Medieval Art Research

“FLAWS” – Medieval Research Conference, University College London

“FLAWS” – Medieval Research Conference

Hoccleve’s Regiment of Princes, BL MS Arundel 38,

London Medieval Graduate Network, UCL, 29th May 2014

The London Medieval Graduate Network welcomes submissions for research papers on “Flaws” for its 2014 annual conference, hosted by UCL. This inter-disciplinary conference examines how deliberate or mistaken defects, errors, limitations and imperfections have been perceived across the medieval period.

Flaws are something all researchers have to deal with; from flaws in our source material, to flaws in the approaches and theories we use. The late twentieth century witnessed a concerted effort from within the medieval discipline to challenge not only our theoretical approaches but also the validity of our disciplines themselves. These challenges encouraged researchers to be aware of the limitations of their evidence as well as mindful of the choices they make within their own research. As postgraduates and young researchers we are more aware than ever of the flaws which we face. We hope that this theme will give scope for the discussion of newer areas of medieval study, such as considerations of materiality, the built environment and psychological analyses, whilst also allow us to consider new approaches to more traditional discussions of the text, narratives and institutions.

Professor John Arnold (Birbeck) will give a keynote talk entitled, ‘Flaws in Medieval Belief.’

LMGN seeks to promote conversations and collaborations among medievalists in and beyond the London network. Following the success of last year’s conference, “In the Beginning”, hosted by King’s College, we are excited to invite proposals for 20-minute papers in any aspect of our theme of flaws. Submissions are open to postgraduate and early career researchers working in all medieval periods or academic disciplines.

Topics could include but are not limited to:

 Considerations of what flaws are and whether our conception of them changes over time

 Flaws in medieval source material

 Lost, damaged and concealed objects

 Imperfections in the built environment

 Flaws in our approach to the medieval past

 Sin, erring and the dichotomies of right and wrong

 Abstractions of behaviour from what was considered ‘ideal’ or ‘correct’

 Flaws in government and the consequences of ‘bad rule’

 Flaws in religious understanding and thinking

 Punishments for perceived flaws

 How legal systems or authorities address and correct flaws and imperfections in behaviour

 Flaws and imperfections in art, manuscript illustrations and marginalia

 Differentiating creativity and originality from error

 Intentionality of flaws and errors

 False attributions, past and present, of sources, influences or textual authorities

Abstracts should be no more than 300 words. Please send your abstract together with a short biographical note to londonmedgradnetwork@gmail.com by March 24th 2014.

See here for flyer: LMGN Conference

Call for papers: Eating Anatolia: Remembered Histories and Forgotten Foods

“First we eat, then we do everything else.” – MFK Fisher

Koç University’s department of Archaeology and History of Art is pleased to announce “Eating Anatolia: Remembered Histories and Forgotten Foods,” its second annual Graduate Student Symposium, May 3rd, 2014 in Istanbul, Turkey.

Few aspects of our shared human experience are more fundamental than food. The act of preparing, serving and eating food in both historic and contemporary contexts spans low and high culture, encompassing social and cultural practices. Food functions as utility and pleasure, exposing social dynamics between producers and consumers and the wealth of material and cultural references that can be drawn from these interactions. In its breadth and diversity, the topic presents a provocative opportunity to examine this most basic feature of history from a multi-disciplinary perspective, remembering that there is no single narrative to explain the story of food over time.

This symposium seeks to encourage a diverse range of perspectives and disciplines concerned with a span of topics, areas and periods as they relate to food and food production in Anatolia and its surrounding regions, including agriculture, feasting, cooking methods and technologies, and food culture manifested in migration and exchange. Fellow graduate students are encouraged to consider alternative perspectives and how they contribute to a richer understanding of food-related practices and implications in Anatolia from the earliest prehistory until the end of the Ottoman Empire.

All graduate students are encouraged to apply.

Applicants should submit a 250-word abstract by March 6, 2014 to arhasymposium@gmail.com

For other questions contact arhasymposium@gmail.com or visit http://www.facebook.com/ARHAsymposium.

Encompassing Anatolia and its surrounding regions, suggested topics include, but are not limited to:

Food production and agriculture
Domestication of crops and animals
Wine and viticulture
Tools and technologies
Hunting and/or cooking tools
Cooking methods
Preservation
Ingredients, recipes and diets
Spices and their distribution
Feasting and rituals
Visual or textual representation of food
Migration and trade
Food and preparation methods as cultural heritage and intangible heritage
Architecture as related to food production, distribution and consumption
Tea and Coffee traditions and culture

The Infidel before the Judge: Navigating Justice Systems in Multiconfessional Medieval Europe by Professor John Tolan,

Lecture: The Infidel before the Judge: Navigating Justice Systems in Multiconfessional Medieval Europe by Professor John Tolan, Université de Nantes

Friday, 14th March 2014, 3-5 PM

SOAS, University of London, Department of History

Main Building, room 4426

Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square

London WC1H 0XG

For further inquiries contact: kh20@soas.ac.uk

All are welcome

Royal Holloway University of London History Postgraduate Seminar

The next Royal Holloway University of London history postgraduate seminar will take place on Wednesday 5 March, 5.15pm, room G3, 11 Bedford Square.

Cristian Ispir, a PhD student at KCL, will be giving a paper entitled ‘Exigens obsides ab eis: hostageship under King John of England’.

All welcome, refreshments afterwards!

The Society for the History of Medieval Technology and Science Lecture

Dr. Michael Fleming, of the University of Huddersfield, and Chairman of the Viola da Gamba Society will be giving a talk on “Musical Instrument Making in Early Modern England”. The talk will be presented on Saturday, 8 March at 2:00 pm at The Warburg Institute (University of London), Woburn Square, London. The venue is a convenient walk from Euston, Euston Square, and Russell Square stations.

See here for flyer: SHMTS-poster-March2014

MEDIEVAL NEW YORK – The Annual Graduate Student Colloquium

MEDIEVAL NEW YORK – The Annual Graduate Student Colloquium, Friday, March 14, 2014 – 9:30 – 4:30

At Stony Brook Manhattan (101-113 East 27th Hosted by SUNY Stony Brook street at Park Avenue South)

9:15: Coffee and Danish

Welcome: Joel Rosenthal, Stony Brook, this year’s chair

9:45 – 11:15: Sessions I, Chair: Brigitte Bedos-Rezak, NYU

Katerina Robert Harris, NYU, “The Space of Death in the Late Middle Ages”

Hugo Marquez, Rutgers, “The Sodomies of Dante’s Comedia.”

Claire Wilson, CUNY Graduate Center, “Troubadours in War: Occitainia, the Levant, and Latin

Greece, 1095-1229”

11:00 – 11:15, coffee break

11:30 Faculty panel: “What’s New: Current Work and Current Interests.”

Chair: Joel Rosenthal, Stony Brook

Elizabeth A. R. Brown, Brooklyn College: French History: Marguerite Porete

Chris Given-Wilson, St Andrew’s: English History: Biography

Cynthia Hahn, Hunter and CUNY Graduate Center: Art and Art History: “Why Reliquaries Matter”

1:00 – 2:15 – Lunch

2:15 – 3:45: Session II, Chair: Maryanne Kowaleski, Fordham

Jennifer Jordon, Stony Brook, “Interactions among Christina, Muslim, and Jewish Women in Norman Sicily and Southern Italy”

Samantha Sagui, Fordham, “The Capital Pledges of Medieval Norwich”

John Lansdowne, Princeton, “Broken but Not Divided: The Mosaic Man of Sorrows between Rome and Byzantium”

Aled Roberts, Columbia, “Is Piers Present? The Problems of the Real Presence in Passus XV of the C-text”

4:00 Wrap Up and Reception

There is NO REGISTRATION FEE

For flyer, please see here: Medieval New York

Call for Papers: VIII Jornadas Complutenses de Arte Medieval. Alfonso VIII and Eleanor of England, Artistic Confluences Around 1200 (Madrid 2014)

Call for Papers
VIII Jornadas Complutenses de Arte Medieval. Alfonso VIII and Eleanor of England, Artistic Confluences Around 1200.
Madrid, Faculty of Geography and History (University Complutense of Madrid) – Casa de Velázquez, November 12-14, 2014
Deadline: 25 May 2014

October 6, 1214. The Castilian monarch, Alfonso VIII, died on his way to Plasencia. Before the month had ended, his wife Eleanor Plantagenet followed him in the monastery of Las Huelgas in Burgos. To celebrate the eight-hundredth anniversary of their passing, the UCM’s Department of History of Art I (Medieval) organises the VIII edition of their International Seminar-Complutense Conference in Medieval Art (12-14 November 2014), under the title “Alfonso VIII and Eleanor of England, Artistic Confluences Around 1200”

There are four scheduled sessions:

Session I: Alfonso VIII, culture and image of a Kingdom
This first session will explore the memory of the Castilian royal family and its repercussions on cultural and artistic manifestations linked to the regal environment. It will accommodate contributions related to the figure of the monarch and his lineage, his image, or his role as an artistic patron.

Session II: Eleanor of England, women’s artistic patronage
Starting with the figure of Eleanor as queen and patroness of the arts, we suggest a reflection on the role of women in the field of artistic promotion, both in regal and aristocratic spheres.

Session III: Artists, workshops and exchanges
During Alfonso VIII’s time, figurative arts experimented a deep transformation encouraged by workshops and artists’ mobility, sharing knowledge and using the same solutions in often distant territories. The third session will address all figurative artistic expressions during this long reign (1158-1214).

Session IV: Peninsular architecture around 1200, changes and international connections
Alfonso VIII and Eleanor of England’s reign coincided with a time of change in the religious architecture of the Peninsular kingdoms, both Christian and Muslim. New liturgical necessities, together with artistic exchanges within the Hispanic and European territories, had an impact on the renovation of the Spanish monumental landscape.

Invited speakers: Martin Aurell (CESCM-Université de Poitiers), Claude Andrault-Schmitt (CESCM-Université de Poitiers), Isidro Bango Torviso (UAM), Gerardo Boto Varela (Universitat de Girona), Susana Calvo Capilla (UCM), Eduardo Carrero Santamaría (UAB), Therese Martin (CCHS, CSIC), Javier Martínez de Aguirre (UCM), Dulce Ocón Alonso (Universidad del País Vasco), Olga Pérez Monzón (UCM), Marta Poza Yagüe (UCM), Ana María Rodríguez López (CCHS, CSIC), and Marta Serrano Coll (Universitat Rovira i Virgili).

Paper proposals of about 1000 words -including a brief CV- may be submitted in English, Spanish or French. Only those papers presenting new research or critical contributions will be considered. They must fit within the themes of the above sessions. Proposals should be sent to the email address VIII.jornadas@ucm.es by May 25, 2014. After evaluation, the scientific committee will inform the authors of their acceptance on June 20, 2014. As with previous editions of the Jornadas Complutenses de Arte Medieval, the proceedings of the congress are planned to be published.

For more information, please visit the following website: https://www.ucm.es/artemedieval/8jornadas

Summer Course in Technical Art History, Institute of Fine Arts, New York

Summer Course in Technical Art History: The Artist’s Book: Materials and Processes (June 9-20, 2014)

New York University, Institute of Fine Arts, Conservation Center
Application deadline: Mar 24, 2014

The Conservation Center is pleased to announce the Summer Institute in Technical Art History 2014, a two-week intensive course in technical art history for students currently enrolled in or completing a doctoral program in the US and Canada. This year’s topic will be The Artist’s Book: Materials and Processes. Made possible through the generous support of the Mellon Foundation, the course can accommodate 15 doctoral students for activities that range from lectures, gallery tours, hands-on studio sessions and much more.

Please visit our website for more information, including how to apply, at
http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/fineart/conservation/mellon-summer-institute.htm.

Call for Participation: Medieval Graduate Student Symposium, University of North Texas

8th Annual Medieval Graduate Student Symposium, University of North Texas, October 2, 2014

“Interdiciplinarity in the era of ‘Relevance:’ Graduate Research across the Disciplines and Beyond.”

Details can be found on the UNT symposium website:

http://art.unt.edu/medieval-symposium/

http://art.unt.edu/medieval-symposium/cfp.php?year=2014

This year the symposium will be held in conjunction with the annual conference of the Texas Medieval Association, October 3-4, 2014. All symposium participants are invited to attend TEMA’s meeting free of charge.

Keynote speakers:
Dr. Barbara Rosenwein, Loyola University, Chicago: “Jean Gerson’s Interdisciplinary Theory of Emotions”

While we will entertain papers on any topic, from any discipline of Medieval Studies—Art History, Religion, Philosophy, English, History, Foreign Languages, Music, we particularly welcome those that engage the multifaceted topic of “Interdisciplinarity in the Age of Relevance.” We encourage submission of papers that have been submitted and/or delivered elsewhere.

Many of us in the academy, even those amongst us who are preparing for a career in the academy, are confronted with the constant refrain of “relevance.” The state of the academy and its public rhetoric profess among its highest goals an emphasis on community engagement, tangible solutions to “real” world problems, and quantifiable results that produce change and progress. Highlighting the value of stem research, and stressing the potential for expansive pools of external funding, we in the Humanities are asked to consider the creative potential and lucrative benefits of interdisciplinary research clusters and cross-campus collaborative partnerships. The underlying suggestion in this none-to-subtle rhetoric is, of course, that the humanities in general, and Medieval Studies in particular, are less-relevant in our current era because we do not on the surface contribute to this over-arching public mission.

Beginning however, with the understanding that all the various disciplines comprising Medieval Studies—English, History, Music/Liturgy, Philosophy/Religion, Archaeology, Art History, Language Studies—are inherently interdisciplinary and in some sense inseparable, we seek papers that explore or exploit the difference between “Interdisciplinary,” “Intra-disciplinary,” Extra-disciplinary,” and even “Super-disciplinary” studies. We are interested in examples of those who are engaging technology in their studies and/or have incorporated a theoretical stance in line with the hard sciences, or perhaps seek to turn the notion of “Relevance” on its head. We ask: What role do Medievalists play in this new age? Where do we see ourselves and our projects in the world of “real solutions?”

Travel subvention of $300 will be awarded to the best paper.

Deadline for submission of a 300 word abstract is June 1, 2014. Selected full papers will be due September 15th, 2014.

Paper Abstracts of 300 words should be sent to: Mickey.Abel@unt.edu

Summer program at the University of Groningen

A summer program entitled, “Things that Matter,” is being organized by the University of Groningen, Netherlands, in collaboration with the universities of Bremen and Oldenburg, addressing the relationship between History and Material Culture Studies.

This summer school aims to map out the vastly growing research field of Material Culture Studies and its methodological and theoretical implications for historians. Since several years text-oriented disciplines such as historical studies, have recognized artefacts and things as important sources for the understanding of complex social relations. The integration of objects in historical research, for instance, has asked for a substantial “re-too- ling” as Karen Harvey has recently pointed out, in order to fully grasp the “complex nature of objects as sources”.

The workshops of the summer school focus on reading key texts, presenting and discussing work in progress of the students under the supervision of the international experts.

See here for more information: defi 3 RUG flyer Summerschools