Call for Papers: e-workshop Multilingual Literary Cultures in the Middle Ages

De Universiteit van Utrecht organiseert met “Multilingual Literary Cultures in the Middle Ages” een workshop in verband met meertaligheid in de middeleeuwen. In deze laagdrempelige digitale workshop komt het thema vanuit verschillende invalshoeken aan bod. Voorstellen zonder direct verband met Vlaanderen en literatuur zijn dus ook zeker welkom. De Zoom-workshops zullen elke twee weken worden georganiseerd in april en mei van dit jaar. Korte voorstellen voor workshops moeten voor 1 maart 2021 naar multilingualdynamics@gmail.com verstuurd worden. Meer informatie is in de bijgevoegde pdf te vinden.

Medieval Finance Workshop – Call for Papers

Op 27 april 2021 vindt aan de University of Reading een online workshop plaats met als onderwerp: Medieval Government Finance: Innovation and Experimentation. De workshop is gericht op beginnende onderzoekers binnen dit vakgebied. De workshop mikt op een divers publiek van deelnemers uit verschillende landen met bijdragen over verschillende niveaus (lokaal, stad, staat, supranationaal). Mogelijke onderwerpen zijn onder andere: belastingen en overige inkomsten, schuldenbeheer, uitgavenbeheer en investeringen.

Dr. Richard Cassidy zal aan het begin van de workshop een Keynote-presentatie geven.

Bijdragen moeten in het Engels zijn met een duurtijd van 20 minuten. De deadline is vrijdag 19 februari 2021. Voor deelname moet een abstract van maximaal 300 woorden verstuurd worden naar Andy Ford: jw898873@student.reading.ac.uk.

De Call for Papers is hieronder in pdf-formaat bijgevoegd.

Historicidagen 2021 – Call for Speakers

In augustus 2021 organiseert het Koninklijk Nederlands Historisch Genootschap (KNHG) in nauwe samenwerking met de Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam (EUR) de derde editie van de tweejaarlijkse Historicidagen. Het gaat om drie dagen met lezingen, debatten en workshops in verband met hedendaagse geschiedbeoefening.

Het thema voor dit jaar is Grenzeloze Geschiedenis, bijdragen buiten dit thema zijn echter ook toegelaten.

Het is nog mogelijk om tot en met 31 januari 2021 een sessie in te dienen. De registratie voor deelname opent pas in juni 2021. Voorlopig gaat de organisatie ervan uit dat de Historicidagen fysiek kunnen plaatsvinden. Rond 15 maart wordt een definitieve beslissing genomen. In geval van afgelasting zal het congres worden uitgesteld zonder digitaal alternatief.

Voor meer informatie over de sessies, net als de mogelijkheid om een sessie in te dienen, kan u terecht op de website van Historicidagen: https://historicidagen.nl/

Voor vragen of opmerkingen: roosa.heikura@huygens.knaw.nl

Call for Papers – JLGC 09: Reinventing Boundaries in Times of Crisis

Het Journal of the LUCAS Graduate Conference uit Leiden heeft een Call for Papers gelanceerd in verband met grenzen in crisistijd. Abstracts van 500 woorden kunnen ingediend worden tot 15 januari 2021. Meer informatie is op de website van de Universiteit Leiden zelf te vinden: https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2020/11/ljgc-09-reinventing-boundaries-in-times-of-crisis

Call for Papers – Sharing species, sharing knowledge : The circulation of animals between East and West (12th – 16th centuries) – Louvain-la-Neuve, 20 en 21 november 2020

Op 20 en 21 november vindt aan de Université catholique de Louvain een conferentie plaats over de uitwisseling van kennis, dieren en natuurlijke producten tussen het oosten en het westen van de twaalfde tot en met de zestiende eeuw. Het programma is (in pdf-bijlage) hieronder terug te vinden.

Call for contributions – Francophone Literature in the Low Countries (ca. 880 -1600) – A special issue of Queeste, Journal of Medieval Literature in the Low Countries

Het tijdschrift Queeste zoekt bijdragen voor een speciaal nummer dat zal verschijnen in 2021. Het nummer zal zich richten op Franstalige middeleeuwse literatuur in de Lage Landen. Abstracts moeten verstuurd worden voor 30 april 2020. Meer details kan u in het bericht hieronder vinden en in het pdf-bestand in bijlage.

In 2015, we concluded the introduction of our special issue on Literature and Multilingualism in the Low Countries with a renewal of Queeste’s ‘commitment to the varied and multilingual culture of the Low Countries’. And indeed, in the five years since then, Queeste has continued to publish scholarly articles on the production and circulation of literature in Dutch, French, and Latin, on translation, and on multilingual text collections and reading culture in the Low Countries.

While the editors applaud this continuous attention to multilingualism and language contact, we also feel that Queeste often approaches these issues from a distinctly Dutch-language perspective. This poses the risk of downplaying the actual impact of the literature in French (and Latin) that was written, copied and disseminated in the Low Countries. Following up on the earlier issue on multilingualism, we therefore aim to publish a new special issue of Queeste devoted solely to current scholarship on medieval Francophone literature in the Low Countries, to appear in 2021.

Since Queeste actively seeks to deliver the diversity that is implied in the journal’s subtitle, this special issue should be seen as another step towards a more balanced and accurate representation of the region’s multilingual literary culture. We therefore hope that this collection of essays will mark the beginning of a steady supply of articles on the medieval francophone literature produced and received in the Low Countries.

We invite reflections on any aspect of the authoring, copying, and reception of French literary texts in the area covering modern-day Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Northern France. As we aim for a wide and diverse panorama, we welcome general overviews as well as case studies, written from a varied range of theoretical and methodological perspectives (literary theory, codicology, stylometry, etc.), with a diachronic, comparative or contextualizing approach, and discussing texts from a broad spectrum of genres (lyric, epic, theatre, but also religious, moral-didactic, scientific, and practical writing).

Contributors should by no means feel confined to the textual production in the principally francophone regions and social circles of the Low Countries, but are encouraged to (also) discuss examples of French literature in reception contexts and parts of the area that have not been typically associated with francophone culture.

Abstracts (300 words or less) should be sent to the editorial board of Queeste before 30 April 2020 (b.j.m.caers@hum.leidenuniv.nl), after which authors will be notified by 15 May. Contributions of ca. 8000 words (including notes and bibliography) should be delivered before 31 October 2020 and will be, as always, subject to double blind peer review. Contributors are requested to follow the journal’s stylesheet (https://queeste.verloren.nl/guidelines).
For any further questions, please contact the editors of this special issue directly:

* Alisa van de Haar (a.d.m.van.de.haar@hum.leidenuniv.nl) or
* Dirk Schoenaers (d.j.c.schoenaers@hum.leidenuniv.nl).

Queeste is a multilingual journal and accepts articles written in Dutch, English, French, and German. Find out more at: https://queeste.verloren.nl/

Free speech, religion and political culture in northern Europe, 1400-1750 (Edinburgh, 16-17 April 2020)

Organization: Alasdair Raffe (University of Edinburgh), Martine Veldhuizen (Utrecht University)

This workshop explores aspects of ‘freedom of speech’ in late medieval and early modern northern Europe.  Freedom of speech was by no means a fundamental right in the late middle ages and early modern period, and yet expressions of critical opinions towards power were always possible and often widespread.  They 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 Edinburgh workshop will analyse the practice of free speech, paying particular attention to the expression of controversial religious and political ideas.  Much recent scholarship has examined the circulation of news and information, the mobilisation and manipulation of political opinions and the media of public debate.  Other works have broadened our understanding of religious debates and dissent, especially in the two centuries after the Reformation.  Building on this research, speakers at the workshop will examine claims to freedom of religious and political speech.  Some contributors will discuss theoretical arguments in defence of free speech, others the media and linguistic character of ‘free’ utterances.  Papers will assess instances of free speech in historical and literary contexts, and trace the consequences of speaking up for an opinion.  We invite case studies that can help us to address large, pan-European questions regarding free speech.

The workshop will consider the following questions:

  • How did late-medieval and early modern Europeans think about and defend free speech?
  • Which media and forms of language were used to express religious and political ideas? What determined the choice of particular media and forms of language?
  • What kind of messages were spread? Were they subversive or did they legitimise power?
  • How was free speech received? What were the effects of free speech in the development of religious communities, political attitudes and subversive movements?
  • Can ‘European’ patterns be distinguished, or were the practices of free speech determined more by national, provincial and local institutions and norms?

We invite proposals from historians, literary and linguistic scholars.  We would particularly welcome contributions from advanced PhD students and postdoctoral scholars.  Papers should be twenty-five minutes in length and given in English.

Abstracts of 300 words, together with a one-page CV, should be sent to Alasdair Raffe (alasdair.raffe@ed.ac.uk) by Friday 6 December 2019.

“Ruimte en afstand in de Middeleeuwen”: 25ste Mediëvistendag (8 november 2019, Universiteit Antwerpen)

25ste Mediëvistendag

Vrijdag 8 november 2019

Universiteit Antwerpen

Departement Geschiedenis, “Het Brantyser”, Sint-Jacobsmarkt 13

De 25ste Mediëvistendag zal op vrijdag 8 november 2019 gehouden worden in Antwerpen met als thema: “Ruimte en afstand in de Middeleeuwen”. De dag zal bestaan uit een plenair gedeelte met key note voordrachten, gevolgd door verschillende projectpresentaties.

Voor de projectpresentaties (van 20 minuten) zijn we nog op zoek naar 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.

Presentaties graag vóór 25 oktober aanmelden via het secretariaat van de Onderzoekschool: ozsmed@hum.leidenuniv.nl

Inschrijven voor de Mediëvistendag kan via een e-mail aan het secretariaat van de Onderzoekschool, graag vóór 25 oktober: ozsmed@hum.leidenuniv.nl, o.v.v. ‘Mediëvistendag 2019’. De kosten van deelname bedragen 10 euro. Verdere informatie hierover zal zo snel mogelijk verstrekt worden.

Het definitieve programma zal kort na 25 oktober bekend worden gemaakt. Nadere informatie is te verkrijgen bij het secretariaat van de Onderzoekschool (ozsmed@hum.leidenuniv.nl).

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25th Medieval Studies Day

Friday 8 November 2019

University of Antwerpen

History Department, “Het Brantyser”, Sint-Jacobsmarkt 13

The 25th Medieval Studies Day will take place on Friday, November 8, 2019, at the University of Antwerp. This year’s theme will be: “Space and Distance in the Middle Ages”. The day will consist of a plenary session with key note lectures, followed by various project presentations

For the project presentations we are still looking for PhD students working in the Netherlands and Flanders (both paid PhD students and external doctoral students), who are at the start of their research projects. Post-docs or leaders of large research projects are also 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.

Proposals for presentations have to be sent before 25 October to the administration of the Research School: ozsmed@hum.leidenuniv.nl

Please, register for the day by sending an e-mail to ozsmed@hum.leidenuniv.nl, preferably before October 25. There is an attendance fee of 10 euros, which will cover expenses for coffee/tea, lunch and drinks. More information  about this fee will follow as soon as possible.

The definitive programme will be announced  shortly after 25 October. Further information may be obtained from the administration of the Research School ozsmed@hum.leidenuniv.nl.

CfP ‘Objects of Devotion. Religion and its Instruments in Early Modern Europe’ (17-18 april 2020, University of Toronto)

Objects of Devotion. Religion and its Instruments in Early Modern Europe

How were religious ideas and practice realized through interaction with objects? How did the presence of sculptures, paintings, books, and church furniture—their visibility, tactility, and materiality—help form attitudes toward devotion, sacred history, and salvation? In other words, how did people think with things—both clerics and lay devotees? What was the complex role of sacrament houses, altarpieces, pulpits, jubés, and baptismal fonts in molding ideas about the central tenets of Christianity? How did statues of Christ and the saints make both present and problematic these issues—particularly when they involved performances: carried about the town, taken down from the cross and laid in the sepulcher, or lanced to emit spurts of blood? How did tombs help form ideas about the body, its mortality, and the hope of resurrection? How was the material of these objects comprehended—and what were the consequences of choosing sculpture over painting or selecting one stone over another? How were statues of Christ transformed when real hair was attached to their heads? How did lay, unoffical devotional practice differ from institutionalized forms of piety and how did they both influence each other? How did objects sustain both the status concerns and the often very precise religious beliefs of their patrons? Rather than verify these readings through early modern texts, we recognize both texts and objects as opaque cultural references that must be interpreted according to complex conventions and triangulated to offer compelling readings.

Historians of the late medieval and early modern period have created an antithesis between spiritual (inward) and physical (outward) devotion, branding the latter as superficial, ritualistic and mechanistic. More generally, from the first Protestant historians to Max Weber and his followers, the Reformation has come to be represented as the classic watershed between material, magical devotion and spiritual, rational belief. In a similar vein, art historians have opposed the notion of the medieval cult image, material and functional, to the early modern work of art, subject to aesthesis (Carolyn Walker Bynum, Hans Belting). Yet, does it make sense to distinguish between late medieval and early modern religious culture, given the fact that the definitions and boundaries of these periods are notoriously problematic and considerably overlap? To what degree have these differing traditions dictated separate approaches to these objects and their role in forming beliefs and practices?

We look for papers that draw from material culture studies, social history, art history, religious studies, and anthropology. And we envision a relatively small conference of about 18 speakers from a variety of disciplines. Talks will be limited to 20 minutes with equal time for discussion.

We are happy to cover hotel costs for 3 nights. Unfortunately we cannot reimburse travel expenses. If you are interested in this conference, please send us the following:

  • Name
  • Institutional Affiliation
  • Paper title (not more than 15 words)
  • Abstract (not more than 150 words)
  • Curriculum vitae of 2-3 pages
  • Brief explanation of the relevance of your paper to the theme of the conference

Please send your information and any questions to matt.kavaler@utoronto.ca and Annelaure.VanBruaene@UGent.be