Welcome Back!
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.
CONGRATULATIONS TO CORBIN JONES!
Recent UMBC graduate Corbin Jones (M.A., 2020) has just been admitted to Cornell University's doctoral program with full funding! Corbin's research interests include British and North African travel writing of the Global Middle Ages. The attached photograph shows Corbin at the Bibliotheque nationale in Paris, studying the travels of the 14th century Moroccan judge ibn Battuta. Jones' studies in Paris were supported by a Dresher Center Graduate Student Fellowship and a Graduate Student Association travel grant. Look for Jones' story on the MEMS website in the coming weeks.
ON CAMPUS EVENTS
Mini-MEMS Lunch and Learn: February 24: 12:15-12:45 PM
Dr. James Magruder will share his talk: Resurrection, Metamorphosis, and the Art of Nature in the Dutch Golden Age on WebEx. Q and A will follow.
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COMMUNITY EVENTS
Tuesday February 16, 6:30-8:00 PM, Omohundro Institute presents "Mistress, Housemaid, Daughter, Spy: Servants and the Management of Household Gossip in 17th Century New England" with Melissa Johnson
The OI's Colloquium series is an ongoing seminar for scholars to present work in progress. Advanced registration is required. All participants read the pre-circulated paper and prepare to engage in generative feedback. This event is free and online registration is limited to 40 people. Use the link below for registration and further information.
Wednesday, February 17, 12:30-1:30 PM, Walters Art Gallery presents "New Eyes on Old Books: Unraveling the Mystery of the Walters Lace Manuscript" with curator Lynley Herbert and conservator Abigail Quandt
The De Bar Hours, likely created as a wedding gift for a young bride in early 14th century France, is an unusual manuscript with lacy rosettes cut into every one of its parchment margins. Its early date places it many centuries before other known lace books, so it has long been assumed that the cutting of the pages could not be original, but was just an 18th-century alteration meant to beautify the book. Lynley Herbert and Abigail Quandt reveal how they proved that the cutting was original to the manuscript's original creation ca. 1310, a fact that could make it the earliest known book of its kind. To register for this free event, go to:
https://thewalters.org/event/lace/
Friday February 19, 12:00 Noon and Friday March 19, 12:00 Noon: The Turn to the Medieval in Ethiopian Studies
This pair of webinars engages with the intersection of Medieval Studies and Ethiopian Studies over the past several years. Each offers the other a rich comparative (and sometimes connected) context for the study of Christian culture, including monasticism, hagiography, manuscript studies, and art and architecture, and both contribute to an exploration of what medieval Africa might entail.
The February webinar features Andrea Achi (Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters at the Metropolitan Museum), Marie-Laure Derat (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), Kristen Windmuller-Luna (Cleveland Museum of Art) and Felege-Selam Yirga (The University of Tennesse, Knoxville). For more information and to register for these webinars, consult:
https://www.ias.edu/hs/ias-ethiopian-studies-series
Thursday March 18, 3:00 PM-4:15 PM: The Folger Shakespeare Library Presents Critical Race Conversations: Reading, Writing, and Teaching Black Life and Anti-Black Violence in the Early Modern World
This youtube event with Jessica Marie Johnson (Johns Hopkins University), Cecile Fromont (Yale University) and Robin Mitchell (California State University Channel Islands) will discuss what it means to center the African continent in the study of the early modern and what kinds of conversations this study engenders in both undergraduate and graduate classrooms. For more information, consult:
https://www.folger.edu/critical-race-conversations#Reading,%20Writing,%20and%20Teaching
PAPERS AND CONFERENCES
Call for Papers: Power, Patronage and Production: Book Arts from Central Europe (ca. 800-1500) in American Collections
The Index of Medieval Art (Princeton University), the Pierpont Morgan Library & Museum (New York), and the Department of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University will host a conference to accompany the exhibition, Imperial Splendor: The Art of the Book in the Holy Roman Empire, 800-1500, presented at the Morgan Library from October 15, 2021 to January 23, 2022 . The conference runs January 13-15, 2022. For more information, including topics and categories for proposals, see http://www.themedievalacademyblog.org/call-for-papers-power-patronage-and-production-book-arts-from-central-europe-ca-800-1500-in-american-collections/
DIGITAL RESOURCES
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 presentation on Instrumental to Intellectual: Italian Female Artists, 1600s. 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