Monthly Archives: September 2016

Encountering the Material Medieval – Call For Papers

Encountering the Material Medieval
University of St Andrews
19-20 January, 2017

Keynote Speakers:

  • Prof Andrew Prescott, University of Glasgow
  • Prof Emma Cayley, University of Exeter

The University of St Andrews School of Art History in collaboration with the St Andrews Institute of Medieval Studies (SAIMS) present Encountering the Material Medieval, the second edition of an interdisciplinary conference on materiality and material engagements with the medieval, taking place on 19-20 January 2017 in Scotland.

The academic year 2016-2017 looks like it is going to be the year of modern medievalisms, with three conferences addressing how the medieval fits into our modern world in the UK, France and the USA. While the idea of medievalism directly impacts modern scholarship and culture at large, it encourages an engagement with a theoretical abstraction of the medieval culture. This way, the materiality of the sources, and the intrinsic materiality of our embodied engagement with the medieval, is neglected.

Beyond the digital humanities, we are interested in material engagements with the medieval. This takes place in the library, where we encounter manuscripts in an intimate, skin-to-skin contact; during fieldwork, when we need to crouch in order to enter a medieval altar; in one’s own kitchen, when we try to reproduce a recipe freshly transcribed from a manuscript; or on the fairground, where we can hold in our own hand a replica of medieval pottery.

We are dedicated to encouraging multi-mediality and non-traditional presentation methods during the conference. Therefore, we invite interactive presentations, installations and posters, workshop and hands-on activities proposals (45-50 minutes), as well as papers (not longer than 20 minutes) on the following range of topics and their relationship to the study of materiality, physicality and embodiment in/with the Middle Ages:

  • The concept of materiality and physicality as research and teaching methodology;
  • Bringing the materiality of the medieval to the institution or the wider public;
  • Semiotics and anthropology of the material Middle Ages in modern or medieval thought and practice;
  • The human and non-human, material and embodied, materiality and boundaries;
    Medieval to modern (dis)continuities in genealogy of material.
  • Papers and workshops on other issues related to the study of materiality and physicality in the Middle Ages are also welcome.

Please send your submissions (250 word abstract) along with a short biography (max. 100 words) to medmat@st-andrews.ac.uk no later than 15 November, 2016.

For more info, visit our website
Medievalmaterialities.wordpress.com
Find us on Twitter: @medievalmateriality and tweeting with #medmat17

Enchanted Isles, Fatal Shores: Living Versailles – Call For Papers

Enchanted Isles, Fatal Shores: Living Versailles
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (with additional events at the Australian National University and the University of Sydney)
17–18 March, 2017

Conference Website

On the occasion of the Versailles: Treasures from the Palace exhibition at the NGA, which brings major works of art from the Palace of Versailles to Canberra, this conference showcases the latest ideas about the lives of past people and objects, as well as the living culture of Versailles today.

Staged in Canberra, which like Versailles is a planned capital city, centre of government and culture, this is a unique opportunity to explore the enduring influence and resonance of Versailles, its desires and self-perceptions of modernity, from film to fashion to architecture. Gathering a generation of scholars whose work is shifting our perceptions of the art, culture and life of ancien-régime Versailles and its reception, this is the occasion for fresh and challenging research, and new perspectives on canon-defining works.

1664 is formative in the history of Versailles—the year a modest hunting lodge began to be transformed, to become a centre of art, fashion and power in Europe for more than a century. The dream of Versailles as an enchanted isle for the French aristocracy came to a grisly end with the 1789 revolution. Only two years later, the first fleet of British colonists came to settle on the east coast of Australia, on what Robert Hughes famously dubbed ‘the fatal shore’. Life at Versailles changed irreparably just as it would for those who lived in, and migrated to, Australia at the close of the eighteenth century.

Versailles was not the static creation of one man but a hugely complex cultural space, a centre of power, of life, love, anxiety and creation, as well as an enduring palimpsest of aspirations, desires and ruptures. The splendour of the castle, and the masterpieces of art and design it contains, masks a more sordid history. The conference’s theme, Enchanted isles, fatal shores, encourages examination of the tensions between splendour and misery, insiders and outsiders, display and privacy that framed life at Versailles.

Conveners: Mark Ledbury, Power Professor of Art and Visual Culture, University of Sydney; Robert Wellington, Lecturer, ANU School of Art Centre for Art History and Art Theory; and Lucina Ward, Senior Curator and coordinating curator for the exhibition, National Gallery of Australia

For conference enquiries email or phone +61 2 6240 6432

Call for papers

Conference conveners seek proposals to deliver 20-minute papers addressing the subject of the conference; those that address the key themes below are especially welcome.

Key themes:

  • The ‘lives’ of Versailles: How did the various communities of artists, artisans, gardeners, courtiers and administrators who lived at the chateau work together?
  • Virtual Versailles: How do we account for the unrealised ambitions for Versailles, the projects and aspirations that were not completed in the ancien régime?
  • Adaptations and destructions: The history of the chateau is one of constant construction and renovation, but at what cost? How do we account for these losses? What role can digital technologies play in this process?
  • Challenging period terms: The phases of design at Versailles take the name of the three kings with whose reigns they coincided, giving a false impression of their role in the creation of period style. Is it possible for a study of Versailles to recuperate a sense of individual artistic agency?
  • The private and the public: Libellous pamphlets and personal memoirs provide a tantalising glimpse of what went on behind closed doors at Versailles, but can we speak of a material culture of private life in a chateau designed as a stage for the performance of monarchy? What can we retrieve about the private sexual desires and personal anxieties of the chateau’s inhabitants through its extant remains?
  • ‘Le sale et le propre’: How does a study of hygiene transform our understanding of life at the chateau?
  • Versailles and Paris: How was Versailles connected to the economic capital of France, and how did courtiers, artists and artisans live and work between the two places?
  • Being there: High nobles would often be forced to live in tiny uncomfortable apartments in the ‘rats nest’ of Versailles, just to be close to the king. How did the presence and absence of courtiers and others at Versailles influence the works of art, furniture and fashions that they commissioned?
  • Resonances of Versailles: What was the impact of Versailles in a broader geographic and historical context? What can we make of private mansions from the gilded age to the present that emulate the Versailles aesthetic?
  • Versailles on film: Life at Versailles has proved to be an enduring inspiration for filmmakers and television show producers. What are the facts and fictions of period dramas that recreate life at the chateau, and what role do they play in sustaining a living history of Versailles?

Please send an abstract of 300 words and a short CV to the conveners at Versaillesconference@nga.gov.au by 30 October, 2016.

Othello’s Island 2017 – Call For Papers

Othello’s Island 2017
The Fifth Annual Conference on Medieval, Renaissance and Early Modern Studies, Nicosia, Cyprus
CVAR, Nicosia, Cyprus (STC)
5-8 April, 2017
(with optional coach trip on 9 April, 2017)

Conference Website

We welcome applications to present papers at the 2017 edition of Othello’s Island. This will take place in Nicosia, Cyprus, in April 2017. We are interested in hearing papers on diverse aspects of medieval and renaissance literature, art, history, society and other aspects of culture, and these do not have to be specifically related to Cyprus or the Mediteranean.

It is worth looking at the range of papers from past conferences to see that previous speakers have covered topics ranging from slavery in medieval Cyprus and Malta, to the impact of Italian Renaissance art on Cypriot Byzantine painting, to the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf.

That said, given our location, Cyprus, the Levant and the Mediterranean do impact on the conference, not least because for anyone interested in medieval and renaissance history Cyprus is real gem, full of architectural and other material culture relating to the period. This includes museums filled with historic artefacts, gothic and Byzantine cathedrals and churches and a living culture that has direct links to this period.

Othello’s Island has developed a reputation as one of the friendliest medieval and renaissance studies conferences in the world today, and it is also genuinely interdisciplinary. In part this is due to the relatively small size of the event, which generates a true sense of community during the conference.

Full Papers (20 minutes plus questions)

If you are interested in giving a talk at the conference please submit a proposal for a paper. Standard papers are 20 minutes long, followed by 5 or 10 minutes for questions. The basic theme of the conference is mediaeval, renaissance and early modern art, literature, social and cultural history, but we are very open minded on the topic of papers, so please feel free to submit a proposal, or contact us first to discuss the idea.

Topics in the past have included art, medieval and renaissance literature, architecture and archaeology, religious experience and belief, relations between different religions and ethnic groups, slavery, the position of women, trade routes and even the influence on western Europe of medieval food from the middle east. We have also had papers looking looking beyond our core historical period, looking at the continuing use of medieval and renaissance history and imagery to justify colonialism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and the impact of Shakespeare on the Indian film industry.

Proposals for papers should comprise a cover sheet showing:

  1. Your title (eg. Mr, Ms, Dr, Prof. etc.) and full name
  2. Your institutional affiliation (if any)
  3. Your postal address, e-mail address and telephone number
  4. The title of your proposed paper

With this you should send a proposal/abstract for your paper of no more than 300 words and a copy of your CV/resume to info@othellosisland.org with the subject line OTHELLO 2017. All papers must be delivered in English and in person by the author of the paper. We cannot accommodate speakers wishing to present using Skype (or similar), or proxy presentations.

The deadline for submissions of proposals is 1 January, 2017. Early submission is strongly advised. We aim to have a decision on the acceptance of papers within four weeks of submission.

ANZSA 2016: Shakespeare at the Edges – Registration Now Open

Registration for the Australia and New Zealand Shakespeare Association (ANZSA) 2016 Conference: “Shakespeare at the Edges” to be held at the University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand from 17-19 November, 2016 is now open.

Early-bird registration is available until October 14.

To register, please visit the conference website: http://conference.anzsa.org

Travellers and Traders in the Indian Ocean World Exhibition @ Western Australian Maritime Museum

Travellers and Traders in the Indian Ocean World
31 October, 2016 – 23 April, 2017
Western Australian Maritime Museum, Fremantle

More info: http://museum.wa.gov.au/museums/maritime/travellers-and-traders-indian-ocean-world

Merchants and sailors have crossed the Indian Ocean for thousands of years and 70% of the world’s goods continue to do so today. This vast expanse of water was the world’s first highway and has been the centre of world economy for millenia, but how well do we know it? This exhibition, fittingly located in the Western Australian Maritime Museum in Fremantle on the edge of the ocean, takes you on your own journey across the Indian Ocean to discover its rich history through ancient objects and stories about its traders, explorers and the many different peoples who inhabit its shores.

Travellers and Traders in the Indian Ocean World brings together precious objects from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the British Museum, the art galleries of South Australia and New South Wales, Museum Victoria, the Berndt Museum at The University of WA and the WA Museum, as well as private collections, including the Kerry Stokes Collection.

ANZAMEMS 2017 – Registration Now Open

Registration is now open for the 11th Biennial Conference of the Australian & New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, to be held at Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand from Tuesday 7 – Friday 10 February 2017.

To register, please visit: https://anzamems2017.wordpress.com/registration

Please note that we are asking all speakers to register by 30 November, 2016 so that the final programme can be devised with certainty. (If this causes a particular problem with institutional funding deadlines, please contact the conference organisers at: anzamems2017@gmail.com).

Also, for Postgraduate presenters, there are a number of bursaries open for application:
https://anzamems2017.wordpress.com/bursaries-prizes

The ARC Centre for the History of Emotions has generously sponsored a number of Philippa Maddern Travel Bursaries for postgraduate students presenting papers on emotions-related topics, and the closing date for these is coming up very quickly, on 1 October, 2016.

Applications for the Kim Walker Bursary and the George Yule essay prize are also due on 1 October, 2016.

The Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages: Where Are We Now? – Call For Papers

The Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages: Where Are We Now?
St Hilda’s College, Oxford
18 February, 2017

A one day colloquium on medieval biblical commentary, exegesis, and the legacy of Beryl Smalley

In association with Oxford Medieval Studies, sponsored by The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH)

This meeting aims to bring together scholars working in the field of medieval intellectual history to discuss new developments in the study of the Bible, how and why we approach biblical commentaries, and how the discipline has developed and changed since the publication of Beryl Smalley’s seminal work, The Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages, in 1941.

Proposals for 20 minute papers are sought from scholars working on any aspect of medieval biblical commentary, biblical interpretation, or biblical exegesis between c.1000 and c.1400. Proposals from graduate students, or those working on medieval theology outside western Europe, are particularly welcome.

The title, ‘The Study of the Bible’, is to be interpreted broadly. Possible paper topics might include, but are not limited to:

  • Research on particular theologians or particular texts or manuscripts
  • The study of the Bible beyond Paris
  • Re-thinking the old issue of the relationship between ‘monastic’ and ‘scholastic’ theology and biblical commentary
  • The connection between biblical exegesis and political thought and action
  • The relationship between the glossa ordinaria and other biblical commentaries
  • How current historians are using the insights of Beryl Smalley in their own work
  • Pedagogy: how (and why) to teach medieval theology to students

Proposals of c.250 words should be sent to philippa.byrne@history.ox.ac.uk by 15 October, 2016, who can also be contacted with queries or expressions of interest.

Further information can be found at the colloquium website: https://studyofthebible.wordpress.com

Medieval Academy of America Digital Humanities Prize – Call For Applications

We are very pleased to announce that, beginning in 2017, the Medieval Academy of America will add a Digital Humanities Prize to its suite of publication honors, to be awarded alongside the Haskins Medal, the Brown Prize, and the Elliott Prize. The annual Medieval Academy of America Digital Humanities Prize will be awarded to an outstanding digital research project in Medieval Studies created and launched within the last five years. The Prize – an award of $1,000 – will be presented at the Medieval Academy of America’s Annual Meeting.

The Digital Initiatives Advisory Board (DIAB) of the Medieval Academy of America will select the award-winning project based on DIAB’s established criteria for high-quality digital medievalist projects, considering the following criteria, among others: quality of research and contributions to Medieval Studies; goals and methodologies of the project; design, presentation, and accessibility of the project; sustainability of the project and compatibility of its metadata.

Nominations are now being accepted online and must be submitted by midnight on October 15. Click here for more information about the Medieval Academy of America Digital Humanities Prize.

Early Modern Debts: Obligation & Cancellation in European Culture, 1550-1700 – Call For Papers

Early Modern Debts: Obligation & Cancellation in European Culture, 1550-1700
Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg, Bavaria
21-22 September, 2017

Symposium Website

Historians, philosophers, economists, scholars of art, literature and theatre have begun to attend more closely to the role of debt in early modern culture. It has become clear that private debt, nebulously conceived as credit, was involved in the production and reproduction of social relations, political ideology, even subjectivity. The history of debt has become an object of serious interdisciplinary interest, but the question of how apparently distinct forms of debt co-developed is often suspended.

Early Modern Debts will stimulate rigorous interdisciplinary work on debt and credit in early modern culture. It addresses the relationship between general theories of debt and particular experiences or operations of debt, and explores how different sorts of credit interacted.

The organizers call for papers that take, as their central theme, debt and the interrelationship of different kinds of debt in early modern culture. Papers of a comparative and/or multilingual nature will be preferred.

Please provide a title and an abstract of approximately 300 words. The deadline for proposals is 1 November, 2016. To submit a proposal, please visit the Symposium’s website: http://early-modern-debts.space

Professor Merry Wiesner-Hanks, PMRG / CMEMS Free Public Lecture @ UWA

“Adjusting Our Lenses to Make Gender Visible”, Professor Merry Wiesner-Hanks (University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee)

Date: 7 October, 2016
Time: 6:00pm-7:00pm
Venue: Austin Lecture Theatre (1.59, first floor, Arts Building), University of Western Australia

This is a free event. You don’t need to RSVP – just come along.

The oldest surviving examples of eyeglasses in the world, dating from around 1330, were discovered hidden beneath the floorboards of the nuns’ choir in the Cistercian Kloster Wienhausen near Celle in northern Germany. Several pairs were stashed there, along with prayer books, small pictures, devotional objects, and the materials used for making these, such as scissors, beads, cloth, paper, and needles, most likely when Duke Ernest the Confessor attempted to introduce Lutheran practice to the convent in the 1520s. Using these wooden rivet spectacles as both material object and metaphor, my talk will examine the ways that scholarship in many disciplines over the last forty years has sharpened our view of gender in the medieval and early modern periods, allowing us to see greater complexities in things close at hand and a wider panorama beyond.


Merry Wiesner-Hanks is Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. She specialises in the history of early modern Europe, with research interests in women’s work in Germany, the history of Christianity (especially gender and the Protestant and Catholic Reformations), and global history. Professor Wiesner-Hanks is currently the Senior Editor of Sixteenth Century Journal and an Editor for the Journal of Global History. Her recent publications include: A Concise History of the World (Cambridge University Press, 2015); Early Modern Europe, 1450-1789, 2nd ed. (Cambridge University Press, 2013); Gender in History: Global Perspectives, 2nd ed. (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010). She is also the editor of: Women and Gender in the Early Modern World: Critical Concepts in Women’s History, 4 volumes (Routledge, 2015); Mapping Gendered Routes and Spaces in the Early Modern World (Ashgate, 2015); Cambridge World History, 7 volumes in 9 books (Cambridge University Press, 2015); (With John P. McKay, Patricia Buckley Ebrey, Roger B. Beck, Clare Hara Crowston, and Jerry Davila), A History of World Societies, 10th ed. (Bedford/St. Martins, 2015); (with Andrew D. Evans, William B. Wheeler, and Julius R. Ruff, Discovering the Western Past: A Look at the Evidence, 7th ed. (Cengage, 2014).