Showing posts with label medieval literature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label medieval literature. Show all posts

Monday 23 April 2012

CFP: Medievalism Transformed: Putting Women in their Place(s)?

Constructions of Femininity in the Middle Ages

Postgraduate Conference
Bangor University
8-9 June 2012

Keynote Speakers:

Dr. Carol M Meale (University of Bristol)
Dr. Susan M. Johns (Bangor University)
Dr. Mari Hughes-Edwards (Edge Hill University)
Dr. Sue Niebrzydowski (Bangor University

Call for Papers:

The eighth annual Bangor University Medievalism Transformed Conference will be held 8-9 June, 2012. This is an interdisciplinary postgraduate conference and we warmly invite papers on women in the medieval period from graduate students working in literature, art, medicine, music, theology, archaeology and history; other subjects will also be considered.

Suggested topics are as follows, but are not limited to:

• Traditions and settings of women’s writing and reading practices
• Gender and place
• Construction of gendered spaces
• Relationships between verbal and visual artifacts
• Women’s use of devotional images
• Gendered architecture/architectural spaces

Please send a 250-300 word abstract to the conference convenors by 18 May 2012. Papers will be of 20 minutes duration with an additional 5 minutes for questions. In addition to your abstract, please include a short (no longer than 50 words) paragraph describing your area of study, institution and contact details.

Medievalism Transformed Conference
c/o School of English,
Bangor University,
Bangor,
Gwynedd LL57 2DG
Wales

This event is supported by the Centre for Medieval Studies, Bangor University and the Institute for Medieval and Early Modern Studies (IMEMS – Aberystwyth and Bangor Universities)

Friday 9 March 2012

CFP: The Place of Hell: Topographies, Structures, Genealogies

An International conference held at King’s College London and The Warburg Institute on May 31 and June 1, 2013.

Call for Papers

A belief in Hell has been a staple of Christian thought from the earliest period of this religion. The depiction of Hell and its denizens – the devil, demons and the punished sinners – has an equally long history going back to at least the sixth century. From the eleventh century onwards, images of Hell become proliferate and more detailed in their presentation of the damned and their torments – in parallel to such texts as the popular Apocalypse of the Virgin. Artists come up with different solutions in picturing the various torments inflicted upon the sinners as well as the places where these torments take place. In the art of the late Byzantine period and the late medieval west, the various figures of the damned are presented with inscriptions detailing the crimes and sins for which they are being punished. In western Europe, literary texts add detail to the vision of Hell as well, starting with the 11th-century Vision of Tondal and culminating in Dante’s Divine Comedy. The images as well as the texts that we assume they are illustrating offer a rich field for research. Questions of iconography as well as the exploration of social meanings attached to these powerful representations present themselves. The exploration of developments within the body of texts on and depictions of Hell can be particularly fruitful.

The aim of this conference is to explore the place Hell occupied within society and art as well as the way Hell was envisaged as a physical place. The conference is organized as part of the Leverhulme Trust International Network project Damned in Hell in the Frescoes of Venetian-dominated Crete (13th-17th centuries). The island of Crete was governed by the Venetians from the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries. During this period, the interplay of the religion and culture of the colonizers (Roman Catholic and Italian) and the majority of the population (Byzantine and Greek Orthodox) created tangible tensions. We are therefore particularly interested in material from the historical era covered by the project, approaches that involve comparisons between east and west, and presentations with a particular focus on Crete. Did depictions of Hell on the island’s churches follow theological debates and trends? Was their primary function the edification of the Orthodox congregations, or are other readings possible?

Topics for papers may include, but are not limited to:

· Texts about Hell and punishments for sinners in the Greek Orthodox world and/or the Latin west(13th-17th centuries)
· Images of Hell, with particular emphasis on its layout and topography as well as the layout of its pictorial representation
· Comparative papers on the intera_ction between Orthodox and Catholic notions and representations of Hell in the late medieval and early modern eastern Mediterranean
· The origins – both textual and pictorial – of perceptions and representations of the Afterlife and Hell in particular within the Christian tradition
· The use of Hell and punishment for sinners within contexts of social control (especially in rural communities) and afterlife management strategies

Papers by early career scholars soon after the completion of their PhD are particularly welcome.

Papers are restricted to 25 mins. Please send a short abstract and a brief cv to: Dionysios Stathakopoulos and Rembrandt Duits by June 30 2012.

Accepted speakers will be offered free accommodation and either a full refund of or substantial assistance towards their travel costs.

Thursday 1 March 2012

Manchester Medieval Society Lecture: John Gillis

The Fadden More Psalter

MANCHESTER MEDIEVAL SOCIETY and MANCASS are delighted to host jointly a lecture on The Faddan More Psalter by John Gillis Senior Conservator of books and manuscripts at Trinity College Library

Thursday 22 March 2012 at 6 p.m.

A large, leather-covered book was unearthed in 2006 in a peat bog in Co. Tipperary, Ireland. Despite its covering of brown peat, lettering and illuminated decoration were visible and it was immediately obvious that this was a Psalter (book of the Psalms), datable from its decorative style to the eighth-century, a golden age of manuscript illumination in Ireland and Northumbria. John Gillis is working with the National Museum of Ireland on examining and conserving the manuscript.

Venue: The Historic Reading Room, John Rylands University Library of Manchester, Deansgate Building.

Non-members are always welcome.

Friday 20 January 2012

CFP: Insular Books: Vernacular Miscellanies in Late Medieval Britain

Location: The British Academy
Dates: 21-23 June 2012
Organizers:
Dr Raluca Radulescu (Bangor University) and Dr Margaret Connolly (University of St Andrews)

Funded and hosted by the British Academy, this conference brings a new and multi-disciplinary focus to the late medieval miscellany, a little-investigated and poorly understood type of manuscript. The main aim of the conference is to foster academic interest in vernacular manuscript miscellanies from the period 1300-1550 written in a mixture of medieval languages (English, Anglo-Norman, Welsh, Scots). Attention will be paid to the interactions between literary and non-literary texts in miscellanies, and to evidence of exchange between different communities, including dialogue across the Welsh and Scottish borders. A main objective is to achieve agreement in the area of taxonomy; at present there is no agreed definition of the medieval miscellany which is treated variously by specialists in different disciplines and by
cataloguers. The discussion will thus address four main inter-related concerns:

• how to achieve a definition for the miscellany which distinguishes it from other mixed-content manuscripts (anthologies, collections, composite volumes);
• how to make manuscript miscellanies and their textual contents accessible to modern readers, including scholars, students, archivists, and general readers;
• how to develop a coherent scholarly methodology for dealing with volumes whose contents are intrinsically multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary;
• how to understand and represent the complex relationships between manuscript miscellanies.

The list of confirmed speakers includes: Prof. Derek Pearsall, Dr Ceridwen Lloyd-Morgan (Universities of Cardiff and Bangor), Prof. Wendy Scase (University of Birmingham), Dr Helen Deeming (Royal Holloway, University of London), Prof. Ad Putter (University of Bristol), Prof. Diane Watt (Surrey University), Dr Sue Niebrzydowski (Bangor University), Dr Phillipa Hardman (University of Reading), Dr Marianne Ailes (University of Bristol), Dr Tony Hunt (St Peter’s College, Oxford), Dr Dafydd Johnston (Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies, Aberystwyth), Dr Anne Parry (Aberystwyth University), Dr Sara Elin Roberts (Bangor University), Dr William Marx (University of Wales, Trinity St David’s), Dr Carrie Griffin (Queen Mary University of London), Dr Andrew Taylor (Ottawa University), Dr Carol Meale (University of Bristol), Dr Deborah Youngs (Swansea University), Dr Katherine Olson (Bangor University), as well as the two co-organizers.

The organizers are happy to receive additional proposals for 20 minute papers which focus on any of the four areas of interest outlined above. Please send an abstract (maximum 150 words) to the organizers by 15 January 2012.

Some bursaries will be made available to doctoral students and early career researchers in financial need (an application form will become available on the conference website at the British Academy).

Tuesday 15 November 2011

Gender and Medieval Studies Conference 2012: Gender and Punishment

Martin Harris Centre, University of Manchester
11-13 January 2012

Registration is now open for GMS 2012: Gender and Punishment. Click here to register or here to visit the conference website.

Programme

Wednesday 11 January

12:45-1:45pm: Registration (Foyer)

1:45pm: Welcome and Opening Remarks by Dr. Anke Bernau (University of Manchester) (John Thaw Studio Theatre)

2-3:30pm: Keynote Lecture (John Thaw Studio Theatre)
Chair: Professor Gale Owen-Crocker (University of Manchester)
Professor Dawn Hadley (University of Sheffield): Masculinity and Mass Graves in Anglo-Saxon England

3:30-4pm: Coffee (Foyer)

4-5:30pm: Parallel Sessions

Panel 1a: Torture and Spectacle (John Thaw Studio Theatre)
Chair: TBC
(i) David Matthews (University of Manchester): “Take example, and thereof beware”: The Medieval Execution Ritual
(ii) Megan Welton (University of Notre Dame): Diversis angustiata cruciatibus: Adelheid of Italy and Tenth-Century Capture, Torture, and Gender
(iii) Iain MacInnes (UHI Centre for History): “A somewhat too cruel vengeance was taken for the blood of the slain”: punishment of rebels and traitors in medieval Scotland, c.1100-c.1400

Panel 1b: Holy Women and Punishment (G16)
Chair: TBC
(i) Jessica Cheetham (University of Bristol): Mechthild of Magdeburg and Vicarious Punishment
(ii) Clare Monagle (Monash University): Authority and Punishment in the Letters of Hildegard of Bingen and Catherine of Siena
(iii) Kate E. Bush (The Catholic University of America): Cani Giudei: Anti-Semitism in the Sermons of Saint Catherine of Bologna

5:30pm: Close

6pm: Wine reception at International Anthony Burgess Foundation (Engine House, Cambridge Street)

*****

Thursday 12 January

9:30-11am: Parallel Sessions

Panel 2a: Space and Punishment (John Thaw Studio Theatre)
Chair: TBC
(i) Sergi Sancho Fibla (Universitat Pompeu Fabra): Marguerite d’Oingt’s Pagina Meditationum. The female hell for the “brothers of flies”
(ii) Polly Stevens Fields (University of Nevada, Reno): Reconsideration of Hrothwissa’s Convent Dramas: Source and Site of Female Punishment in Paphnutius
(iii) Kristin Distel (Ashland University): Holy Fear as Incentive for Enclosure

Panel 2b: Presence and Absence in Punishment (G16)
Chair: TBC
(i) Drew Maxwell (University of Edinburgh): “Traytur untrew and trowthles”: Women's roles as punishers and teachers in the concept of trowth within Ywain and Gawain and Sir Launfal
(ii) Hannah Priest (University of Manchester): “De l’altre part la dame a prise”: Hiding Punitive Violence Against Women in Insular Romance
(iii) Carl G. Martin (Norwich University): “Par destresce e par poür”: Bisclavret’s Constrained Bodies

11-11:30am: Coffee (Foyer)

11:30-1pm: Parallel Sessions

Panel 3a: Law and Punishment (John Thaw Studio Theatre)
Chair: TBC
(i) Daniela Fruscione (University of Frankfurt): Adultery, gender and punishment in the 7th century: Legal and social frames
(ii) Charlene M. Eska (Virginia Tech): Castration in Early Irish Law
(iii) Gillian R. Overing (Wake Forest University): Within Striking Distance: Gender, Insult and Injury in Some Anglo-Saxon Laws

Panel 3b: Virgins and Punishment (G16)
Chair: TBC
(i) Christine Williamson (University of York): The Moment of Death in the Passiones of the Virgin Martyrs: Exploring Gendered Forms of Execution in Medieval Hagiography
(ii) Sarah Schäfer (University of Paderborn): “Letting Satan in…” On teeth, tongues, throats and symbolic defloration in Female Saints’ Legends
(iii) Stavroula Constantinou (University of Cyprus): Holy Violence: Crime and Punishment in the Miracles of Saint Thecla

1-2pm: Lunch (Foyer)

2-3:30pm: Parallel Sessions

Panel 4a: Punitive Scripts of Selfhood (John Thaw Studio Theatre)
Chair: TBC
(i) Emily Rhodes (University of Bristol): Punishment & Imitatio Christi: Medieval Holy Women Creating Purgatory
(ii) Sarah Macmillan (University of Birmingham): Punishment, Pain and the Invisible Injuries of Christina Mirabilis
(iii) Michelle M. Sauer (University of North Dakota): Devotional Violence and Sacred Sacrifice: Asceticism, Flagellation, and Penetration in A Talkyng of the Loue of Gode

Panel 4b: Gendered Punishment (G16)
Chair: TBC
(i) Rachel Jones (Cardiff University): Punishing the Unruly Female Saint: The Anomalous Case of Mary Magdalene
(ii) Inna Matyushina (University of Exeter): Punishments in Chastity Tests
(iii) Anastasija Ropa and Edgar Rops (University of Wales, Bangor): Gender specific punishment in the ‘Queste del Saint Graal’ and contemporary legal practice

3:30-4pm: Coffee (Foyer)

4-5:30pm: Keynote Lecture (John Thaw Studio Theatre)
Chair: Dr. Anke Bernau (University of Manchester)
Professor Karen Pratt (King’s College, London): Does the punishment fit the crime, or only the person? The intersection of gender, class and punishment in Old French
Literature

5:30pm: Close

7pm: Conference Dinner at Felicini (Oxford Road)

*****

Friday 13 January

9:30-11am: Parallel Sessions

Panel 5a: Uncanny Bodies and Punishment (John Thaw Studio Theatre)
Chair: TBC
(i) Stephen Gordon (University of Manchester): Post-Mortem Punishment and the Fear of the Errant Corpse in Writings of William of Newburgh
(ii) Patricia Skinner (University of Swansea): The Gendered Nose and its Lack – some thoughts on medieval rhinectomy
(iii) Katja Fält (University of Jyväskylä, Finland): Men, Women and Devils - Representations of Gender and the Diabolic in the Late-Medieval Wall Paintings of the Diocese of Turku (Finland)

Panel 5b: Discipline and Punish (G16)
Chair: TBC
(i) Kathy Frances (University of Manchester): Penance and Punishment: The Male Body and Masculine Bonds in John Audelay the Blind’s Counsel of Conscience
(ii) Frank Battaglia (College of Staten Island/CUNY): Boys Should Be Heroes: Beowulf’s disciplinary discourse
(iii) Rachel Friedensen (Western Michigan University): Si invita passa est: Consent and Gender in Anglo-Saxon and Frankish Penitentials
11-11:30am Coffee (Foyer)

11:30-12:30pm: Panel 6: Timely Punishment (John Thaw Studio Theatre)
Chair: TBC
(i) Beverly R. Sherringham (Farmingdale State College, New York): The Graceful Fall: Medieval Misogyny as a Redemptive Precursor to an Egalitarian Society
(ii) Daisy Black (University of Manchester): Troublesome Flotsam: Verbal Resurrections of a Drowned Past

12:30-1:30pm: Lunch (Foyer)

1:30-2:30pm: GMS Business Meeting (G16)

3-4:15pm: Optional Workshops

(i) John Rylands Library Manuscript Collections (John Rylands Library, Deansgate)
or
(ii) The Heronbridge Skeletons (led by Dr. Bryan Sitch) (Manchester Museum, Oxford Road)

4:15pm Conference Close

*****

Registration is now open. Click here to register. For more information, visit the conference website or the University of Manchester website, or email the conference convenors.

Tuesday 20 September 2011

CFP: Identity and Image

18th Annual Postgraduate Medieval Studies Conference

24th‐25th February, 2012

Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Bristol, UK

The University of Bristol hosts the longest‐running international medieval postgraduate conference in the UK. This annual event offers medievalists the opportunity to present their research and discuss ideas in an interdisciplinary setting. The conference is now in its 18th year, and proposals are invited for papers from postgraduates and early career scholars on the theme of Identity and Image.

The aim of this year’s conference is to explore how identity was formed, expressed and understood in the Middle Ages. We are interested in the way individuals and groups constructed images of themselves and others, and how identity was affected by religious, racial, political and other social factors on an international, national or local scale. The theme ‘Identity and Image’ invites consideration of how, and if, we can interpret medieval notions of identity from the textual, visual, musical and material sources that have survived to the present day. We welcome a wide range of discussion from issues of religious and artistic patronage, devotional practice, language choice and material culture to considerations of how the self or the other is presented in literary and visual culture.

Topics may include but are not limited to:
- Religious identities
- National identity
- Linguistic choice or identity
- Autobiography and biography
- Representation of outsiders
- Artistic and religious patronage
- Architecture
- Material culture
- Images of the self and others

Papers must be no more than 20 minutes long

Abstracts of 250‐300 words should be sent by email (by preference) to:
Hannah Walters or to Hannah Walters, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Bristol, Graduate School of Arts and Humanities, 7 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1TB, UK

Deadline for receipt of abstracts: 10th December, 2012

Registration deadline: 21st January, 2012

For further information please visit our website.

Bursaries may be available for travel.

Tuesday 12 July 2011

CFP: Shield Maidens and Sacred Mothers: Medieval Women in Truth and Legend

Cardiff University
October 7, 2011

Call for Papers

This forthcoming interdisciplinary international conference seeks to examine images and representations of medieval women. Our aim is to promote new scholarship and innovative approaches to the study of this figure within the wider context of literary and historical studies. Our purpose is to foster an interdisciplinary discussion of the ways in which the medieval female is depicted within myth, folklore, legend and historiography.

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Roberta Lynn Staples, Sacred Heart University, Connecticut, USA.
Author of The Company of Camelot. Arthurian characters in Romance and Fantasy (with Charlotte Spivack)

Abstracts of not more than 250 words are invited for individual 20-minute papers on the theme of the conference (interpreted in literary or historical terms, or both). Abstracts should be emailed to the conference convenors.

Deadline for receipt of abstracts: August 31, 2011

The Conference will take place at Cardiff University’s main campus

General Enquiries:
Conference Organisers
Nicole Thomas
Sarah Williams

Please visit our Facebook page: Shield Maidens and Sacred Mothers.

CFP: 10th Medieval English Studies Symposium

19-20 November 2011
Poznań, Poland

The 10th Medieval English Studies Symposium, organised by the School of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, will be held in Poznan from 19-20 November, 2011. MESS10 will have as its aim bringing together specialists in the areas of medieval English literature and linguistics. Two plenary lectures, at least two parallel sessions and over twenty section meetings are planned.

Literature Section at MESS10


Princes and Paupers: Class, Money and (social and physical) Otherness in medieval and medievalist literature in English


The main aim of the literary section is that class and wealth and their literary representations appear in the form of endorsements as well as admonitions. Princes and Paupers feature in secular literature of advice as well as in religious works on sins and transgressions, both types offering insight into the nature of medieval social life. Early medieval penitentials outline not only ideas on penance (exile which meant social exclusion being one of the most frequently prescribed punishments), but first and foremost demonstrate how crimes were punished differently according to the social class of the perpetrators. Mess10 welcomes all papers dealing with the above mentioned aspects of medieval literature but we will also try to accommodate other papers, if need arises.


500-word abstracts
should be submitted by the end of August 2011, preferably by email, in the .rtf or .doc format. As the number of paper slots is limited, all proposals will be reviewed by the organising committee and the authors will be notified about acceptance by mid-September 2011. Participants without papers are also welcome.


Venue

The conference will be held at Collegium Iuridicum Novum building, officially inaugurated in December 2010 to house the AMU Faculty of Law and Administration (Polish: Wydział Prawa i Administracji).


All the rooms offer audio and video equipment, including data projectors.


Registration


New registration forms will soon be available on the conference website.


All enquiries concerning the Symposium should be addressed to the organisers, preferably by e-mail.


For more information, see the main website here.

Thursday 31 March 2011

CFP: Gender and Medieval Studies Conference 2012

Gender and Medieval Studies Conference 2012
The University of Manchester

Gender and Punishment

With keynote speakers Professor Karen Pratt (King’s College London) and Professor Dawn Hadley (University of Sheffield)
11th—13th January 2012

Proposals are now being accepted for 20-minute papers

Punishment is intrinsically related to the way in which authorities (such as the church, monarchy and state) seek to control, enforce and legislate the behaviour of individuals, communities and nations, and accordingly it plays an integral role in regulating bodies, spaces, spirituality and rela-tionships. Representations of punishment - whether threatened, enacted, depicted or performed - are regularly encountered by medievalists working across the disciplines of literature, history, art and archaeology. This conference seeks to explore functions and manifestations of punishment in the Middle Ages and to consider to what extent these are determined by, or aim to determine, gender identity. How is punishment gendered? How does gender intersect with punishment? Topics to consider may include but are not limited to:

  • Punishment in the beginning; the medieval understanding of the Fall.

  • Punishment, pedagogy and gender: the use of punishment in teaching.

  • Christianity, gender and punishment; treatment of the sinful body.

  • Punishment of Jewish, Saracen and heretical men and women.

  • Personal identity and self-inflicted acts of punishment.

  • The (gendered) use of space as punishment.

  • Regal punishments; punishments enacted upon or by medieval rulers.

  • Punishment and the regulation of perceived sexual deviance.

  • Punishment and spectacle; performance of punishment on and off the stage.

  • Gender relations in specific acts of punishment.

  • Confession and penance (as punishment): gendered role of confessor; issues relating to differences between female and male confession and penance.

  • Hell, the diabolic, and representations of gender.

We welcome scholars from a range of disciplines, including history, literature, art history and archaeology. A travel fund is available for postgraduate students who would otherwise be unable to attend.


Please e-mail proposals of no more than 300 words to organiser Daisy Black by 1 September 2011. All queries should also be directed to this address. Please also include biographical information, detailing your name, research area, institution and level of study if applicable.


Further details are available on the conference website.

Thursday 3 March 2011

Book Launch: David Matthews (ed), In Strange Countries

An invitation to the launch of a new collection of essays in memory of J.J. Anderson, a respected medievalist and a wonderful teacher.

In Strange Countries: Middle English Literature and its Afterlife

A Volume of Essays in Memory of J.J. Anderson


John Anderson taught medieval literature at the University of Manchester for nearly 40 years. This book, with contributions from medievalists around the world, pays tribute to his career and its diverse interests, from medieval drama, to Arthurian literature, to the work of the Gawain-poet, whose remarkable poems preoccupied John throughout his career.

Please join us to celebrate John’s career and the publication of In Strange Countries.
Tuesday 8 March 2011, 6pm
The International Anthony Burgess Foundation
Chorlton Mill
3 Cambridge Street
Manchester
M1 5BY
For more information about In Strange Countries, please click here.