Olivia Formby, History MPhil Candidate, University of Queensland

If the 10th Biennial Conference of the Australian & New Zealand Association for Medieval & Early Modern Studies (ANZAMEMS) had a theme, it might have been “diversifying.” As a postgraduate delegate, I was privileged to attend papers which not only stemmed from a diverse range of disciplines, including history, philosophy, literature, art history, religion, and music, but which also transcended the traditional boundaries of those disciplines to offer new insights into our study of the past.

The first keynote address by Prof. Jessie Ann Owens of UC Davis on “Cipriano de Rore and the Musical Representation of Emotion” set the dynamic tone of the conference. A Professor of Music, this was Owens’ first foray into the history of emotions and, by her own account, has produced new ideas for her current work on de Rore. Indeed, Day One was marked by a variety of innovative and interesting papers on such topics as pregnancy, poetry, and providence. In the evening, the Welcome Reception held at the UQ Art Museum was the perfect opportunity to begin networking with the other delegates, many of whom had traversed the globe to be there, from places as close as New Zealand, and as far as Scotland. The Reception revolved around the current Wunderkammer exhibition (open until 13th September), an eclectic collection of cultural curiosities from the Medieval and Early Modern worlds, and an apt mirror of the colourful and diverse ANZAMEMS 2015 program.

Day Two was opened by Prof. Laura Knoppers, Professor of English at Notre Dame University, with her keynote address entitled “‘Draw our Luxury in Plumes’: Andrew Marvell and the Aesthetics of Disgust.” This paper was highly evocative of Restoration England and thoroughly entertaining in its reading of Marvell’s raunchier satires. After morning tea, I was honoured, and not a little nervous, to be giving my own (very first) conference paper on “The Emotional Responses of Ordinary Villagers to the Eyam Plague, 1665-1666.” This opportunity to present my research to, and alongside, a broad and highly engaged academic community was invaluable. Although I enjoyed a wide range of panels throughout the conference, I happily found my own niche on Day Two in the next panel session on Early Modern “Sickness and Health.” The day ended with a relaxed Postgraduate Drinks gathering at the Red Room, sponsored by the School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry and UQ ANZAMEMS Chair. It was wonderful to meet fellow students in various stages of postgraduate life, and to share many other conference “firsts.”

The final keynote address was delivered on Day Three by Prof. Alexandra Walsham, Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge on “Domesticating the Reformation: Material Culture, Memory and Confessional Identity in Early Modern England.” This fascinating paper, accompanied by spectacular images, explored how items of Delftware formed domestic religious identities in Reformation England through the appropriation of print and image, and was a highlight of ANZAMEMS 2015. Possibly the most diversifying element of the conference was the presence of researchers from the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions (ARC CHE), who formed a total of six panels, including two on Day Three. These panels centred on a single concept, such as “facial feeling” or “religious dislocation,” but incorporated multiple disciplinary approaches in their investigation of this still-burgeoning field. In the afternoon, I joined my fellow postgraduates for a round table on “Career Options” which discussed the challenges of the “traditional” tenure-track career, as well as alternative avenues for postgraduates including publishing, teaching, and librarianship. In the evening, I had the pleasure of attending the Conference Dinner at Customs House, courtesy of ARC CHE which sponsored the tickets of thirty honours and postgraduate students. This was a lovely evening, accompanied by the music of The Badinerie Players, who matched their arrangements to four of the conference papers, including Owens’.

The final two days of ANZAMEMS were filled to the brim with papers that spanned the breadth and depth of the Medieval and the Early Modern, from an emotional history of “Moravian Missions and Slavery in the Caribbean” to a study of “Women and Religious Mendicancy in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.” Day Four culminated in the inaugural meeting of the Maddern-Crawford Network, so-named for two great women in our field, and so-formed as a collective network for female academics in what is still a male-dominated profession. This round table generated a lively sense of dialogue and community, which I am sure will burn into the future.

As ANZAMEMS 2015 came to a close on Saturday 18th July, I was able to reflect on the many exchanges that had taken place, the invigorating discussion of research and ideas, as well as the new networks I had formed with other postgraduates and academics that will surely be an amazing future resource. Twitter will be a useful tool for maintaining many of these connections and, indeed, was itself a site of diverse academic exchange during the conference for anyone following the official hashtag: #ANZAMEMS2015. This was a conference of Medieval and Early Modern studies that was diversifying – and energising – in its international, open-themed and interdisciplinary form.