Announce

A symposium hosted by Duke Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies

March 6–7, 2020 Duke University

Scholars of the premodern face an increasingly difficult challenge in the modern academy: presenting medieval and early modern texts, materials, ideas, and histories in classrooms and institutions preoccupied to an unprecedented extent with the new and the now. In addition to perennial questions of the (allegedly) declining relevance and appeal of premodern study to postmodern undergraduates, we face in our classrooms potential barriers to student engagement and learning—difficulties of language; problems of unfamiliarity; questions of relatability—that are specific to our fields and require considered approaches. More troublingly, the premodern past has become in recent years a particularly explosive site of contestation as insidious and racist attempts to co-opt this past have been made ever more visible, both inside and outside the academy.

In light of these contemporary concerns, what does it mean, today, to teach the premodern past responsibly and ethically? How might we effectively engage students in the unfamiliar past in a way that connects with a rapidly changing present? How can we help students to attend seriously to medieval and early modern voices, concerns, and ideas? How does the medieval and early modern classroom remain a vital and vibrant force in the modern university?

This symposium, hosted by Duke's Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, seeks to open out conversations about pedagogical theory and practice in medieval and early modern studies that stem not from anxiety about the relevance of these areas of study, but from assurance of their value. We hope to create a space for robust and practical thinking about the pedagogical challenges and opportunities of teaching the premodern world within the postmodern classroom. To that end, we invite teachers and scholars working in any discipline to propose panel sessions, workshops, roundtables, and individual papers on any aspect of medieval and early modern pedagogy within the contemporary university.

Presentations, in whatever form, should be geared towards sparking discussion and encouraging interchange among participants. Lines of inquiry might encompass (but are certainly not limited to):

Questions of "relevance" and appeal

Diversifying and/or decolonizing the premodern syllabus

Creative and/or performance-based pedagogy in the premodern classroom

Digital pedagogies and premodern materials

Teaching the premodern through popular culture

Anti-racist pedagogies and the premodern classroom

Balancing the alterity and continuity of the premodern past

Interdisciplinary pedagogy

Exemplary models and strategies for teaching premodern material

We welcome participation from scholars working in any discipline in premodern study, broadly conceived, and particularly encourage early-career scholars and advanced graduate students to submit proposals for papers, panels, and workshop sessions that engage deeply with pedagogies of the premodern from any angle and at any scale, from the systemic to the individual assignment.

Proposals for individual papers, panel sessions, or workshops should be submitted by January 15, 2020. For individual papers, please submit a 150-word abstract and a current CV. For panel sessions, organizers should submit a brief overview of the proposed panel, and the names, contact information, and CVs of all participants. Workshop proposals should include a brief overview of the content and aims of the workshop, a current CV, as well as details regarding format, number of participants accommodated, and any space/equipment/special requirements.

We encourage interested scholars to reach out with any questions. Proposals and queries should be sent to: Grace Hamman (grace.hamman@duke.edu) and Lindsey Larre (lindsey.larre@duke.edu).

Food, whether secular or spiritual, physical or metaphysical, human or nonhuman, has been an important issue throughout the history of this planet. Human history is a long story of appetitive contest with nature and the environment, while consumption is an empowering practice that involves struggle and sacrifice. The matter of food may illuminate or complicate histories of labor, leisure, science, production, ethical considerations, religious discourse and practices, and environmental concerns.

Eating and drinking are not only biological behaviors but also acts filled with deeper significance. In the Book of Genesis, God endows humans with ascendancy over the natural world, just as Noah is instructed that every living thing is a potential meal for humankind. The rules for the edible and nonedible in the Bible concern the establishment of a communal identity. In Greek mythology, the change of the seasons is caused by Persephone’s eating of the seeds of a pomegranate in Hades. In the Iliad, Achilles’s refusal to eat indicates both his super- and sub-human status. Eating and drinking in many religions also serve as fundamental metaphors for human connectedness with the divine. For Christians, the Eucharistic bread and wine denote the continuing presence of Jesus in the world, whether in sign or reality, as is graphically portrayed by the Ugolino episode in Dante’s Inferno.

Food, drink, and modes of consumption have been crucial topics in many fields and periods. Plato and Xenophon, for example, considered a symposium the perfect place and time for philosophical inquisitions, where the banquet of wisdom could be consumed. In medieval English romances, banquets and feasts are not only social occasions but also venues where miracles and mysteries happen. In Thomas More’s Utopia, the moral meanings and ethical implications of diet are treated in the context of the design of the farms and dietary treatises. Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew shows how food intakes were thought to influence the balance of the four bodily humors when Petruchio denies Katherine meat in an attempt to quench her feisty temper. Lady Mary Wroth’s 1621 prose romance Urania reflects the social changes around banqueting with particular reference to the court of King James I. In Ben Jonson’s Volpone, the protagonist’s excessive desire, social abnormality, and moral degeneration is demonstrated by the consumption of parrots, nightingales, peacocks, and ostriches. In the visual arts, food and drink also serve as important cultural repositories of numerous allegories and symbols. While Cornucopias celebrate abundance and thanksgiving, apples in devotional paintings frequently symbolize redemption. Furthermore, in material culture, importation of exotic food bore witness to the burgeoning globalization evidenced by frequent international trade and cultural exchange. Oranges stood for wealth in regions such as Flanders after being imported from Spain, while pineapples with their crown-like bracts made their way to European furniture and paintings as images of power after being imported from South America.

To explore the important issues of food/drink/consumption, this conference welcomes papers from scholars working in all fields such as anthropology, geography, history, literature, art, politics, sociology, religion, and cultural studies from the pre-modern to the early modern periods. Topics for consideration might include (but are not limited to):

Art and Visualization of food/drink/consumption

Boundaries of the edible and nonedible

Critical explorations of food/drink/consumption

Culinary writings

Politics of food/drink/consumption

Religion, Heresy, or the Sacred Forms of food/drink/consumption

Food/drink/consumption and Fasting, Festivity, or Medicine

Food/drink/consumption and Emotions, Obsessions, or Language

Food/drink/consumption and Gender, Racial Identity, or Society

Food/drink/consumption and the Moralistic/Legislative

Food/drink/consumption and Ecology, Philosophy, or Theology

Food/drink/consumption and Medievalism or Technology

TACMRS warmly invites papers either in English or Chinese that reach beyond the traditional chronological and disciplinary borders of Classical, Medieval, and Early Modern Studies. This conference will comprise Paper sessions and a Roundtable discussion for pedagogy. Paper proposals and sponsored panel proposals (with individual paper abstracts) are welcomed. To ensure the quality of the papers presented, the presenters should submit drafts of full papers by the end of August 2020. Selected full papers will be peer-reviewed and published in a special issue of Ex-position.

Please submit proposals (250 words for English, 500 words for Chinese) along with a one-page CV to tacmrs.ntu@gmail.com by 6 January 2020. The Conference will take place on 23–24 October 2020 at National Taiwan University in Taipei, Taiwan. There is no registration fee for the conference. Please note, presenters should be members of TACMRS if they reside in Taiwan. Membership application forms can be downloaded from the TACMRS website or via email upon request. For more information, please visit the 2020 TACMRS Conference website at https://2020tacmrs.wordpress.com/ and the TACMRS website at http://tacmrs.org.tw/main.php.

On 27–29 May 2020, the Tenth Annual RefoRC Conference on Early Modern Christianity will take place in Aarhus, hosted by the University of Aarhus.

Find the full Call for Papers at: https://www.reforc.com/tenth-annual-reforc-conference-on-early-modern-christianity/

Submission deadline: 1 March 2020.

Themed Issue of History: Journal of the Historical Association

Deadline for completed manuscripts: 30 June 2020

Guest Editors: Madeleine Pelling (Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art) and Lilian Tabois (University of York).

The last decade has seen women, as the subjects and writers of history, increasingly positioned at the forefront of our cultural and scholarly discussions. From international events like Women’s History Month and social media campaigns including #WomenAlsoKnowHistory to the National Trust’s Women and Power programme, women’s contributions to personal, local and national histories are beginning to be recognised. More often than not, however, focus has remained on women as the subjects of historical narrative, rather than as its authors or makers. This themed issue of History will cover a period from c. 1500 – the present to explore women’s roles as historians, genealogists, antiquarians, archaeologists and activists, asking how they accessed, created and professionalised history across five centuries. Articles should be 6000-7000 words, and should be submitted by 30 June 2020.

https://gallery.mailchimp.com/ae053a7fde1b4b8eb1b5f99ca/files/31b83d0e-0e2f-488f-b0da-aa66584277b5/Women_and_History_CFP.pdf

(Le français suit.)

The 2020 conference of the Canadian Society for Renaissance Studies / Société canadienne d’études de la Renaissance (CSRS/SCÉR) will be hosted by Western University (London, ON) from May 30 to June 1st, as a part of the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences’ annual Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences. The theme for this year is  “Bridging Divides: Confronting Colonialism and Anti-Black Racism”

The CSRS/SCÉR invites members to submit proposals that address the 2020 Congress theme in relation to the Renaissance and/or early modern period (approximately 1400-1700).

In addition, we welcome proposals on any topic relevant to this period in a full range of disciplines, such as art history, bibliography, book history, cultural studies, digital humanities, history, literature, medicine, music, or philosophy. Crossdisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches are particularly welcome. Proposals can be submitted in either English or French, and should fall into one of the following categories:

a) an individual proposal (maximum 300 words) for a 20-minute paper;

b)  a panel of three proposed 20-minute papers that address a defined theme (to be submitted in one file listing the names and institutional affiliations of the organizer(s) and participants, the proposed title of the session, a brief description (of 100 to 300 words) of the theme, and 300-word abstracts of each of the three proposed papers);

c) a workshop or roundtable discussion (to be submitted in one file including the names and institutional affiliations of the organizer and proposed speakers, the proposed title of the session, a 300- word paragraph outlining the focus and goals of the session, as well as the anticipated contributions of all of the participants).

Please submit your proposal (a) or proposed session (b or c) together with a brief (100-word) bio for each participant indicating presenter or speaker’s name, institutional affiliation, position (graduate student, faculty member, independent scholar, etc.) and full contact information to Program Chair Kenneth Graham, no later  than 15 January 2020 at: k2graham@uwaterloo.ca. 

Please note: acceptance of successful submissions will be sent out by the end of February 2020. To participate in the conference, you must be a member in good standing of the CSRS-SCÉR for the year 2020.

APPEL DE COMMUNICATIONS, SOCIÉTÉ CANADIENNE D’ÉTUDES DE LA RENAISSANCE, CONGRÈS 2020

Le prochain congrès de la Société canadienne d’études de la Renaissance (SCÉR) se tiendra du 30 mai au 1er juin 2020, à l’Université Western (London, ON), dans le cadre du Congrès annuel de la Fédération canadienne des sciences humaines (FCSHS).

Le congrès de cette année a pour thème « Bâtir des passerelles : combattre le colonialisme et le racisme anti-Noirs ». La SCÉR invite ses membres à soumettre des propositions de communication qui abordent ce thème en rapport avec la Première Modernité (1400-1700) ou tout autre sujet relatif à la Renaissance dans les disciplines qui les intéressent : littérature, histoire, philosophie, musique, histoire de l’art, histoire du livre, bibliographie, études religieuses, médecine, études culturelles, humanités numériques, etc.

Les propositions de communication interdisciplinaires ou pluridisciplinaires sont aussi les bienvenues. Les communications peuvent être soumises et présentées aussi bien en anglais qu’en français et ressortir à l’une ou l’autre des trois catégories suivantes :

a) une proposition de communication individuelle de vingt minutes sur un sujet librement choisi (maximum 300 mots);

b) une séance de trois communications de vingt minutes chacune sur un thème commun (à soumettre en un seul dossier incluant le nom de l’organisateur ainsi que les noms des participants et leurs affiliations institutionnelles, de même que le titre de la séance proposée, une brève description du sujet (de 100 à 300 mots), les trois propositions de communication (maximum 300 mots chacune) et l’ordre de présentation souhaité des conférenciers;

c) un atelier ou une table ronde (à soumettre en un seul dossier incluant le nom de l’organisateur ainsi que les noms des participants et leurs affiliations institutionnelles, de même que le titre de l’atelier ou de la table ronde, et un paragraphe (maximum 300 mots) décrivant le sujet et les objectifs de même que la contribution attendue de la part de chaque participant).

Merci d’envoyer vos propositions de communication (a), de séance, d’atelier ou de table ronde (b ou c) accompagnées d’une brève notice (100 mots) indiquant le nom du conférencier, son affiliation institutionnelle, son statut (étudiant au cycle supérieur, professeur, chercheur indépendant, etc.) et ses coordonnées complètes (adresse postale et adresse courriel), au responsable du programme à Kenneth Graham (k2graham@uwaterloo.ca ) au plus tard le 15 janvier 2020.

Veuillez noter que l’annonce des propositions qui auront été retenues sera envoyée aux participants à la fin du mois de février 2020. Afin de participer au congrès, vous devez être un membre en règle de la SCÉR pour l’année 2020.