CFP: ‘Political reuse of Medieval sculpture: Family strategies and (re)construction of the past’, Kalamazoo 2023, deadline 15 September 2022

Kalamazoo, Western Michigan University International Congress on Medieval Studies, 11-13 May 2023

Session. Political reuse of Medieval sculpture: Family strategies and (re)construction of the past (https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/call#special)

Organizers: Laura Cavazzini, Clario Di Fabio, Paola Vitolo

The iconic value of sculpture, combined with the fact that it can readily be adapted to new contexts, makes it susceptible to be reused, reenforcing new social, political and cultural messages. The session aims to analyse cases of reuse, repurposing and recarving of Medieval sculpture in the Modern Time (15th-18th centuries) inspired by the need to communicate new cultural and political messages of high symbolic value. Papers will investigate strategies of visualization of political and social claims from the part of families and royal courts, within more general processes of creation and/or consolidation of dynastic memories and powers.

The session is part of the activities of the MemId (= Memory and Identity. Reuse, rework and rearrangement of the Medieval sculpture in the Modern Age, between historical research and new technologies: https://memid.it/) project funded by the Italian Ministry for University and Research, which is conducting in various regions of Italy a systematic and in-depth study of the topic, with a team of young researchers. The session will be an opportunity to discuss the topic with a wide range of international scholars of different geographical and cultural areas.

The session will be held online.

Please submit abstracts no later than 15 September ONLY through the ICMS Confex site: icms.confex.com/icms/2023/cfp.cgi


See the congress web page for information about registration fees: https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/registration

Please direct all questions or concerns to paola.vitolo@unina.it

Call for Sessions: Mary Jaharis Center Sponsored Panel, International Medieval Congress 2023, deadline 6 September 2022

To encourage the integration of Byzantine studies within the scholarly community and medieval studies in particular, the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture seeks proposals for a Mary Jaharis Center sponsored session at the 2023 International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, July 3–6, 2023. We invite session proposals on any topic relevant to Byzantine studies.

The thematic strand for the 2023 IMC is “Networks and Entanglements.” See the IMC Call for Papers (https://www.imc.leeds.ac.uk/imc-2023/) for additional information about the theme and suggested areas of discussion.

Session proposals must be submitted through the Mary Jaharis Center website (https://maryjahariscenter.org/sponsored-sessions/imc-2023). The deadline for submission is September 6, 2022. Proposals should include title, 100-word session abstract, session moderator and academic affiliation, information about the three papers to be presented in the session, for each paper: name of presenter and academic affiliation, proposed paper title, and 100-word abstract, organizers CV

The session organizer may act as the moderator or present a paper. Participants may only present papers in one session.

Applicants will be contacted by mid-September about the status of their proposal.

If the proposed session is approved, the Mary Jaharis Center will reimburse a maximum of 4 session participants (presenters and moderator) up to $800 maximum for European residents and up to $1400 maximum for those coming from outside Europe. Funding is through reimbursement only; advance funding cannot be provided. Eligible expenses include conference registration, transportation, and food and lodging. Receipts are required for reimbursement. For scholars participating remotely, the Mary Jaharis Center will reimburse participants for conference registration.

Please contact Brandie Ratliff (mjcbac@hchc.edu), Director, Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture with any questions.

Submit your proposal here: https://maryjahariscenter.org/sponsored-sessions/imc-2023

Call for Papers: Visualizing Peace in the Global Middle Ages, 500-1500 (Deadline: 31 August 2022)

Many today see peace as the absence of war, but to the medieval world peace was far from a pale, negative concept – a lack of violence. Rather it was celebrated as a rich, vibrant ideal. Yet premodern war and violence have attracted much more attention than peace and cooperation, both in the public media and among scholars. One major area of interest, however, has been the intellectual history of peace. Publications have focused on Confucian ideas about peace (and their impact on the modern world) and on such European movements as the Truce of God and Peace of God. Other studies have explored the role of women in forging peace through gift-giving.

This session fosters broad thinking about the premodern and global cultural heritage of peace, which is too often neglected. One reason for this neglect is ideological: those who gained from warfare sought to glorify it. Another factor is that medieval peace may manifest itself in ways that are not immediately recognizable to us today. We welcome papers that discuss visual representations of peace, as well as the ways in which the material culture and the built environment contributed to the cessation of war or the safeguarding of peace. We encourage papers that explore the relationship between justice and peace or examine how images of premodern peace either still affect our discussions today or open the door to a new way of thinking.

We welcome papers that analyze the regional diversity or global connectivity of images of peace. The session will take place virtually as part of the 111th College Art Association (CAA) Annual Conference 2023, New York, 15–18 February 2023

Please email proposals to dianewolfthal@yahoo.com and jitske.jasperse@hu-berlin.de by 31 August 2022. Please contact us with any questions at our email addresses listed above. We look forward to your submissions.

Call for Papers: Arthur Kingsley Porter 100 Years Later (Deadline: 15 September 2022)

2023 marks the 100th anniversary of Arthur Kingsley Porter’s seminal Romanesque Sculpture of the Pilgrimage Roads, providing an opportunity to revisit one of medieval art history’s foundational thinkers. While Porter’s work continues to underpin scholarship today, surprisingly few studies have examined him or the paradigms he created. These sessions aim to address the work of Porter and his contributions to the study of medieval art. Through discussions of both his broad, international vision of style, and his narrow, regional contributions, papers will aim to assess Porter’s idiosyncratic work and the legacy it holds within scholarship today.

We welcome papers that consider and contextualize Porter’s life and works. Sessions will address Porter’s literary and scholarly output. Papers might address questions such as: what is the relevance of Porter’s methodologies to art historical approaches of the 20th and 21st century? How have Porter’s approaches contributed to the continued nationalization of medieval art and architecture? How have the Porters’ photographs contributed to a legacy of architectural representation? How have ‘big ideas’ such as a pilgrimage road style fared in the development of medieval historiography? How do we understand Porter’s more idiosyncratic writings in relation to his scholarly work?

These sessions will take place, in person, as part of the 58th International Congress on Medieval Studies, 11-13 May 2023. Proposals should be submitted by September 15, 2022 at https://icms.confex.com/icms/2023/cfp.cgi.

Please contact organizers Meredith Fluke (mfluke@holycross.edu) and Erik Gustafson (egustafson.phd@gmail.com) with any questions. We anticipate a session keynote paper by Kathryn Brush drawing from her current monograph project on Porter.

Job Opportunity: Tutors, History of Art 1 (prehonours), University of Edinburgh (Deadline: 8 August 2022)

The History of Art department at the University of Edinburgh is hiring Tutors its prehonours courses. Applications are invited for a Guaranteed Hours (GH) contract as Tutor for the following courses:

  • History of Art 1A Art and Belief in Europe, 500 to 1700 (HIAR08025)
  • History of Art 1B Art at the Crossroads of World Cultures, 500 to 1700 (HIAR08026)
  • History of Art 2A Reason, Romance, Revolution: Art from 1700 to 1900 (HIAR08027)
  • History of Art 2B From Modernism and the Avant-Gardes to Postmodernism and Globalisation (HIAR08028)

We are looking for applications from individuals experienced in researching history of art at PG level, in relevant fields to fill tutoring positions in Semesters 1 and/or 2 in 2022–23. Applicants should be familiar with the history and historiography of art history and committed to sharing it through passionate teaching. Some experience in teaching is desirable but training and support will be provided as part of the role. Successful candidates will, preferably, be enrolled on a PhD, within their prescribed period of study and/or have a proven record of teaching undergraduate students in the context of a university degree course.

History of Art 1A and 2A are taught in semester 1, while History of Art 1B and 2B are taught in semester 2. Ideally, we would like candidates who are available to teach in both semesters. Candidates who are able to teach on one course only and who can demonstrate the required expertise will be considered.

There is a guaranteed minimum of 9 hours per group to be offered in Semester 1 of the academic year 2022–23. While the minimum detailed here indicates contact hours only, payment will be made for all required hours worked including contact hours, preparation, marking, induction and training.

This is a fixed term appointment, from August 2022 until June 2023. More information about the posting can be found here. Click here for a full description of the job posting.

Edinburgh College of Art is committed to equal and fair treatment of all its employees and in recognition of the positive promotion of diversity and gender equality among staff and students, Athena SWAN granted the Edinburgh College of Art a Bronze Award in 2017.

Call for Papers: Marian Devotion and the Senses in the Middle Ages (Deadline: 12 September 2022)

Thematic focus: Networks and Entanglements

This session seeks to explore the sensory approach of the Marian cult as reflected in Eastern and Western Christianity. It aims to examine the private/collective expressions of Marian devotion in relation to the senses (touch, smell, sight, taste, and hearing) that generate forms of spiritual entanglements and mutual dependencies between human devotional practices, artefacts, and sites. 

Suggested topics, on any geographic area or time period (between 300-1500) may include, but are not limited to:

  • Pilgrimages to Marian shrines/holy sites (incubation, dreams, and Marian miracles)
  • Devotion gestures based on: touch (e.g. touching the floor, kneeling, kissing), smell and its healing properties, sound, etc.
  • Active/passive use of the senses in Marian devotion
  • Inner senses/external senses in relation to Marian devotion
  • Marian devotion, the senses, and the liturgy (ceremonies, sermons)
  • Architecture/church interiors in relation to sensory effects and Marian devotion
  • Personal/collective devotional practices
  • Religious objects, the senses, and Marian devotion
  • Sensory deprivation, mystical experience, and Marian proximity
  • Visual representations and the senses: books and illustrations, paintings, mosaics, marbles, statues
  • Literature: liturgical dramas/plays; books

Submissions from a variety of disciplines are accepted including but not limited to: history, art history, visual culture, social history, cultural history, hagiography, religious studies, cultural studies, textual studies in a transdisciplinary perspective. 

This session will be a part of the 2023 International Medieval Congress 3-6 July, 2023 at the University of Leeds.

Please submit a 250-word proposal (in English) for a 15-20 minute paper. Proposals should have an abstract format and be accompanied by a short CV, of no more than 800 words, including e-mail, current affiliation, affiliation address, and position and your preference for whether to present in-person or virtually.  Please submit all relevant documents, as PDF or Word.doc, by 12 September, 2022, to the e-mail address: znorovszkyandrea@gmail.com

If you have any questions, please contact Andrea-Bianka Znorovszky (University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain): znorovszkyandrea@gmail.com

Call for Papers: Cave Churches, Chapels, Hermitages, and Monasteries: Wall Paintings and Gender in the Eastern Mediterranean (Deadline: 12 September 2022)

Thematic focus: Networks and Entanglements

This session seeks to explore the relation between gender and wall paintings in the Eastern Mediterranean. It scrutinizes the artistic exchanges and interactions in relation to pilgrimage, commercial, and Crusader routes, and their function in the transmission and transfer of gendered iconographic models with particular emphasis on visual representations pertaining to caves (churches, monasteries).

Suggested topics, on any time period may include, but are not limited to:

  • Artistic networks and entangled iconographies
  • Networks, mobilities, and circulations of gendered models
  • Circulation of workshops and commissioners
  • Circulation of iconographic patterns and models in relation to gender

Submissions from a variety of disciplines are accepted including but not limited to: history, art history, visual culture, social history, cultural history, hagiography, religious studies, cultural studies, textual studies in a transdisciplinary perspective. 

This session will be a part of the 2023 International Medieval Congress 3-6 July, 2023 at the University of Leeds.

Please submit a 250-word proposal (in English) for a 15-20 minute paper. Proposals should have an abstract format and be accompanied by a short CV, of no more than 800 words, including e-mail, current affiliation, affiliation address, and position and your preference for whether to present in-person or virtually.  Please submit all relevant documents, as PDF or .DOC, by 12 September, 2022, to the e-mail address: znorovszkyandrea@gmail.com

If you have any questions, please contact Andrea-Bianka Znorovszky (University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain): znorovszkyandrea@gmail.com

Call for Papers: The Networks of Romance (Deadline: 15 September 2022)

The Medieval Romance Society is sponsoring several sessions at the 58th International Congress on Medieval Studies, 11-13 May 2023. Please note that Sessions I and III will be in person, while Session II will be in a hybrid format.

The Networks of Romance I: Transnational and Global – (In-Person Format)

Increased social mobility and technological advances in modern society, as well as the advent of postcolonial studies, have spurred scholars to investigate the ‘interconnectedness’ of the global Middle Ages, and to challenge Western-centrism. This session is open to papers that apply these critical approaches to romance texts. We welcome scholars who consider the textual representations of cross-culturalism, and of networks that transcend regional and national boundaries. Also invited are papers that examine depictions of networks from outside the medieval West. We particularly encourage participants who use decolonising methodologies.

The Networks of Romance II: Material Culture and its Networks – Blended Format – (Virtual & In-Person Formats)

In recent years, scholars have increasingly posed questions about the relationship between medieval romance and the material. This session seeks to contribute to this discussion, inviting papers that interrogate material culture and its networks in relation to romance texts. Participants might examine how characters interacted with material objects, or the connections between ‘things’ and space in romance. Also invited are papers that consider the circulation, transmission and reception of romance manuscripts.

The Networks of Romance III: Intersectionality, Instability, and Social Networks – (In-Person Format)

A growing body of research by medievalists examines the intersectionality of identities, experiences and relationships. This work reveals the numerous ways that individuals of medieval society differentiated themselves based on age, disability, gender, ethnicity and social standing. However, it also tends to overlook the instability of these overlapping social categories. This session challenges the assumption that intersecting identities, experiences and relationships in the Middle Ages were static. It does so through interrogating the multiple and complex features of social networks in romance, whether that be on a micro or macro level.

Deadline for proposals: 15 September 2022

Proposals should be up to 250 words for a 20-minute paper. Please submit your proposal directly to the ICMS Confex: https://icms.confex.com/icms/2023/cfp.cgi. If you have any questions, please contact Rachel Harley: rah600@york.ac.uk

Call for Papers: Inscriptions as Networks and Entanglements in the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean (Deadline: 15 September 2022)

The ERC GRAPH-EAST project (CESCM, University of Poitiers and CNRS) will sponsor three sessions that explore topics dealing with “Epigraphic Networks and Entanglements in the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean” for the International Medieval Congress 2023 in Leeds, United Kingdom, 3-6 July 2023.

The Medieval Mediterranean has long been thought of in terms of networks, circulations, and dynamics of exchanges, at different scales. One type of “network” has not yet been studied: the epigraphic network formed by the inscriptions and graffiti in Latin alphabet of pilgrims, travellers, crusaders, military orders and merchants. The theme for the IMC Leeds 2023, “Networks and Entanglements,” presents an opportunity to explore the complex set of relationships between the epigraphic writing and its web of interactions in the Eastern Mediterranean.

The aim of the sessions is to explore, among others that might arise from the proposals, the following four sets of questions:

  • Pilgrims, churchmen, merchants, and artists moved across Europe, Africa and Asia, back and forth. The inscriptions referring to the movements of such social groups bear precious information about their producer’s intentions, which can be reckoned both from their textual and linguistical content and from their technical and material features. Do some or all of these characteristics form a network or an entanglement? What kinds of networks, entanglements, paths, and circulations are revealed by the graphic signs? Is it possible to trace epigraphical recurrent patterns or connections within a small and/or a large area such as the one between the Eastern and Western coast of the Mediterranean basin?
  • What is the relationship between inscriptions and micro (within a building) and macro space (within a continent)? For instance, from an architectural point of view the memory of the Holy Sepulchre was echoed in a large series of buildings and shrines which studded the Medieval Western realm. Is it possible to say the same about epigraphy? Were inscriptions conceived as to evoke the Holy Land or any other area of the Eastern Mediterranean? And vice versa, did inscriptions in the Eastern Mediterranean recall any Western region?
  • Beyond the Latin alphabet, is it possible to think of inscriptions in different languages and scripts together, such as Arabic, Greek, Armenian, Syriac etc., as forming a vast graphic network in the East? For instance, in the Holy Places as the basilica of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem or the Nativity church of Bethlehem?
  • Medieval inscriptions formed a network also within a large span of time both backwards and forwards. If the classical Greek and Roman inscriptions were related to medieval ones in terms of content and form, medieval inscriptions had at their turn an impact on men and women of the modern and contemporary era. What was the political, intellectual, devotional, and social role of medieval inscriptions in modern societies? What were the connections and the entanglements linking the men and women of the past to the men and women of the present?

Art historic, archaeological, historic, and literary approaches are welcome, in particular through precise case studies.

Submission guidelines
Proposals are due by September 15th to Maria Aimé Villano (maria.aime.villano01@univ-poitiers.fr), Sercan Saglam (hasan.sercan.saglam@univ-poitiers.fr) and Estelle Ingrand-Varenne (estelle.ingrand.varenne@univ-poitiers.fr) and must include:

  • Full name
  • E-mail address
  • Full affiliation details (department, institution) if applicable
  • Paper title
  • Abstract (250 words max.)
  • Keywords
  • Brief bio (300 words max.)

Applicants will be notified of the outcome by September 30, 2022. Each panel will host three papers of 20 minutes each, plus 10 minutes for discussion.

For further information, please contact: Estelle Ingrand-Varenne (CNRS/CESCM, Poitiers – France) estelle.ingrand.varenne@univ-poitiers.fr. For more details, please visit our website: https://grapheast.hypotheses.org; Twitter: @ErcGraphEast; Instagram: @graph_east

Online Course: IUS ILLUMINATUM: Legal Illuminated Manuscripts Between Art, History and Literature (29 August – 9 September 2022)

The IUS ILLUMINATUM International Summer Course will take place under the purview of the “Escola de Verão” of the  Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas (FCSH) of the NOVA University in Lisbon 2022 on the topic: Legal Illuminated Manuscripts Between Art, History and Literature. The course will run online from 29 August to 09 September 2022

The course organized by the members of the IUS ILLUMINATUM Research Team, hosted by the Instituto de Estudos Medievais (IEM) in the NOVA School of Social Sciences and Humanities of Lisbon, aims to complement the training of future researchers in Art History, Medieval History and Literature and to provide students with an introduction to the production of illuminated legal manuscripts in medieval Europe (5th -15th centuries) by an interdisciplinary approach.

Further details regarding the Summer Course inscriptions can be found on the NOVA School of Social Sciences and Humanities of Lisbon website: https://www.fcsh.unl.pt/outros-cursos/os-manuscritos-juridicos-iluminados-entre-arte-historia-e-literatura-legal-illuminated-manuscripts-between-art-history-and-literature/. Applications are open from July 18th to August 7th 2022. Any questions can be directed to: ev.secretariado@fcsh.unl.pt

Programme

  • 29 August: O estudo dos manuscritos jurídicos iluminados: uma introdução histórica e metodológica
    Maria Alessandra Bilotta (IEM-NOVA/FCSH)
  • 30 August: Legal Books in Late Antiquity: Types, Forms, Functions
    Serena Ammirati (Università Roma Tre)
  • 31 August: Os manuscritos jurídicos iluminados no Sul da França (seculos XIII-XIV): produção e circulação na Peninsula Ibérica
    Maria Alessandra Bilotta
  • 1 September: The Illumination of Legal Manuscripts in Bologna, ca. 1150-1350
    Gianluca del Monaco (Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna)
  • 2 September: Las Siete Partidas de Alfonso X de Castilla. Texto e imagen a través de los manuscritos
    Jorge Prádanos Fernández (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)
  • 5 September: Content and Production of Vernacular Legal Manuscripts from Medieval Western Scandinavia
    Stefan Andreas Drechsler (University of Bergen)
  • 6 September: La colección de manuscritos jurídicos del Archivo Capitular de Toledo: origen, evolución y códices iluminados singulares
    Jaime Moraleda Moraleda (Universidad de Castilla – La Mancha)
  • 7 September: Garabatos marginales: Desde el códice a los muros carcelarios medievales
    Jorge Jiménez López (Universidad de Zaragoza) & Maria Alessandra Bilotta
  • 8 September: Justicia divina y Justicia Local. Marcos monumentales en el ámbito hispano
    Jorge Jiménez López
  • 9 September: Rastros da legislação de Alfonso X na lírica galego-portuguesa
    Fabio Barberini (Universitat de Girona)