Medieval and Early Modern Studies Newsletter 04.18.22
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
Sunday, May 1, 1:15 PM, Chesapeake Shakespeare Company. Masculinity, Warfare, & the State: The History behind Henry V, a Pres-Show Talk, with 2 PM Matinee Performance
A historian of medieval and early modern British history, Professor Amy Froide will discuss some of the real people and events that appear in Shakespeare’s Henry V. These include the Hundred Years War between England and France, the role of the English yeomen and their weaponry at the battle of Agincourt, emerging English nationalism, and the popular idea of the ‘warrior king’ who leads his men into battle. This is an ideal that still holds resonance today and can be seen in the media’s portrayal of President Zelensky during the present Russia-Ukraine war.
The theater is offering UMBC faculty and students $24 (half price) seats for the performance. You can reserve seats online at chesapeakeshakespeare.com or by calling the box office at 410-244-8570 and using the code H5student. This is an in-person event—you will need to bring proof of vaccination and wear a mask. Chesapeake Shakespeare Company is located at 7 South Calvert Street Baltimore, MD 21202.
ONLINE PURCHASING INSTRUCTIONS FROM CHESAPEAKE SHAKESPEARE’S BOX OFFICE:
Once you have selected which section you would like to sit in from Orchestra or 1st Mezzanine, choose your seat from the BASIC price level (or the green colored seats online). This will add them to your cart. You will then select if you want your tickets emailed to you, or if you prefer to have them held at will-call. Then click NEXT. On the following screen, enter the discount code H5student. This will apply the discount and unlock the $24 ticket price. Then complete the remaining personal information and payment on the final screen.
MINI-MEMS Videos on Our Website
Over the last two years, we have had tremendous Lunch and Learn presentations from our MEMS faculty. If you missed our most recent presentation: Sex Workers, But No Sex: Prostitutes, Notaries, and the Communities They Built, not to worry, you can see it and many other Mini-MEMS presentations on our website: www.mems.umbc.edu. These include: Did You Know the Aeneid Has a Sequel? Renaissance Addendum!, Law and Order in Ancient Rome and Beyond, and ‘Scarcely one without defect’: Imagined Beauty in the Venetian Ospedali Grandi.
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 Africana Studies, Art, English, History, Latin and Music, there are many ways to get involved and work your way towards your minor.
ON CAMPUS EVENTS
Friday, May 6, 7:30-8:30 PM, UMBC COLLEGIUM, Earl and Darielle Linehan Concert Hall
The Department of Music presents the Collegium Musicum under the direction of Lindsay Johnson. UMBC Collegium Musicum is a performance ensemble dedicated to exploring and performing vocal and instrumental music from Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque periods, sampling musical repertoires created between 800 and 1750. Admission is free and tickets can be reserved at: https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/music/events/104897
COMMUNITY EVENTS
April 14, 2022-February 2023 The Walters Art Gallery presents: Activating the Renaissance
The Italian galleries of the Walters Art Museum bridge the past and present in an exhibition that seeks to illustrate the connections between the Italian Renaissance and Baroque periods and contemporary art, each offering insights into the other. Activating the Renaissance features paintings, photography, and sculpture by six artists, the majority from the Baltimore area: Jessica Bastidas, Tawny Chatmon, Bernhard Hildebrandt, Murjoni Merriweather, Stephen Towns, and Ventiko. Their art is displayed alongside paintings and sculpture from the Walters collection by masters such as Jacopo Pontormo and Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. For more information, see: thewalters.org.
Friday, May 6, 2022, 9-12 PM (Pacific) Virtual/Zoom. The USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute presents: “Currency, Capital, Coin.”
“Currency, Capital, Coin,” will be a half-day ONLINE symposium on early modern visual and material cultures of value. Our aim is to foster a conversation among a small group of scholars working across various fields about ways in which concepts of property, labor, and commodification shift in the early modern period in conjunction with evolving practices of finance, accumulation, circulation, and trade. For more information, consult: https://dornsife.usc.edu/emsi/visual-and-material-culture-2022/
PAPERS AND CONFERENCES
The Middle Ages in Modern Games: Twitter Conference Call for Papers
The Public Medievalist and the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Research at the University of Winchester present The third Middle Ages in Modern Games Twitter Conference @MidAgesModGames, #MAMG22 on June 7-11, 2022.
Medievalist games and Medievalist game studies are vast, varied and vibrant. Approaches to the period vary substantially between different games and across academic disciplines. The field is still young but is starting to mature as deeper studies into representation, design and reception emerge. This conference considers the Medieval and Medievalism in Modern Games. We invited ‘papers’ (comprising a thread of 12 Tweets) and sessions of 3 to 5 papers which address any aspects of the medieval period or medievalism in any and all forms of modern games. The conference will be conducted remotely and there will be no registration fee. To promote accessibility and inclusivity, the event will run asynchronously and across time zones. Please send abstracts of no more than 200 words, brief biographies, and indications of time zone and availability as attachments in Word to Robert.Houghton@Winchester.ac.uk by Monday, April 25, 2022.
2023 Medieval Academy Meeting Call for Papers
The 98th Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America will take place at the Grand Hyatt Washington in downtown Washington, DC on February 23-26, 2023. The meeting is jointly hosted by the Medieval Academy of America and a consortium of medievalists from DC, Northern Virginia, and Maryland. The conference program will feature sessions highlighting innovative scholarship across the many disciplines contributing to medieval studies. The Programming Committee particularly invites contributions that examine medieval studies in an international context. Specific themes that might be addressed include: Digital Medieval Studies, Queerness across Boundaries, Migrations and Movements, Foreign Service in the Middle Ages, Transportation and Trade, Slavery and the Slave Trade, Translation, Translators, and Multilingualism, Religious Encounters, Race and Racialization, and Deploying the Medieval in Fiction, Fantasy, and Games. The deadline for submissions is June 1, 2022. For more information, consult: https://www.medievalacademy.org/page/2023AnnualMeeting
CALL FOR PAPERS: Special Issue of Translation Matters on “Translation in and from the Middle Ages”
The combination of Medieval Studies and Translation Studies provides a better understanding of medieval texts, as well as a broader understanding of the meaning, value, and consequences of translation within this timeframe. Despite its importance, medieval translation remains poorly researched and promoted in academia. In an effort to fill this gap, submissions are invited for a special issue of the open-access journal, Translation Matters, on the subject of Translation in and from the Middle Ages. Papers should be uploaded on the site by October 31, 2022. For more information, consult: https://ojs.letras.up.pt/index.php/tm/index
DIGITAL RESOURCES
Podcast: Shakespeare Unlimited, Folger Shakespeare Library-Lena Cowen Orlin on The Private Life of William Shakespeare
Dr. Lena Cowen Orlin’s new book, The Private Life of Shakespeare, isn’t exactly a biography. Rather, it’s an exhaustive return to the primary sources that document Shakespeare’s life, a book that scholar James Shapiro says “demolished shoddy claims and biased inferences that have distorted our understanding of Shakespeare’s life.” Orlin focuses on five much-talk-about elements of Shakespeare’s life, and then lays out fact after fact about them drawn from her assiduous research. We talk with her about a few of those elements, including Shakespeare’s relationship with Anne Shakespeare, how he escaped an apprenticeship and career in Stratford-upon-Avon, and his funerary monument in Stratford’s Holy Trinity Church. Orlin is interviewed by Barbara Bogaec. Shakespeare Unlimited is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Soundcloud, and NPR One. This episode is also available at the website: folger.edu/Shakespeare-unlimited/.
Stay tuned: “ACMRS Open Access” receives funding!
This project of the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies proposes to host four virtual workshops for scholars, students, teachers and community members who are interested in publishing premodern critical race studies in open access formats. Rooted in several disciplines in the humanities including literature, history, religion, classics, art history, and foreign languages and literatures, premodern critical race studies is quintessentially a diversity, equity, and inclusion endeavor because it strives to challenge and reinvent the humanities by integrating critical race studies into premodern studies. These virtual workshops will be free and allow participants to pitch, hone, and craft premodern critical race studies publications for open access formats. For more information, consult: https://www.ssrc.org/grantees/acmrs-open-access/
For ongoing digital updates from the Medieval (academic) world, check out #medievaltwitter, #shakeRace, and #raceB4Race.
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
