University of Michigan
Medieval and Early Modern Studies
1029 Tisch, 435 S. State St., Univ. of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1003
Phone: 734-763-2066 // Fax: 734-647-4881
Program Associate: Terre Fisher (telf@umich.edu)
Faculty Contact, 2019-2021: Achim Timmermann (achimtim@umich.edu)
Department of History of Art University of Michigan Ann Arbor MI 48109-1003 Phone: 734-763-6112
For further information about programs, degrees, and affiliated faculty, please visit our website: www.lsa.umich.edu/mems/
Lectures and Events:
In 2019-2020, guest lecturers/presenters included Camillo Gomez-Rivas (University of California, Santa Cruz); Patricia Akhimie (Rutgers University); Erik Inglis (Oberlin College); Kevin van Bladel (Yale University); Elizabeth Hebbard (Indiana University); Charles Hirschkind (University of California, Berkeley); Cernal Kafadar (Harvard University); Charles Sanft (University of Tennessee, Knoxville); Nicolas Fernandez Medina (Penn State University); Valentina Denzel (Michigan State University); Sara McDougall (City University of New York); Julia Rubanivich (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem).
Conferences, special lectures, and ongoing colloquia included SEP: “Islamic Law in Movement: Saints, Merchants and Technocrats: The Diffusion of Malikism in the Islamic West”; “The Qualities of Breeding: Race and Conduct in The Merchant of Venice”; “Reading Storied Ground in Medieval Rome”; “It began with a Picture, or Inventing Stories to Make Sense of Images in Medieval Europe.” OCT: “A Whiff of Nirvana: Why Chinese Buddhists were not Vegans”; “Horror and Enchantment” international symposium; “The Reshaping of Persian after the Seventh-Century Arabian Conquest and Colonization”; “The Lyric Authority of Goats and Women”; “What a 12th Century Muslim says to at 21st Century Christian in Andalusia: Inheriting a complex Religious Identity”; “Calvary in Kitzingen: Dragging Your Cross through Eighteenth-Century Franconia”; “Vampire Trouble is More Serious Than the Mighty Plague: A Comparative Look at the History of Evil and Mischief, Inspired by Evliya Celebi (1611- ca. 1684).” NOV: “The Emperor Has No Voice: Imperial Utterance in Excavated Han Documents”; “Between Life and Death: The Cultural Politics of Early Modern Spanish Medicine, 1770-1808.” DEC: Book Workshop with Prof. Alexander Knysh, U-M Islamic Studies; “Engaging Images: Art History and Anthropology in Conversation.” JAN: “Down and Out and Pregnant in Medieval France.” FEB: “Traditions Entwined: Writing Judeo-Persian Poetry in fourteenth-Century Iran.” Additionally, as usual we offered the Medieval Lunch Series (organized by Forum on Research in Medieval Studies [FoRMS], roughly monthly); FoRMS Reading Group (once per term); and the Premodern Colloquium (monthly). EVENTS IN MARCH AND APRIL CANCELLED DUE TO COVID 19.
Annual budget: $34,000
