Activity

53rd International Medieval Congress, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo MI (May 10–13, 2018)

CALL FOR PAPERS: Mediterranean Materiality and Consumption

Session sponsored by the CU Mediterranean Studies Group/Mediterranean Seminar

This session addresses the study of materiality and consumption in the Medieval Mediterranean. What was the specific material culture of the medieval Mediterranean? What was consumed and by whom? Papers may focus on any related themes, for example, the relationship between material and immaterial, the fabrication of objects and texts and the perception of these works, the circulation of objects, and the networks that made that circulation possible. Papers that adopt a comparative perspective, including one which examines Christian, Muslim, and Jewish cultures and their interaction, or those that propose novel approaches and methodologies are particularly welcome.

Contact Nuria Silleras-Fernandez at [email protected] for further information or to submit a proposal (300-word abstract, one-page CV, and media equipment request by 15 September 2017).

Sponsored by the Research Group of Manuscript Evidence
http://manuscriptevidence.org/wpme/2018-international-congress-on-medieval-studies-call-for-papers/
 Abstracts to: Linde M. Brocato,([email protected])
 Alfonso X, “the Wise,” of Castile was a polymath himself and sponsored many more across the various communities of Iberia.  His court was the political center of Castile, at least until the rethinking of law and politics he promulgated in the Siete Partidas combined with his (invited) Ghibelline bid for the Holy Roman Emperorship to provoke a civil war in his realms, led by his second son Sancho IV.  Iberia was also a crossroads of travelers – scholars, pilgrims, diplomats, merchants – from all over the world, with destinations like the courts of Castile and of the Crown of Aragon.

 Among the vast corpus of works he either directly or indirectly composed, Alfonso X’s book on games and gaming, the Libros de ajedrez, dados y tablas(also known as the Libro de los juegos), likely finished in the early to mid-1280s at the end of his life, seems to have reflected these intellectual and political dynamics, and recorded many such travelers and dwellers of his court.  In spite of a facsimile from the late 1980s, it has until recently garnered very little attention, particularly attention that considered it beyond the domains of chess and gaming, and art history.
 With Sonja Musser Golladay’s 2007 dissertation and Olivia Remie Constable’s article of the same year, however, and more recent studies, analysis of the book and its context have begun to contribute to our understanding of many other aspects of the 13th century, due to its incredibly rich representation of layers of information, ranging from the portraits in its miniatures to the intertextual networks of translation in multiple domains.
 In this era of “big data” and datamining, the Libro de los juegos offers a very interesting counter-case: one specific manuscript of only moderate length that provides insight into multiple domains.  It is “small data,” but data so rich that it produces big results when placed in productive tension across domains and disciplines.  It is a book that lends itself to interdisciplinary conversation, and to conversations that trace its contents and its effects over time, as part of a particular corpus and part of a concrete library.
 The purpose of this session is to encourage a lively interdisciplinary discussion of its texts, images, and the physical book from a variety of domains, perspectives, and methods in order to address a broad array of questions both related to and beyond its explicit topic, games and aristocratic leisure, and, as such, invites participants from all quarters interested in cross-disciplinary analysis and discussion of the Libro de los juegos.
 A pdf of the CFP is also available on my academia.edu page:

https://www.academia.edu/33912138/Alfonso_Xs_Libro_de_los_juegos_Big_Results_from_Small_Data

CFP: “Translating Genres: Arabic Prose and European Literatures” 53rd International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo MI (May 10-13, 2018)Panel sponsored by the University of Minnesota Center for Medieval Studies.This panel welcomes papers that explore various aspects of the genesis, impact, and legacy of medieval Arabic prose written in Europe (especially in areas of intense contact such as the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily, and France). Of particular interest are approaches that consider Arabic and European prose works–such as maqāmāt, historical chronicles, didactic collections, or frame-tale narratives–in the larger context of dialogue across faiths, linguistic traditions, and geopolitical boundaries.Contact Emma Snowden ([email protected]) and Mario Cossío Olavide ([email protected]) for more information and submissions. Proposals should include a 300-word abstract with paper title, one-page CV, and any media requirements. Deadline: September 10th, 2017.

CFP Kalamazoo 2018: The Other’s Chivalry: Alternative Chivalric Codes and PracticesSponsor: Société Rencesvals, American-Canadian BranchOrganizers: Ana Grinberg (Auburn University) and Stefanie Goyette (Durham Academy)Presider: Mercedes Vaquero (Brown University)The Arabic chivalric novels known as “al-Siyar” feature heroes characterized by their bravery and valor, reflecting values similar to those of the romance epic, as Lutfi Abdel Badi argues in his almost forgotten La Épica árabe y su influencia en la épica castellana (31). And yet modern scholarly notions of “chivalry” in the epic often seem to follow Ramon Llull’s thirteenth-century Book of the Order of Chivalry, which claims that chivalry requires loving and fearing the Christian god, foreclosing the possibility that there could be a common code for both Christian and Muslim knights. Llull further explains that nobility and chivalry “belong together” (III.8) and thus women, due to their lesser nobility, are unable to be knights. Likewise, “a deformed man or one who is obese or has another physical defect” cannot be a knight (Llull III.16).Given the persistent association of chivalry with Christianity, masculinity, able-bodiness, nobility, and a narrowly defined idea of beauty and humanity, how can we understand alterity in chivalric texts where the supposed Other is often a worthy oponent? And furthermore, what happens to chivalry when we find these Others often as heroes, and not enemies, at the center instead of at the borders of the romance epic? This session invites papers that examine how texts, writers, and audience negotiated the complexity of chivalry and knighthood in medieval texts dealing with heroic deeds of those who are not “normative.” We also welcome papers that question or resituate the very definition of chivalry in the romance epic.Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words together with a completed Participant Information Form (https://wmich.edu/sites/default/files/attachments/u434/2017/medieval-pif-2018.pdf) to session organizers Stefanie Goyette ([email protected]) or Ana Grinberg ([email protected]) by September 15. Please include your name, title, and affiliation on the abstract itself. All abstracts not accepted for the session will be forwarded to Congress administrators for consideration in general sessions, as per Congress regulations.

CFP, International Medieval Congress, Kalamazoo, May 10-13, 2018From Heresy to Orthodoxy: the Riddle of Christian Iberian MysticismOrganized by Ana María Carvajal (Purdue University) and Jessica A. Boon (UNC-Chapel Hill) Starting in the later fifteenth century, Iberian mysticism underwent a process that propelled it from nearly being equated with heresy to becoming central to Catholic doctrine and practice. This panel proposes a closer examination of this radical transformation that led to the legitimization, in the eyes of theologians and inquisitors, of the search for a personal experience of the divine. The reconsideration of mysticism as an orthodox practice may help to explain the complex development that transformed medieval values into the pillars of the early modern Iberian society. We welcome proposals for papers on the wider spiritual landscape in medieval Iberia that contributed to the growth of Christian mysticism at the turn to the early modern, on the Franciscan reform movement that provided a home to many whom the Inquisition later pursued, on individual mystics and visionaries and their contributions to this trajectory, on individual theologians or inquisitors and their interactions with Iberian mystics, or on the lessons that medieval/early modern regulation of Christian mystical experience might provide for understanding the contemporary impact of governmental and bureaucratic regulation on individual lives.Please send in an abstract of about 250 words and the Participant Information form found at http://www.wmich.edu/medievalcongress/submissions#papers. Proposals are due by September 15 to [email protected] and [email protected]. Please feel free to contact either of us in advance with any questions or tentative proposals.