Medieval Studies Interdisciplinary Working Group

The sixth session of the Working Group was an overwhelming success, due in no small part to the outstanding contributions from our two speakers, John Van Engen and Nick Kamas. Both, from their respective disciplinary vantage points of History and Theology, exemplified how scholarly readings of medieval theological texts can be enriched through nuanced historical contextualization. Prospective graduate students from the Medieval Institute and English and History Departments had the privilege of  witnessing the interdisciplinary research of Notre Dame medievalists at its best.

We look forward to the next session of the Working Group, which will take place on Thursday, March 6 at 5pm in the 715 Hesburgh Library. Valerie Garver (Northern Illinois University, History) and Molly Gower (Harvard University, Religious Studies) will be presenting papers on the “textualities” of medieval women. We hope that you will be able to join us for what promises to be another fascinating session!

For those who were unable to attend the January session of the Working Group, you missed a fascinating set of papers on Violent Speech by Professor Irina Dumitrescu (Southern Methodist University, English) and Melissa Vise (Northwestern University, History). After hearing their methodological reflections on how to set medieval texts, like Anglo-Saxon poems or Bolognese court documents, within an “acoustical frame,” we certainly feel motivated to listen to the past much more closely.

We look forward to our upcoming session on Bridging the Divide: Religious History & Historical Theology. This session will feature papers by Professor John Van Engen (University of Notre Dame, History) and Nicolas Kamas (University of Notre Dame, Medieval Institute). Please note that the date of this session has changed; it will take place on Friday, February 21 at 5pm in 715 Hesburgh Library.

We are delighted to announce that the Working Group will kick off the new semester with a session on Violent Speech that will be held this Thursday, January 16, in the Medieval Institute reading room. The session will feature papers from Irina Dumitrescu (Southern Methodist University, English) and Melissa Vise (Northwestern University, History). Professor Dumitrescu will also host a graduate student seminar on Friday morning. Check out the “Session 5” tab for more information.

At last night’s session on Material Culture, we enjoyed two fantastic papers by Anne F. Harris (DePauw University, Art History) and Emily Kirkegaard (Notre Dame, MI). We were shaken out of our myopic anthropocentrism by both speakers’ critical engagement with how objects matter. Many thanks to Anne and Emily for their enthusiastic willingness to share their research. For those who would like to learn more about Professor Harris’s contributions to the ongoing conversation on eco-criticism in medieval studies, check out her blog. Also be on the lookout for her forthcoming article in Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies (Winter 2014), “Sacred Object/Folk Object: the Roodscreen of the Chapel St. Fiacre in Le Faoüet (Brittany).”

We look forward to our next session on January 16 on Violent Speech with Irina Dumitrescu (Southern Methodist University, English) and Melissa Vise (Northwestern University, History). We hope to see you there!

Many thanks to Amy Mulligan and Cara Aspesi for sharing their fascinating research on medieval Landscape Studies. For those who missed the session, but would still like to learn more, Amy Mulligan’s paper was filmed; the video will be posted on the website of Breac, a digital journal of Irish Studies.

Our next session (Thursday, Dec. 5) will focus on methodological approaches to medieval material culture. Papers will be given by Anne F. Harris (DePauw University, Art History) and Emily Kirkegaard (University of Notre Dame, Medieval Institute). For more information, go to the Session 4 tab for more information.

A big thanks to Daniel Hobbins, David Gura, and Christopher Scheirer for a dynamic roundtable discussion of their ongoing projects and some of the future directions of medieval manuscript research!

Our next session (Thursday, Nov. 14)  will be devoted to Landscape Studies with Amy Mulligan (Notre Dame, Irish Studies) and Cara Aspesi (Notre Dame, Theology).    Check out the Session 3 tab for more information.

(Above: Banner photo from archaeological excavations and experiments currently underway at L’Esquerda, near Roda de Ter, Spain:  http://www.lesquerda.cat)

Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. 91, Der Renner, f. 84r, 1468

Please join us tonight at 5:30 pm in the Medieval Institute Reading Room for a roundtable discussion on Manuscript Studies. This session’s speakers are Daniel Hobbins (History Dept.), David Gura (Special Collections), and Christopher Scheirer (MI).

Thanks to Claire Taylor Jones and Anna de Bakker for their fantastic presentations at our first session of the year–a marvelous success!

Be sure to stay tuned for our next session on October 17 at 5:30 pm, which will be a roundtable dedicated Medieval Manuscript Studies with Chris Scheirer, Daniel Hobbins, and David Gura.  For more information, please see the “Session 2” tab.

Weissenau Passionary (12th c.)–the illuminator includes a self-portrait, providing his name: “Fr. Rufillus.”  Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 127, 244r.

We’re looking forward to another great year for the Medieval Studies Interdisciplinary Working Group!  To see the line-up for this year, click on the individual sessions in the bar above.

Our first session will be on Thursday, September 5, at 5 pm in the Medieval Institute.  The topic will be Ritual and Performance Theory, with Claire Jones (ND, Dept. of German and Russian Languages and Literatures) and Anna De Bakker (ND, Medieval Institute) speaking.  To read their abstracts click here.