, personal journals, festival books, manuals and treatises – miniatures and paintings or archaeological evidences. This workshop intends to draw attention specifically to the material culture of banquets, exploring further the reasons for the choices made choosing the decorations, the table setting, the food offer and the costumes that would have been used for such occasions, from the 14th to the 17th century. The charm of Karlštejn Castle (https://www.hrad-karlstejn.cz/en) will be the perfect frame to welcome a one-day workshop dedicated to the discussion of new insights on table culture, tableware, precious fabrics, rich garments designed for specific banquet-related purposes, exotic ingredients and any other subject that can be connected with luxury aspects and attitudes in Medieval and Renaissance banquets.
The organizers of this workshop (Maddalena Bellavitis and Milan Svoboda) invite papers addressing issues that can shed new light and provide new interdisciplinary research trajectories on any topic that can be connected with the introduction of luxury items (including, but not only, tableware, clothes, furniture, decorations…), materials, ingredients and attitudes that could be used and found in Medieval and Renaissance banquets.

To be considered for participation, please provide a single pdf document including a one-page proposal in English for a 20-minute presentation of an unpublished research and a short bio. Applications may be sent to maddalena.bellavitis@gmail.com by July 30, 2023, specifying in the object the title of the workshop you are applying for (participants will be notified in September).

Call for Papers: Fragments and the Big Picture: Using Manuscript Fragments as Historical Sources, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Due By 15 September 2023

Call for Papers

Fragments and the Big Picture: Using Manuscript Fragments as Historical Sources

International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, 9-11 May 2024

Due By 15 September 2023

Helsinki National Library, F.m.I.83, fol. 5r

Over the last decades, manuscript fragments have received increased scholarly attention and international collaboration. Much of this work has concentrated on reconstructing now fragmented codices, highlighting rare survivals, or cataloguing.

While such efforts are crucially important, there is great research potential in the capacity of collections of fragments to expand our vision of medieval history more broadly. This session welcomes papers exploring how large or small fragment corpora (manuscript or incunabula) - and the meta-data about their provenance and early-modern recycling history - can be used as historical sources informing medieval book culture and other historical phenomena more broadly.

The organisers welcome papers using digital, big data/quantitative, as well as more traditional methodologies. We also encourage the exploration of methodological questions, such as:

  • How to approach fragments as corpora?

  • What can such corpora be thought to be representative of?

  • How have they been shaped by the recycling processes that ensured their survival?

  • What is the role of studying these processes in the wider context of fragment studies?

The session will be in-person only.

Paper proposals (c. 300-word abstract, affiliation, contact details, paper title, and 3-5 keywords), to be submitted on the ICMS Confex portal (see wmich.edu/medievalconaress/call) or to Emilia Henderson-Roche on emilia.henderson@helsinkif.fi, from 15 July, and by the latest 15 September 2023.

For an image of the call for papers, click here.