University of Michigan Medieval and Early Modern Studies
1029 Tisch, 435 S. State Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1003
Program Associate: Olivia Evans (history-ssa@umich.edu)
Faculty Contact, 2023-2025: Erin Brightwell (elbright@umich.edu)
Asian Languages and Cultures, University of Michigan
For further information about programs, degrees, and affiliated faculty, please visit our website: www.lsa.umich.edu/mems/
Lectures and Events:
During the 2023-2024 year, lecturers/presenters from MEMS affiliated events included U-M graduate students Julia La Placa (History of Art), Katherine Tapie (Comparative Literature), Madeline Fox (English), Adam Grant (Romance Languages and Literatures), Nessa Higginson (History of Art), and Allison Grenda (History of Art), as well as faculty members Sangseraima Ujeed (Asian Languages and Cultures), Kevin Carr (History of Art), Juhn Ahn (Asian Languages and Cultures), Scott Larson (American Cultures), Cameron Cross (Middle East Studies), Tina Bawden (History of Art), and Susanne Huber (History of Art). Outside speakers included Nazanin Heydayat Munroe (City University of New York), Rowan Dorin (Stanford University), Yanna Yannakakis (Emory University), and Emily Price (Newcastle University).
Talks given through our MEMS Lecture Series included “Sufi Lovers, Safavid Silks, and Early Modern Identity” (OCT), “Mass Expulsion in Medieval Europe” (JAN), “Since Time Immemorial: Managing Difference through Custom from Medieval Iberia to Colonial Mexico” (MAR). A special lecture was given by Emily Price, entitled “‘Would you be served such meat for your supper?’: Consumption and Conversation in the Early Modern Atlantic World” (MAY).
This year, MEMS ran its first “New Books Tea” to celebrate newly published MEMS faculty scholarship. Featured authors were David Brick (Asian Languages and Cultures), Catherine Brown (Residential College and Comparative Literature), Cameron Cross (Middle East Studies), SE Kile (Asian Languages and Cultures), Christian de Pee (History), Helmut Puff (History, German, and Women’s Studies), and Louise Stein (SMTD).
Also new this year is the Manuscript Studies Interest Group. Founded by faculty members Tina Bawden (History of Art) and Trent Walker (Asian Languages and Cultures), the group is housed in MEMS, where it is devoted to collaborating across disciplines and facilitating research among different manuscript traditions.
As usual we supported meetings of the Premodern Colloquium on the following topics: “The White Crane of Alagśa: Lost Lives of the Sixth Dalai Lama in Mongolia”; “Bokuseki as Bodily Relic: Embodying Lineage and Enlightenment through Ink Traces in Medieval Japanese Zen”; “Koryŏ’s Economy: Draft Chapter for the Cambridge History of Korea—Koryŏ”; “Rantings of a Diseased Mind: Madness and Enthusiastic Sensations in 18th-Century Religious Cultures”; “Call Him Diyanus in Greek! The Correlating of Pagan and Islamic Knowledge in ʿUnsurī’s Vāmiq-u ʿAzrā”; “Contingent Touch: Sensual Encounters in a Late Medieval Health Manuscript.”
Annual Budget: $34,000
