Cross-Disciplinary Approaches in Medieval and Early Modern Studies
On Thursday 19 and Friday 20 February, the Australian National University (ANU) Centre for Early Modern Studies (CEMS) hosted this HDR/ECR seminar at the National Library of Australia (NLA), supported by ANZAMEMS seminar funding and the ANU Research School of Humanities and the Arts. Convened by Professor Rosalind Smith assisted by CEMS administrative Dr Christina Clarke, the seminar drew upon the groundbreaking cross-disciplinary work in early modern studies by Lorna Hutson, Merton Professor of English at the University of Oxford, who was a visitor at ANU CEMS in February. Over two days, sixteen Australian and New Zealand postgraduate students and early career researchers networked and shared cross-disciplinary research with peers and senior scholars in the field and enhanced their skills in cross-disciplinary research through three workshops delivered by leading scholars.
The seminar began with a viewing of items in the NLA’s medieval and early modern collections and included a public talk by Professor Hutson attended by 250 people in person and online, four panels of papers by the seminar participants and three hands-on skills development workshops. Professor Hutson’s workshop examined different varieties of cross-disciplinarity and demonstrated how maps can contribute to literary research. Professor Megan Cassidy-Welch’s workshop (Dean of Research Strategy, University of Divinity) explored drawing on lived experience in the present to interpret the past and Dr Una McIlvenna (ARC Future Fellow and Senior Lecturer in English, ANU) demonstrated how songs can be sources for early modern research. Informal feedback from participants indicated that the seminar was a resounding success, especially in its combination of building capacity and sharing research, and has established strong new networks for the upcoming generation of cross-disciplinary scholars.
HDR and ECR Presenters:
Yannic Bietz (Adelaide University), Studying Tudor Queens Consort through their Heraldry
Meg Challis (University of Melbourne), Sweet-Bitter Sappho: The Poetic Reception of Sappho in Early Modern England
Christina Clarke (Australian National University), Craft and Archaeology in the Art Historical Archive: Technical Practices of Louis XIV’s Royal Goldsmiths
Clare Davidson (Australian Catholic University), Love as a Cause in Late Medieval England
Kristie Flannery (Australian Catholic University), The Miracle of the Crab and the Conquest of the Sea
Alexandra Forsyth (Waipapa Taumata Rau The University of Auckland), ‘Without issue of the royal house of France’: Death of Margaret of Scotland (1424-1445), a Childless Dauphine
Ruby Lowe (University of Melbourne), Who was Margery Mar-Prelate?
Katherine Mair (University of Newcastle), Evil Eye Lore and the Existential Bodyguards in Pictures of the King’s Children
MacKenzie McCowan (University of Sydney), The Bard and the Bot: Can Artificial Intelligence Research Julius Caesar?
Victoria Munn (Victoria University of Wellington), ‘These counterfeit flames’: Saffron and the Science of Beauty in Early Modern Europe
Elizabeth Newton-Jackson (University of Auckland), ‘I did musie my selfe’: Practising Experimental History through Wool Processing
Suzi Nolan (University of Notre Dame Australia), Devotion in conflict: Andrea Vanni’s Catherine and her Devotee in the Lived Religious Experiences of her Followers during Times of War
Steve Rohan-Jones (University of Queensland), The Sword of Justice – The Just Rule of Henry IV?
Madeline Sargeant (Australian National University), Cross-Disciplinary Approaches to the Study of the Supernatural and the Miraculous in Early Modern Ireland
Wayan Jarrah Sastrawan (Australian National University), Cross-Disciplinary Approaches to Religious Change in Premodern Indonesia
Christopher White (University of Queensland), The Meanings of Monsters: Using Interdisciplinary Approaches to Better Understand Medieval Wonder
