Medieval Art Research

Symposium: Reading Annual GCMS Summer Symposium (21st June 2018

Please join us at our Summer Symposium on the theme of ‘Emotion and Devotion in Medieval Europe’.

Thursday 21 June 2018, 09:00-18:00
Van Emden Lecture Theatre and G27L, Edith Morley, Whiteknights campus

This symposium will explore the growing area of research into the study of male and female medieval lay piety, and is being run by the Graduate Centre for Medieval Studies in collaboration with the University of Reading History Department Research Cluster ‘Emotion, Devotion and Belief’.

Speakers include: Miri Rubin (Queen Mary University of London), Robert Swanson (University of Birmingham), Katherine Lewis (University of Huddersfield), Amanda Murphy (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan), Sarah Bastow (University of Huddersfield), Sarah Macmillan (University of Birmingham), Rebecca Rist (University of Reading), Paul Davies (University of Reading) and Helen Parish (University of Reading).

Additional information:

Tea, coffee and lunch will be provided.

Everyone is welcome.

Registration cost is £10, book your place here.

CFP: Fuerstbischoefliche representation (Passau, 5-6 Oct 18)

Oberhausmuseum Passau, 05. – 06.10.2018
Deadline: May 25, 2018

Call for Papers
Fürstbischöfliche Repräsentation im Spätmittelalter und der Frühen Neuzeit

Die oberhalb Passaus gelegene fürstbischöfliche Veste Oberhaus wird erstmals 1219 schriftlich fassbar. Zum 800jährigen Jubiläum wird 2019 im Oberhausmuseum Passau die Entwicklung der Burganlage zur Residenz- und Festungsanlage in einer Sonderausstellung thematisiert. Ergänzend werden in einer Multimediainstallation im Observationsturm der Festung die neuesten Forschungsergebnisse des EU-Projekts ViSIT zur Bau- und Burggeschichte der Veste Oberhaus präsentiert. Begleitet wird das Vorhaben von einer Tagung zum Thema “Fürstbischöfliche Repräsentation im Spätmittelalter und der Frühen Neuzeit”, die am 5./6. Oktober 2018 in Passau stattfindet. Der Fokus liegt auf der Untersuchung der Repräsentations- und Inszenierungsstrategien geistlicher Herrscher in der profanen Architektur.

Auf der Tagung soll die Funktions- und Nutzungsgeschichte von Burganlagen, die zu Residenzen und/oder Festungsanlagen ausgebaut worden sind, untersucht werden. Hierbei spielt auch die mitunter wechselvolle Beziehung zwischen Burg und Stadt sowie dem Umland eine wichtige Rolle. Ebenso gilt es, das Wechselverhältnis der Burganlagen zu anderen fürstbischöflichen Residenzen, Jagd- und Lustschlössern vergleichend in den Blick zu nehmen. Welche Möglichkeiten hatten die Fürstbischöfe ihr Herrschaftsamt in der Architektur zu visualisieren? Inwiefern orientierten sie sich architektonisch an den weltlichen Herrschern? In welchem funktionalen Verhältnis stehen Burgen, Residenzen, Jagd- und Lustschlösser hinsichtlich ihrer Nutzung zueinander und bilden dadurch eine Residenzenlandschaft aus? Welche architektonische Infrastruktur (Treppen, Kapellen, Repräsentationsräume und Raumfolgen, Gärten, Lustgartenarchitekturen, Theater etc.) benötigte ein geistlicher Fürst? Wie und in welcher Form mussten die Burganlagen verändert und angepasst werden, um als repräsentativer Wohnsitz weiter genutzt und den wechselnden Bedürfnissen des Fürstbischofs gerecht zu werden?

In diesem Kontext können auch die unterschiedlichen fürstbischöflichen Repräsentations- und Inszenierungsstrategien in der Architektur und Innenausstattung behandelt werden. Welche Optionen hatten die geistlichen Herrscher ihre weltliche Macht ohne Rückverweis auf die Dynastie und Aussicht auf Etablierung einer Erbfolge zu unterstreichen? Wie trägt hierbei beispielsweise die Inszenierung und Präsentation von Kunstsammlung, Harnischkammer, Zeughaus, Silberkammer oder Porträtsammlung zur Herrschaftslegitimation der geistlichen Fürsten bei?

Auf der Tagung sollen die genannten Aspekte für die geistlichen Fürsten im Heiligen Römischen Reich deutscher Nation mit Schwerpunkt auf den süddeutschen Raum im Spätmittelalter und der Frühen Neuzeit eruiert werden.

Die Veröffentlichung der Tagungsbeiträge wird gemeinsam mit den Forschungsergebnissen des EU-Projekts ViSIT im Ausstellungskatalog zur Sonderausstellung geplant. Da der Band zur Ausstellungseröffnung am 1. Juni 2019 vorliegen soll, müssen die Beiträge bereits vier Wochen (5. November 2018) nach der Tagung vorliegen.

Der Call for Papers richtet sich explizit auch an NachwuchswissenschaftlerInnen (DoktorandInnen und PostdoktorandInnen), die ihr Forschungsthema in einem 20minütigen Vortrag präsentieren möchten. Angesprochen sind WissenschaftlerInnen aus der Kunstgeschichte und der Geschichtswissenschaft sowie aus verwandten Fachbereichen. Interessierte senden bitte ein kurzes Abstract von maximal 2000 Zeichen und einem kurzen Lebenslauf sowie Kontaktdaten per E-Mail bis zum 25. Mai 2018 an Marina Beck (marina.beck@passau.de)

Dr. Marina Beck (Oberhausmuseum Passau, EU-Projekt ViSIT – Virtuelle Verbundsysteme und Informationstechnologien für die touristische Erschließung von kulturellem Erbe)

Lecture: ‘The Battle of Maps: Ottoman-Habsburg antagonism as mirrored in their cartography’, Ferdinand Opll (27th April, 2018, 5pm)

opll

Please join the Architecture, Space and Society Centre (ASSC) for Prof. Ferdinand Opll’s lecture on April 27th at 5pm in the Keynes Library, School of Arts, Birkbeck, 43 Gordon Square.

The Battle of Maps: Ottoman-Habsburg antagonism as mirrored in their cartography (15th – 16th century)

The paper will compare parallel trends in the development of Eastern (Islamic) and Western (Christian) cartography from the Early Middle Ages up to the Early Modern Times. This will lay the basis for a deeper understanding of the use of cartography as a tool in the context of the long-lasting political antagonism and territorial struggles between the Ottomans and the Habsburgs – the Muslim and Christian arch-opponents of the 15th and especially the 16th century. The paper will focus on reciprocal influences as well as deep diversities concerning (carto)graphical evolution in these two opposing camps. This comparative view will shine an interesting new light on the encounters of these two world powers of the Early Modern era and through a prism of oft marginalised medium of mapmaking.

Ferdinand Opll is Honorary Professor of Medieval History and Historical Auxiliary Sciences at the University of Vienna. He is a distinguished, awarded-winning historian and archivist who has authored and co-authored many landmark publications on Vienna’s history and topography. An able and dynamic administrator, as well as scholar, Ferdinand Opll has shaped a number of important institutions: he was the director of the Vienna Municipal and Provincial Archives (Wiener Statdt- und Landesarchiv) between 1989 and 2010; the leader of the Institute Municipal Historical Research of the Ludwig Boltzmann Society (Institut für Stadtgeschichtsforschung der Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft) between 2002-2009, and the general secretary of the Society for the History of Vienna (Verein für Geschichte der Stadt Wien) between 1989-1991. He is an active member of the International Commission for History of Towns.

Lecture Series: Murray Seminars at Birkbeck University, London, Summer Term 2018

1 May, Cristina Guarnieri, University of Padua

The Stories of St. Lucy by Jacobello del Fiore, and Venetian folding reliquary altarpieces

The Stories of St. Lucy by Jacobello del Fiore are one of the masterpieces of Italian Late Gothic painting, but their function has been little understood. Re-evaluating prevailing theories about the panels’ purpose and display, this paper proposes that they formed a folding reliquary altarpiece, and considers other examples of this type which was once common in the Veneto.

5 June, Michelle O’Malley, the Warburg Institute

Botticelli: A conundrum of production

Two versions of Botticelli’s Virgin and Child with an Adoring Angel suggest raise fundamental questions about the specifics of authorship in the workshop and how we, as art historians, understand Renaissance artistic practice and construct attribution. This paper looks again at the technical evidence and the value of connoisseurship in tracking the development of the use of reproductive technique in late fifteenth-century Florence.

27 June, Alison Wright, UCL

Gold against the Body: gold surfaces and their limits, medieval to early modern

The myth, famously invoked in Goldfinger, of the human body suffocated by being coated in gold exemplifies the fascination and danger attached to the idea of an ‘excess’ of gold, especially in respect to human skin. This paper explores the slippery boundaries of when, where and for whom gold surfaces might be deemed excessive in relation to European art, especially Italian, of the fourteenth to early sixteenth centuries.

All this term’s seminars take place in the History of Art Department at Birkbeck (43, Gordon Sq., London WC1H 0PD) in Room 114 (The Keynes Library) at 5pm. Talks finish by 5.50pm (allowing those with other commitments to leave) and are then followed by discussion and refreshments. We hope to see you there.

CFP: ‘Peaks-Passages-Ponti’, Deutscher Verein für Kunstwissenschaft (deadline 1 June 2018)

5. Forum Medieval Art: Peaks-Passages-Ponti

The fifth Forum Medieval Art will take place in Bern on 18th-21st September 2019. Bern – looking out to peaks Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau, situated at the border to the Romandy, and having a long-standing tradition in bridge-building – embodies certain notions of translations, entanglements, and interactions. The conference will highlight such themes, focusing on forms and means of exchange, infrastructure, political and religious relationships, and the concrete reflections of these connections through objects. Methodological challenges will also be paramount, such as questioning how to write a history of encounters between artists, artworks, materials, and traditions.

Many mountain regions, and especially the Alps, have a long history as sites of transfers and interferences. Today, mountains and glaciers are the locations revealing most rapidly the consequences of climate change. They raise our awareness of similar changes in the past. Mountain regions were and are traversed by several ecological networks, connecting cities, regions, and countries, as well as different cultures, languages, and artistic traditions. Mountains, with their difficult passages and bridges, structured the ways through which materials and people were in touch. Bridges were strategic targets in conduct of war, evidence of applied knowledge, expression of civic representation, and custom points—both blockades and gates to the world.

Peaks in the historiography of Art History mark moments of radical change within artistic developments, the pinnacles of artistic careers, and high moments in the encounters of different traditions. Since the unfinished project of Walter Benjamin, who obtained his PhD in Bern, the passage has also been introduced as a figure of thought in historiography. The passage describes historical layers as spatial constellations, in which works of art, everyday culture, religious ideas, definitions of periods and theories of history encounter.

Please send your submission until June 1, 2018, to
mail@mittelalterkongress.de

Find more information here: http://mittelalterkongress.de/mittelalterkongress/wb/pages/startseite.php

German call for papers:

In Bern – mit Blick auf Eiger, Mönch und Jungfrau, als Passage zur Westschweiz und mit einer langen Tradition im Brückenbau – wird das fünfte Forum Kunst des Mittelalters die Schnittstellen, Transfer-, Entanglement- und Überlagerungsprozesse selbst ins Zentrum stellen. Es thematisiert die Formen und Wege des Austauschs, die Infrastruktur, die Verbindungen der politischen und religiösen Kontexte, die konkreten Reflexionen dieser Beziehungen in den Objekten und die methodische Herausforderung, die Geschichte von Begegnungen von Künstlern, Werken, Materialien und Traditionen zu schreiben.

Viele Gebirgsregionen, und insbesondere der Alpenraum, haben als Transfer- und Überlagerungsraum eine lange Geschichte. Zugleich sind Berge und Gletscher in der Gegenwart Orte, an denen die Folgen von Klimaveränderungen besonders rasch sichtbar werden. Sie sensibilisieren daher auch für ähnliche Veränderungsphänomene vergangener Zeitschichten. Bergregionen waren und sind durchzogen von verschiedenen Netzwerken, in denen herausfordernde Passagen, oft mit Pässen und Brücken, Städte, Regionen, Länder, und damit verschiedene Kulturen, Sprachen und ihre künstlerischen Traditionen verbanden. Sie strukturierten die Wege, über die Materialien, Menschen, Regionen miteinander im Austausch standen. Brücken waren strategische Ziele in der Kriegsführung, Zeugnis angewendeten Wissens, Ausdruck städtischer Repräsentation, Zollstellen, und Tore zur Welt.

Gipfel markieren in der Kunsthistoriographie Momente des Umbruchs einer längeren Entwicklung, Höhepunkte in künstlerischen Karrieren und zentrale Momente in der Begegnung von verschiedenen Traditionen. Seit dem unvollendetem Projekt Walter Benjamins, der in Bern promoviert wurde, ist die Passage auch als Figur der Geschichtsschreibung eingeführt, die historische Schichten von Räumen als Konstellation begreift, an der sich Kunstwerke, Alltagskultur, religiöse Vorstellungen, Definitionen von Epochen und Geschichtstheorie begegnen.

Ihre Vorschläge für Sektionen richten Sie bitte bis spätestens 1. Juni 2018 an
mail@mittelalterkongress.de

French call for papers:

5. Forum Medieval Art
Peaks-Passages-Ponti

Face aux sommets de l’Eiger, du Mönch et de la Jungfrau, représentant un lieu de passage entre Suisse allemande et romande et héritière d’une longue tradition de la construction de ponts la ville de Berne va accueillir le cinquième “Forum d’art médiéval” pour discuter les processus de transfert, d’échange et d’interférences culturels au Moyen Âge. Il abordera les problématiques des formes et voies d’échange, de l’infrastructure, des liens politiques et religieux qui sont reflétés dans les œuvres et lancera le défi méthodologique d’écrire une nouvelle histoire de l’art comme histoire des rencontres entre les hommes, les œuvres, les matériaux et les traditions.

Beaucoup de régions montagnardes, et notamment l’arc alpin, ont une longue tradition d’espaces d’échange et de transfert. En même temps, les montagnes et les glaciers représentent des lieux où le changement climatique se manifeste très vite. Ils sensibilisent à l’étude de changements comparables qui eurent lieu dans le passé. Les montagnes sont depuis toujours traversées d’un réseau de chemins et de routes intégrant des passages difficiles, souvent par des cols et des ponts. Ce réseau établit le lien entre villes, régions et pays, mettant en relation les diverses cultures avec leurs langues et leurs pratiques artistiques différentes. Les régions montagnardes comprennent les voies de transport et d’échange de matériaux et d’hommes entre régions. Les ponts devinrent souvent la cible pendant les guerres, représentaient une démonstration du savoir-faire et symbolisaient la barrière douanière tout comme la porte qui s’ouvre au monde.

Dans l’historiographie de l’histoire de l’art ce sont les apogées qui désignent un changement profond dans une évolution en cours, un sommet d’une carrière d’artiste ou un moment crucial d’une rencontre entre traditions différentes. Depuis le projet inachevé de Walter Benjamin, qui a soutenu sa thèse à l’université de Berne, le terme de “passage” fait partie de la pensée d’historiens qui cherchent à comprendre les stratifications historiques d’un espace comme des lieux de rencontre entre objets d’art, culture du quotidien, idées religieuses, définitions d’époques et théories d’histoire.

Les propositions de séance sont à soumettre jusqu’au 1er juin 2018 par
e-mail à l’adresse suivante :
mail@mittelalterkongress.de

Conference: ‘Transmissions and Translations in the Medieval World’ Conference, University of York (2-3 June 2018)

Conference: ‘Transmissions and Translations in the Medieval World’, Kings Manor at the University of York (2-3 June 2018)

The concepts of transmission and translation are central to the evolution of the pan-European multi-cultural nature of medieval society. Cross-cultural connections in the political arena, mercantile trade routes, the dissemination of Christianity and interactions with Islam and Judaism resulted in the appropriation and assimilation of practices, ideas and arts throughout the medieval world. These transactions were enabled by numerous factors and generated new fusions of style in architecture, art and iconography, literature and lifestyles which together importantly informed attitudes towards the self and others, senses of belonging and ownership, as well as conceptions of regionality. While these areas of enquiry have been much discussed in relation to contemporary society in sociological and anthropological scholarship, there remains much to explore about how they were articulated and achieved during the Middle Ages: what types of objects were transported and for what purpose(s); the impact of language on the transmission of ideas through manuscripts, literature and poetry; iconographic borrowings and theological impetus; processes of production; engagement with their societies of origin and those they infiltrated.

This two-day interdisciplinary conference will examine the significance of transmission and translation, and the associated themes encompassed by these terms in the medieval world. It will bring together early career researchers, emerging scholars and established academics from different disciplinary backgrounds as a forum for contextualising the movement of textual and material objects, as well as the ideas accompanying them.

Conference programme:

Day 1: Saturday 2^nd June

10:00 – 10:25, K/G33, Registration and Coffee

10:25, K133, Opening Remarks

Session 1: 10:30-12:00

Chair: Megan Henvey

Amanda Doviak (University of York) Adapting the Ascension: Transmitting Visual Languages on the Leeds Cross
Catherine Karkov (University of Leeds) Transmissions and Translation of the Franks Casket
Heidi Stoner (Durham University) Kings, Wise Men and the Recognition of Christ: Understanding Early Medieval Insular Art

12:00 – 1:30 Lunch

Session 2: 1:30 – 3:00

Chair: Amanda Doviak

Artur Costrino (Federal University of Ouro Preto, Brazil) Cicero at the Carolingian Court: Re-evaluating the Variants of Alcuin’s Disputatio de rhetorica et uirtutibus in accordance with the mutilated manuscripts of De inuentione.
Mike Bintley (Canterbury Christ Church University) Rome Before and After Constantine in Cynewulf’s Juliana and Elene’
Rune Hjarnø Rasmussen (University of Uppsala) The Transmission of Odin.

3:00 – 3:30 Coffee Break

Session 3: 3:30-5:00

Chair: TBA

Nino Simonishvili (Independent Scholar) Images of Identity at the Edge of Empires: The Visual Concept of Power in Medieval Georgia in the Second Half of the 10^th
Lesley Milner (Institute of Historical Research) The Golden Gate in Jerusalem and its Importance for Medieval Christians.
John Mitchell (University of East Anglia) Abul-Abbas & All That: Visual Dynamics Between the Caliphate and the West in the Age of Charlemange.

5:00 – 5:15 Comfort Break

Keynote Lecture 5:15 – 6:15

From Demons to Axe Men: Adaptation and Invention in Early Irish Sculpture

Professor Roger Stalley

Chair: TBA

to be followed by a drinks reception

Day 2: Sunday 3^rd June

Session 1: 10:00-11:30

Chair: Amanda Doviak

Megan Henvey (University of York) Transmitting Religio-Political Conflict Back in Time: Northern Ireland’s Overlooked Early Medieval Sculptural Heritage.
Aideen M. Ireland (Independent Scholar) Cacophony in C – Crank, Custodian, Curator and Collector: The Remarkable Career of Sir William Betham.
Patrizio Gianferro (Independent Scholar) Manuscript Reproduction as Research Apparatus at the end of the Nineteenth Century.

11:30 – 12:00 Coffee Break

Session 2: 12:00-13:30

Chair: Meg Boulton

Jane Hawkes (University of York) Crossing and Re-crossing: Translating and Transmitting: The “Art of the Archipelago”.
Heather Pulliam (University of Edinburgh) Letters of the Heart: Insular, Continental and Byzantine Images of Books and Their Keepers.
Christina E.C. Smith (Durham University) Of Border Britons and Bernicians: The High Crosses of South-East Scotland in Context.

13:30 – 15:00 Lunch

Session 3: 15:00-16:30

Chair: Heidi Stoner

Catherine Léglu (University of Reading) Blind Samson in Anglo-Norman French and visual adaptations of Judges 16.
Cher Casey (University of York) Transmitting Sacred Authority through Stone: The Clematius Inscription and Cologne’s Cult of the Holy Virgins.
Elisa Foster (University of York) Ecce Videns Arabes Se: Reconsidering Islamic Influence at Le Puy Cathedral.

16:30 – 16:45 Closing Remarks

Registration is open until 8 May at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/transmissions-and-translations-in-the-medieval-world-tickets-44682099362?aff=es2

Conference: Roads, Routes and Networks: Visualizing Art Historical Information, Cambridge, MA (30 April 2018)

Roads, Routes and Networks: Visualizing Art Historical Information
Digital Humanities Colloquium

Cambridge (MA), Real Colegio Complutense at Harvard University, RCC Conference Room, 26 Trowbridge St., April 30, 2018

Space and movement have always been fundamental for art history, through concepts such as center and periphery, roads for global exchange, or the experience of travel, among others. Geographical Information Systems are transforming the traditional ways to visualize these disciplinary discourses about dissemination, innovation and evolution. Network analysis is bringing to light people and places that had been very relevant in their own time as nodes for exchange or partnership, but have been usually overlooked by the focus on a few big names. Vast and quickly increasing amounts of digital data invite experimentation about their uses for teaching and research in the humanities. New challenges are appearing, such as ensuring the sustainability of digital resources and their interoperability, while guaranteeing open access to cultural information. The three case studies represented in the colloquium will provide an update on new and ongoing projects in this area, and introduce a shared reflection about the possibilities of digital information within art history.
Continue reading “Conference: Roads, Routes and Networks: Visualizing Art Historical Information, Cambridge, MA (30 April 2018)”

CFP: Museums and Identities, Warsaw, Poland (Deadline 1 May 2018)

Museums and Identities

Museum of King Jan III’s Palace at Wilanów Warsaw, Poland, November 21 – 23, 2018
Deadline: May 1, 2018

By ICOM Austria, ICOM Czech Republic, ICOM Slovakia, ICOM Poland
and Museum of King Jan III’s Palace at Wilanów

“Museums and landscapes are an essential element of humanity’s physical, natural, social and symbolic environment.” Based on this first sentence from the ICOM Resolution of the 24th ICOM General Conference in Milano 2016 “The Responsibility of Museums Towards Landscape” we want to continue the discussion initiated during the first Seminar in 2017, about the impact museums have and how they react to the landscape that surrounds them, urban or rural. What particular responsibility for protecting this natural heritage and to promote sustainable development do museums have?

But the term “Landscape” also implies other perspectives: How are museums influencing the cultural, social, economic or political identity of the area and society they are situated in? They choose what objects are collected, presented and protected, what stories are told and how. They define what is handed on to future generations. “With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility” to quote Winston Churchill, Theodore Roosevelt and Spider-Man. Therefor we want to question the role of governmental authorities or financial sponsor and how they might influence the presentation or content of exhibitions. How do museums react to financial dependencies or state-ideologies?

As we are celebrating the European Year of Cultural Heritage this year, we celebrate the diverse cultural heritage across Europe. We want to raise the question if museums not only preserve Europe’s cultural heritage at national, regional and local level, but if they also are in the position to be an important factor to contribute to build an European identity that is felt to be still missing.

Call for Papers:

Topics of interest for submission include:
1. Perspectives: Different Identities and Missions of Museums
2. Neighbours: Impact of Museums on Cultural Landscapes and Social Networks
3. Politics: Museums in Historical and Contemporary Context
4. Nature: Environmental Impact of Museums
5. Economy: Impact of Museums on Local Development & Financial Sustainability
6. European Union: Impact of Museums on European Identity

We invite to send an original research abstracts, case studies before the Abstract submission deadline. All research papers will be evaluated by international Committee. All the accepted abstracts will be eligible to be presented at the seminar after the confirmation of participation.

Applications:
Please complete the attached application form and send it to:
konferencja@muzeum-wilanow.pl

Downloads:
CFP:
http://icom-oesterreich.at/sites/icom-oesterreich.at/files/attachments/call_for_papers.pdf

Application:
http://icom-oesterreich.at/sites/icom-oesterreich.at/files/attachments/cfp_app_form.docx

Important Dates:
Abstract submission deadline: May 1, 2018
Notification of accepted applications: May 31,2018

Language:
English

Publication:
Selection of lectures will be published

CFP: The Global Turn in Medieval Studies (Deadline 15 June 2018)

The Global Turn in Medieval Studies: the 94th Annual Meeting of The Medieval Academy of America

University of Pennsylvania

7-9 March 2019 | http://www.medievalacademy.org

The 94th Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America will take place in Philadelphia on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania. The meeting is jointly hosted by the Medieval Academy of America, Bryn Mawr College, Delaware Valley Medieval Association, Haverford College, St. Joseph’s University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Villanova University.

Medievalists across various disciplines are taking a more geographically and methodologically global approach to the study of the Middle Ages. While the Organizing Committee invites proposals for papers on all topics and in all disciplines and periods of medieval studies, this year’s conference spotlights the “global turn” in medieval studies. To this end, we encourage session and paper proposals that treat the Middle Ages as a broad historical and cultural phenomenon, encompassing the full extent of Europe as well as the Middle East, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, and beyond. We also invite proposals that explore departures from traditional teleological discourses rooted in national interests, ones that apply disciplinary and interdisciplinary methods to study a broad array of subjects.

We especially encourage proposals that provoke explorations of the following “big questions”:

1) Periodization and the drawing of geographic borders in medieval studies can be helpful, but can also limit our ability to make connections, see patterns, or entertain dialogue among specialists in individual sub-fields. What do we mean when we speak of the “Middle Ages” in geographic, temporal, or disciplinary terms? What do we mean when we use contemporary geographical concepts, such as Europe or Asia? What do we mean when we say “Global Middle Ages”? What is in and what is out?

2) If we are to turn away from national models, what is an alternative? For instance, how can methodologies that highlight networks further our understanding of the “Global Middle Ages”? How might they contribute, for example, to understanding mechanisms of knowledge sharing and the development and use of religious, economic, and political systems?

3) Across all cultures in the medieval world, philosophers, theologians, scholars, healers, poets, artists, and musicians sought to understand the natural world and to apply that understanding to concrete ends. How do we make sense of their efforts? How might traditional paradigms of what we call “science,” philosophical inquiry, literary, and artistic practice be challenged?

4) Medieval studies has been at the forefront of the “digital turn” over the past few decades. How have digital approaches to scholarship altered the landscape for better or worse? In a global context, have new technologies broken barriers or created new ones? How do we create and evaluate digital scholarship in medieval studies vis à vis traditional methods?

Within the framework of these “big questions”, the organizing committee proposes the following threads:

*    Uses of the Medieval
*    Expanding Geographies of the Medieval
*    Re-thinking Periodization: Beyond Eurocentrism and Postcolonialism
*    Medieval Foundations of Contemporary Politics
*    Alexander the Great and World Thinking
*    Medieval Cosmologies
*    The Trojan Myth and Genealogies
*    What is Medieval/European/Literature?
*    Transmission and Technologies of Knowledge
*    Doing Science at Court
*    The Locations of Learning
*    Myths and Legends of Languages and Letters
*    Dante, Local and Global: Towards 2021
*    Deconstructing “National” Legal Traditions
*    Gender Matters
*    Ars/Arts: Intersections Across Disciplines and Borders
*    Global Manuscript Markets and Movements
*    Digitizing the Global Middle Ages: Practices, Sustainability, and Ethics
*    Approaches to Historiography
*    Interfaith Encounters, Real and Imagined
*    Religious and Cultural Ethics across Cultures: Conversation or Confrontation?
*    Saints and Sages
*    Words and Music

Proposals
Individuals may propose a:
*    single paper for a listed thread
*    full session on a listed thread
*    single paper not designated for a specific thread
*    full session on a topic outside the listed threads
*    poster, paper, full session, or workshop that explores the role and uses of digital technologies

Sessions are 90 minutes long, and typically consist of three 20-minute papers. Proposals should be geared to that length. The committee is interested in other formats as well: poster sessions, roundtables, workshops, etc. The Program Committee may suggest a different format for some sessions after the proposals have been reviewed.

Any member of the Medieval Academy may submit a proposal; others may submit proposals as well but must become members in order to present papers at the meeting. Special consideration will be given to individuals whose field would not traditionally involve membership in the Medieval Academy.
In order to be considered, proposals must be complete and include the following:

(1) A cover sheet containing the proposer’s name, statement of Medieval Academy membership (or statement that the individual’s specialty would not traditionally involve membership in the Academy), professional status, email address, postal address, home or cell and office telephone numbers, fax number (if available), and paper title;

(2) A second sheet containing the proposer’s name, session for which the proposal should be considered, title, 250-word abstract, and audio-visual equipment requirements.

(3) Additional sheets as necessary containing all of the above information, plus a session abstract, when a full panel for a session is being proposed.

Submissions: Proposals should be submitted as attached PDFs to the MAA Program Committee by email to MAA2019@TheMedievalAcademy.org

The deadline is 15 June 2018.

Please do not send proposals directly to the Organizing Committee members.

Selection Procedure: Paper and panel proposals will be reviewed for their quality and for the significance and relevance of their topics. The Organizing Committee will evaluate proposals during the summer of 2018 and the Committee will inform all successful and unsuccessful proposers by 10 September 2018.

Organizing Committee Members:
Lynn Ransom & Julia Verkholantsev, University of Pennsylvania (co-chairs)
Daud Ali, University of Pennsylvania
Chris Atwood, University of Pennsylvania
Kevin Brownlee, University of Pennsylvania
Mary Caldwell, University of Pennsylvania
Linda Chance, University of Pennsylvania
Paul M. Cobb, University of Pennsylvania
Catherine Conybeare, Bryn Mawr College
Talya Fishman, University of Pennsylvania
Fr. Allan Fitzgerald, Villanova University
Scott Francis, University of Pennsylvania
Nicholas Herman, University of Pennsylvania
Tom Izbicki, Rutgers University & Delaware Valley Medieval Association
Ada Kuskowski, University of Pennsylvania
Ann Matter, University of Pennsylvania
Maud McInerney, Haverford College
Paul Patterson, St. Joseph’s University
Montserrat Piera, Temple University
Dot Porter, University of Pennsylvania
Jerry Singerman, University of Pennsylvania Press
Emily Steiner, University of Pennsylvania
Eva del Soldato, University of Pennsylvania
Elly Truitt, Bryn Mawr College
David Wallace, University of Pennsylvania (ex officio as MAA president)