Auteur: Micol Long

The movement of people and books across space and time – mobility and portability – were driving forces of medieval European literary and intellectual culture. Men and women, clerical and secular, constructed extensive social networks and communities through travel, written communication, and the exchange of texts. Shared literary practices and forms occurred at the regional and transregional levels, defining local identities and forging links between people separated by distance and time. Around the North Sea and Baltic littorals, legends from the Norse sagas, for instance, were taken up by writers. On a larger scale, people from north-western Europe to China exchanged stories of Barlaam and Josephat, while tales of Alexander are found from India to Ireland; in both cases, transmission was facilitated by the movement of people along the Silk Road. Rather than a full picture, often we are left with a set of trails, traces and clues that challenge us to create narratives out of the fragments.

This symposium aims to contribute to the understanding of medieval literature through the development of methodologies which examine the intersection of social networks and communities with literary forms. We welcome papers that attend to the agency of people (men and women), genres (literary, scientific, philosophical, legal etc.), modes (verse, poetry, prose), styles, texts and manuscripts (book types, layouts, images) in creating literary links across space and time. Building on the practices of both comparative literature and entangled history, the symposium will open up connections between literary cultures often considered to be separate. At the same time, and of equal importance, it will be alert to the absence of connections, to discontinuities, exposing the diversities and ruptures of medieval literature, as well as the commonalities.

By following the movement of forms and tracing social connections from Antiquity to the Renaissance, we will interrogate both geographies and chronologies of medieval European literature. Always keeping the intersection of the social and the formal in view, the symposium will move back and forth between small and large scales of time and place: the local, the transregional, the European, and the Afro-Eurasian. Issues of morphology, scale and periodization will be central to discussion, enabling conversations across a wide range of material to gain traction. The symposium will bring together methodological and theoretical contributions, addressing the intersection of people and forms; we welcome papers that work on large scale typological models as well as papers that address broader issues though closely-worked case studies.

Questions to consider include:

• How do we move from specific examples to writing/formulating larger narratives, from the micro to the macro, from the close up to the panoramic, without falling into generalizations?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of existing methodologies that account for the movement of objects, texts and people through space (e.g. histoire croisée, actor network theory, global history, etc.)?
• How does medieval Europe fit into a wider Afro-Eurasian space? How does Europe divide into and participate in regional geographies?
• How conscious were medieval people of new forms as a dimension of cultural exchange?
• What role does the modern historical imagination have to play in recreating social networks and formal encounters?
• How do medieval theories of cultural movement (e.g. translatio imperii et studii, spoliation, etc.) enable us to explain the transmission of literary forms?

Format

The symposium will meet over three days, with each day including 3 panels with three speakers. Papers will last 20 minutes and be followed by 45 minutes of discussion per panel. Since the substantial discussion following the papers is as important as the papers themselves, papers will not be allowed to overrun. Each session will have a respondent/moderator who will read papers in advance of the session and launch the discussion of their session through a short reflective invitation. For this reason, we ask that all papers be given in English. Speakers are asked to frame their research in ways which are simultaneously sophisticated and inviting of exchange with colleagues working across the literatures of medieval Europe (including Byzantium, and Islamic Spain and Sicily) and its neighbours. We welcome proposal for individual papers and for panels.

There will be a modest amount of preparatory theoretical reading in advance of the symposium.

Publication

We anticipate publishing extended versions of a selection of papers from the workshop in a special issue of Interfaces: A Journal of Medieval European Literatures.

Venue

The symposium will take place in the Danish Institute at Athens, conveniently located in the Plaka. There are many tavernas, cafes and restaurants nearby.

Cost

There will be no charge to attend the symposium. There will be a charge to cover the cost of the symposium dinner. Delegates are responsible for covering the cost of their travel and accommodation. A small number of bursaries will be available for PhD students and early career scholars, for further information contact Kristin Bourassa (kristin@sdu.dk).

Abstracts

Please send short abstracts (250 words) and a brief CV (1/2 page) to George Younge (george.younge@york.ac.uk) by 1st March 2019. Panel proposals should include overview (100 words) and abstracts and CVs (as above) for all papers.

DOWNLOAD THE CALL FOR PAPERS AS A PDF

This interuniversity workshop hosted by Ghent University is the first in an alternating series of three on ‘freedom of speech’ in late medieval and early modern Europe. By drawing together research on several European countries in the period 1300-1700, the series will reveal various perspectives on premodern free speech. Freedom of speech, i.e. ‘the right to express beliefs and ideas without unwarranted government restriction’, was by no means a fundamental right in the late medieval and early modern period. Yet research has shown that there were several opportunities for the expression of critical opinion towards power holders and that this practice was often widespread. These could be uttered verbally, through the spoken or written word, but also through other sign systems and media, ranging from the sound of musical instruments to heraldic languages. The objective of this workshop is to connect the different segments of research and thereby create a better overall understanding of pre-modern free speech.

We are accepting proposals from a variety of disciplinary angles for 30-minute papers on
• Pre-modern ideas about ‘freedom of speech’
• Juridical practices on free speech and subversive verbal utterances
• Political narratives and lyric
• Non-verbal media of ‘free-speech’ (visual, multimedia, sound…)
• …
Applicants are strongly encouraged to present papers in English. French papers will be accepted as well, if the powerpoint presentation is in English. Please send an abstract of 200 words to
minne.deboodt@kuleuven.be or linde.nuyts@ugent.be by the 10th of january 2019. Applicants will be notified by the 10th of february.

See the website http://www.freedomofspeech.ugent.be/

Vooraankondiging 24^ste Mediëvistendag, 2018 (English version below)

Vrijdag 30 november 2018: 11.00-18.00 uur Universiteit Leiden

De 24^ste Mediëvistendag zal op vrijdag 30 november gehouden worden in Leiden. Het plenaire gedeelte vindt plaats in de Lorentzzaal van het Kamerlingh Onnes gebouw (Faculteit Rechten), voor de projectpresentaties na de lunchpauze zijn verschillende lokalen van het pas gerenoveerde P.J. Vethgebouw (gelegen aan de Hortus Botanicus) beschikbaar. Beide locaties bevinden zich in het hartje van academisch Leiden en liggen op loopafstand van elkaar en van het NS station.

Tijdens het plenaire gedeelte voor de lunch zijn er twee key note voordrachten rond het thema ‘De globaliserende middeleeuwen/middeleeuwen en globalisering’. Een zal gegeven worden door Hilde de Weerdt, hoogleraar Chinese geschiedenis te Leiden, de andere door de hoogleraar middeleeuwse geschiedenis, Peter Hoppenbrouwers.

Gelegenheid tot het geven van korte projectpresentaties (van 20 minuten) wordt in de eerste plaats geboden aan in Nederland en Vlaanderen werkzame promovendi (betaalde onderzoekers en buitenpromovendi) die in de beginfase van hun onderzoek zijn. Daarnaast is er ruimte voor de presentatie van postdoc-onderzoek of van grote koepelprojecten, hetzij in de vorm van ‘posters’, hetzij in de vorm van papers. Research Master studenten die deelnemen en een korte paper schrijven, krijgen daarvoor 1 ECTS.

Omdat binnen de Onderzoekschool bezwaren zijn gerezen tegen een exclusief Engelstalige programmering van de Mediëvistendag (immers in eerste instantie een ontmoetingsdag voor in Nederland en Vlaanderen werkzame mediëvisten), heeft het schoolbestuur besloten dat in het vervolg naast Engels ook Nederlands voertaal zal zijn. Om die reden zal één van de key notes in het Engels worden uitgesproken, de andere in het Nederlands. Bij de korte presentaties in het middagprogramma wordt de keuze van de taal overgelaten aan de presentatoren. In het definitieve programma zal duidelijk worden vermeld, in welke taal presentaties zullen worden gegeven. Presentaties graag vóór 15 oktober aanmelden via het secretariaat van de Onderzoekschool: ozsmed@rug.nl.

Inschrijven voor de Mediëvistendag kan via een e-mail aan het secretariaat van de Onderzoekschool, graag vóór 15 november: ozsmed@rug.nl, o.v.v. ‘Mediëvistendag 2018’. De kosten van deelname bedragen 10 euro (voor koffie/thee, lunch en afsluitende borrel),  vóór 15 november over te maken op bankrekeningnummer NL89 ABNA 04 8871 1827, t.a.v. P.C.M. Hoppenbrouwers [inzake Middeleeuwse Geschiedenis], Doelensteeg 16, 2311 VL Leiden.

Het definitieve programma zal kort na 15 oktober via de website van de Onderzoekschool bekend worden gemaakt. Nadere informatie is te verkrijgen bij het secretariaat van de Onderzoekschool (ozsmed@rug.nl) of bij de organisator van de dag (p.c.m.hoppenbrouwers@hum.leidenuniv.nl).

English version:

Early notice 24^th Medieval Studies Day, 2018

Friday 30 November 2018, 11.00-18.00 hours Leiden University

The 24^th Medieval Studies Day will take place on Friday, November 30, 2018, at Leiden University. The plenary session will be organized in the morning, in the Lorentzhall of the Kamerlingh Onnes building (Law Faculty); after lunch project presentations will be held in various class rooms of the recently renovated P.J. Veth building (near the Hortus Botanicus). Both locations are in the heart of academic Leiden, and at a walking distance from each other and the railway station.

During the plenary session two key note lectures will be given around the theme of ‘The Global Middle Ages/Globalising the Middle Ages’. One will be delivered by Hilde de Weerdt, Professor of Chinese History at Leiden University, the other by Peter Hoppenbrouwers, Professor of Medieval History at Leiden University.

In the afternoon there will be ample opportunity for short project presentations (of 20 minutes), primarily by PhD students working the Netherlands and Flanders (both paid PhD students and external doctoral students), but post-docs or leaders of large research projects  are expressly invited to present their projects, either as ‘posters’ or as papers. Research Master students who attend and write a short paper will be awarded with 1 ECTS.

Because objections have been lodged against the exclusively English programme of the Medieval Studies Day – which, after all, was once set-up as a meeting of professional medievalists working in Flanders and the Netherlands – the board of directors of the Research School for Medieval  Studies decided that henceforth, in addition to English, Dutch will be the language of communication. For this reason, one of the key note lectures will be held in English, and one in Dutch. The choice of language of the presentations during the afternoon session will be left to the speakers. In the definitive programme, it will be clearly announced what the language of all papers will be.  Proposals for presentations have to be sent before October 15 to the administration of the Research School: ozsmed@rug.nl.

Please, register for the day by sending an e-mail to ozsmed@rug.nl, preferably before November 15. There is an attendance fee of 10 euros, which will cover expenses for coffee/tea, lunch and drinks. You are requested to pay the fee before November 15 to the account NL89 ABNA 04 8871 1827, with the reference ‘P.C.M. Hoppenbrouwers [inzake Middeleeuwse Geschiedenis], Doelensteeg 16, 2311 VL Leiden.

The definitive programme will be announced  shortly after October 15 on the website of the Research School.  Further information may be obtained from the administration of the Research School (ozsmed@rug.nl) or from the Day’s organizer (p.c.m.hoppenbrouwers@hum.leidenuniv.nl).

Belonging in late medieval cities

Date: Friday June 28 to Sunday June 30, 2019.

Location: Huntingdon Room, King’s Manor, Exhibition Square, York YO1 7EP.

One of the ways belonging is conceptualised within sociological literature is that it is a socially constructed category which revolves around an individual’s inclusion and exclusion from formal and informal groups. It is thought that individuals can concurrently be included within one group yet excluded from others, and that belonging is negotiated by various actors such as local communities, governments and individuals themselves.

Late medieval and early modern cities were environments with many formal and informal groups to which people could belong, such as street communities, parishes, guilds and the citizenry, to name a few. The conference aims to explore how notions of belonging might be utilised within the study of late medieval urban centres. We invite speakers to consider whether belonging as a idea can be used to contribute to established ideas of identity, especially considering the (hierarchical) structures of urban society and examining how community boundaries were drawn and redrawn, how spaces were imagined as well as the significance of membership and exclusion. These were always in a state of flux, owing to the influence of the variety of agents who structured belonging, including rulers, local communities and individuals, with inclusion and exclusion operating along the axes of gender and social status. Papers will explore these intersections between the individual and their communities, and how inclusion and exclusion manifested themselves in historical urban areas.

Please send an abstract of 300 words to Joshua Ravenhill jtr518@york.ac.uk or Luke Giraudet lwg502@york.ac.uk by the 8^th October 2018.