Ancient, Medieval and Early Modern Studies

Conferences

SACRED PLACES, PILGRIMAGE AND EMOTIONS

http://www.historyofemotions.org.au/upcoming-events/sacred-places,-pilgrimage-and-emotions.aspx

COLLABORATORY

The collaboratory 'Sacred Places, Pilgrimage and Emotions' will take place from Thursday 23 May until Saturday 25 May 2013 at the University of Melbourne.

This interdisciplinary collaboratory, hosted by the ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions, will explore the emotions created in response to sacred place or space from the late antique to the modern period, and how these emotions are employed to build, strengthen and defend different forms of community and community identity.

Full details, including a click-through link for the full program, and another to register are available here.

PUBLIC LECTURE

Associated with the collaboratory is a public lecture and keynote speech to be delivered on the evening of Thursday 23 May by Dr Simon Ditchfield, Reader at the University of York, on the topic 'Thinking with Rome: Space, Place and Emotion in the Making of the First World Religion'.  Full details, including a click-through link to register, are available here.

Registration for both events is free, but places are limited and registration is essential.  Please note that you must register separately for the collaboratory and the public lecture if you wish to attend both events.

For further enquiries regarding both events, please email Jessie Scott (jessica.scott@unimelb.edu.au).

ARTHUR OF THE NORTH

University of Oslo 23-25 May 2013

Keynote Speaker: Marianne Kalinke (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

Invited Speakers:

‘Arthur of the North’ is the First International Conference organised by The Nordic Branch of the International Arthurian Society (IAS). It is dedicated to the Arthurian narratives in any of the medieval Scandinavian languages (Old Norse, Old Swedish, Old Danish). We welcome papers on any topic related to the medieval Scandinavian Arthurian traditions.

Among the themes that might be addressed are: theories and practices of translations, culture-historical contexts, literary style, form, structure, genre-related issues, and manuscript tradition of the Nordic Arthurian texts.

The Arthurian literary tradition, which the Scandinavian texts form part of, was transmitted in Latin and all the medieval vernacular languages. Therefore, we welcome also comparative papers on the various traditions as well as studies of Arthurian material which is of relevance for the Scandinavian context.

All participants are welcome to join the International Arthurian Society. For information on how to join, please visit the website of the IAS: http://www.internationalarthuriansocietyo.com or the Nordic Branch: http://www.hf.uio.no/iln/english/research/networks/nordicarthur.

Detailed information about the conference, programme and registration will be available on the website of the Nordic Branch of the IAS (from February 2013 onwards).

For further inquiries, please contact any of the members of the organising committee:
Stefka G. Eriksen, University of Oslo, s.g.eriksen@iln.uio.no
Sif Rikhardsdottir, University of Iceland, sifr@hi.is
Bjørn Bandlien, University of Oslo, bjorn.bandlien@iakh.uio.no

SCHOOL OF GAZA

An international conference on the School of Gaza (V-VIth c. AD) organised by Eugenio Amato, Aldo Corcella and Delphine Lauritzen at the Collège de France, Paris, on May 23-25 2013. Program available on http://www.orient-mediterranee.com/spip.php?article990.

REVEALING RECORDS V

King’s College London 24 May 2013

Conference web site

Revealing Records V will be held at King’s College London on 24 May 2013. This postgraduate conference series brings together researchers working with a wide range of sources from across the medieval world; papers that adopt an interdisciplinary approach, drawing upon palaeography, archaeology or other related disciplines are particularly welcome.

For more information please contact revealingrecords@gmail.com.

THE SEVENTH CENTURY: CONTINUITY OR DISCONTINUITY?

http://7thcentury.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/call-for-papers.html

The 2013 Edinburgh University Seventh Century Colloquium 28–29 May 2013

We are pleased to announce the 2013 Edinburgh University Seventh Century Colloquium, 28–29 May 2013.
The colloquium is a two-day interdisciplinary conference for postgraduate students and early career researchers.  The colloquium brings together scholars from different disciplines studying the seventh century in order to promote discussion and the cross-fertilisation of ideas.  We will explore how wider perspectives can be used to formulate new approaches to source material, drawing out fresh perspectives on both the familiar and unfamiliar.

Our general theme will be an examination of whether the seventh century can be studied as a unit across regions or whether the period represents a break in the longue durée.  What was the level of discontinuity between the 'long sixth' and 'long eighth' centuries?

We invite those working in archaeology, art history, history, literature, numismatics and religion, as well as in fields including Byzantine, Celtic, Classics, Islamic and Late Antique studies to engage with all aspects of the long seventh century.

Topics include, but are by no means limited to:

Additionally, poster presentations will be considered.

Our organisational structure is designed to encourage collaboration and cross-fertilisation of ideas; we will have no parallel sessions as we believe that everything will be useful to all of us.  To build collaboration, we will be adopting an innovative structure for the conference.  The sessions will be structured as follows:

We hope that such methods will not only inspire genuine collaboration between the two scholars involved but will encourage a wider and livelier debate and discussion.  Similarly, we hope that all involved will feel encouraged to debate, discuss and occasionally disagree.

We believe that through such methods all of us will advance as scholars.

Details from the organising committee at edinburgh7th@gmail.com

Persons interested in attending and serving as respondents only are also encouraged to contact us.

Visit our blog at http://7thcentury.blogspot.co.uk/ for updates.

EARTH PERFECT? NATURE, UTOPIA AND THE GARDEN SYMPOSIUM

The University of Delaware, June 6-9 2013

Symposium web site

Since time immemorial, gardens have been key in humanity’s quest to define an ideal relation to nature. Gardens have been sources of nourishment for the body and the soul, they have been symbols of wealth and power, they have served as barriers against the wild, and much more. This interdisciplinary symposium focuses on the importance and meaning of gardens in the past, present, and the future, and that from a wide range of perspectives, including, but not limited to the following disciplines: art, art history, architecture, anthropology, agriculture, philosophy, literature, history, horticulture, botany, landscape architecture, garden design, nutrition, and law as well as earth and life sciences more generally.

Please see the symposium website for more details regarding venues, programming, lodging, and registration: http://www.udel.edu/earthperfect.

PEDAGOGICAL APPROACHES TO MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN STUDIES

UCLA MEMSA Graduate Student Conference, UCLA,  Los Angeles - CA June 7 2013

The last two decades have seen radical revisions to curricula at universities and colleges around the world. But have curricular changes been accompanied by pedagogical developments? When it comes to teaching, graduate students often learn by doing. By virtue of their experiments and their proximity to the undergraduate curriculum, they are among the most innovative educators on their campuses. The Medieval and Early Modern Students Association at UCLA invites graduate students to share their experience at a conference on June 7 that deals with teaching Medieval and Early Modern material in the undergraduate classroom. Papers may address, but are not limited to, the following topics and lines of inquiry:

  1. Methodological approaches that lend themselves to Medieval and Early Modern Studies
  2. Classroom conditions (ideological, practical, technological, social/cultural, financial, theoretical) that shape approaches and assumptions in literary study
  3. Accessibility of older material to today’s undergraduates
  4. Student-directed learning and the canon
  5. The learning goals of an historical curriculum
  6. Presentism and productive anachronism
  7. Reception history and the critical heritage
  8. Challenges and opportunities of teaching older material
  9. Textual criticism and the literary archive
  10. Digital approaches and 21st-century technology in the Medieval and Early Modern classroom
  11. Surveying the survey course
  12. Transformative pedagogy and Medieval and Early Modern studies
  13. Creating dialogues across the curriculum
  14. Performance studies
  15. Synthesizing research and reading with other undergraduate disciplines
  16. Seminar learning vs/and lecture learning
  17. Teaching writing in the Medieval and Early Modern studies
  18. Translation and multilingualism (teaching in translations vs. original languages)
  19. New Historicism and student learning
  20. Politics and pedagogy (teaching race, gender, ethnicity, class, and sexuality in Medieval and Early Modern studies)
  21. Theory in Medieval and Early Modern studies

Details from memsa.ucla@gmail.com.

UNDERSTANDING AND THE GOOD LIFE IN ANTIQUITY

7-8 June, 2013 Melbourne, Australia

https://sites.google.com/site/melbancient/

Keynote Speaker: Prof. Daniel C. Russell (Ormond College, University of Melbourne/Center for the Philosophy of Freedom, Arizona University)

What is the relationship between understanding and the good life in Antiquity? We invite submissions addressing this question, broadly construed. Papers may focus on specific texts, particular thinkers, or schools and traditions of thought, from Homer and the Presocratics up to and including Simplicius.

The Colloquium aims to bring advanced graduate students and early-career researchers (who are within five years of receiving their PhD) together with established academics. Each presenter will be paired with a discussant. There will be a keynote address, and a career development workshop.

Possible topics for papers include:

THE FIVE SENSES IN MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN CULTURES: LITERATURE AND LANGUAGE

University of Bern, 7–8 June, 2013

Conference Web Site

The study of the historical and cultural formation of the senses has attracted increasing scholarly interest in recent years. We invite abstracts for 20-minute papers from medievalists and early modernists (in English literary and cultural studies or in linguistics). Topics may include but are not limited to

  1. sensory environments
  2. sensory metaphors
  3. sensory hierarchies
  4. sense impairments
  5. gender and the senses

Papers might explore:

  1. how sensory experiences are expressed and ordered by language
  2. how literature grows out of and evokes sensory experiences
  3. how sensations were interpreted in the late medieval and early modern periods
  4. how the meanings of sensory terms have changed with time
  5. how the knowledge of sense perception was transmitted 

To maximise the interaction among the conference participants, there will be no parallel sessions. The concluding session of the conference will include a panel discussion of the outstanding problems in the fields and the trends for future research.

Confirmed keynote speakers:

  1. Professor Vincent Gillespie, University of Oxford 
  2. Dr Farah Karim-Cooper, King’s College London 
  3. Professor Richard Newhauser, Arizona State University 

THE EIGHTH AUSTRALIAN CONFERENCE OF CELTIC STUDIES

University of Sydney, Tuesday 11 to Friday 14 June 2013

http://sydney.edu.au/arts/celtic_studies/about/news/

A preliminary conference programme will be posted on the University of Sydney Celtic Studies web site, together with further conference information. At the close of the conference, speakers will be asked for submissions in respect of peer-reviewed publication, in a volume to be published by the University of Sydney Celtic Studies Foundation.

THE PLACE OF RENAISSANCE HUMANISM IN THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY

Faculty of Philosophy, University of Groningen, The Netherlands 
13, 14 and 15 June 2013

Keynote Speakers: Michael Allen, Luca Bianchi, Christopher Celenza, Brian P. Copenhaver, James Hankins, Jill Kraye, David Lines, Peter Mack, John Monfasani, Lodi Nauta, Jan Papy, Andrea A. Robiglio

The organizing committee welcomes papers on themes such as the following:

  1. philosophical ideas in humanist texts
  2. the interplay between scholastic and humanist modes of thought and writing
  3. philosophical assumptions of humanist techniques in reading, writing and commenting
  4. the humanists’ contribution to the development of thought from the late middle ages to the late Renaissance
  5. the historiography of Renaissance humanism in modern scholarship

We would in particular like to invite speakers to reflect on what they see as the philosophical dimension of humanism or what they see as important contributions of the humanists to the development of Western philosophy (which we take in a broader sense than the academic discipline of today). Speakers may also choose to discuss one of more case studies or a discipline (grammar, rhetoric, ethics, natural philosophy, methodology of reading and writing, humanist scholarship, and so on) on the basis of which something can be said about the place of Renaissance humanism in the broader narrative of Western thought.

Announcements will also be made at our website: www.renaissance-humanism.nl.

Please send your enquiries to renaissance-humanism@rug.nl.

WOMEN AND CURIOSITY IN EARLY MODERN ENGLAND

University Paris Ouest Nanterre (Quarto, CREA370) and University Sorbonne Nouvelle — Paris 3 (Épistémè, PRISMES EA4398) 21-22 June 2013

The multiplication of cabinets of curiosities and the obsession with novelty are evidence of the development of a “culture of curiosity” in the early modern period. In Europe, the telescope, which soon became the instrument of curiosity, epitomized man’s desire to see beyond the pillars of Hercules. The physico-theological dimension of natural philosophy at the time led to considering curiosity as a wish to know God by reading the Book of Nature and unravelling its mysteries. In his article on “Curiosity, Forbidden Knowledge and the Reformation in Early Modern England” (Isis, 2001, 265-90), Peter Harrison argues that there was a “rehabilitation of curiosity” in the early modern period. While curiosity had long been considered as an intellectual vice, associated with hybris and the original sin, and described by Augustine as “lust of the eyes”, it became a virtue in the 17th century. One of the main reasons for this transformation was the continued efforts of natural philosophers to demonstrate that curiosity was morally acceptable in order to legitimize their scientific endeavour. Thus Francis Bacon and his followers insisted on the code of conduct of natural philosophers, the usefulness of the knowledge they were seeking and the discrepancy between their own research and occult sciences. All of them championed the “good curiosity” of the natural philosophers who followed the Baconian programme, as opposed to the “bad curiosity” of men and women interested in magic, and in trivial and superficial matters.

If there was indeed a “rehabilitation of curiosity” in the early modern period, did it have any impact on women’s desire for knowledge? The emergence of women philosophers at the time (Margaret Cavendish, Anne Conway, Lady Ranelagh, Elisabeth of Bohemia, Catherine of Sweden, Damaris Masham, Catherine Trotter, etc.) may indicate that their curiosity was now considered as legitimate and morally acceptable – or at least that it was tolerated. Yet it has been suggested that the new status of curiosity in the early modern period led instead to an even stronger distrust for women, who were both prone to curiosity and curiosities themselves. A. Capodivacca thus argues that the legitimization of curiosity came with a “degendering” or  “virilization” of this faculty (Curiosity and the Trials of the Imagination in Early Modern Italy, PhD, Berkeley, 2007, p. 7), and therefore entailed a redefinition of good and bad curiosity along gender lines. Similarly, Neil Kenny states that in early modern Europe,“much male curiosity had become good” and as a result “a much larger proportion of bad curiosity was now female” (The Uses of Curiosity in Early Modern France and Germany, 2004, p. 385). The June 2013 conference on “Women and Curiosity” aims at assessing the impact of the alledged “rehabilitation of curiosity” on women in the early modern period, by analysing discourses on women as enquirers and objects of curiosity. Iconographic and fictional representations of curious women and female curiosity might also give an insight into the relations between women and curiosity in the early modern period (for example, Cesare Ripa’s allegory of curiosity as “a huge, wild-haired, winged woman” in Iconologia (1593), or representations of emblematic curious women such as Eve, Dinah, Pandora, etc.). The origins of these discourses and representations, as well as their premises, might also be investigated: to what extent did the condemnation of women’s curiosity reveal a fear of disorder and transgression? Did it betray male anxiety about female sexuality or about the mystery of birth? Was it justified by medical interpretations of curiosity, such as a specific humoural condition?

Women’s own conception of curiosity / curiosities in the early modern period might also be of interest, especially as it is rarely studied. The conference on “Women and Curiosity” will thus give us the opportunity to focus on what women themselves wrote about curiosity in their treatises, fictional works, translations, and correspondences. For instance, Queen Elizabeth I’s relation to curiosity, which was necessarily different from that of ordinary women, was revealed in several of her translations, in particular in her English version of Plutarch’s “De curiositate” (based on Erasmus’ Latin translation) and her Latin version of Bernardino Ochino’s “Che cosa è Cristo”; she also criticised theological and political curiosity in a 1585 address to the clergy, explicitly referring to Puritan preachers (Elizabeth I: Translations, 1592-98, eds. J. Mueller & J. Scodel, 2009). In her book The World’s Olio (1655), Margaret Cavendish gives a description of the ideal commonwealth, the ruler of which should “have none of those they call their cabinets, which is a room filled with all useless curiosities, which seems Effeminate, and is so Expensive […] almost to the impoverishing of a Kingdome”. Cavendish adds that it might be more useful to fill the room with books, which are “more famous curiosities” (p. 207). The works of Aphra Behn (who, incidentally, was a spy for King Charles II) can also be seen as a testimony on women’s relation to curiosity at the time: while the story related in Oroonoko (1688) takes place in an exotic environment teeming with curiosities, The History of the Nun (1689) presents curiosity as being natural to women (“naturally […] Maids are curious and vain”, p. 58). Did women writers consider curiosity as intrinsically female? How did they react to male discourses on women as enquirers and objects of curiosity? What representations of curiosity did they give in their texts?

Details from Sandrine Parageau (sparageau@hotmail.com or sandrine.parageau@u-paris10.fr) and Line Cottegnies (line.cottegnies@univ-paris3.fr).

SENSING THE SACRED: RELIGION AND THE SENSES, 1300-1800

The University of York, 21-22 June 2013

Conference Web Site

Confirmed keynote addresses from Nicky Hallett (University of Sheffield), Matthew Milner (McGill University) & Chris Woolgar (University of Southampton).

Religion has always been characterised as much by embodied experience as by abstract theological dispute. From the sounds of the adhān (the Islamic call to prayer), to the smell of incense in the Hindu Pūjā (a ritual offering to the deities), the visual emblem of the cross in the Christian tradition, and the ascetic practices of Theravada Buddhism, sensation is integral to a range of devotional practices. At the same time, the history of many faiths is characterised by an intense suspicion of the senses and the pleasures they offer.

This international, interdisciplinary conference, to be held at the University of York from 21 to 22 June 2013, will bring together scholars working on the role played by the senses in the experience and expression of religion and faith in the pre-modern world. The burgeoning field of sensory history offers a fertile ground for reconsideration of religious studies across disciplinary boundaries. We welcome papers from anthropologists, archaeologists, art historians, historians, literary scholars, musicologists, philosophers, theologians and any other interested parties. Possible topics might include, but are by no means limited to:

  1. Synaesthesia: how do religious rituals blur sensory boundaries, and challenge sensory hierarchies?
  2. Iconography and iconoclasm: how might we conceive the ‘rites of violence’ in sensory terms? How does iconography engage the non-visual senses?
  3. The senses and conversion: how are the senses used to elicit conversion?
  4. Material cultures of religion: what role do the senses play in mediating between bodies and sacred objects?
  5. The senses and gender: are sensing practices gender specific?
  6. The inner (spiritual) senses: how do they relate to the external (bodily) senses?
  7. Sensory environments: to what extent do environments shape devotional practices and beliefs, and vice versa? How do we use our senses to orient ourselves in space?
  8. Affect: what role do the senses play in the inculcation of religious affect?

POPES AND THE PAPACY IN EARLY MODERN ENGLISH CULTURE: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY CONFERENCE

The University of Sussex June 24-26 2013

Confirmed speakers include: Peter Lake, Susannah Monta and Alison Shell

Topics may include:

  1. Anti- Catholic satire
  2. Pre-Reformation culture
  3. Literary representations of Popes and the Papacy
  4. Lives of the Popes
  5. English Cardinals
  6. Religious controversy
  7. Recusant culture
  8. Papal Bulls
  9. Excommunication
  10. Diplomacy/Ambassadors/Nuncios/Correspondence
  11. Architecture
  12. Ecclesiology
  13. Theology
Details from Paul Quinn (p.l.quinn@sussex.ac.uk).

SEVENTH INTERNATIONAL MARLOWE CONFERENCE

http://marlowesmightyline.org/

June 25-28, 2013 at the Blackfriars Playhouse, Staunton, VA

Featured keynote speakers:
Susan P. Cerasano, Colgate University
Laurie Maguire, Oxford University
Leah Marcus, Vanderbilt University
Garrett Sullivan, Pennsylvania State University

Conference events, including a screening of a filmed version of The Jew of Malta and a staged production of The Massacre at Paris will be complemented by the professional productions at the American Shakespeare Center.

For other information see www.marlowesmightyline.org or contact Jeremy Lopez, Program Chair: jeremy.lopez@utoronto.ca.

THE MIDDLE AGES IN THE MODERN WORLD

University of St Andrews, UK, 25-28 June, 2013

A multidisciplinary conference on the uses and abuses of the Middle Ages from the Renaissance to the 21st century

Provisional Keynotes
Carolyn Dinshaw (New York University): The Green Man and the Modern World
Patrick Geary (Princeton): European ethnicity: Does Europe have too much past?
Seamus Heaney (Nobel Prize-winning Poet): Translating medieval poetry
Bruce Holsinger (University of Virginia): The politics of medievalism
Felicitas Hoppe (Author and Translator): Adapting medieval romance
Terry Jones (Author and Broadcaster): Columbus, America and the flat earth

Medievalism – the reception and adaptation of the politics, history, art and literature of the Middle Ages – has burgeoned over the past decade and is now coming of age as a subject of serious academic enquiry. This conference aims to take stock and develop directions for the future. We hope to address questions such as:

Organisers: Dr Chris Jones, School of English and Dr Bettina Bildhauer, School of Modern Languages, University of St Andrews.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIEVAL MEETING LLEIDA 2013

University of Lleida, Spain, 26-28 June 2013

The International Medieval Meeting Lleida will be held between 26 June and 28 June, 2013, at the University of Lleida, Spain. Some of the leading medievalists from across the globe will take part in four congresses which focus on various key aspects of medieval history, art history, archaeology, literature and language. Specialists in a wide range of aspects of Medieval Studies will introduce their research at this meeting, while others will present sessions, individual papers and posters on different aspects of research in the history of the Middle Ages. There will also be sessions dedicated to the promotion and management of research, the application of new technologies in the Humanities and the promotion of historical heritage. Furthermore, there will be important presentations concerning the publication and dissemination of research in medieval history.

Enrolment open for attendees until 25 June 2013.

For more information, please, visit www.internationalmedievalmeetinglleida.udl.cat.

SIN AND SALVATION IN REFORMATION ENGLAND

The Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-upon-Avon, 26-28 June 2013

Conference Web Site

Sin and Salvation were the two central religious preoccupations of men and women in sixteenth century England, and yet the reformation fundamentally reconfigured the theological, intellectual, social and cultural landscape in which these two conceptual landmarks were sited. The abolition of purgatory, the ending of intercessory prayer, the rejection of works of supererogation and the collapse of the medieval economy of salvation meant that it was impossible for attitudes, hopes, fears and expectations about sin and salvation to survive the reformation unchanged. This conference will explore some of the transformations and permutations which the concepts of sin and salvation underwent over the course of the Reformation in England, as well as the practical consequences of these changes as lived.

Keynote Speakers:

‘Sin and Salvation in Reformation England’ is a major multi-disciplinary conference, hosted by the University of Birmingham’s Centre for Reformation and Early Modern Studies (CREMS) with the generous support of the Leverhulme Trust. Contributions are invited from established scholars and postgraduate students alike and it is hoped that the conference will give rise to an edited volume of essays.

Themes for papers may include (but are not limited to): visual, literary, political, theological, historical, material, musical, polemical or any other treatments of the topics of sin and salvation in the context of reformation-era England.

SOURCING EMOTIONS IN THE MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN WORLD

ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions (Europe 1100-1800) Conference 2013
University of Western Australia, Perth
27-29 June 2013

Conference Web site

This international conference will bring together scholars interested in exploring how we "source" emotions of the medieval and early modern period, whether by performing, acting, hearing, finding, or reading within the varied disciplines interested in this period.

Keynote Speakers:

  1. James Amelang (Professor of Early Modern History, Universidad Autónoma, Madrid)
  2. Tim Carter (David G. Frey Distinguished Professor of Music, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
  3. Sarah McNamer (Associate Professor of English and Medieval Studies, Georgetown University)
  4. Adrian Randolph (Leon E. Williams Professor of Art History, Dartmouth College)

The conference will deal with such questions as:

  1. Where we look for emotions in the extant sources
  2. How we 'read' across multiple source types to create a composite understanding of the emotions of a particular time period
  3. How we translate source information into practice in the performing arts
  4. Gendered nature of sources and gendered nature of emotions
  5. Sources, emotions and power: what are sources for understanding emotions in cross-cultural encounters?
  6. What do we have to take into account when interpreting them?
  7. Material objects as sources for the study of emotions
  8. Does the study of emotions make us to rethink our sources? If so, in what ways? 

Papers will be streamed according to the Centre's four Research Programs:
MEANINGS: studies the changing understandings and categorisation of emotions over the period 1100-1800 in Europe.
CHANGE: investigates the drivers of changes in societal emotional regimes, and the power of collective emotions to produce major cultural, social, political and economic change.
PERFORMANCE: interrogates how emotions were performed and expressed in pre-modern dramatic, literary, artistic and musical performances.
SHAPING THE MODERN: explores Europe's legacy of emotional understandings and practices in Australia today, and the many ways in which modern Australians engage with and re-interpret Australia's emotional heritage.

TRANSLATION AND THE CIRCULATION OF KNOWLEDGE IN EARLY MODERN SCIENCE

A one-day colloquium at the Warburg Institute, London, Friday 28 June 2013

Colloquium web site

In recent decades, scholars have offered myriad new insights into the exchange and propagation of scientific ideas in the early modern Republic of Letters. Within this vibrant field, however, the part played by translation and translators remains little studied. This colloquium will explore the role of translation in early modern science, providing a forum for discussion about translations as well as the translators, mediators, agents and interpreters whose role in the intellectual history of the period remains ill defined and deserves greater attention. The topics may include:

  1. Philosophy and theory of translation
  2. The practice of translating texts and images
  3. The `professional translator´
  4. The function and use of translations
  5. Translation in academies
  6. The use of auxiliary languages
  7. Translation in learned correspondence
  8. The readers of translations
  9. Informal translations: adaptations, paraphrases, summaries

For further details, please visit the colloquium website at http://warburg.sas.ac.uk/events/colloquia/translation.

This colloquium is supported by the Warburg Institute and Durham University and is organized in collaboration with the Visualizing Knowledge in the Early Modern Netherlands project at the Courtauld Institute, London.

INTELLECTUAL NETWORKS IN THE LONG SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

Durham University 30 June-2 July 2013

Durham’s Centre for Seventeenth-Century Studies — now part of the Institute of Medieval and Early Modern Studies — has, since its foundation in 1985, organized over a dozen high-profile international conferences. Next year’s event, which both continues that tradition and celebrates the Centre’s new role within one of Durham University’s flagship research institutes, will address the topic of ‘Intellectual Networks in the Long Seventeenth Century.’

The conference will explore the emergence and consolidation of systems of intellectual and cultural exchange during the long seventeenth century, while assessing their lasting influence on the history of scholarship, literature, diplomacy, science, and religious communities. Special emphasis will be placed on the relationship between the British Isles and the wider world:

  1. Erudite correspondence
  2. Academic networks: knowledge transmission and cultural change
  3. Diplomacy, high and low
  4. Literary circles
  5. Scientific institutions and the history of medicine
  6. Intellectual exchange among/within religious communities
  7. Book trade and collectorship
  8. Counter-intelligence and the political and religious underground
  9. Women and intellectual exchange
  10. Popular cultural exchange

The conference is taking place at an exciting time for seventeenth century and early modern studies at Durham. Recent significant developments include:

  1. The re-opening of Cosin’s Library (1699) on the UNESCO World Heritage site of Palace Green following a major restoration project; the collection, now part of Durham University Library, was assembled by the great seventeenth-century book collector John Cosin, Bishop of Durham (1595-1672)
  2. The joint custodianship of the library and archive of Ushaw College, shared between the trustees of the archive and Durham University Library
  3. A related international conference on Early Modern English Catholicism taking place at Ushaw College (28 June to 1 July 2013), with which the present conference will share a joint keynote lecture from Professor Eamon Duffy (Cambridge) on the evening of 30 June

For further details visit http://www.dur.ac.uk/imrs/newsandevents/research/cfp.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIEVAL CONGRESS

http://www.leeds.ac.uk/ims/imc/imc2013.html

University of Leeds, 1-4 July 2014

ADAPTATION AND APPROPRIATION

8th International Conference of the Tudor Symposium, Northumbria University, 3-4 July 2013

Confirmed Speakers: Adam Hansen (Northumbria University), Mike Pincombe (Newcastle University), Cathy Shrank (University of Sheffield)

How do adaptations fit texts to new cultural circumstances? What gains or losses are involved in transformations from page to stage or screen? What are the politics of appropriating the past? Do adaptations encourage creativity or suppress it? What is the role of publishers, readers, and the state in promoting or restricting appropriations of the classics? These questions are as relevant today as they were 500 years ago. Adaptations of Shakespeare and his contemporaries and appropriations of the Tudor past are a major feature of our culture, but Tudor literature was equally characterised by a vigorous appropriation of its classical and medieval pasts. Yet, questions of adaptation and appropriation in Tudor England and in our own time (and in the many periods in between) continue to be studied separately in disciplines with their own scholarly traditions and theories. This conference aims to bring together scholars working in a variety of fields to encourage dialogue between different perspectives and methodologies.

Topics might include (but are not limited to):

  1. The imitation and reception of ancient Greek and Roman literature in Tudor England
  2. Tudor translations
  3. Staging the classical, medieval, and Tudor past in Elizabethan England
  4. The publication and transformation of medieval literature in sixteenth-century England
  5. Tudor plays in performance from the death of Elizabeth to the present
  6. Cinema, television, opera, pop music, and other versions of Tudor texts
  7. The publication, editing, and re-interpretation of Tudor literature after 1603
  8. The appropriation of the Tudor past in historical novels, plays, and television series, foreign-language translations of Tudor texts critical models of adaptation, appropriation, imitation, reception, cultural memory, the canon, presentism
Details from Fred Schurink (fred.schurink@northumbria.ac.uk) or Monika Smialkowska (monika.smialkowska@northumbria.ac.uk).

SYMPOSIUM ON READING AND HEALTH IN EARLY MODERN EUROPE, 1500-1800

Medieval and Early Modern Research Group, Newcastle University 5-6 July 2013

Symposium Web site

Keynote speakers:

This symposium will explore how early modern texts engage with the regulation of the body and mind through reading. It will investigate the connections between reading and health and consider how reading was understood as an embodied practice in the period with profound implications for both personal well being and conception of the healthy body politic.

The genres might include medical, scientific, literary, religious, or pedagogical and rhetorical writings.

Topics might include, but are not restricted to:

POLITICS AND TEXTS IN LATE CAROLINGIAN EUROPE, C. 870–1000

St Andrews Institute of Mediaeval Studies 8-9 July 2013

Conference web site

A two-day conference entitled ‘Politics and Texts in Late Carolingian Europe, c. 870–1000’, hosted by the St Andrews Institute of Mediaeval Studies. This conference will explore the relationship between political authority and textual production in the later Carolingian world.

In recent years, there has been substantial re-evaluation of traditional methodological approaches to all kinds of early medieval texts, from narrative histories to documentary sources. Historians have increasingly taken stock of the interdependence of textual aspects such as audience, reception, dissemination, authorial agenda and the relationships between cultural and political elites. This reappraisal has inspired renewed interest in earlier Carolingian political history. However, the so-called ‘post-Carolingian’ world of the tenth century has yet to be thoroughly investigated on the same terms. How did texts produced in the late ninth- and tenth-century political climate differ from those of the preceding century? Is it possible to refashion the traditional political narrative of late Carolingian fragmentation and decline by reassessing the foundations on which this very narrative has been constructed? Our intention is to draw together recent work on the theme of political discourse in the written sources of this period. We hope to provide an international forum for established academics, early career researchers and postgraduate students working on political culture and the functions of texts in the late Carolingian world.

Eight invited academics will offer papers on the conference themes.

The conference will include lunches, refreshments, wine reception and an optional conference meal. We expect to be able to contribute towards speakers’ accommodation and travel expenses.

TRADE, TRAVEL AND TRANSMISSION IN THE MEDIEVAL MEDITERRANEAN

Third Biennial Conference of the Society for the Medieval Mediterranean, Churchill College, University of Cambridge (UK)
8-10 July, 2013.

Confirmed keynote speakers:
Prof. David Abulafia (University of Cambridge)
Prof. Carole Hillenbrand (University of Edinburgh)

The Society for the Medieval Mediterranean is proud to announce our forthcoming third biennial conference, with the theme of ‘Trade, Travel and Transmission’. This three-day inter-disciplinary conference will bring scholars together to explore the interaction of the various peoples, societies, faiths and cultures of the medieval Mediterranean, a region which had been commonly represented as divided by significant religious and cultural differences. The objective of the conference is to highlight the extent to which the medieval Mediterranean was not just an area of conflict but also a highly permeable frontier across which people, goods and ideas crossed and influenced neighbouring cultures and societies.

Topics:

  1. Activities of missionary orders
  2. Artistic contacts and exchanges
  3. Byzantine and Muslim navies
  4. Captives and slaves
  5. Cargoes, galleys and warships
  6. Costume and vestments
  7. Diplomacy
  8. Judaism and Jewish Mediterranean History Literary contacts and exchanges
  9. Material Culture Minority Populations in the Christian and Islamic Worlds.
  10. Mirrors for Princes
  11. Music, sacred and secular
  12. Port towns/city states
  13. Relations between Jews, Christians and Muslims.
  14. Religious practices: saints, cults and heretics Scientific exchange, including astronomy, medicine and mathematics Seafaring, seamanship and shipbuilding 
  15. Sufis & Sufi Orders in North Africa and the Levant Sultans, kings and other rulers 
  16. Trade and Pilgrimage 
  17. Travel writing
  18. Warfare: mercenaries and crusaders

Details from Dr Rebecca Bridgman (University of Cambridge, Vice-President of the Society for the Medieval Mediterranean) at the following e-mail: smmconference2013@gmail.com.

SAINTS AND THE CITY: URBAN HOLINESS BEFORE MODERNITY

Workshop for Graduates and Young Post-Graduates, Erlangen, 8–10 July 2013

Saints in the city, living holy men and women, have set their mark on the life of western urban centres for hundreds of years. What specifically were the hallmarks of urban holiness in the Pre-Modern West? How did urban holiness develop and what influence did its embodying representatives exercise on political, social and cultural discourse? What forms of media conveyed their message? Are there comparable phenomena in the Near and Far East?

The Erlangen workshop will pursue answers to these questions on an interdisciplinary basis. Younger researchers (those pursuing doctorates or having completed them and still younger 35 years of age) are invited to present their research findings for discussion by a large and varied audience. Prof. Dr. Albert Dietl (Art History, Regensburg) will give a keynote evening lecture on the topic of “Urban Patrons in Medieval Italy” (in collaboration with the Art Historical Institute of the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg).

The Erlangen Interdisciplinary Centre for European Medieval and Renaissance Studies IZEMIR (http://www.mittelalter.phil.uni-erlangen.de) and the DFG-Research Groups «Holiness and Sanctification in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period. Intercultural Perspectives in Europe and Asia» (http://www.sakralitaet.uni-erlangen.de) will offer five fellowships of 250 € in support of travel and attendance costs for presenters. Interested persons should send a CV and brief description of their proposed topic by 15 April 2013 to the following address:

Prof. Dr. Michele C. Ferrari
Friedrich-Alexander-Universität
Mittellatein und Neulatein
Kochstr. 4/3
D-91054 Erlangen
Michele.C.Ferrari@as.phil.uni-erlangen.de

PAC RIM 2013

The 2013 Pacific Rim Roman Literature Seminar, the 27th in this annual conference series, will be held from 9-11 July at Columbia University in New York.

The conference theme is 'The Journey in Roman Literature'. As usual, the theme can be interpreted as widely as possible, to include journeys not just physical but also intellectual, spiritual, emotional, psychological, sexual, fantastical....or whatever your
imagination comes up with.

Accommodation. A limited number of rooms have been reserved at Columbia Teachers College (www.tc.columbia.edu) for four nights, checking in Monday 8 July and out Friday 12 July. The rate per room plus taxes works out at approx. US$130 per night, which is very good value for Manhattan. Each room has a double bed so can accommodate either a single person or a couple. If you wish to avail yourself of this option please contact Gareth Williams as soon as possible. It may be possible to extend your stay; again, please contact Gareth with your request. Information about other accommodation options will be circulated shortly, but these you will need to
organise for yourselves.

Registration. A registration form will be circulated early next year. There will be a small registration fee to cover incidentals such as morning and afternoon teas, but this can be paid in cash on the first morning. We anticipate it will be around US$50.00.

We very much look forward to seeing you in July.
Gareth Williams (gdw5@columbia.edu)
John Penwill (j.penwill@latrobe.edu.au)
Co-conveners.

INTERNATIONAL SUMMER SCHOOL IN ANGLO-ITALIAN STUDIES

University of Verona, July 2013: second and third week

Organizer: Prof. Rita Severi (rita.severi@univr.it)

The University of Verona (Italy) is organizing an international summer school (ISS) that offers courses that will allow you to continue to broaden your research interests in the fields of foreign languages (Italian), history (Medieval and Renaissance, European and Italian history), art, comparative studies, cross-cultural studies. Well known, international specialists will introduce new, interesting ways of reading and analyzing texts as well as artistic and historical contexts.

The school offers intensive courses, guided tours to the main Shakespearean cities (Venice, Padua, Mantua, and, of course, Verona), a night at the opera in the world-famous Arena, another at the Roman Theatre, during the Shakespeare Festival, and the unusual experience of wine tasting and appreciation at the Department of Biotechnology, housed in the historical Villa Lebrecht in the Valpolicella, the area, just outside Verona, that produces some of the best wines in the world. On weekends students will be able to program outings to Lake Garda or other interesting cities nearby: Vicenza, Milan, Bologna. Or just wander around Medieval Verona and explore its many Museums, enjoy shopping, or climb up the little hills that afford spectacular views of the city and its river. You will also have the unique opportunity of living on campus, mixing with the local students, using the campus facilities, rooms, classrooms, libraries, cafeteria, and leading the good life in Italy.

Main Topics:

  1. Shakespeare Studies
  2. Comparative Literature (English-Italian)
  3. Italian Language and Culture
  4. Medieval and Renaissance Art and its History

Applications:
Applications can be sent directly to Prof. Rita Severi (rita.severi@univr.it - +39 0458028579) or to the Department Time, Space, Image, Society University of Verona (+39 045 8028124-dr. giulianamagalini@univr.it).

Tuition fees: 
300 Euros
This tuition includes train tickets for the cultural trips, (3 trips are planned) and the tickets for the shows in the Arena and at the Teatro Romano. All students are required to pay this small fee also as a token of their attendance to the ISS.

Eligibility:
University students, graduates and post-graduates.

Languages:
English and Italian, or either one. Lessons and Conferences are usually held in English.

Schedule and Certificate of Attendance:
Participants are requested to stay in Verona for the entire duration of the course. Attendance is highly desirable. A certificate of participation is issued at the end of the course which grants 4 to 6 credits (CFU).

Accomodation and Insurance:
The University of Verona will provide accommodation at special prices of 30-35 Euros per night for those students who cannot provide for themselves, and all students can take their meals at the local cafeteria at the current low student rates (ca. 4,50- 5,00 Euros).

Please note that the University does not provide medical insurance and cannot cover medical fees. Participants are advised to purchase international medical insurance in their home country before leaving.

The Italian, Erasmus, and other incoming foreign students will be attending the courses together and will be able to interact during the whole period of the summer school.

Courses will start with a class of at least 10 (ten) students.

MATERIAL CULTURES OF EARLY MODERN WOMEN’S WRITING

University of Reading Early Modern Studies Conference, 9-11 July 2013

Criticism of the last decade has increasingly emphasised women’s engagement with diverse generic forms and modes of circulation, expanding the parameters of the field beyond literary interpretation of the texts themselves to a new engagement with their textual histories. This strand of this conference builds upon the increased visibility of form and transmission in the field to focus specifically on early modern women’s engagement with material textual cultures: the material objects they produced, the forms in which they wrote, the ways in which they circulated their work and the ways in which their texts were read by both their contemporary and later audiences.

Questions that might be considered include: How was early modern women’s writing originally packaged and promoted, how did it circulate in its contemporary contexts, and how was it read in its original publication and in later revisions and redactions? How do we configure publication and authorship in relation to early modern women’s writing? What shifts are necessitated by recent theories within history of the book scholarship that view texts as material artefact, textual collage, social network, publication event and collaborative enterprise? What relation do the material cultures of early modern women’s writing have to the material cultures surrounding male-authored writing of the period?

Papers may be on any aspect of the material cultures of early modern women’s writing, including but not limited to the following:

The stream will be curated by Rosalind Smith and Patricia Pender, coordinators of an Australian Research Council project on the Material Cultures of Early Modern Women’s Writing (2012-2014) and founders of the Early Modern Women’s Research Network (EMWRN) at the University of Newcastle, Australia. For enquiries contact Wendy Alexander, Project Administrator, The Material Cultures of Early Modern Women’s Writing: Wendy.Alexander@newcastle.edu.au.

WORLDMAKING

37th Congress of AULLA (Australasian Universities Language and Literature Association), University of Queensland, St Lucia, 10-12 July 2013

Conference Web Site

Keynote speakers: Prof. Simon During (UQ), Prof. Elizabeth Schafer (Royal Holloway UL) and Prof. Anthony J. Cascardi (UC Berkeley)

The theme of the 37th Congress of the Australasian Universities Language and Literature Association (AULLA) is ‘Worldmaking’.

In 1978 Nelson Goodman explored the relation of ‘worlds’ to language and literature. He asked how a world is made, what it might be made of and how the process of making a world relates to understanding it. Ways of Worldmaking showed that there was no one language to express and understand the world, but many languages, many ways in which ‘universes of worlds as well as worlds themselves may be built’. Goodman’s pluralistic vision has been taken up in a range of disciplines concerned with issues of globalisation from Gayatri Spivak’s work on the subaltern and the process of ‘worlding’ to Pheng Cheah’s exploration of the value and limits of ‘world literature’.

This Congress will explore how worlds and worldmaking feature in language and literature and in humanities scholarship. It asks what our various disciplines identify as the worlds we make in connection to ‘the world’ at large. How is worldmaking defined and articulated? What is at stake in the process? What does it mean to make, unmake or remake a world, to experience, feel or belong to a world? How might we understand – or make bridges between – natural, political, cultural, fictional, literary, linguistic and virtual worlds?

GENRE, AFFECT AND AUTHORITY IN EARLY MODERN EUROPE (1517-1688)

The University of Melbourne 11-12 July 2013

Convenors: Justin Clemens and Anna Cordner, The University of Melbourne

Conference web site

Keynote Speakers: Professor Ian Donaldson and Professor James Simpson

This conference explores the struggle for political authority in early modern Europe through the creation and development of such influential media as public pamphleteering, anonymous libels and permanent popular playhouses. From the Protestant Revolution to the Glorious Revolution, the terms and technologies of political struggle are radically transformed, from late medieval disputes to recognisably modern debates. Recent scholarship has returned to the proliferation and cross-grafting of genres in early modern Europe, re-examining the very familiar (for example, Elizabethan-Jacobean tragedy and comedy), as well as the lesser-known (for example, the heroic drama of the Restoration stage). Such studies have shown how these genres emerge as partial responses to contemporaneous political, religious and media developments. Hence we see real political struggles for domination taken up as generic forces; for instance, in the anonymous libels of the period. We also see the five-act structure of new drama as not only a revivification of classical modes, but as tied to the efficient stage-management of permanent playhouses; for instance, as in the mnemotechnics and directions of Shakespeare plays. These new genres do not only emerge as symbolic responses to real political problems, but become forces of problem-creation in their own right. In doing so, they provoke, channel and modify affect, often even being directed towards the confection and control of certain emotions. The problem of authority — of symbolic authority, of authorization, of authorship — thereby receives a new and decisive impetus in early modern Europe. This conference will examine the relationships between genre, affect and authority in their historical context, as well as the continuing import that these early modern developments have for us today.

AMPHORAE VII - NEW DIRECTIONS

University of Sydney, 17-19 July 2013

We are pleased to invite abstract submissions for AMPHORAE VII, the Seventh Annual Meeting of Postgraduates in Hellenic or Roman Antiquities and Egyptology, to be held at the University of Sydney from Wednesday 17th to Friday 19th July, 2013. The conference is designed to provide an opportunity for Postgraduate and Honours students from Australia and New Zealand to interact and share their current work among peers in a friendly and stimulating environment. We also invite abstract submissions from graduate students in relevant areas worldwide.

The theme of our conference this year is "New Directions" and is intended to accommodate research from (but not limited to) all of the fields of Classical Philology, Classical Art and Literature, Ancient History, Archaeology, Late Antiquity Studies and all other areas of Ancient World Studies. In addition, this year we hope to offer a special stream for papers in other areas of archaeology including (but again, by no means limited to) prehistoric Europe, the ancient Near East, the Bronze Age Mediterranean and general prehistory. Abstracts addressing any interpretation of the conference theme are welcome.

Abstract submissions of 200-300 words for papers of 20 minutes duration, as well as a brief biography, should be submitted by Friday 31 May, 2013 to amphoraevii@gmail.com. Offers of poster presentations will also be welcomed, especially from Honours students. If you would like to attend the conference, but will not be presenting a paper, please simply submit a registration form informing us of your attendance, as well as any dietary requirements, by the same date.

The conference is free to attend, but there will be a charge of AU$50 to attend the conference dinner on Friday 19th July, payable in cash at the registration desk on the first day of the conference. More details will be available shortly on our website. A number of bursaries will also be available for students who will be travelling to the conference.

More information and all relevant forms can be found at http://amphoraevii.weebly.com. If you have any additional inquiries, please don’t hesitate to contact the convenors at amphoraevii@gmail.com.

Kind Regards,
Samantha Brancatisano and Bryn Ford
Convenors, AMPHORAE VII (USyd 2013)

PRINT NETWORKS CONFERENCE 2013

University of Chichester 23-25 July 2013

Theme: Travel, Topography and the Book Trade

Guest speakers: Professor Bill Bell (Cardiff University) and Anthony Payne (Anthony Payne Rare Books & Manuscripts).

The thirty-first Print Networks Conference on the History of the British book trade will take place at the University of Chichester on 23-25 July 2013.

Due to the proximity of the conference venue to the south coast, 'Travel, Topography and the Book Trade' has been chosen as the theme for the conference. The theme is broadly defined, and any papers relating to the production, distribution and reception of texts and images about travel, imagined and real, from the Middle Ages to the modern era will be considered. Papers on travelling and migrating practitioners of the book trade, the physical movement of texts and travelling printing technology are also welcome. The geographical scope for the conference is Britain and the Anglophone world. Papers should be of 30 minutes duration.

Details from Catherine Armstrong - C.M.Armstrong@mmu.ac.uk.

The papers presented will be considered for publication; details to follow at the conference. It is understood that papers offered to the conference will be original work and not delivered to any similar body before presentation at this conference.

En-suite accommodation will be provided on the Bishop Otter campus of the University of Chichester. In addition to a full programme of papers, there will be a conference dinner and a visit to the special collections of the University of Chichester library.

SHARING CULTURES 2013

Third International Conference on Intangible Heritage, Aveiro, Portugal July 24-26 2013

Conference Web Site

Sharing Cultures 2013 - Third International Conference on Intangible Heritage follows the path established by the previous Conference on Intangible Heritage (Sharing Cultures 2009 and 2011) and aims at pushing further the discussion on Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), under the main topics proposed by the UNESCO Convention adding some new field of discussion, namely on what concerns management and promotion of ICH, educational matters and musealization (please refer to the list of Topics).

The concept of ICH gained its rightful place among the scientific community during the last decade and a significant amount of work has been done by a large number of researchers, academics and practitioners, leading to the recognition of ICH as fundamental piece for the comprehension of human societies, organisations and ways of living. Accordingly, scientific events that gather scholars, researchers and academics with on-going work on ICH are privileged moments to share experiences, problems, questions and conclusions. Sharing Cultures 2013 aims at being one of those events.

As in its previous edition, Sharing Cultures 2013 will include a number of workshops promoting some hands-on experience to all Delegates who will have the opportunity to learn traditional know-how from its owners and practitioners.

Authors intending to submit papers to Sharing Cultures 2013 are encouraged to address one of the following topics of the Conference by providing evidence of ongoing research work.

  1. Oral traditions and expressions
  2. Performing arts
  3. Social practices
  4. Traditional craftsmanship
  5. Management and promotion of Intangible Cultural Heritage
  6. Intangible Cultural Heritage and education
  7. Musealization of Intangible Cultural Heritage
  8. Special Chapter: Maritime Intangible Cultural Heritage

The Conference will welcome papers and presentations on field work, case studies and theoretical approaches to ICH.

Sharing Cultures 2013 is a peer reviewed conference.

Visit the conference web site for full details about the conference scope, topics and submission procedures at: http://www.sc2013.greenlines-institute.org.

PORT TOWNS AND URBAN CULTURES CONFERENCE

Portsmouth, UK, 25-27 July 2013

Confirmed Keynote Speaker: Dr Issac Land, Associate Professor, Indiana State University

The increasing interest in ‘coastal and Atlantic histories’ have drawn historians’ attention to the importance of port towns. The waterfront was the intersection of maritime and urban space and the port town was often a unique site of cultural exchange that both reinforced and challenged local, national and imperial boundaries.

This three day conference, organised by the University of Portsmouth and the National Museum of the Royal Navy and to be held in Portsmouth’s Historic Dockyard, will bring together scholars from around the globe who work on maritime and urban histories.

Themes Include:

  1. Transnational sailor towns – regional, national and imperial boundaries and identities 
  2. Empires and Imperialism
  3. Material cultures of sailor life
  4. Naval ports and their cultural impact on the urban hinterland
  5. Representations of port towns through history and heritage
  6. Sailors as political icons and social actors
  7. Crime and disorder
  8. Popular culture and leisure
  9. Civic culture and Urban elites
  10. The three fleets – navy, fisheries and cargo – interactions between the local and global
  11. Maritime and port town folklore 
Details from Dr Brad Beaven brad.beaven@port.ac.uk or Dr Duncan Redford duncan.redford@nmrn.org.uk.

GREEK MYTHS ON THE MAP

The Sixth Bristol Myth Conference, 31 July–2 August 2013

Greek myths were inextricably connected to the physical environments in which they were set. This connection is strikingly evident in the use of myths to explain and communicate the significance of physical and human geography. Polybius boldly asserts that "in the present day, now that all places have become accessible by land or sea, it is no longer appropriate to use poets and writers of myth as witnesses of the unknown" (4.40.2). Yet mythology was never entirely banished: myths were incorporated into geographical descriptions throughout antiquity and across a broad spectrum of genres, even as activities such as exploration, conquest and scientific endeavour altered how the world was understood and perceived.

This conference will examine the various practical and conceptual roles Greek mythology played in attempts to describe, represent and explain the physical and human geography of the ancient world.

Questions that papers might address include: What motivates writers to incorporate mythical narratives into geographical descriptions? What can myths communicate about the environment that purely geographical description cannot? Do diverse and changing perceptions of the physical world affect the ways in which stories about the mythological past are told? How do mythical geographies relate to physical and conceptual geographies? In what ways do political, religious or social forces impact on the interplay between mythical and geographical thought?

Details from clasmyth-conference@bristol.ac.uk. Informal enquiries may be addressed to the conference organizers, Jessica Priestley and Greta Hawes, at the same email address.

ADDRESSING THE SACRED THROUGH LITERATURE AND THE ARTS

Australian Catholic University, Strathfield NSW, 2-3 August 2013

Conference web site

"Addressing the Sacred" is the second in a continuing series of conferences presented by The Sacred in Literature and the Arts (SLA), a community of interest that aims to bring Australian and international writers, artists, musicians, academics, religious and members of the general public together to talk about the interplay between the arts and the sacred.

Definitions of the sacred extend from the narrow to the broad, from referring exclusively to a deity or religious ceremony to describing that mystery which is at the core of existence and has the power to transform our understanding of life. It is both a technical term used in the scholarly study of religion and a popular term used to describe something which is worthy of respect.

As artists we can explore our own sense of the sacred through our artwork. As audiences we can seek traces of the sacred in works of art. Through the act of interpretation we become co-creators, though what we perceive as the sacred may be far from that which inspired the original artist.

This conference seeks to address both the acts of creation and co-creation, to encourage a dialogue between artists, scholars and audiences in a mutual exploration of the sacred. At its heart is the idea that the sacred enables us to move beyond a utilitarian understanding of the world and infuses our everyday life with mystery.

It is intended that a publication will result; contributors to the conference may be invited to develop their papers into extended essays for a themed volume.

Further details of the conference, including conference registration, will be posted on http://www.acu.edu.au/485556.

Inquiries can also be directed to the convenors, Associate Professor Michael Griffith (Michael.griffith@acu.edu.au) and Dr Elaine Lindsay (Elaine.lindsay@acu.edu.au), Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Australian Catholic University.

GLOBAL DEFOE: HIS TIMES AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES

Third Biennial Meeting of the Defoe Society, Normal, Illinois August 9-10 2013

Conference web site

The third biennial meeting of the Defoe Society will be held from August 9-10 2013 at the Normal Marriott Hotel and Conference Center in Normal, Illinois. The theme for the meeting is “Global Defoe: His Times & His Contemporaries.” The following is a list of proposed panel sessions:

  1. Defoe's Afterlives
  2. Crime in the Age of Defoe
  3. Defoe’s Energy
  4. Public Intellectualism and the Eighteenth Century
  5. The Island Motif in Defoe and His Contemporaries
  6. Graduate Student Panel: New Directions in Defoe Studies
  7. Defoe on the Globe: Is there any nature in the eighteenth century?
  8. Piratical Contemporaries
  9. Defoe's Self-Reflexive Prose
  10. Fables, local and global, 1660-1740
  11. Defoe and Sermonic Literature
  12. Defoe and Female Novelists, and our History of Novels: A Roundtable Discussion
  13. The Social Networks of Daniel Defoe
  14. The Scottish Question: Defoe and his Contemporaries on Scotland
  15. Recent research in Global Defoe

UNDERSTANDING BYZANTIUM IN THE BALKANS: WHERE THE EAST MET/PARTED FROM THE WEST

Euro-Balkan University, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia, 16th Ohrid Summer University 2013

International Summer School, 15-24 August 2013, Ohrid, Republic of Macedonia

Call for Applications

CONFIRMED LECTURERS:

Professor Jonathan Shepard, University of Cambridge, Great Britain

Professor Florin Curta, University of Florida, United States

COURSES OFFERED:

Course title: The gravitational fields of East and West across the medieval Balkans

Course title: The beginning of the Middle Ages in the Balkans

The Summer School "Understanding Byzantium in the Balkans: Where the East met/parted from the West" will explore the fascinating phenomenon of Byzantium and its enduring impact on Medieval Balkans. The objective of the Summer School is to address the complex socio-economic, cultural and political processes that led to the transformation of the Roman world and emergence of Byzantium and the Balkans as gravitational zones between East and West. The leading international scholars in the field of Byzantine and medieval Balkan studies will present the latest insights in addressing the various questions concerning the re-evaluation of issues of group identity and ethnogenesis in the Balkans, the concept of making of the Slavs, the examination of Byzantium as Superpower and Soft Power and as an enduring appeal to external elite, along with development of the Balkans as highway and flashpoint between Latin West and Byzantine East. Through appliance of new approach in historical and archaeological research the Summer School will explore Byzantine and Balkan studies in the Western Europe and United States and put them in a dialogue with those taking place in Southeastern Europe. The main goal is to stimulate the critical thinking and to raise the understanding of Byzantium and the Balkans and their place in international history, grasping them not as a factor of East-West division but as a integrative component of the European cultural history.

Deadline

Early application deadline: 15 April

Late application deadline: 15 May

Director of the Summer School: Professor Mitko B. Panov, Euro-Balkan University
Address: Blvd. Partizanski Odredi 63, 1000, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia Tel/Fax. ++ 389 2 30 75 570 www.euba.edu.mk.

Please send your application to:
Ivana Krajcinovik - Coordinator of the Summer School
e-mail: ivana.krajcinovik@gmail.com

ITALIAN VOICES: ORAL AND WRITTEN CULTURES IN EARLY MODERN ITALY

School of Music, University of Leeds, Thursday 5-Friday 6 September 2013

This conference is being organized as part of the project ‘Oral culture,manuscript and print in early modern Italy, 1450-1700’, funded by the European Research Council. It will investigate how Italian oral culture was related to written culture in this period and how far it was independent of writing. For further information on the project, please visit our website: http://arts.leeds.ac.uk/italianvoices.

Confirmed speakers: Peter Burke (Cambridge), Elizabeth Cohen (Toronto), Thomas Cohen (Toronto), Massimo Firpo (Turin), Rob Henke (St Louis), Robert Kendrick (Chicago), Françoise Waquet (Paris).

Potential topics for papers include, but are not limited to:

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CRAFTSMEN AND GUILDS IN THE MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN PERIODS

Luxemburg, Université du Luxembourg 12-14 September 2013

The subject of craftsmen and their institutions looks back on two centuries of research tradition, but it has long been caught up in clichés such as the guilds’ supposed backwardness and exclusiveness. In the course of the last years a paradigmatic shift has increasingly emphasised the guilds’ dynamics and social mobility. This has opened the way to a series of new studies and research questions, but currently there is no institutional framework to facilitate a systematic exchange on the subject.

The conference, which is organised by the History Department of the University of Luxemburg and the research project “Histoire des villes luxembourgeoises”, wants to provide a dialogue board for young and more experienced researchers to present their approaches to the exploration of guilds and craftsmen on an international level. Moreover, it aims at the exchange of medieval and early modern historians, and thus expressly encourages contributions on the latter period.

The conference focuses on socio-historical perspectives. It is especially interested in papers which take up the new approach of researchers such as Claire Dolan, Josef Ehmer, Philippe Minard, Simona Cerutti and Steve Kaplan who lay new emphasise on the heterogeneity of guilds by analysing not simply their institutional framework, but the different strategies of their members generating this framework. Potential topics are:

  1. social capital and social strategies of craftsmen
  2. guilds and social cohesion: personal relations inside and outside of guilds 
  3. crafts and women 
  4. functions of guilds 
  5. living conditions and economic situation of craftsmen
  6. crafts and their spatial arrangement in urban environments 
  7. supraregional exchange and mobility

Travel and accommodation costs can be partly subsidised by the organisers.

For all conference queries please contact Eva Jullien:
Eva Jullien
Laboratoire d'Histoire
Université du Luxembourg
route de Diekirch B.P. 2
L-7201 Walferdange
eva.jullien@uni.lu

THEATRUM MUNDI: LATIN DRAMA IN RENAISSANCE EUROPE

Magdalen College, University of Oxford, 12-14 September 2013

Organized by the Society for Neo-Latin Studies in tandem with the Centre for Early Modern Studies, Oxford, the conference will bring together scholars to discuss early modern Latin drama, a form pivotal to the development of educational practice and literary composition across Europe. Culturally conspicuous, often ideologically engaged, original Latin plays were the pedagogical lifeblood of Renaissance schools, colleges, academies and universities. Scholars of Renaissance drama tend to focus on vernacular plays while overlooking the fact that many dramatists honed their talents at, for instance, institutional theatres constructed at the Elizabethan universities or nurtured at the French Jesuit colleges by the ancient régime. Our conference aims both to remedy such oversight and to stimulate new thought about this pan-European dramatic phenomenon.

Confirmed speakers include:

  1. Thomas Earle (Oxford)
  2. Alison Shell (UCL)
  3. Stefan Tilg (Ludwig Boltzmann Institute, Innsbruck)

Topics:

  1. Student life
  2. Religious conformity and dissent
  3. Philosophical engagement
  4. Relationships between Latin and vernacular plays
  5. Pedagogy and rhetorical training Patronage and support

Please send any questions about the conference to Sarah Knight, University of Leicester (sk218@le.ac.uk).

FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON  BLACK SEA ANTIQUITIES

The Danubian Lands Between the Black, Aegean and Adriatic Seas (7th Century BC-10th Century AD)

Belgrade - 17-21 September 2013

University of Belgrade, Faculty of Philosophy; National Museum, Belgrade; Institute of Archaeology, Belgrade; University of Melbourne
School of Historical and Philosophical Studies Classics and Archaeology

For more information please see the circular.

The International and National Organising Committees of the 5th International Congress on Black Sea Antiquities extend an invitation to all interested scholars to participate in the forthcoming Congress, either by contributing a paper or by attending as a discussant in the proceedings. The official languages of the Congress are English, French and German. Its specific subject is the Danubian lands between the Black, Aegean and Adriatic Seas (7th century BC-10th century AD).

The Congress is composed provisionally of four working sessions (see below), beginning on September 17, 2013 (participants to arrive on September 16). Once we have all proposals in hand, we may revise the format slightly to account for numbers and balance.

Since there will be no parallel sessions, the number of oral presentations will be limited to 8-10 papers (each of 15 minutes' duration) per session. This means that not all submissions will be accepted for oral presentation but, to allow maximum participation, we are planning large poster sessions parallel to the oral proceedings and scholars are strongly encouraged to offer their papers as posters. The sessions have broad titles in order to encourage the submission of papers presenting current approaches and trends in scholarship. The main criteria for the selection of contributions will be originality and quality of research. Results from recent or current projects, innovation in methodology and the exploration of lesser known areas will be given a high priority. We wish to cover as large a geographical and chronological range as possible. We reserve the right to assign any accepted paper to a poster session. Participants will be notified well in advance of the Congress date. A Congress web site will be set up in due course, with details given in the Second Circular.

All sessions will be held at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, situated in the centre of Belgrade.

Planned Sessions:
Opening Session and Opening Lecture
1. The Black Sea Greek colonies and their relationship with the hinterland
2. The Danube and the Black Sea region
3. Roman and Byzantine limes
4. New excavations and projects
Closing Session

The Participation Fee will be 100 Euros. This will include: (1) tea/coffee breaks; (2) welcome cocktail reception; (3) farewell cocktails and canapes; (4) congress folder; (5) all printed material (programme, summaries, etc.); (6) city map; (7) a one-day city excursion on September 19th (see below).

Information on how to pay for the Congress and the post-Congress excursion (see below) will be given in the Second Circular.

Excursions

Mid-Congress Excursion, September 19th
This will be to the famous site of Vinca.

Post-Congress Excursion
One or two days: to such important and famous sites as Viminacium, Lepenski Vir, etc. Detailed information, together with pricing, will be given in the Second Circular.

Accommodation

A list of hotels and hostels, situated within easy walking distance of the Congress venue and covering a range of prices, will be available in the Second Circular.

Details from Gocha R. Tsetskhladze, Belgrade Pontic Congress, Classics and Archaeology, School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, Old Quad, University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia (e-mail: g.tsetskhladze@unimelb.edu.au).

International Organising Committee

Sir John Boardman (UK) - President; A. Avram (Romania/France) and M. Ricl (Serbia) - Vice-Presidents; G.R. Tsetskhladze (Australia) - Secretary General; N. Theodossiev (Bulgaria), J.-P. Morel (France),  Y. Garlan (France), K. Zimmermann (Germany), A. Podossinov (Russia), J. Bouzek (Czech Rep.), A. Wasowicz (Poland), S. Burstein (USA), J. Carter (USA), S. Atasoy (Turkey), Y. Gagoshidze (Georgia), A. Sagona (Australia) National Representatives: B. D’Agostino (Italy), A. Dominguez (Spain), L. Loukopoulou (Greece), M. Tiverios (Greece), A. Rathje (Denmark), B. McGing (Ireland), Jan de Boer (Netherlands)

National Organising Committee

M. Ricl (Chairman); S. Babic, T. Cvejticanin, J. Erdeljan, P. Popovic, R. Radic

Please address all correspondence and enquiries about the Congress to:
Gocha R. Tsetskhladze,
Secretary General of the Congress
g.tsetskhladze@unimelb.edu.au

ECCLESIA ET VIOLENTIA: VIOLENCE AGAINST THE CHURCH AND VIOLENCE WITHIN THE CHURCH IN THE MIDDLE AGES

An international conference organized by the Institute of History and International Relations of Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz (Poland), 20-22 September 2013. The conference is devoted to issues of violence against the medieval Church and violence within the Church. We are interested in all aspects of violence, including violence against the Church and clergy, as well as among clerics, but also clerics against laymen, and the Church's attitude to violence as social phenomenon. See more details on the web site: http://hism.ukw.edu.pl/ecclesia-et-violentia.

SCIENCE AND MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN LITERATURE SYMPOSIUM

The Medieval and Early Modern Centre, University of Sydney, 23 September 2013

MEMC will host a symposium on ‘Science and Medieval and Early Modern Literature’ on 23 September to tie in with Dr Rhodri Lewis’s (St Hugh’s College, Oxford) time with MEMC as a Visiting Scholar (1-30 September). We are interpreting ‘science’ very broadly to encompass a wide array of fields. Contact Liam (liam.semler@sydney.edu.au) if you would like to participate in the symposium as a speaker.

The symposium will be accompanied by a PATS (postgraduate advanced training seminar) organised by the Centre for the History of Emotions on the following day (24 September). This will probably be on the topic of the history of medicine: all inquiries to Gabriel Watts (gabriel.watts@sydney.edu.au). Further research schedules and notices for research events will be circulated as they become available.

OBSERVING THE SCRIBE AT WORK: KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER AND SCRIBAL PROFESSIONALISM IN PRE-TYPOGRAPHIC SOCIETIES

Macquarie University, Sydney, 27-28 September 2013

Prior to the typographic revolution of the 15th century, the figure of the scribe was one of the keys by which civilisations were able to disseminate their power, culture and beliefs beyond their geographic, temporal, and even linguistic limits. Our access to the pre-modern world is mediated by the material and technological remains of scribal activity, the manuscript as an artefact of culture and administration. Every text preserved prior to the advent of printing bears witness to the activities of scribes. Yet as a social and professional group they are frequently elusive, obscured by other professional titles, reduced to mention in a colophon, or existing within a private sphere into which our sources do not reach. While much attention has been given to the scribe as a literary figure, the manuscripts offer a unique point of access to this group without the distortions of the literary tradition. This perspective, however, has frequently been restricted to a catalogue of errors, reducing the scribe to the transmission of an acceptable text, without recourse to the physical characteristics of the manuscript itself.

This workshop is built around the Australian Research Council funded project 'Knowledge Transfer and Administrative Professionalism in a Pre-Typographic Society: Observing the Scribe at work in Roman and Early Islamic Egypt'. The project sets aside the often futile search for the historical figures of the scribe in favour of a focus on observable phenomena: the evidence of their activity in the texts themselves. Recognizing that the act of writing can be a quotidian and vernacular practice, it explicitly includes the documents of everyday life as well as the realms of the copying of literature, seeking paths back to an improved understanding of the role and place of scribes in pre-modern societies.

'Observing the Scribe at Work' will bring together specialists in pre-modern societies of the Mediterranean world and adjoining cultures, from the ancient Near East, through the Egyptian and Classical worlds to Byzantium and Renaissance Europe. The papers will contribute to a deeper understanding of the processes that drive the operation of pre-printing cultures, and transmit knowledge and traditions forward in human societies.

The workshop will be held at Macquarie University on 27-28 September 2013. Macquarie University cannot offer full funding for all participants traveling to Australia from overseas, but partial financial assistance will be awarded to select abstracts which closely address the themes of the workshop. Decisions to this effect will be made by the end of April.

Inquiries: Malcolm Choat (malcolm.choat@mq.edu.au); Jennifer Cromwell (jennifer.cromwell@mq.edu.au).

SUBVERSION AND CENSORSHIP FROM PLATO TO WIKILEAKS

October 2-4 2013

The conference will cover all areas of the Humanities and all periods of history to explore important themes on the limitations of freedom of expression (in act, thought or speech). Instead of the more traditional focus on censorship 'from above', we especially aim to cover the responses to repression - that is, any works or activities which aim at subversion, coded dissent and veiled criticism (i.e. forms of self-censorship).

The conference is organised by members of the Classics discipline at the University of Adelaide, South Australia (also the venue): Professor Han Baltussen, Associate Professor Peter Davis and Dr Mark Davies (Postdoctoral Researcher) with a view to expanding the theme of their ARC funded project "The Dynamics of Censorship in Antiquity" (2011-2013/DP 110100915).

Please send inquiries to
Prof. Han Baltussen (Hughes Professor of Classics) (han.baltussen@adelaide.edu.au)
Assoc. Prof. Peter J. Davis (Visiting Research Fellow) (peter.davis@adelaide.edu.au)

EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES I: MEN AND WOMEN IN EARLY CHRISTIANITY

3-5 October 2013, Melbourne, Australia.

http://www.earlychristiancenturies.com.au/

The forthcoming international conferences ‘Early Christian Centuries’ grow out of the activities of the Centre for Early Christian Studies at Australian Catholic University over the past twenty years and have become an integral part of the work of the Asia-Pacific Early Christian Studies Society, established in 2003.

Previously entitled ‘Prayer and Spirituality in the Early Church’, these conferences encompass themes between the first and the seventh centuries, from Pauline literature, the New Testament, Jewish, Gnostic, pagan, late-antique and proto-Islamic perspectives. There are opportunities for literature, art, architecture, liturgy, monasticism, philosophy, and the material remains of the early Christian centuries to be explored in these conferences, each of which has a theme.

Past themes include ‘The Spiritual Life’, ‘Poverty and Riches’ and ‘Religion and Politics’. The focus of these international conferences is on the Tam Antiqua et Tam Nova motto of the Centre for Early Christian Studies, in other words, on elucidating common concerns between the early Christian centuries and the twenty-first century.

MEDIEVALISM: ITS CENTERS AND MARGINS

28th International Conference on Medievalism, St. Norbert College (De Pere, Wisconsin) October 17-19 2013

In addition to the authors, texts and considerations that normally form the core of studies in medievalism, what authors occupy, haunt or draw the boundaries of what we consider proper matter for this field? What currently lies outside that we should certainly include and what perhaps lies near the center that doesn't really fit at all? Within the texts we study, what ideas or approaches form the core and what has lingered at the margins, or what do we need to bring from outside toward center state for careful study and consideration? Participants should feel welcome to submit abstracts directed to the conference theme or on any other aspects of medievalism - the study of later ages' use of the material of the Middle Ages- that they choose to explore.

St. Norbert College (De Pere, Wisconsin) is just four miles from Green Bay and ten minutes from Green Bay Austin Straubel Airport (with daily service to Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis, Cleveland and Atlanta), about a two-hour drive north from Milwaukee and four hours' drive from Chicago.

Publication Opportunities: Presenters may feel welcome to submit papers to The Year's Work in Medievalism (edited by E. L. Risden). Longer articles (over 6000 words) should be submitted to Studies in Medievalism (edited by Karl Fugelso).

For more information, please visit http://www.medievalism.net/.

Deadline For Submissions: July 1, 2013

Please send papers, abstracts, or session proposals to:
Edward Risden, Professor of English
St. Norbert College
100 Grant St.
De Pere, WI 54115
or
edward.risden@snc.edu.

MASS AND ELITE IN ANTIQUITY

14th Unisa Classics Colloquium, 24-26 October 2013

The conference organisers invite paper proposals on a topic with bearing on many current issues and debates. Scholars of the ancient world are encouraged to approach the theme from various perspectives and with cognisance of literary and material evidence, in order to shed light on elite formation, social exclusivity and class interaction. We are particularly interested in political and economic aspects pertaining to the many and the few, but other discourses should add to the intended range: power in general, association and lineage, intellect and morality, taste, ability and the like. The Classics Colloquium focuses on Greco-Roman antiquity, but contributions on other ancient cultures will be considered positively.

The Unisa Classics Colloquium is hosted annually by the Department of Classics and World Languages at the University of South Africa, Pretoria.

Please submit titles and abstracts of approximately 300 words to Philip Bosman at bosmapr@unisa.ac.za, as soon as possible. Final deadline: 15 May.

Convening in 2013 for the 14th time, the Unisa Classics Colloquium combines stimulating scholarship with a pleasant and intimate atmosphere. Over two and a half days, approximately 16 scholarly contributions are to be presented, with ample time for discussion and valuable feedback. Parallel sessions are avoided in order to promote unity of focus in the conference, and delegates get to know each other properly.

Venue: The Muckleneuk Campus of the University of South Africa (UNISA) in Pretoria.

We start on a Thursday morning, meaning that participants should arrive in Pretoria on the 23rd at the latest and book a flight out not earlier than the afternoon of the 26th, but preferably later.

Programme
A preliminary programme will be compiled from the received proposals and published on the Departmental web site after the final date for submissions.

Conference Fee
US$150, inclusive of transport and meals during the conference. Postgraduates, other students and interested parties not able to claim back conference fees from their institutions should please contact the organizers for a discount.

Accommodation
During past conferences, guests stayed at the Brooklyn Guest Houses (http://www.brooklynguesthouses.co.za/) situated in a picturesque and safe suburb close to Unisa, the University of Pretoria, and the Brooklyn, Hillcrest and Hatfield shopping centres. A discounted group booking for delegates is negotiated.

Excursions
Pretoria herself becomes a tourist destination when the jacarandas bloom in October, but we plan excursions to the Winex wine festival in Sandton (Johannesburg) (http://www.winex.co.za/ RMB_WineX_Sandton/details.asp) and after the conference (the 27th) to the Pilanesberg Game Reserve (http://pilanesberg-game-reserve.co.za/).

Publication of papers
Depending on quality, a collection of articles on the colloquium theme is envisaged. Submitted papers are subject to a refereeing process. If you would consider submitting your paper for publication, please indicate that to us via return mail for further guidelines on style.

HOLY MONSTERS, SACRED GROTSEQUES

Rice University, Houston, TX, October 25, 2013

“Holy Monsters, Sacred Grotesques” aims to create conversations on the impact of monstrosity and examples of the grotesque in discourse related to religion and the sacred. The tendency to populate religious landscapes with non-human entities, literally demonize opponents, perceive monsters as existing in far-reaching geographical borders (e.g. “the East” in Medieval Europe) and decorate sacred sites with grotesques is a trait shared throughout innumerable traditions. Recently the term "monster studies" was coined to cover the recent works dedicated to monsters by such authors as John Block Friedman, Jeffrey Jerome Cohen and Asa Mittman, who have helped to provide a framework for the study of such phenomena, not only in religious studies but also in literature, art history and history. Through this framework, monsters and grotesques have been revealed as important markers of marginality, social boundaries, liminality, identity, cultural borders and the “Other.”

“Holy Monsters, Sacred Grotesques” seeks to inform conversations about the sacred with monstrous discourse. We desire to do so in an interdisciplinary fashion and to encourage scholars in fields outside of religious studies who deal with such materials to join in our conversation. As such, we seek papers not only from religious studies but other disciplines in the humanities (e.g. philosophy, history, gender studies, art history, literature) and social sciences (e.g. political science, sociology, psychology, anthropology) as well.

Papers should not exceed 20 minutes in length and should represent an intersection of the sacred (loosely construed) with a theme or object of monstrosity.

Please send a 300-word abstract, along with your name, institution and year of study (if a graduate student) by May 17, 2013 to monsterconference@gmail.com.

If you have questions or need additional information, please contact Michael Heyes at heyes@rice.edu.

LATE LITERATURE IN THE SIXTH CENTURY, EAST AND WEST

October 31-November 2 2013, Brown University, Providence, USA

Building on the synergy of the bicoastal conference held at Rice and at Brown in 2011, David Bright, Scott McGill and Joe Pucci founded the International Society for Late Antique Literary Studies (ISLALS) in early 2012 as a venue for sharing our collective
work on later literary studies, east and west. We intend the category of "literature" to be capacious, encompassing Christian and secular texts, as well as traditionally high and low forms. As part of the process of sharing our work, we envision a conference (at least) every other year and are happy now to announce the First Biennial Conference of ISLALS, to be held on the campus of Brown University on October 31/ November 1-2, 2013 (Thursday-Saturday, inclusive). The theme of the conference is "Late Literature in the Sixth Century, East and West." A rich body of literary texts survives from this seminal century that touches on nearly every genre. We invite explorations of these texts from multiple perspectives and especially seek papers that focus on the Greek east or that take cognizance of the interplay of east and west. Papers that consider the influence of sixth-century texts are also welcome.

If you would like to participate, please send an abstract of your paper via email attachment to the organizing committee by August 1 2013: smcgill@rice.edu, Joseph_Pucci@brown.edu, dbright@emory.edu. Papers will be twenty minutes in length, with ten minutes of questioning/discussion to follow. We hope for a program of around 20 papers.

ISLALS requires no dues and there is no registration fee for the conference. ISLALS will provide refreshments during the conference (morning continental breakfast and morning and afternoon breaks). ISLALS will also host a closing banquet for all conference participants. All other meals as well as lodging and travel will be the responsibility of participants. At the conclusion of the conference, we will hold a round-table discussion on the shape and governance of ISLALS and the dates, locations, and topics of future meetings.

Please send queries about the conference to Joseph_Pucci@brown.edu. Queries about ISLALS may be sent to any member of the organizing committee.

XXII FINNISH SYMPOSIUM ON LATE ANTIQUITY: SPACES - PAST AND PRESENT

Tvärminne, Finland, 8-9 November, 2013

The XXII Finnish Symposium on Late Antiquity (http://www.helsinki.fi/worldcultures/fsla/index.html) will be organized on November, 8-9, 2013. The aim of the symposium is to bring together students and scholars with an interest in Late Antiquity from a variety of universities and disciplines. This year, we explore broadly spaces in Late Antiquity but suggestions for papers dealing with other topics will also be considered. Our main aim is to stimulate interdisciplinary dialogue between philology, archaeology, history, theology, religious studies, art history and other disciplines that deal with Late Antiquity.

The symposium will be organized in the premises of a zoological research station operated by the University of Helsinki at a beautiful location at Tvärminne on the southern coast of Finland (http://luoto.tvarminne.helsinki.fi/english). It is organized by Classics (Department of World Cultures, University of Helsinki) together with an interdisciplinary organizing committee (see below).

The theme of the symposium this year is "Spaces – Past and Present". This theme includes the analysis of spaces in late antiquity such experience of space; re-use and interpretation of spatial experience; conceptualization of space; imperial presence and border-areas; movement and migration; as well as religious and liturgical place.

This year's symposium features some specially invited speakers.

Hagith Sivan (Department of History, University of Kansas) Aïda and Constantine in Jerusalem (and Masada): Reliving and Relieving the Past

Prof. Sivan is specialist in Roman history, early Christianity, Late Antiquity, Jewish history and the study of women in Antiquity. She has published e.g., Ausonius of Bordeaux: Genesis of a Gallic Aristocracy (1993); Between Woman, Man and God: A New Interpretation of the Ten Commandments (2004); Palestine in Late Antiquity (2008) and Galla Placidia. The Last Roman Empress (2011).

Juliette Day (Church History, University of Helsinki). Title TBA. Dr Day is university lecturer in Church history and the specialist on the Late Antiquity and early Christianity, especially early Christian liturgy. She has published e.g., The Baptismal Liturgy of Jerusalem: 4th and 5th Century Evidence in Jerusalem, Egypt and Syria (2007) and Proclus on Initiation in Constantinople (2005).

Zbigniew Fiema (Humboldt Universität, Berlin). Title TBA. Dr Fiema is specialist in late antique archaeology and the late antique Near Eastern region. He is currently visiting professor in the Winckelmann Institut at the Humboldt Universität, Berlin. He has led the excavations of Jabal Harun as the research director in the Academy of Finland Centre of Excellence "Ancient and Greek Documents, Archives and Libraries" and has e.g., coedited Petra - the mountain of Aaron: The Finnish archaeological project in Jordan. The church and the chapel (with Jaakko Frösen, 2008)

There is space for a maximum of eight more papers. If you wish to deliver a paper, please send a short abstract (of less than 300 words) by May 31, 2013 to Dr. Ville Vuolanto (ville.vuolanto(at)uta.fi). Applicants will be informed by June 19, 2013 whether they have been accepted. We have reserved 30 minutes for each presentation, including discussion following the paper. Therefore, we recommend limiting the papers to 20 minutes.

The seminar is free. We will offer transportation from Helsinki to Tvärminne and back, as well as accommodation, meals, coffee and sauna at Tvärminne. However, we are not able to cover the costs for travelling to Helsinki first, or accommodation there. Registration for the conference will start September 20, 2013.

The Finnish Symposium on Late Antiquity is organized annually since 1992. It started as a Finnish-language seminar for postgraduate students. However, over the years, more and more papers were presented by established scholars. Moreover, in many years, a few well-known scholars were invited from abroad, and the language of the symposium was changed to English, thus making it more and more international. This year, for the second time, we do not only have a few specially invited guests from abroad, but we invite suggestions for papers from anyone who is interested. In keeping with the symposium’s traditions, we encourage not only senior, but also junior scholars and postgraduate students to participate.

The organizing committee:
- Maijastina Kahlos, PhD, Classics / Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, University of Helsinki maijastina.kahlos(at)helsinki.fi
- Ulla Tervahauta ThD, Biblical Studies, University of Helsinki ulla.tervahauta(at)helsinki.fi
- Ville Vuolanto, PhD, History, University of Tampere / University of Oslo ville.vuolanto(at)uta.fi

Ville Vuolanto PhD, Senior Lecturer in History School of Social Sciences and Humanities University of Tampere http://www.uta.fi/yky/en/contact/personnel/villevuolanto/index.html

DISCOVERING THE ITALIAN TRECENTO IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

March 1 and 2 2013, London at the National Gallery and the Wallace Collection
and
November 15 and 16 2013, Venice

The growing interest in the early Italian Renaissance during the course of the ‘long’ nineteenth century has, in recent years, become a major and developing area of study, for students of both the Renaissance itself and the nineteenth century. These two conferences on the Italian trecento aim to take these studies further by concentrating on the ‘discovery’ of late medieval and early Renaissance Italy, the age of Dante and Petrarch, Giotto and the Pisani.

The conferences will cover such themes as the ways in which the concept of the ‘primitive’ changed during the nineteenth century, the nineteenth-century’s interpretation of the age of the Italian city states and the way in which this period became an inspiration for the fine and applied arts and architecture of the nineteenth century.

The conferences will be truly interdisciplinary and international - the impact of the Italian trecento went beyond Europe. Contributions are invited from the fields of history and art history, Italian language and literature, research in the early Renaissance as well as of the nineteenth century itself. It is expected that the papers will be published.

The conferences will be held on Friday and Saturday, March 1 & 2, 2013 in London at the National Gallery and the Wallace Collection and on Friday and Saturday, November 15 & 16, 2013 in Venice. It will be possible to attend either or both of these.

The conferences are being organised by the Collecting and Display Seminar Group at the Institute of Historical Research and John Law, Swansea University in collaboration with the National Gallery, the Wallace Collection and the University of Warwick.

Proposed Topics include:

  1. The history of trecento Italy and its interpretation in the 19th century
  2. Art criticism in the 19th century and its understanding of the Italian trecento
  3. Collecting and connoisseurship: including early manuscripts, sculpture, ivories and the decorative arts
  4. Education, in terms of manuals on design, drawing, painting and cast collections
  5. Literature and its translation
  6. Tourism, travel guides, diaries
  7. Recreating the trencento in the arts and its influence on 19th century sculpture, painting, architecture and the decorative arts
  8. The rediscovery of early Renaissance artistic techniques
  9. Issues of conservation, restoration and display arising from research into the trecento.
  10. The influence of the trecento on the 19th century - for example on social and religious thought
  11. The influence of the trecento on Romantic composers

Details from:

John Law
Swansea University
j.e.law@swansea.ac.uk

Adriana Turpin
Collecting & Display
a.turpin@iesa.edu

SOCIETY OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE 2013 ANNUAL MEETING

Baltimore, MD, 23-26 November 2013

The Art and Religions in Antiquity program unit welcomes paper proposals on the art and material culture of any ancient religious tradition and encourages papers that address the use of art and material culture in service of religion. Every paper proposal will be considered.

The Art and Religions of Antiquity section especially seeks paper proposals that address:
1) "The Art of Pilgrimage in the Ancient World": For this session, we seek papers that address the practice and materiality of pilgrimage. The Art and Religions in Antiquity program unit is pleased to announce that Dr. Gary Vikan will respond to the contributions presented in this session. Dr. Vikan recently stepped down from the Directorship of the Walters Art Museum, which he held since 1994 after serving as the museum's Assistant Director for Curatorial Affairs and Curator of Medieval Art since 1985. Before coming to the Walters, Dr. Vikan was Senior Associate for Byzantine Art Studies at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, DC.

2) "Art and Religion at the Walters Museum, Baltimore MD (http://thewalters.org)": For this session, we seek papers that address the Walters Museum's permanent collections (with a particularly strong collection of illuminated manuscripts) or visiting exhibits (Jacob Lawrence's Genesis Series; Egypt's Mysterious Book of the Faiyum).

3) A third session will consist of invited papers to review The Cambridge History of Religions in the Ancient World edited by Michele R. Salzman and William Adler.

All abstracts should be submitted through the SBL website (www.sbl-site.org). The Art and Religions of Antiquity section will consider all proposals.

PERSPECTIVES ON PROGRESS

http://perspectives2013.org/

An interdisciplinary postgraduate and early career researcher conference at The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, November 27-29 2013.

In 1968, historian Sidney Pollard defined the Victorian ideal of 'progress' as "the assumption that a pattern of change exists in the history of mankind ... that it consists of irreversible changes in one direction only, and that this direction is towards improvement." Despite the increasingly problematic nature of this ideal, the 'progress myth' still remains pervasive in the Western cultural tradition.

This postgraduate and early career researcher conference seeks to promote innovative interdisciplinary dialogues interrogating the concept of progress by bringing together scholars from across the humanities and social sciences.

Contributions are invited from disciplines ranging from history, classics, religion and philosophy through literary, media and cultural studies to anthropology, psychology and political science. Conference delegates will be invited to consider how the idea of progress
influences their own work, while being given the opportunity to explore how this intersects with scholarship in other disciplines.

The conference committee invites proposals for papers in the form of an abstract of between 250 and 300 words to perspectivesonprogress2013@gmail.com by 31 May 2013. Paper format is a 20 minute paper with a 10 minute period for questions and answers.

Possible areas of inquiry will include, but will not be limited to:

TEXTUALITY TECHNOLOGY MATERIALITY IN THE MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN WORLD

28-30 November 2013, University of Western Australia, Perth

Confirmed plenary speakers:

The convenors of the 19th Annual Conference of the Perth Medieval and Renaissance Group, co-sponsored by the UWA Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, welcome abstracts (c.200 words) for 20-minute papers exploring medieval and early modern cultures of technology, textuality and materiality, c.600 to 1800 CE. We welcome proposals for papers (or panels of 3 papers) which consider:

Abstracts and panel proposals (along with titles and brief bios for speakers) should be emailed to conference@pmrg.org.au addressed to the convenors - Professor Andrew Lynch, Dr Anne M. Scott and Dr Brett D. Hirsch - by no later than 1 September 2013.

Further details about the conference programme, registration and postgraduate travel assistance will be made available on
http://conference.pmrg.org.au/.

EASTERN RESONANCES 2: INDIA AND THE FAR EAST, 16TH-18TH CENTURIES

University of Paris Diderot, Paris, 5-7 December 2013

Conference Web Site

Contrary to ‘the echo’ or ‘the trace’, which both imply an enduring, but fading prolongation of a presence, ‘resonance’ suggests not only a continuation, but a reinforcement of a sound or image, provoked by a reflection on another surface. Taking from Stephen Greenblatt’s definition of ‘resonance’ as ‘the power of the object displayed to reach out beyond its formal boundaries to a larger world, to evoke in the viewer the complex, dynamic cultural forces from which it has emerged’ (‘Resonance and Wonder’, in Learning to Curse, p. 170), this conference aims at studying the moves, shifts, transformations and translations through which the idea of the East resonated in Europe in general, and Britain in particular, from the early modern period to the romantic age.

Calling into question the adversarial nature of Orientalism as defined by Edward Said, our conference will address the deterritorializations and reterritorializations (to borrow the concepts developed by Deleuze and Guattari in Anti-Oedipus) through which the East reshaped itself in the West through its many reflections and reverberations. Our focus will not just be on what was lost and what was gained along the routes of such recuperations, but we also wish to chart in greater detail the routes themselves, the people who crossed them and the motivations underpinning these attempts at reaching, understanding and picturing the East.

The first of our series of two conferences on ‘Eastern Resonances’, to be held at the University of Montpellier 3 (30 May-1 June 2013), will focus on the Ottoman Empire and Persia. Details about this conference and its programme can be found on: http://easternresonances.jimdo.com.

Suggested areas of reflection for this conference could include:

  1. Texts and their circulation/translation: What were the Sanskrit, Chinese and other texts that resonated in the West in this period? Through what channels did manuscripts and books travel? Why and how did they reach Britain in adapted or translated forms?
  2. Places and their memories: What did travellers look back to in historical and cultural terms as they embarked on their journeys to the East? What images did they bring back with them from their eastern encounters? How did these reverberate as literary and artistic artifacts at the receiving end of the journey?
  3. Actors and intermediaries: Who went East or West, and why did they? Who were their interlocutors or mediators there? Why and how were ‘contact zones’ created? On what terms was trust granted and collaborative research carried on?

THE ROLE OF "PERFORMANCE" IN LATE ANTIQUITY 

Organizer:  Ralph Mathisen, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Sponsored by the Society for Late Antiquity

The 2014 panel sponsored by the Society for Late Antiquity at the annual meeting of the American Philological Association, to be held in January 2-5 2014 in Chicago, will be devoted to the topic of "performance" in all of its manifestations: administrative, bureaucratic, political, social, and religious. Late Antiquity was a world of ceremony, ritual, and performance. Performative rituals greased the wheels of interaction between patrons and clients, bishops and laity, officials and populace, and emperors and subjects. Manifestations of performance cropped up everywhere, in mime and pantomime, in circus factions, in religious liturgy, in the audience halls of the rich and powerful. Symbolic actions were manifested in verbal cues and gestures that were understood only by other participants in the performance. Different forms of expression had to be decoded in order to be understood. Meaning often lay beneath the surface. Things were not always as they seemed. Wheels moved within wheels. This panel will look at different kinds of manifestations of "performance" in Late Antiquity, and consider why the concept of performance was so well suited to Late Antiquity as a uniquely defined period of history.

Details from Ralph Mathisen at ralphwm@illinois.edu or ruricius@msn.com. For further information, please contact Ralph Mathisen, History, Classics, and Medieval Studies, the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, at the email address above.

RHETORIC OF THE PAGE IN LATIN MANUSCRIPTS OF THE MIDDLE AGES

The Medieval Latin Studies Group invites proposals for papers on the rhetoric of the page in Latin manuscripts of the Middle Ages for a panel to be held at the annual meeting of the American Philological Association in Chicago in January 2014.

Medievalists have long known that the book as an object is an important witness to the society and culture for which it is made, a truth arrived at relatively recently by scholars of print books, such as Chartier and Genette. This panel will look at the manuscript page and how scribes, through the conscious or unconscious choices that they made about layout, script, decoration and so forth, sought to shape the approach of readers to the text they were about to read. Scribes present different genres quite differently: a thirteenth-century copy of a scholastic summa and a copy of an epic from the same period look quite different, and this differing treatment demands a differing responses from the readers of each, even before they begin to read. Changes over time are equally telling: a fifth-century Vergil looks very different than a humanist Vergil. Those differences reflect very different understandings of and uses for his works in those periods. Welcome submissions would include close analyses close analyses of manuscripts of classical and/or medieval texts, as well as discussions of methodologies relevant for this area of inquiry.

Questions may be directed to Maura Lafferty (Department of Classics, University of Tennessee) at mlaffert@utk.edu. Membership in the Medieval Latin Studies Group is not required to submit an abstract.

129TH MLA ANNUAL CONVENTION

http://www.mla.org/convention

Chicago, 9–12 January 2014

The convention will begin on Thursday, 9 January, and end on Sunday, 12 January. The presidential theme for the 2014 convention is Vulnerable Times.

All MLA members and others involved in the study or teaching of language and literature must register for the convention to participate in or attend meetings, visit the exhibit hall, take part in job interviews or reserve hotel rooms at special MLA rates. The convention program will be available in the fall.

THE ART OF LYING IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

Amsterdam, 17-18 January 2014

On Friday January 17 and Saturday January 18, 2014 the annual conference of the Werkgroep 18de Eeuw will be held in Amsterdam. The major theme of the conference is The Art of Lying.

Lying and cheating were daily practice in the eighteenth century. That is, if we believe the many pamphlets, newspapers, comedies, criminal biographies and criminal records. Before one knew one had lost his money, goods, reputation or health. Despite the severe penalties on stealing and murdering and despite all Enlightenment ideals, trickery and deceit seem to have been rather mainstream. Historical criminologists have shown that it is a misconception to think that cheating only existed in the lower classes or in the margins of eighteenth century society. In each social class fraud and corruption were common. Persons like Casanova and Cagliostro were operating in the highest circles. Some of the wealthiest people were specialized in real estate fraud and illegal speculation, not to mention the corruption in politics and in the (para)medical sector. At the same time, an anti-movement started. Eighteenth-century ‘philosophes’ were fascinated by the truth and the late eighteenth-century revolutions could not have taken place without the desire to eradicate corruption.

The conference aims for an interdisciplinary and international approach to the phenomenon of fraud and corruption. Topics may include an international affair such as the South Sea Bubble, the corruption of regents, the medical malpractice of quacks or the vicissitudes of a local thief. We will also focus on the ways in which the criminal world was represented in the media. Possible key questions to be addressed are:

  1. What was the top 10 list of famous con men in the eighteenth century, nationally and internationally?
  2. What was the relationship between truth and lying in the eighteenth century?
  3. To what extent were corruption and fraud considered to be normal?
  4. Could one survive without lying?
  5. Can we consider the Enlightenment movement as a response or an antidote to this culture of lying?
  6. How were con men, thieves and murders punished and sentenced?
  7. How did the late eighteenth-century revolutions contributed to a transformation of a culture of lying into a more just society?
  8. Why became the genre of criminal biography so popular in the eighteenth century? And why in general do we find so many crooks, thieves and swindlers in eighteenth-century literature?
  9. In what sense did literature and the arts play an active part in combating fraud?
  10. Can we state that neither the Enlightenment nor the Judeo-Christian tradition – both considering lying as a sin – have been able to change human nature?

Details from devriesmarleen@hotmail.com.

Note: On Friday, January 17, we will host one or more guest speakers from abroad. This day will therefore be in English, and all lectures should be conducted in English. The language for Saturday, January 18, will be Dutch.

URBAN CULTURE AND IDEOLOGIES IN MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN EUROPE: 1100-1600

Massey University, Albany Campus, Auckland, NZ, Thursday 30th & Friday 31st January 2014

This conference will focuses on the textual traditions of the urban world: the literature of all kinds produced in the urban context, from chronicles to song, illumination to speech acts. Its main theme is notions of 'urbanity'. What is 'urban' about 'urban culture? In what ways did urbanity contribute to cultural and ideological sign systems in political speech, historiography, literature, the visual arts and music? How did the production and reception of chronicles shape urban identity – or identities?

An official call for papers will be sent out shortly. If you would like to express an interest in giving a paper at this stage, please contact Dr Andrew Brown, School of Humanities, Massey University: A.D.Brown@massey.ac.nz.

FROM BYZANTIUM TO CLONTARF: EMOTIONAL, INTELLECTUAL AND SPIRITUAL PERCEPTIONS IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND RECEPTION OF THE EARLY MEDIEVAL PAST

The 10th conference of the Australian Early Medieval Association (AEMA)

7–8 February, 2014, Macquarie University, Sydney

AEMA’s 10th conference spans the eight centuries from late antiquity through to the twelfth century, extending from the Byzantine capital of Constantinople in the East to Ireland in the West, and all areas in between. Impressions of the early medieval world over this period and region are based on sources that capture the emotional, intellectual, cultural or religious perceptions and biases of their creators.

2014 marks the 1000th anniversary of two important early medieval battles, Clontarf in the West and Kleidion in the East. Accounts of events, including battles like Clontarf and Kleidion are often highly subjective and emotionally charged, while modern cultural, intellectual, political, and religious sentiments can influence our reading of sources and our perceptions of events of the early medieval past. These events can then sometimes take on new meaning or symbolism for later audiences, just as perceptions of the battles of Clontarf and Kleidion and their aftermath have shifted over the last millennium.

This conference invites papers that address the emotional, intellectual, spiritual, or cultural aspects of written and non-written sources of the Late Antique and Early Medieval periods (c. 400–1150). Priority will be given to papers which relate to the conference theme but submissions related to any aspect of the early medieval world will be considered. Papers on the reception of events of this period by non-contemporary writers and artists are also welcome, particularly the role played by emotion, intellect, politics, culture, or religion in framing the ways in which societies or individuals view their past.

Abstracts of 250-300 words for 20-minute papers should be sent to conference@aema.net.au by 1 September 2013. Limited financial assistance may be available for post-graduates and early career researchers travelling interstate for this conference. For more information, please contact the convenors, Janet Wade and Nicole Moffatt, at conference@aema.net.au.

For more information see www.aema.net.au.

VIOLENCE IN THE ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL WORLD

International Conference, Lisbon, Portugal, 17-19 February 2014

Conference web site

With the goal of promoting and encouraging a critical reflection on the permanence of personages, values and perspectives from the ancient and medieval world(s) in western literature and culture, the Research Area "Classical Antiquity: Texts and Contexts" of the Center for Classical Studies, in collaboration with the Center of History, of the Faculty of Letters of the University of Lisbon, is organising an international conference on Violence in the Ancient and Medieval World.

The conference, to be held 17-19 February, 2014, aims at bringing together different fields of research to deal with the theme of violence and its multiple interpretations, representations and narratives in the ancient and medieval worlds.

Having in mind this interdisciplinary approach, the international conference "Violence in the Ancient and Medieval World" has the purpose of:

  1. approaching the criteria/standards of violence in the historical and literary contexts of Antiquity and the Middle Ages;
  2. examining representations and readings of violence in literature and material culture;
  3. pondering the ancient and medieval worlds as stages of violence in its various manifestations.

The conference organisers invite paper proposals on the topic Violence in the Ancient and Medieval World. We welcome abstracts on the following subtopics from all social and human sciences:

  1. violence and war
  2. violence and law
  3. violence and politics
  4. violence and familiar bounds
  5. violence and sexuality
  6. violence and religion
  7. violence and myth
  8. rhetorics of violence

The conference will include plenary lectures by guest speakers and thematic parallel sessions for registered delegates.

Working languages: Portuguese, English, Italian, French and Spanish.

Papers: 20 minutes

We welcome:

  1. individual proposals for a 20-minute paper (ca. 500 words);
  2. joint proposals for thematic panels consisting of 3 papers (ca. 350 words per paper).

Please include the following information with your proposal:

  1. the full title of your paper / of your panel and respective papers;
  2. abstract (ca. 500 words per paper), eventually with a short list of bibliographical references;
  3. a short biographical note (ca. 200 words)

All paper proposals will be peer-reviewed. Selected papers delivered at the Conference will be eligible for publication.

Deadline for proposals: August 31, 2013.
Notification of acceptance: October 15, 2013

Please submit your abstract:

  1. by e-mail (saved in MS Word or PDF format): violencia.mundo.antigo@gmail.com; subject header: Abstract proposal
  2. or by post:

International Conference «Violence in the Ancient and Medieval World»
A/C Centro de Estudos Clássicos OR Centro de História
Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa – Alameda da Universidade
1600-214 Lisboa
Portugal

BESSARION'S TREASURE: EDITING, TRANSLATING AND INTERPRETING BESSARION'S LITERARY HERITAGE

An International Conference organized by the Institute of Byzantine Studies of the University of Munich, Germany and hosted by the German Center of Venetian Studies in Venice, Italy.

Venice, 4-5 April 2014

In his act of donation written in 1468, Bessarion underlined that the greatest treasure he had ever possessed in his life was his library, which he was now donating to Venice, the "alterum Byzantium". While generations of historians and philologists have been ever grateful to Bessarion for this invaluable act of preserving for posterity one of the most significant vestiges of Byzantine civilization, it is not until recently that the literary heritage of Bessarion himself and his circle has begun to attract close attention of the scholarly world.

On the occasion of presenting the forthcoming critical edition, translation and philosophical commentary on Bessarion's treatise De Natura et Arte, the members of the Munich research group responsible for the project invite contributions from colleagues who work on editing, translating and interpreting texts written by Bessarion and his circle.  Contributions are expected to be between 20 and 45 minutes in duration and may be delivered in English, German, Italian or French.

Confirmed key-note speaker: Prof. John Monfasani, Albany, USA

If you would like to participate, please send a short abstract (200 words) to s.mariev@lmu.de by May 31, 2013. Inquiries about the possibility of obtaining financial support (travel and accommodation grants) should also be addressed to s.mariev@lmu.de.

The Conference is organized by Dr. Sergei Mariev, Dr. Katharina Luchner and Dr. Monica Marchetto on behalf of the Institute of Byzantine Studies of the University of Munich with the support of the Byzantine Studies Association of Germany  and the Centro Tedesco di Studi Veneziani, Venice.

OTHELLO'S ISLAND: THE ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF MEDITERRANEAN AND LEVANTINE CULTURAL HISTORY​ IN THE BYZANTINE, MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE PERIODS AND THEIR LEGACIES​​

Second Annual Conference, Cyprus, 9-12 April 2014​

Organised by the Cornaro Institute, Larnaca, in association with the University of Sheffield School of English

Following its successful launch in 2013 the new annual conference to explore the Medieval and Renaissance cultural history of the Mediterranean and Levant, Othello's Island, returns in 2014.

Cyprus is a particularly appropriate location for the study of the Mediterranean and Levant during this period, as it was a time when the island what was arguably the zenith of its civilization and international influence. Under almost 400 years of French and Italian rule, Cyprus developed a unique courtly culture and trade links that extended throughout Europe, the Eastern and Western Mediterranean and the Near East. This had an immediate impact, but the legacy of this period lived on after the fall of Venetian Cyprus to the Turks in 1571, in literature and even musical forms such as opera.

Yet Cyprus is only one element of the Mediterranean and Levant of interest and the remit of the conference extends to the whole of the Mediterranean, Levant and North African region, and not simply Cyprus. Therefore papers dealing with topics relevant to the period from the wider Mediterranean and Levantine region are also welcome.

This multi-disciplinary conference aims to bring together academics, researchers and research students covering a wide range of topics, including art historians, social and economic historians, museum curators, archaeologists, literary historians and others, covering not only the Western Christian Mediterranean world, but also Byzantine culture, Muslim and other societies relevant to the region.

We would also welcome suggestions from individuals or groups for parallel strands and semi-autonomous conferences which might share some of the plenary sessions and social elements of the event. For example, a strand dealing specifically with Shakespeare and the Mediterranean might be big enough to require its own semi-autonomous event alongside the one we are organising.

If you are interested in giving a talk at the conference please submit a proposal for a paper. Papers can be as short as 20 minutes, up to a maximum of 50 minutes.

We are very open minded on the topic of papers, so if you have an idea for a presentation that is not covered by the suggestions given here please feel free to submit a proposal, or contact us first to discuss the idea.

Proposals for papers should comprise a cover sheet showing:

  1. Your title (eg. Mr, Ms, Dr, Prof. etc.) and full name
  2. Your institutional affiliation (if any)
  3. Length of time for your paper (min. 20 minutes, max. 50 minutes)
  4. Your postal address, e'mail address and telephone number
  5. The title of your proposed paper

​ With this you should send a proposal/abstract for your paper of no more than 300 words and a copy of your CV/resume to michael@artcyprus.org with the subject line: OTHELLO 2014.

All papers must be delivered in English.

The deadline for submissions is 31 December 2013.

MEDIEVAL ANCHORITES IN THEIR COMMUNITIES

The 5th International Anchoritic Society Conference, Gregynog Hall, Newtown, Powys, Wales, April 22-24, 2014

Keynote Speakers:

Much of the work undertaken in the field of medieval anchoritism, particularly within an English context, has concentrated on the vocation’s role within the history of Christian spirituality, its function as a locus of (gendered) sacred space and its extensive ideological cultural work. Indeed, in the hundred years since Rotha Mary Clay’s foundational 1914 study of English anchoritism, The Hermits and Anchorites of England (1914), only sporadic attention has been given to the English anchorite as part of a community – whether social, intellectual, spiritual or religious – and as part of a widespread ‘virtual’ community of other anchorites and religious or ‘semi-religious’ figures spread across England and beyond.

In its focus on anchorites within their multifarious communities, this conference seeks papers attempting to unpick the paradox of the ‘communal anchorite’ and the central role often played by her/him within local and (inter)national political contexts, and within the arenas of church ideology, critique and reform.

It also seeks contributions for a Roundtable discussion on any aspect of Mary Rotha Clay’s work, its lasting legacies and the debt to her scholarship owed by new generations of scholars in the twenty-first century.

Offers of 20-minute papers are sought on any aspect of medieval anchorites in their communities including (but not restricted to):

Abstracts of up to 500 words should be sent to Dr Liz Herbert McAvoy at anchorites2014@swan.ac.uk by Friday, August 30th 2013.

49TH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON MEDIEVAL STUDIES

http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/

The 49th International Congress on Medieval Studies takes place 8-11 May 2014 at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo.

EUROPE AFTER WYCLIF

Fordham University, New York, 4-6 June 2014

Discussions of religious controversy in late-medieval England have increasingly adopted a continental scope. We have begun to see how communication networks, both licit and illicit, connected England with sometimes unexpected parts of Europe; how the Wycliffites influenced, and were influenced by, continental writings; how English religious affairs drew the attention of continental observers; and how debate over Wyclif’s doctrines featured prominently at the 15th-century general councils. Seen from an even broader perspective, late-medieval English religious politics was both integrated with and stood in tense relation to that of continental Europe (as had long been the case). In other words, England was never as insular as some have thought it to be.

This conference aims to explore intersections - the points at which Wycliffism and English religious controversy meet with broader social, cultural, historical, literary, and material issues of European significance. One purpose of this gathering is to examine the place of L/lollard studies in terms of wider concerns in Europe, though not all papers are expected to address L/lollardy or Wycliffism directly.

This meeting will also provide a forum for re-examining the mission of the Lollard Society, its current emphases and future directions.

Plenary Speakers:
Vincent Gillespie (Oxford), Fiona Somerset (Univ. of Connecticut), John Van Engen (Notre Dame)

Topics:

  1. The Great Schism of the Western Church (incl. the events that preceded and followed)
  2. 15th-century general councils
  3. Manuscript culture, textual transmission, communication networks
  4. Lay devotion
  5. Religious movements on the European Continent
  6. Preaching

Conference Organizers:
J. Patrick Hornbeck II (Fordham University)
hornbeck@fordham.edu
Michael Van Dussen (McGill University)
michael.vandussen@mcgill.ca

RETHINKING EARLY MODERNITY: METHODOLOGICAL AND CRITICAL INNOVATION SINCE THE RITUAL TURN

CRRS 50th Anniversary Annual Conference, Toronto, Ontario, June 26-27 2014

Conference web site

The Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary with a conference in honor of Edward Muir, whose innovative studies of Venetian politics and culture helped to establish cultural anthropology and ritual as major analytical frameworks for scholarship on early modern European history. Building from Muir's contribution to the field, the conference hopes to focus on the significance of the methodological changes that have characterized early modern research in history, literature and art history over the last thirty years and to reflect upon how these changes have affected our understanding of the importance of the period.

Interested scholars are invited to submit a paper proposal on topics that exemplify new directions of critical inquiry spurred by the methodological developments over this period, including, but not limited to, the meaning of popular culture, the role of gender, micro-history, the discovery of the body, the importance of ritual, etc. Topics are also welcome that consider how methodological innovations in early modern scholarship—particularly in recent years—have informed changes in the nature of humanities inquiry, broadly conceived. We welcome papers from all disciplines, geographical areas, and periods housed within the rubric of early modern Europe. Scholars of all ranks are welcome to submit papers, including graduate students.

The deadline for submissions is September 30 2013.

Please submit a title, short abstract (250 words maximum) and brief CV to Mark Jurdjevic and Rolf Strom-Olsen at crrs50th@gmail.com.

Further information about the event will be posted on the conference web site. Scheduling, travel and hotel information will be available in early 2014.

JOHN GOWER SOCIETY - THIRD ANNUAL CONGRESS

"John Gower: Language, Cognition, and Performance", University of Rochester, New York, 30 June-3 July 2014

Conference Website

The Congress title, "John Gower: Language, Cognition, and Performance," defines a wide focus: "Language," in all its many aspects, and languages, translations, specialized discourses, dialects, idiolects, and influences, as well as manuscript printed, and digital texts—and Digital Humanities, generally, with application to Gower; "Cognition," including medieval memory and ideational theory, cognitive science, mental (and physical) health and models of therapy, general modes of perception and more specialized (e.g., Gower and suffering, political, salvific and emotive discourses—"Gower and the non- / supra-human world"); "Performance," anticipating sessions on performance and performance theory, on the staging of ideas, on philosophy (people/characters "staged" by deeds and choices, etc.), narrativity.

Plenary speakers will include:

Those who would like to present papers at the Congress should send a one-paragraph abstract (150 words) by July 1, 2013 to the organizer(s) at the following email addresses:

All proposals are welcome! Please indicate any specific audio-visual/digital needs. Congress organizers will select papers and reply to all submitters by July 15, 2013.

Alternatively, submissions may be sent to anty of the approved sessions listed at the conference web site: http://www.wcu.edu/johngower/conference/2014/index.html. Please email the session organiser/s directly.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIEVAL CONGRESS 2014

http://www.leeds.ac.uk/ims/imc/imc2014_call.html

The twentieth International Medieval Congress will take place in Leeds from 7-10 July 2014.

DAN GEFFREY WITH THE NEW POETE: READING AND REREADING CHAUCER AND SPENSER

University of Bristol, July 11-13 2014

Conference Website

Confirmed Plenary Speakers:

  1. Prof. Judith Anderson, Indiana University, Bloomington 
  2. Dr. Helen Barr, Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford 
  3. Prof. Helen Cooper, Magdalene College, University of Cambridge 

There is a persistent discussion between scholars of the medieval and early modern periods about how both periods are conceptualised and about the interrelations between them. How can reading, or rereading, the connections between these two poets contribute to this discussion? Chaucer is customarily read as a poet of the High Middle Ages, whose valorisation of the vernacular had a profound influence on the poetry of subsequent centuries. Spenser is often read as a poet of the High Renaissance for whom continuity with the past (literary and historical) was a paramount issue. What are the connections between these poets and how can they help to shape revisionist discussions about the periodisation of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance? This conference aims to reread the connections between Chaucer and Spenser, in the light of recent critical methodologies and reformulations of historical continuity and difference. The organisers hope to publish a selection of the resultant papers as a single volume, so the following questions seek to elicit contributions that collectively have a sense of coherence, without constraining what contributors wish to discuss.

  1. How has the relationship between Chaucer and Spenser been read and how can it be re-read? 
  2. How do these two poets together help us periodize / deperiodize / reperiodize the medieval and the early modern? 
  3. What kind of continuum do they share? Is their relationship continuous, radically other, both or neither? Can we reconceptualise descriptions of poetic similarity or difference through discussing Chaucer and Spenser together? 
  4. Can we think of their connection in terms of anticipation as well as influence? 
  5. What can we learn about the phenomenon of intertextuality by rereading the connections between these two poets? 
  6. Does Spenser present us with one Chaucer or many? How has this affected later versions of Chaucer?
  7. Do these two poets take analogous approaches to the task of making poetry? 
  8.  How do earlier fifteenth- and sixteenth-century readings and adaptations of the Chaucerian canon affect Spenser’s readings of it? 
  9. How might a greater variety of critical approaches reveal new connections between the poets? (e.g. ecocriticism, posthumanism, studies of material cultures, studies of the digital humanities, cognitive approaches, histories of the emotions, disability studies) 
  10. How does Chaucer imagine his poetic followers? 
  11. What would Chaucer think of Spenser?

Please send 300 word proposals for 20 minute papers to chaucerspenser@gmail.com, including 5-10 keywords highlighting the content of the paper. The deadline for receipt of proposals is Monday, 28th October 2013.

50TH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON MEDIEVAL STUDIES

http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/

The 50th International Congress on Medieval Studies takes place 14-17 May 2015 at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo.

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