The MEMS bi-weekly e-newsletter shares information about events, conferences, calls for papers, student and faculty work in the field, and digital resources that enrich our understanding of Medieval and Early Modern Studies. If you have any items you would like to share in the newsletter, please send them to Laurel Bassett at lburgg1@umbc.edu.
ON CAMPUS EVENTS
Mark Your Calendars!!!! MEMS Colloquium: April 7: 7 PM
The Medieval and Early Modern Studies minor of UMBC’s Department of History hosts Dr. Elizabeth Randell Upton, an Associate Professor of Musicology at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. Dr. Randell Upton’s primary research area is medieval music. Her recent work examines late fourteenth and early fifteenth century vocal music to discover evidence for the experiences of performers and listeners in the medieval past, recorded in surviving musical notation. Join us on Zoom for her lecture: “Listeners as Players, Music as Play.” For questions or further information, contact Laurel Bassett: lburgg1@umbc.edu.
Join
Zoom Meeting
https://umbc-edu.zoom.us/j/87556785236?pwd=QlVQdEo2OXBIK3M2WG9DZ0MvajZZUT09
Meeting ID: 875 5678 5236
Passcode: 081181
One tap mobile
+13017158592,87556785236#,*081181# US (Washington DC)
Passcode: 081181
Wednesday, April 7 12-1 PM History Major and Minor Information Session
Come to this information session and get your questions answered about the offerings of the History Department. Professors Froide, Meringolo, Song, McDonough, and Zaidi will be on hand to answer questions and share information about our History Major and Minor, our Minors in Public History and Asian History, the interdisciplinary minor in Medieval and Early Modern Studies and the newly revamped Religious Studies Minor.
https://umbc.webex.com/umbc/j.php?MTID=m80690f20545e31c335c34ef99e29a1d9
Wednesday, Apr 7, 2021 12:00 pm | 1 hour | (UTC-04:00) Eastern Time (US &
Canada)
Meeting number: 120 858 2030
Password: B9eVkhSM
Dial 1208582030@umbc.webex.com
You can also dial 173.243.2.68 and enter your meeting number.
Join by phone +1-202-860-2110 United States Toll (Washington D.C.)
Access code: 120 858 2030
Friday, April 16, 2-4 PM UMBC’s History Department and the Folger Shakespeare Library Host a Virtual Escape Room: The Ghost of Blithfield Hall: A Special Paleographical Mystery
At Blithfield Hall, the ancestral seat of the Bagot family, the ghost of an ancestor roams the corridors. A cache of family letters has been discovered, which seems to hold the answer to the spirit’s unrest. The only problem? These missives were penned in the early 17th century, and other paranormal investigators have failed to make sense of them. It’s up to you to decipher the documents, solve the puzzles, and free the ghost.
Bring your paleographical knowledge and form teams to play, in this live virtual experience. (Small teams of three or four are ideal, but you are welcome to play with a partner or by yourself.)
Reservations are required for this event and can be made athttps://forms.gle/xbibi4j4FUYAKVa57
Want to brush up on early modern handwriting in the meantime? Check out this https://folgerpedia.folger.edu/List_of_online_resources_for_early_modern_English_paleography in the Folger Shakespeare Library’s Folgerpedia!
COMMUNITY EVENTS
Saturday, April 24, 1-3 PM CST The Newberry Center for Renaissance Studies presents Anti-Race, 1550-1760
Several new phrases emerged in English print culture 1550-1580 to signify one race, created by God, descended from Adam and Even; while this was the predominant definition of race at this time, and therefore anti-race in conceptualization, other new usages of race tended in the opposite direction, finding races everywhere in the human, animal, vegetable, and even divine worlds as well as also reserving race for the bloodlines of rulers and other nobles. All of these tendencies suggest that racial formation 1550-1760 is more variable, more quotidian, than much scholarship has suggested.
This event is free, but all participants must register in advance and space is limited. To register, email scholarlyseminars@newberry.org.
Available on youtube May 5: RaceB4Race: “A Conversation with Ibram X. Kendi on Stamped from the Beginning”
In conversation with Ayanna Thompson, Regents Professor of English at Arizona State University and Director of the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, and the RaceB4Race Executive Board, Professor Kendi will discuss the long, premodern histories of race and racism. As the keynote conversation for the RaceB4Race Politics symposium, this event will ask questions about how racist ideas developed and became deeply rooted in our political culture. This conversation will be pre-recorded and available from May 5, 2021-May 19, 2021 on: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCegSaWdZ5ZrSMIPPTDFXaag
PAPERS AND CONFERENCES
April 14-16, 2021 The International Association for Neo-Latin Studies Presents an Online Conference: Digital Humanities and Neo-Latin Studies
This conference, held on zoom, presents a wide variety of projects and perspectives on Digital Neo-Latin Studies. For more information on the presentations and to register, see https://dnls.hypotheses.org/
Call for Papers: 97th Annual Meeting Medieval Academy of America, March 9-13, 2022
The Program Committee invites proposals for papers on all topics and in all disciplines and periods of medieval studies and medievalism studies. We are particularly interested in receiving submissions from those working outside of traditional academic positions. The meeting will take place on the campus of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and is committed to fostering conversation around the fifth-year anniversary of the Unite the Right rally in August 2017. Additional themes and threads of the meeting include: rethinking the global medieval, vulnerability and the ethics of care, queering the medieval, inter-religious coexistence and conflict, trade and cultural exchange and diplomacy and ambassadorial practices. Deadline for submissions is May 15, 2021. For more information, please consult:
https://www.medievalacademy.org/page/2022AnnualMeeting
DIGITAL RESOURCES
Check out the fascinating interactive New York Times article: “What a Tiny Masterpiece Reveals About Power and Beauty” by Jason Farago.
Zoom in and out of the details of a 17th century Mughal miniature, now held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and created by an artist called Chitarman. The article also features the work of other medieval manuscript artists and is a terrific experiment in digital storytelling.
“Adventures in Libraries: The Present and Future of Medieval Manuscript Studies”
The Newberry’s Center for Renaissance Studies presents a series of recorded conversations exploring the past, present, and future of research, teaching, and learning using archival collections. Participants shared their own paths to working with medieval manuscripts, described the challenges along the way, and considered strategies for making the field more diverse, accessible, and engaging for a variety of publics. You can see the full video here:
“Houston, we have a problem:” Erasing Black Scholars in Old English Literature.”
This article, posted at ACMRS Arizona, details experiences of Black students and professors as they work with premodern texts and grammars. The hyperlinks liberally splashed across this article all take the reader to powerful further research and commentary on the subject.
Check out the new digital critical edition of The Canterbury Tales:
https://www.canterburytalesproject.org/
For ongoing digital updates from the Medieval (academic) world, check out #medievaltwitter, #shakeRace, and #raceB4Race.
On our website!
Check out videos of curator Ashley Dimmig’s presentation: Exploring Islamic Manuscripts at the Walters Art Gallery and MEMS faculty Dr. James Magruder’s presentations on Instrumental to Intellectual: Italian Female Artists, 1600s and Resurrection, Metamorphosis, and the Art of Nature in the Dutch Golden Age. http://mems.umbc.edu.
For more information, please join the Medieval and Early Modern Studies Group: https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/mems and see our website: www.mems.umbc.edu