Medieval and Early Modern Studies Newsletter 11.16.21
The MEMS monthly 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 questions about the minor, get in touch with Co-Directors Professor Amy Froide (froide@umbc.edu) and Professor Susan McDonough. If you have any items you would like to share in the newsletter, please send them to Laurel Bassett at lburgg1@umbc.edu by the 13th of each month.
MEMS EVENTS
Wednesday, December 1, 12:15 PM, Online. Did You Know the Aeneid Has a Sequel? Renaissance Addendum! an installment of Mini-MEMS Lunch and Learns
Mini-MEMS Lunch and Learns are opportunities for professors working in Medieval and Early Modern Studies to informally share their work through brief presentations followed by Q and A sessions. Our December session will be led by Professor Timothy Phin in Ancient Studies.
Did You Know the Aeneid Has a Sequel? Renaissance Addendum!
Modern students of Latin have often felt that the 12th book of the Aeneid ends on an abrupt note. Maffeo Vegio, a poet of the 15th century, agreed. He penned an addendum to Vergil’s poem, “completing” the work, and securing for himself quite a bit of fame. This talk is an exploration of the Aeneid’s “future.” We will look at Vegio’s work, his life, and the fervor for Vergil in the Renaissance.
Join on Webex:
ID:
26203034434
Password: 6TNikeYJf49
Access code: 2620 303 4434
*Did you miss our last Mini-MEMS: Law and Order in Ancient Rome and Beyond? Weep no more—you can now catch it on our website: www.mems.umbc.edu and a special thank you to Dr. Molly-Jones Lewis, Ancient Studies for such a great presentation.
Stay tuned for more on our next virtual Mini-MEMS Lunch and Learn in February.
MEMS SPRING COURSE OFFERINGS NOW AVAILABLE
The MEMS spring course offerings are now posted. You can access them through our myUMBC page (Medieval and Early Modern Studies Group), our website: www.mems.umbc.edu or by contacting Laurel Bassett: lburgg1@umbc.edu for a pdf. With offerings from Ancient Studies, Art, English, Gender and Women’s Studies, History, Latin and Music, there are many ways to get involved and work your way towards your minor.
ON CAMPUS EVENTS
Tuesday, November 30, 7:30-8:30 PM, Online. The Department of English’s course, “Shakespeare: Text and Performance” hosts Kate Eastwood Norris, Guest Lecturer
Kate Eastwood Norris, an actor, will discuss her work on a production of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Kate Eastwood Norris is an award winning AEA actor with over 25 years of equity regional theater credits. She also directs and teaches extensively at universities and theaters across the United States. She holds a Masters in Humanities and Creativity from Pacifica Graduate Institute in Humanities and an MFA in Shakespeare and Performance from Mary Baldwin University with an emphasis on Comedy and its role in culture. To attend, please email Dr. Michele Osherow: mosherow@umbc.edu for a Zoom link. These requests should be made by 5 PM the day prior to the event.
COMMUNITY EVENTS
Thursday, November 18, 4:30 PM, Online. The Folger Institute presents: Open Session for John Locke and England’s Empire Seminar
This virtual conversation opens a scholarly virtual weekend seminar, John Locke and England’s Empire, sponsored by the Folger Institute Center for the History of British Political Thought. John Locke’s reputation is today Janus-faced. For many, he remains the godparent of liberalism and democracy, an honorary Founding Father of the American Revolution. For others, he embodies the entanglement of early liberalism with empire, a theorist of colonial constitutionalism, indigenous expropriation, and Atlantic slavery. How should intellectual historians and political theorists face the challenge of the ongoing ‘postcolonial turn’ in Locke scholarship? Professors Mark Goldie and Vicki Hsueh use Locke’s biography and the colonial archive to re-think conceptual categories, interpretative norms, and disciplinary conventions in both political theory and the history of political thought. To register: https://www.folger.edu/events/open-session-for-john-locke-and-england-s-empire-seminar?utm_source=wordfly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=FolgerInstituteResearchBulletin%3ANovember2021&utm_content=version_A&promo=
Thursday, December 9, 5:30-6:30 PM, Online. Walters Art Gallery Presents: Object Focus: Archangel Michael Ivory
The Walter’s Archangel Michael is a rare and luxurious work of art that embodies the rich interconnections of art, religion, conquests, and commerce between Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas during the 17th century. This ivory sculpture is now on view for the first time in almost 40 years. Dr. Florina “Nina” Capistrano-Baker, Consulting Curator of the Ayala Museum, Dany Chan, Associate Curator of Asian Art at the Walters and Julie Lauffenburger, the Dorothy Wagner Wallis Director of Conservation, Collections and Technical Research at the Walters will discuss the history, travel, and care of the ivory statue. For information about how to view the program, see: https://thewalters.org/event/archangel-ivory/
Thursday, January 14, 12 PM Central Time, Online. The Newberry Center for Renaissance Studies presents: Race in the Museum: Representing the Diversity of the Early Modern World, a Race in Dialogue Program
This session features curators Stephanie Schrader of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles and Heather Hughes of the Davis Museum, Wellesley College in conversation about their own curatorial work that engages with Renaissance and Baroque materials representing people across the globe. What is the role of the curator, as both a scholar and public humanist, in the field of premodern critical race studies today? How do exhibitions today engage with different communities and audiences? This program is free and open to the public, but registration in advance is required. To register, consult: https://www.newberry.org/01142021-race-museum-representing-diversity-early-modern-world?bblinkid=255409951&bbemailid=35143138&bbejrid=2142625877
PUBLICATIONS
Congratulations to Dr. McDonough on Her New Article! Check out her publication in Gender and History
This is Dr. McDonough’s first publication on her new project on prostitutes in the medieval Mediterranean with more still to come. Based in archival research from Barcelona, Marseille, Valencia and Palermo, this article argues for a reconsideration of the gendering of the medieval Mediterranean. It focuses on prostitutes and their movement to and from Mediterranean port cities and queries how they used the institutions of the law courts and the notariat to integrate themselves into the everyday workings of the city. The article concludes with a call to rethink whose movement counts in the medieval Mediterranean when scholars think of the region as a whole. Access the article here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1468-0424.12574
PAPERS AND CONFERENCES
Moravian Undergraduate Conference in Medieval and Early Modern Studies, Dec 4, 2021.
This in-person conference will be held on Moravian’s campus in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. They welcome contributions from students in explorations of connections to the period between approx.. 500 C.E. and 1800 C.E. These contributions could take the form of papers, panels, poster presentations or artistic performances. Registration and proposal submissions will open October 1 and be handled via the conference website. The conference will also feature a display of illuminated medieval manuscripts and an early-music concert. For more information, consult www.moravian.edu/medieval or email jrblack@moravian.edu or sandybardsley@moravian.edu.
DIGITAL RESOURCES
History, storytelling and escape from slavery in 17th and 18th Century London. This digital anthology combines art and research to reimagine stories of London’s runaways, showing African and South Asian people to have been present in London in the early modern era, challenging their enslavers and running away into the City of London, eager to find better and freer lives. This anthology includes the historical research of Professor Simon Newman and Dr. Peggy Brunache, poets Abena Essah, Gboyega Odubanjo, Oluwaseun Olayiwola, Momtaza Mehri, Memoona Zahid and artists Tasia Graham and Olivia Twist.
“The Past, Present, and Future of Digital Medieval Studies-A Global Digital Medievalist Symposium” from the Medieval Academy of America. Recorded May 24, 2021, this presentation from a worldwide Digital Symposium focused on Digital Medieval Studies in the Americas, centers the importance of images and imaging for medievalists working on the western side of the Atlantic. https://www.medievalacademy.org/page/DigitalMedievalStudies
Hill Museum and Manuscript Library Creates New Database to Assist Scholars of Understudied Manuscript Traditions
Because of HMML’s focus on materials historically underrepresented in western scholarship, the scale of HMML’s collections, and its investment in preservation technology, HMML is uniquely positioned to build the scholarly infrastructure that currently does not exist for many traditions. This service-focused scholarship will in turn broaden the impact of digital preservation efforts around the world. Created as part of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the https://haf.vhmml.org/ (HMML Authority File) is an open-access database that will support librarians and scholars around the world to recognize previously unknown contributors to manuscripts; differentiate authors and texts that had been treated homogeneously; reunited separated materials; and trace the migration of handwritten texts across religious traditions and geographic, political, and linguistic divides. For more information, consult: www.HMML.org.
Enjoy this mildly ludicrous thread on sea monsters from #medieval twitter! https://twitter.com/erik_kaars/status/1459863301874196483
For ongoing digital updates from the Medieval (academic) world, check out #medievaltwitter, #shakeRace, and #raceB4Race.
MASTER OF ARTS PROGRAM
Syracuse University offers a Master of Arts program devoted to the study of Italian Renaissance art, where most of the study is conducted in Italy. It offers highly motivated students an opportunity to carry out advanced, original research grounded in the first-hand examination of art, architecture, and urban settings. Students are offered various levels of financial support, including full tuition fellowships and partial tuition scholarships. The Florence MA Program’s focus is early modern Italian art and students are encouraged to think broadly about the ways in which the visual culture of the period relates to larger Mediterranean and global historical and artistic contexts. The application deadline is January 15. For more information about the Program, go to: https://thecollege.syr.edu/art-music-histories/graduate-programs-art-history/florence-ma-renaissance-art/
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