The Institute for Medieval Studies at the University of New Mexico held its annual Spring Lecture Series on April 24-27. This week-long series of six lectures and a concert attracts several hundred members of the Albuquerque community to hear lectures by eminent scholars from around the country, and sometimes around the globe. This year’s lectures were:
- Monday, April 24, 7:15 p.m. “Charlemagne’s Elephant” Paul Cobb, University of Pennsylvania
- Tuesday, April 25, 5:15 p.m. “Animals and Sex in the Middle Ages” Jan Ziolkowski, Harvard University and Dumbarton Oaks Research Library & Collection
- Tuesday, April 25, 7:15 p.m. “The Medieval Menagerie: Animals in the Art of the Middle Ages” Janetta Rebold Benton, Pace University
- Wednesday, April 26, 5:15 p.m. “Animals on Crusade” Paul Cobb
- Wednesday, April 26, 7:15 p.m. “The Case of the Animals versus Humans: An Islamic Ethics from Medieval Iraq” Richard McGregor, Vanderbilt University
- Thursday, April 27, 5:15 p.m. “Birds and Beasties in Medieval Music” Concert by the UNM Early Music Ensemble directed by Colleen Sheinberg
- Thursday, April 27, 7:15 p.m. “Lions, Tigers, and Dragons—Oh My! Real and Imaginary Animals in the Middle Ages” Elizabeth Morrison, The J. Paul Getty Museum
Additionally, each spring the IMS welcomes a prominent scholar as the visiting “Viking Scholar” to teach the “Viking Mythology” course. This spring, Vésteinn Ólason, recently retired Director of The Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies and Chairman of the Board of Landsbókasafn–Háskólabókasafn, joined the UNM medievalist community for the semester.
