Medieval Art Research

CFP: Renovatio in the East Roman & Byzantine World, 395-1453 (Leeds 2015)

Call for Papers
Renovatio in the East Roman & Byzantine World, 395-1453
Proposed Sponsored Sessions at the Leeds International Medieval Congress, 6-9 July 2015
Deadline: 20 September 2014

A blurred program of reform presented as renewal, renovatio was an extremely important concept for the Classical Roman Empire, and remained so for the entire history of its eastern continuation. As emperors sought to establish their legitimacy through issuing law codes, building programs, and reconquering lost lands, both the reality and the rhetoric of renovatio had a fundamental impact on the Byzantine view of themselves and their state. Evidence of these programs for restoration resonates today throughout surviving texts, coins, and art and architecture, strongly influencing our historiographical reconstructions. We warmly invite papers dealing with these issues across the full lifespan of the Eastern Roman Empire and its successor states, from all areas of Late Antique & Byzantine studies. Suggested topics include:

– Justinian and his World – Reconquest, Reform, and Renewal
– Law and renovatio from the Theodosian Code to the Hexabiblos
– Iconoclasm, the Isaurians, and the Resurgence of Byzantium
– Rhetoric in Stone – Byzantine Architectural renovatio
– A Macedonian Renaissance?
– Literary renovatio – Historiography and the Greco-Roman Novel
– The ‘Komnenian Restoration’
– Art, Politics and renovatio in the post-1204 World

To apply please send an abstract of no more than 300 words and a short academic biography to byzantine.society@gmail.com by September 20th, 2014.

We encourage as many people as possible to apply, in order to help the growth of Byzantine studies, and foster interaction with late antiquists and medievalists with different specialisations. To this end, we also intend to host a drinks reception on one of the evenings of the congress.

CFP: New Directions in the Study of Women Religious: Four Sessions and a Roundtable (Leeds 2015)

Call For Papers
New directions in the study of women religious: four sessions and a roundtable
International Medieval Congress, Leeds, 6-9 July 2015
Deadline: 15 September 2014

These sessions are designed to bring together scholars working on nuns from any geographical region and religious tradition from 300 – 1500, in order to examine the methodologies and concepts that are being used currently by scholars to interpret evidence produced by and on nuns. They are intended to reflect new research in nuns’ studies; therefore, the themes outlined below are flexible, and are there to spark inspiration rather than to be treated as prescriptive. The organisers are central- to late- medievalists and are aware that issues relating to late-antique and early-medieval nuns might be very different to the ones that we have laid out below. If that is the case, do not be deterred; get in touch with your ideas and we will try to adapt accordingly. In addition to the four sessions, we are organising a roundtable on the central issues involved in the study of women religious. What are the main obstacles (intellectual and otherwise) to fruitful research on women religious? Where do we go next? If you would like to be included as a panellist, please get in touch with a brief description (one or two lines) of what you would like to talk about. Please send paper proposals (of approx. 250 words, with proposed titles) and roundtable topics to either Kirsty Day (University of Leeds) k.day@leeds.ac.uk, or Dr Kimm Curran (University of Glasgow; HWRBI) elcho95@gmail.com, as soon as possible, but by 15th September at the very, very latest.

Sponsored by: The History of Women Religious of Britain and Ireland (H-WRBI) http://www.history.ac.uk/history-women-religious/content/welcome

SESSION 1: Old nuns, new narratives [SESSION FULL]

SESSION 2: ‘Nuntastic studies’? Issues of terminology; medieval and modern
How far were nuns aware of what they were called, and how far did their designations shape how they thought about and enacted their vocation? What did it mean to be a Franciscan or a Cistercian nun, or a nun who followed the precepts laid out by Pachomius or Benedict? Discussions of what religio and ordo meant in their medieval contexts have taken place predominantly in the context of studies of male religious, using evidence on and by male religious only. Why has — abundant — evidence produced by and on nuns been excluded from these discussions? Has a preoccupation with the religious orders overshadowed consideration of terminology before the establishment of the religious orders? Where, if at all, does terminology come into studies of female religious who existed before the turn of the twelfth century? Moreover, despite efforts made by those working on both male and female religious for inclusivity, ‘monastic studies’ is still not a field with which female religious are comfortably associated. Jacques Dalarun published an essay in 2011 which discussed the concept of ‘le monachisme féminin’. Terms such as this or ‘women’s monasticism’ employ a gendered qualifier that isn’t applied to their male counterparts — ‘men’s monasticism’ simply doesn’t exist as a concept (should it exist?). This uneven application serves to naturalise monasticism as a male domain, making the presence of women’s evidence in this field seem unnatural. Is there a reason, then, why we keep using these terms (or terms such as, for instance, women’s Franciscanism)? What might work as an alternative? How far does modern terminological usage (gendered and/or otherwise) affect our understanding, categorisation, and analysis of evidence relating to female religious?

SESSION 3. Individual agency, change, and reform
In scholarly narratives involving female religious, agency for various types of change — reform included — is often attributed to a power external to the female religious under examination. How far did individual nuns,or individual communities, influence the changes to the rules and precepts that governed their vocations? The agency of women religious can also be traced in the rules or forms of life that women wrote for their own communities. Do rules that were written by women for women’s communities differ from those written by male guardians of women’s communities? The fact that rules or forms of life were often ultimately approved or issued by male ecclesiastics tends to obscure women’s agency in the creation of such texts. Scholarship on nuns has often been blind to where women may have written entire rules or forms of life that were then merely approved by a male ecclesiastical power, or where male religious wrote rules in response to the insistence of women religious. What methodologies can be employed to trace nuns’ agency in texts where they may appear to have had none? As the theme of this year’s IMC demonstrates, much intellectual discourse in the field of medieval religion has been formed around the issue of reform. However, evidence relating to nuns features either very little or not at all in many of the most recent surveys of monastic reform. Why has this been the case, and how can we reconcile this? What can the evidence left by women religious bring to discussions of reform in the Middle Ages? The extent to which reform is an appropriate metanarrative in medieval religiosity has been brought into question by a number of scholars. How far can we trace reform in evidence produced by and on nuns?

SESSION 4. Combining methodologies, illuminating nuns
Scholarly narratives of women religious have been created in a range of disciplinary fields, and using numberof different source types. As such, these narratives have often challenged — albeit not always consciously — many of the problems inherent in the histories of medieval religion that are based purely on normative sources. For instance, scholarly narratives punctuated by ‘inspiration,’ ‘institutionalisation’,and ‘decline’ have found an alternative in recent studies of the history of nuns’ literacies. How might we employ a combination of approaches to ostensibly divergent source types to illuminate our understanding of medieval nuns: their place in the world of medieval religiosity and their understanding of this world; their lived experiences; their agency in shaping their vocations? Methodologies that we might use to read monastic architecture have been applied by some scholars to monastic rules, and vice versa, as a useful way of understanding the dynamics of enclosure. However, as Roberta Gilchrist has argued, histories of monastic archaeology have not escaped the androcentric biases present in text-based histories of religious communities. Is there a way of combining methodologies that have been generated in different fields as a fruitful way of understanding medieval nuns, without absorbing the problematic elements associated with these fields into new narratives of women religious?

CFP: Pilgrimage, Exploration, and Travel (Kalamazoo 2015)

Call for Papers:
Pilgrimage, Exploration, and Travel
Session sponsored by Hortulus at the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan, May 14-17, 2015
Deadline: 15 September 2015

Hortulus will sponsor a session on “Pilgrimage, Exploration, and Travel,” a theme selected by our readers, at the 50th International Congress on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan, May 14-17, 2015. Papers presented in our session may also be considered for our Fall 2015 issue on the same theme.

Scholarly interest in the topic of pilgrimage spans many geographies and disciplines. Additionally, recent scholarship has revealed the significant impact of pilgrimage and travel upon medieval people of a variety of religious, social, and regional backgrounds, not just the pilgrims themselves. We invite proposals that explore the topics of pilgrimage, exploration, and travel from multidisciplinary and comparative perspectives. Some potential topics for papers might include relics, badges, clothing, and associated material culture; perceptions of space, including landscape, geography, and architecture; the economics and politics of pilgrimage; pilgrimage narratives and other literary evidence; miracles and healing; readings of pilgrimage that consider monastic vs. lay approaches, social class, and gender; local and “national” identity; sacred journey in general (not just Christian) in the pre-modern world; liturgy and ritual of pilgrimage; and failed pilgrimages.

Please send a 300-word abstract and a Participant Information Form (available here) to kalamazoo@hortulus-journal.com by September 15, 2014.

Workshop: Winter School in Greek Paleography and Codicology (Rome, January 2015)

Workshop:
Winter School in Greek Paleography and Codicology
Rome, The American Academy in Rome and the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 5-16 January 2015
Deadline: 15 October 2014

In January 2015, with the kind collaboration of the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana (Vatican Library, BAV), the American Academy in Rome will offer its first Winter School in Greek Paleography and Codicology. The two curators of Greek manuscripts at the BAV, Dr Timothy Janz and Dr András Németh, will teach the courses and supervise manuscript research. The two-week course will introduce participants to various aspects of manuscript studies and offer an interactive dialogue between theory and practice.

Palaeography and codicology seminars in the first week will familiarize the participants with different forms of Greek script through sight-reading practice. As a special strength of this course, extensive library visits at the BAV will enable each student to improve individual research skills according to given criteria, with the aid of the tutors. At the Library, each student will undertake a thorough codicological and paleographical study of a particular manuscript, selected and agreed upon on an individual basis between the participant and the tutors. Discussion sessions will offer a chance to discuss and share research experience within the group and to discuss various problems of theory and practice based on experience at the Vatican Library.

Several evening lectures by specialists will complete the course, including Msgr. Paul Canart of the Vatican Library and Professor Nigel Wilson of Oxford University.

Applications from graduate and postgraduate students of Classics, History, Theology/Religious Studies, and Byzantine Studies are welcome. Students from Italian and European institutions are most welcome. The course will be taught in English. Prior knowledge of Greek is essential. Applications should include a CV, a letter of intent specifying Greek language experience, research topic, and explaining the applicant’s need for training in paleography and codicology.

Dates:
January 5-16 2015

Costs:
Tuition: 450 euro, 600 American dollars

Housing: Housing is available at the American Academy for those who require it:
Shared room in an apartment: 450 euro for two weeks
Single room: 770 euro for two weeks
Room availability cannot be guaranteed and applicants should indicate their need for housing in their application.

Meals: Meals can be purchased at the Academy for 15 euro for lunch, and 27 euro for dinner. Meals are not included in the costs of the program.

Please send application materials to paleography@aarome.org by October 15, 2014.

Source: http://www.aarome.org

CFP: The Empire of the Palaiologoi: Ruin or Renewal? (Leeds 2015)

Call for Papers:
The Empire of the Palaiologoi: Ruin or Renewal?
Session at Leeds International Medieval Congress, 6–9 July 2015
Deadline: 31 August 2014

The entry of Michael VIII Palaiologos into Constantinople in 1261 seemed to herald a new beginning for the Byzantine empire, consigning the shattering experience of the Fourth Crusade to the past. Initial hopes were soon dashed as the empire faced more enemies while disposing of fewer resources than ever before. Political, military, economic and ideological challenges were presented by the Latin west, the rising powers of the Muslim east and the newly independent nations of the Balkans. How successfully did Byzantines meet these challenges? Although it is easy to point to the empire’s ultimate demise, more recent scholars have shown that old narratives of decadence and decline are misguided. Astonishing feats of diplomacy and adaptation can be seen, as well as periods of intense intellectual, literary, theological and artistic energy. It was a period of new ideas, self-examination and unprecedented cultural engagement. But was the restoration doomed by unfavourable circumstances in a rapidly changing world, or were poor decisions by Byzantine elites to blame? How far were the Palaiologoi themselves, the most tenacious of all Byzantine dynasties, responsible?

Please send proposals (abstract of 250-300 words and a 50-100 word biography) for 20 minute papers to: Brian Mc Laughlin (brian.mclaughlin.2009@live.rhul.ac.uk) or Christopher Hobbs (chris.hobbs.2010@live.rhul.ac.uk) by August 31, 2014.

Suggested topics include but are not limited to:

– Imperial policy and administration: ruin or renewal from above
– Popular political movements: ruin or renewal from below
– Orthodoxy: Union, Hesychasm, the Byzantine Commonwealth
– Artistic developments
– Byzantine historiography
– Byzantine identity
– Changes in trade and the economy
– Is the notion of Palaiologan ‘decline’ inescapable or outmoded?

CFP: Rethinking Medieval Maps I and II (Kalamazoo 2015)

Call for Papers
Rethinking Medieval Maps I and II
50th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, 14-17 May 2015
Deadline: 15 September 2015

Rethinking Medieval Maps I: The Unmapped, Marginalized and Fictitious

medieval-map-770 This panel is devoted to the cartography of spaces that are far—either geographically or conceptually—from the umbilicus terrae at Jerusalem and the seemingly well-known confines of Europe. Proposals are invited for papers that explore the less privileged aspects of medieval maps: the mapping of the unknown, negative space, and things omitted from maps; the inhabitants of the margins, monsters, and marginalized peoples; and the cartography of the fictitious or counterfactual. While we seek papers that engage closely with the details of the maps themselves, we welcome proposals that highlight new approaches to maps across time and space.

Papers are expected to be amply illustrated with high-quality images of the maps discussed.

Please send your title and abstract (250 words), together with a short CV, to chet.van.duzer@gmail.com and LauraWhatley@ferris.edu by September 15, 2014.

Rethinking Medieval Maps II: Evidence for the Use and Re-Use of Maps

P.D.A. Harvey has written that “Medieval Europe was a society that functioned largely without maps”—and we take this statement as a call for a closer look at how medieval Europeans engaged with maps when they did resort to them. What evidence do we have, either from maps themselves, their contexts, or from textual sources, about how medieval maps were used? What about cases in which maps were designed for one purpose, but employed for another? What do these uses and re-uses tell us about the place of maps in medieval society, and their connection with broader developments in visual or material culture?

Papers are expected to be amply illustrated with high-quality images of the maps discussed.

Please send your title and abstract (250 words), together with a short CV, to chet.van.duzer@gmail.com and LauraWhatley@ferris.edu by September 15, 2014.

Free workshop: Books Across Cultures in the Late Medieval Low Countries, Manchester, 5th November

A half-day workshop will be held in the John Rylands Library, Manchester, on Wednesday 5 November (1.30-4.45 pm). It is aimed primarily at PhD students in relevant disciplines (history, English, modern languages), though master’s students are also welcome subject to approval from their programme director.

Books Across Cultures in the Late Medieval Low Countries aims to introduce students to:

– hands-on work with manuscript and early printed books (codicology, material bibliography, transcription, editing), using books from the library holdings;

– the importance of translation and rewriting in literary cultures of the late medieval Low Countries.

It accompanies the library exhibition Communities in Communication: Languages and Cultures in the Low Countries, 1450-1530: www.library.manchester.ac.uk/rylands/exhibitions/communitiesincommunication/). The exhibition itself forms part of an ongoing research project supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Transcultural Critical Editing: Vernacular Poetry in the Burgundian Netherlands, 1450-1530:www.transculturalediting.eu.

The workshop is free of charge; places are available on a first-come-first-served basis. Prospective participants should send a firm expression of interest to the workshop organizer, Professor Adrian Armstrong (French, Queen Mary University of London: a.armstrong@qmul.ac.uk) by 30 September 2014, indicating their university affiliation, thesis topic or master’s programme, and languages read (French, English, Dutch, Latin – most of the materials studied will be in French). Master’s students should also ask their programme director to confirm approval. Briefing materials will be emailed to students in advance of the workshop.

CFP: Kalamazoo 2015: Slavery and the Slave Trade in Medieval Mediterranean Society

The Malta Study Center of the Hill Monastic Library will be sponsoring a session entitled “Slavery and the Slave Trade in Medieval Mediterranean Society” at the The 50th International Congress on Medieval Studies to take place on May 14-17, 2015. This session will focus on the role slavery as an economic force linking disparate religious and ethnic communities across religions and kingdoms, where the role of unpaid, forced labor provided a common economic and cultural relationship between Muslim and Christian communities controlling the Mediterranean Sea. Please send 200 word abstract and C.V. by September 15 for a 20 minute paper to Daniel K. Gullo (dgullo@csbsju.edu).

Please feel free to contact the Malta Study Center if you have any questions.
Dr. Daniel K. Gullo
Joseph S. Micallef Curator
Malta Study Center
Hill Museum & Manuscript Library
2835 Abbey Plaza • PO Box 7300
Saint John’s University
Collegeville, MN 56321-7300 USA
Phone: 320-363-3993
Fax: 320-363-3222

Postgraduate Study Course: Textos, libros y lectores: Una introducción a la cultura manuscrita de la Península Ibérica durante la Baja Edad Media (Madrid, 13-17 October 2014)

Postgraduate Study Course:
Textos, libros y lectores: Una introducción a la cultura manuscrita de la Península Ibérica durante la Baja Edad Media
Madrid, 13-17 October 2014
Deadline: 30 September

El objetivo de este curso es ofrecer una introducción al estudio de la cultura manuscrita peninsular durante la Baja Edad Media, en la que tenga cabida la producción libraria latina, hebrea, árabe y romance. Para ello, los diferentes participantes irán tejiendo una panorámica de la compleja realidad ibérica y de las particulares dinámicas que rigen la creación, transmisión y recepción de los manuscritos creados al amparo de estas tradiciones, que en ningún caso han de considerarse compartimentos estancos. Las clases se han planteado a partir de cuatro ejes fundamentales: a) una reflexión sobre los condicionantes impuestos por la circulación manuscrita de los textos y los retos que este fenómeno plantea al historiador/filólogo hoy en día, b) un breve acercamiento a la codicología partiendo de ejemplos concretos, c) cuatro catas puntuales sobre aspectos que singularizan a la producción libraria peninsular frente a otros territorios europeos (la prevalencia del romance frente al latín desde un momento muy temprano, el diálogo multicultural en torno al texto bíblico, la impronta dejada por la poesía andalusí en la lírica peninsular, y el peso de la literatura legal en el conjunto de la producción manuscrita hispánica), y d) una inmersión en el análisis de las relaciones entre texto e imágenes en el soporte manuscrito. De este modo, se pretende dar cuenta de la singular condición del manuscrito en tanto que objeto en la encrucijada entre varias disciplinas.

Organisers: Rosa Rodríguez Porto (University of York) and Javier del Barco (ILC, CCHS-CSIC)

For the full programme and to apply, see: http://www.cchs.csic.es/en/textoslibrosylectores

Call for Papers: Liturgical and Secular Drama in Medieval Europe: Text, Music, Image (c. 1000-1500), deadline 31 December 2014

Call for Papers
Liturgical and Secular Drama in Medieval Europe: Text, Music, Image (c. 1000-1500)
Green College, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 9-11 October 2015
Deadline: 31 December 2014

The Gregorian Institute of Canada and The University of British Columbia’s Medieval Studies Committee invite paper and session proposals for THE 43rd UBC MEDIEVAL WORKSHOP / THE 10th GIC COLLOQUIUM, a joint interdisciplinary research conference:

Liturgical and Secular Drama in Medieval Europe: Text, Music, Image (c. 1000-1500)
Taking place at Green College, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, on October 9-11, 2015.

This conference will focus on the Medieval segment of the long history of European theatre. One objective will be to analyse aspects of the great repertoire of liturgical drama, from its supposed modest beginnings in the Gregorian liturgy of Easter, through its various
developments in Latin and the vernaculars, into liturgical, semi-liturgical and secular plays. Just as importantly we recognize the fact that European drama did not begin in the Medieval church. When one considers the secular themes appearing in semi-religious plays then in comic genres of the late Middle Ages, such as the farce, it often becomes necessary to study the direct or indirect influence of secular sources such as Latin comedies, Medieval French fabliaux, or
the troubadours’ satirical dialogues. Beyond this intertextuality, combined in many cases with musical exchanges, Medieval drama gradually acquired visual components including manuscript illuminations, props, theatrical machines, sets, and different approaches to spatial organization in relation to the audience. The transformations in drama over the period 1000-1500 are connected to evolving attitudes toward music in the church, music in theatre, spoken vs. sung plays, the place of the actor in society, religious and secular themes, interactions with other genres, and the manuscript tradition (notations, text transmission, stage directions and commentaries).

Given the diverse aspects of this conference theme, we hope to receive paper and session proposals in: historical musicology, theatre studies, history, performance studies, philosophy, religious studies, translation studies, palaeography and edition. We particularly invite contributions involving two or more of these disciplines.

Proposals for 20-minute papers or 3-paper sessions, in English or in French, should be submitted by December 31, 2014, addressed to James Blasina and Chantal Phan 2015 GIC/UBCMW, and sent by email to:
jblasina@fas.harvard.edu and chantal.phan@ubc.ca

or by mail or fax to:
Prof. Chantal Phan (Medieval Studies), FHIS, 797-1873 East Mall, VANCOUVER, BC V6T 1Z1, CANADA. Fax: (1)-604- 822-6675

Source: http://www.gregorian.ca/publicus/GIC_UBCMW%202015.pdf