For details of past PATS and ANZAMEMS Seminars, please select the Seminar in the list below:

• 2011 – (ANZAMEMS Conference, The University of Otago)
• 2012 – (The University of Otago)
• 2013 – (The University of Western Australia)
• 2014 – (Monash University)
• 2015 – #1 (ANZAMEMS Conference, The University of Queensland)
• 2015 – #2 (The University of Canterbury)
• 2016 – #1 (The University of Sydney)
• 2016 – #2 (The University of Western Australia)
• 2017 – (ANZAMEMS Conference, Victoria University, Wellington)
• 2018 – (No PATS held)
• 2019 – #1 (ANZAMEMS Conference, The University of Sydney)
• 2019 – #2 (The University of Queensland)
• 2020 – (No ANZAMEMS Seminar held due to the COVID-19 outbreak)
• 2021 – ANZAMEMS Development Scheme (ADS) (Held online)
• 2022 – (No ANZAMEMS Seminar held at the 2022 Conference due to the COVID-19 outbreak)
• 2022 – ANZAMEMS Professional Development Day (Held in-person at The University of Melbourne, and online)
• 2023 – (Australian Catholic University)
• 2024 – #1 (ANZAMEMS Conference, University of Canterbury, New Zealand)

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PATS 2011: Editing Medieval and Early Modern Texts: Principles and Practice

Held at The University of Otago, 7–8 February 2011 (following the Eighth ANZAMEMS Conference), this PATS was convened by Prof. Peter Anstey (formerly Otago, now at USyd). It featured experts Prof. Eva Schlotheuber (University of Münster), Prof. Michael Hunter (Birkbeck College, London), and Dr. Greg Waite (University of Otago) who provided guidance on how to describe, transcribe, and fully edit materials from the medieval and early modern periods.

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PATS 2012: Interdisciplinarity in Medieval and Early Modern Research

This PATS was held at The University of Otago, 29–30 August 2012 and was convened by Prof. Peter Anstey (formerly Otago, now at USyd) and Dr. Stephen Clucas (Birkbeck). Prof. Peter Harrison (Queensland), Prof. Peter Marshall (Warwick), Prof. John Sutton (Macquarie), Dr. Stephen Clucas (Birkbeck), Prof. Lyn Tribble (Otago), A/Prof. Takashi Shogimen (Otago), Prof. Andrew Bradstock (Otago), and Prof. Peter Anstey (Otago) instructed participants on research methods and theoretical frameworks for approaching interdisciplinary research.

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PATS 2013: Understanding and Using Medieval and Early Modern Manuscripts

This PATS was held at The University of Western Australia, Perth, 27–28 November 2013. It was co-ordinated by Prof. Emerita Michelle Brown (formerly Curator of Illuminated Manuscripts at the British Library) and covered palaeography, scribal practice, material features of manuscripts, and the technology of the book.

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PATS 2014: Political Ideas and Medieval Texts: Methodologies and Resources

This PATS was hosted by The Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Monash University, on Saturday 25 October 2014. It was co-ordinated by Prof. Constant Mews and Associate Prof. Megan Cassidy-Welch of the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, and featured the speakers Kriston Rennie (University of Queensland), Chris Jones (Canterbury University), and Clare Monagle (Monash), who instructed participants on the theme of medieval political ideas across the three broad domains of law, literature, and theology.

Participants of the PATS agreed to compile a report which details their experience and what they gained from the seminar. Many thanks to attendee Amanda McVitty (Massey University) for the report which can be accessed, here.

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PATS 2015 #1: 2015 ANZAMEMS Conference

This PATS was hosted by The University of Queensland on July 20, 2015, and followed the 2015 ANZAMEMS Conference held at The University of Queensland (14–18 July, 2015)

Keynote speakers for the PATS spanned the areas of history, literature, and musicology:

• Professor Alexandra Walsham (The University of Cambridge)
• Professor Laura Knoppers (Notre Dame University)
• Professor Jessie Ann Owens (UC Davis)

Participants of the PATS agreed to compile a report which details their experience and what they gained from the seminar. These reports can be accessed on the ANZAMEMS newsletter by searching the ‘Member News’ tag.

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PATS 2015 #2: Medieval and Early Modern Digital Humanities

This PATS was hosted by The University of Canterbury on November 18 2015. Attendees discussed digital research in Medieval and Early Modern Studies. The PATS consisted of two keynote presentations by Prof. Evelyn Tribble (The University of Otago) and Prof. Patricia Fumerton (University of California, Santa Barbara), an interactive session, and a panel discussion. The two keynotes focused on using digitised sources in researching the medieval and early modern periods, and on the key issues and digital archival work on the digital English Broadside Ballad Archive respectively. The panel discussion focused on digital humanities project management, and students had the opportunity to discuss their own research and gain hands-on experience of digital tools in the interactive session.

Some participants of the PATS compiled reports which details their experience and what they gained from the seminar. These reports can be accessed on the ANZAMEMS newsletter by searching the ‘Member News’ tag.

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PATS 2016 #1: The Manuscript Book

This PATS was hosted by The University of Sydney on 9–10 February 2016. Open to postgraduate students and early career researchers in any field who are engaged in a study of the manuscript book, this PATS was designed to equip the students with the requisite skills and care necessary for the proper use and study of manuscript materials.

This PATS consisted of an intensive two-day course run by Professors Margaret Manion (The University of Melbourne) and Rod Thomson (The University of Tasmania), and was devoted to a full range of activities involved with working with manuscript evidence and utilize the collection of books and fragments of books preserved at The University of Sydney.

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PATS 2016 #2: Medieval and Early Modern Gender Matters

This PATS was hosted by The University of Western Australia on 7 October 2016, and co-sponsored by the Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies (ANZAMEMS), the Perth Medieval and Renaissance Group (PMRG) and the ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions (Europe, 1100–1800). The PATS included sessions focused on gender theory and methodology led by a panel of gender scholars, including Susan Broomhall, Andrew Lynch, Joanne McEwan, Stephanie Tarbin, Jacqueline Van Gent (all of UWA), and Merry Wiesner-Hanks (University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee).

This PATS consisted of a morning session, focussed on pre-circulated readings, and an afternoon session on how gender theories and methodologies could be applied and incorporated more specifically into the projects and research interests of participants.

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PATS 2017: Marginalia and Markings: Reading Early Modern and Medieval Readers

This PATS was hosted by The National Library of New Zealand, Wellington on Saturday 11 February 2017, and followed the 2017 ANZAMEMS conference. Presenters included: Prof. Lorna Hutson (Oxford University), Associate Prof. Rosalind Smith (The University of Newcastle, Australia), Dr. Malcolm Mercer (Royal Armouries, Tower of London), Dr Anthony Tedeschi (The National Library of New Zealand). Each of the presenters has distinct expertise in working with marginalia and other reader markings in medieval and early modern manuscripts and printed books, and the National Library’s collections provided ample materials for hands-on examination and discussion by PATS participants.

This PATS consisted of speaker presentations in the morning, followed by student-focused workshop sessions in the afternoon.

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PATS 2019 #1: ANZAMEMS Conference

This PATS was hosted by The University of Sydney on 4–5 February 2019, and preceded the 2019 ANZAMEMS conference. There were two PATS strands. Strand one focused on Digital Editing and the Medieval & Early Modern Manuscript and addressed the following topics:

• The Paleography and Codicology of Medieval and Early Modern Manuscripts
• The Basics of Manuscript Transcription and Scholarly Editing
• Introduction to the Digital Edition: Challenges and Best Practices
• Collaborative Editing
• Text Encoding Fundamentals: XML and the TEI Schema
• Using Digital Editing Tools: The Graphical XML Editor oXygen

Strand two focused on Doing Digital Humanities: From Project Planning to Digital Delivery and addressed the following topics:

• Digital Project Planning and Project Management
• Building Collaboration Networks in the Digital Humanities
• Gaining Funding for (DH) Research Projects: Potential and Challenges
• Introduction to Current Digital Tools: Digital Editions, Digital Texts, Digital Databases, and other Digital Approaches
• Developing your own Digital Project
• Working with Digital Texts; Working with Digitised Artefacts

Guest speakers included Professor Elaine Treharne, Stanford University, Dr Francesco Borghesi (The University of Sydney), Dr. Katherine Hindley (Nanyang Technical University, Singapore), Dr. Anya Adair (Hong Kong University), and Dr. Mitchell Harrop (The University of Melbourne).

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PATS 2019 # 2: Approaching Medieval and Early Modern Conflict

This PATS was hosted by The University of Queensland (St Lucia Campus) on 11–12 August 2019, and organised by Prof. Megan Cassidy-Welch (The University of Queensland).

Day One was comprised of four methodological workshops: Conflict in Crusade Narrative (Dr Beth Spacey); Conflict in Monastic Narrative (Assoc. Prof. Kriston Rennie); Conflict and Material Culture (Prof. Megan Cassidy-Welch); and Conflict in Early Modern Print Culture (Dr Charlotte-Rose Millar). The sessions were followed by a roundtable discussion for broader reflection on the study of historical conflict. The workshops were designed to expose participants to a variety of approaches towards conflict in a historical setting, to enable engagement with ‘research in progress’, and to develop skills in textual, visual, and material cultural analysis.

On Day Two, participants attended the one-day symposium at UQ, Landscapes of Conflict and Encounter in the Crusading World. This symposium brought together medievalists working on diverse areas of crusading activity in Europe, North Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean, to give papers on the relationship between landscape, conflict and encounter. By focusing in on a particular aspect of medieval conflict, this symposium allowed participants to build their own knowledge around the theme, while providing an opportunity to network with an international group of scholars in the field.

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2021 ANZAMEMS Seminar: ANZAMEMS DEVELOPMENT SCHEME (ADS)

In pre-covid times ANZAMEMS funded PATS (Postgraduate Advanced Training Seminars), which brought HDR students and ECRs together for skills and methods seminars. Since the beginning of the pandemic, it has not been possible to run these workshops for obvious reasons.

So, we decided to try something different. In 2021, beginning in mid to late September, we offered a virtual seminar series, organised by the cohort for the cohort. We offered seven two-hour sessions, held fortnightly. The program offered a mix of career development and state of the field/s reflections.

The finalised seminar schedule and topics can be found below.

Session Topics and Schedule (All times given in Australian Eastern Standard Time)

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2022 ANZAMEMS Professional Development Day 

ANZAMEMS ran a Professional Development Day for postgraduates and early career researchers from both Australia and New Zealand at the Congress of the Council of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHASS) in Melbourne.

The event was held both in person at The University of Melbourne, and online via Zoom on Wednesday 30 November 2022.

The ANZAMEMS Professional Development Day assisted postgraduate and ECR scholars in their development as researchers and provided opportunities to network with experts and other postgraduates working in similar fields. The program offered a mix of career development and state of the field/s reflections.

Program 

9:00am: Welcome / Acknowledgment of Country / Coffee (0.5 hour)

9:30am: Session 1: Parergon roundtable session on Special Issues, with Prof Rosalind Smith (Australian National University), A/Prof Sarah Ross (Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington), A/Prof Katie Barclay (University of Adelaide), Dr Diana G. Barnes (University of New England), and a pre-recorded conversation with Kate Allan (Exeter College, Oxford) and Nupur Patel (Lincoln College, Oxford). (1.5 hours).

Chair: Dr Kristie Flannery (ACU)

11:00am: Break (0.5 hour)

11:30am: Session 2: Moving into policy work from a MEMS PhD, with Gillian Polack (1 hour)

Chair: Dr Helen Young (Deakin University)

12:30pm: Lunch break (1 hour)

1:30pm: Session 3: MEMS research in Australia, led by Uncle Bill Nicholson from the Wurundjeri people (1.5 hours)

Chair: Dr Helen Young (Deakin University)

3:00pm: Break (0.5 hour)

3:30pm: Session 4: What gives you hope in the humanities?, with Dr Helen Young (Deakin University), A/Prof Katie Barclay (University of Adelaide), Prof Lesley Head (President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities), Prof Charles Zika (University of Melbourne), and Dr David Newheiser (ACU) (1.5 hours)

Chair: A/Prof Sarah Ross (Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington)

5:00pm: Close 

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ANZAMEMS Seminar 2023: Medieval and Early Modern Sources: Skills for reading medieval and early modern manuscripts and printed texts

This two-day masterclass on the topic of ‘Medieval and Early Modern Sources: Skills for reading medieval and early modern manuscripts and printed texts’ was held at the Australian Catholic University, Melbourne Campus (Fitzroy/East Melbourne) on 2-3 November, 2023.

The seminar introduced postgraduate students and ECRs from across Australia and New Zealand to a range of textual sources for medieval and early modern research and provided some introductory skills training for how to identify, read and analyse these materials. The event will drew together experts in each of these fields and provided participants with opportunities to network and expand disciplinary horizons as well as develop palaeographic, reading and analytical skills. Texts studied included medieval charters, sources from the State Library of Victoria’s early modern Emmerson collection, early modern German printed texts, medieval hagiographies, manuscript fragments from the Bischoff collection at Monash University’s Sir Louis Matheson Library.

Participants were brought into contact with leading scholars in medieval and early modern studies from different institutions around Australia and the UK. Confirmed presenters included: Professor Miri Rubin (QMUL); Professor Chris Ocker (ACU/University of Redlands; Dr Susanne Meurer (UWA); Dr Anne Holloway (Matheson Library, Monash); Dr Anna Welch (State Library of Victoria); Professor Ros Smith (ANU); Dr Hélène Sirantoine (University of Sydney).

The masterclass was organised by a new national consortium of medieval and early modern studies centres in Australia (established in 2022), and participants had the opportunity to engage with members of those centres (ACU, ANU, Sydney, UWA, Monash) as well as other specialists. 

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ANZAMEMS Seminar 2024 #1: ANZAMEMS Conference

The postgraduate / early career training seminar was held at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand on Sunday 11 February 2024, following the ANZAMEMS conference.

Exploring texts with Voyant Tools – A historian’s guide

Voyant Tools is a web-based text reading and analysis environment, designed by Stéfan Sinclair and Geoffrey Rockwell to allow users to explore and “see through” their texts using computers-assisted analysis. This session provided a practical walk-through of some of the basic principles of using Voyant from sourcing and cleaning e-texts to upload, and then explored some of the functionality of the tool for visualising the text in different ways.

The session was facilitated by Associate Professor Natasha Hodgson, Nottingham Trent University, UK

UC Arts Digital Lab: Counting Words in Historical Texts Corpora

This session loosely followed Matthew Lavin’s Programming Historian lesson “Analyzing Documents with TF-IDF”, which “focuses on a foundational natural language processing and information retrieval method called Term Frequency – Inverse Document Frequency (tf-idf). This lesson explored the foundations of tf-idf, and also introduced participants to some of the questions and concepts of computationally oriented text analysis”. The session explored some of the key concepts, potential uses and limitations of frequency-based analyses of historical corpora, including comparing tf-idf with some other widely used approaches such as keyness analysis and topic modelling.

Participants in the session used the Python programming language within Google Colab to do calculations and see the effects of different choices made.

The session was facilitated by Dr Chris Thomson, Senior Lecturer in Digital Humanities and Director of the UC Arts Digital Lab.

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