Tuesday, April 22, 2014

CFP MAA 2015 (6/15/14; U of Notre Dame 3/12-14/15)

The call for papers for next year's meeting of the Medieval Academy of America has been posted online at http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.medievalacademy.org/resource/resmgr/pdfs/maa2015_cfp_final.pdf. The conference theme is "Medieval Studies across the Disciplines," and it will convene at the University of Notre Dame; however, contrary to previous calls (and thereby, in my opinion, limiting the chance for richer interdisciplinary connections), this one does not include any sessions devoted to medievalisms.

CFP Medievalism on the Margins (for Studies in Medievalism) (8/1/14)

Sorry for the belated posting. It looks like this was first listed in January:

Call for Submissions: Studies in Medievalism XXIII (2014)

Studies in Medievalism, a peer-reviewed print and on-line publication, seeks 3,000-word essays about medievalism on the margins. Submissions may concentrate on the borders of the field and its relationship to neighboring disciplines, such as medieval studies, on the traditional geography of its focus and its relationship to other territory, particularly outside of Europe, on the relationship of medievalism to traditionally marginalized groups, such as the LBGTIQ community, or on some combination of the three.  Contributors are welcome to give examples but should focus on the theoretical implications of those examples rather than the examples themselves.  Authors should also anticipate a wide-ranging audience comprising generalists as well as specialists, including non-academics, and submissions should be sent in English and Word as an e-mail attachment on or before August 1, 2014 to the editor, Karl Fugelso (kfugelso@towson.edu). Please follow the Style Sheet when preparing your submission for consideration.

CFP ICoM 2014 (6/1/14; Atlanta 10/24-25/14)

I keep forgetting to post this:

Call for Papers, 29th International Conference on Medievalism: “Medievalisms on the Move”

One of the great epistemological strengths of medievalism studies has been its openness to the many variants of cultural reception, including multiple linguistic, ideological, geographical, and disciplinary perspectives. For this year’s conference at the Georgia Institute of Technology, we specifically invite sessions and individual papers that will investigate the manifold transformations that happen when recreations, reinventions, and redefinitions of the “medieval” move from one cultural space and time to another. The conference will feature two plenary speakers.  Sylvie Kandé’s research on the migration of medievalisms from Europe and Africa to the Americas, and Kathleen Verduin’s investigation of the North American Dante reception (see below) present excellent examples of the kind of work we invite. We also imagine contributions that would show how medievalisms move between different discourses, genres, technological modes, historical periods, geographies, religions, art forms, social levels, research paradigms, etc. In addition to these contributions to the general theme of the conference, we invite any and all papers on the reception of medieval culture in postmedieval times.

Inquiries, one page proposals for entire sessions (deadline: May 15, 2014), and one page proposals for individual papers (deadline: June 1, 2014) should be sent to the conference organizers at medievalisms@lmc.gatech.edu. The conference will be held from October 24-25, 2014, in Atlanta, GA at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

All presenters at the conference have the opportunity to revise/extend their papers and submit them to The Year’s Work in Medievalism (for texts up to 4,000 words) or Studies in Medievalism (more than 4,000 words). The editors of both journals (YWiM: Ed Risden; Richard Utz; SiM: Karl Fugelso) will be available for discussing possible contributions during the conference. Those with book-length project should contact Chris Jones and Karl Fugelso, editors of Boydell & Brewer’s book series Medievalism.

Friday, April 18, 2014

Higgins Armory Update

As I think I've posted before, the Higgins Armory Museum in Worcester, Massachusetts, has been closed, its collection transferred to the Worcester Art Museum and building up for sale. I'm sorry to see the Higgins go; it was a great resource and wonderful site for developing interest in the medieval in persons of all ages. Further details of the transfer at http://www.worcesterart.org/Exhibitions/knights/.

A history of the Higgins has been produced to aid in the sale. It can be accessed at http://www.higgins.org/WermielHAM.pdf.

Saturday, April 12, 2014

SMART 21.1 Out Now

Now available to subscribers (details at http://webs.wichita.edu/?u=smart):

STUDIES IN MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE TEACHING
(SMART)

CURRENT ISSUE INFORMATION


The Spring 2014 Issue 1 of Volume 21 of Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching presents a small collection of articles on teaching William Langland’s Piers Plowman. Like Chaucer, Langland addressed perplexing societal problems, yet his work is not taught as often as Chaucer’s. Langland’s position as one of the most important of medieval English writers raises several questions: Should Langland be taught to undergraduates? If so, in what contexts should he be taught? How can Langland be made relevant for current under-graduates? These papers, originally delivered at a session of the 2008 International Congress on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University, attempt to answer these questions.

This issue of SMART also offers several other fine articles on a variety of topics—teaching Percy’sReliques of Ancient English Poetry, understanding Beowulf through a modern contrast, teaching medieval literature at a Hispanic-serving institution, employing the Crusades as a tool to discuss the relationship between Islam and the West, using anachronistic movies to successfully teach medieval history, and editing and teaching medieval drama.  The volume is rounded out with some excellent book reviews.

TEACHING PIERS PLOWMAN
(collection guest edited by Theodore L. Steinberg)

THEODORE L. STEINBERG Introduction: Teaching Piers Plowman

THOMAS GOODMANN Why Not Teach Langland?

THEODORE L. STEINBERG I’m Dreaming of Piers Plowman

LOUISE BISHOP Piers Plowman: Text and Context

ADAM H. KITZES Canonicity, Literary History, and the Survey of English Literature: Teaching Percy’s Reliques of Ancient English Poetry to Undergraduates

MEGAN HARTMAN Beowulf  Then and Now: Understanding the Medieval Hero through a Modern Contrast
R. JACOB MCDONIE Teaching Medieval Literature at a Hispanic-Serving Institution

MERIEM PAGES The Crusades as a Tool to Discuss the Relationship between Islam and the West in Medieval Europe

JULIE ELB Knights! Camera! Action! Using Anachronistic Movies to Successfully Teach Medieval History

CLAIRE SPONSLOR Is There a Play in This Book? Editing and Teaching Medieval Drama

SUSAN KENDRICK Book Review: The Cambridge Introduction to Shakespeare’s Comedies,
by Penny Gay

E. L. RISDEN Book Review: The Chronica Maiora of Thomas Walsingham (1376–1422),
translated by David Preest, with introduction and notes by James G. Clark

GWENDOLYN MORGAN Book Review: European Sexualities, 1400–1800, by Katherine Crawford

BRIGITTE ROUSSEL Book Review: Communal Discord, Child Abduction, and Rape in the Later Middle Ages, by Jeremy Goldberg

LESLEY A. COOTE Book Review: Allegory and Sexual Ethics in the High Middle Ages, by Noah D. Guynn

CHRISTINA FRANCIS Book Review: Brueghel’s Heavy Dancers: Transgressive Clothing, Class, & Culture in the Late Middle Age, by John Block Friedman