The Medieval Academy Blog

Digital Medieval Studies Institute (DMSI) 2025

Posted on November 27, 2024 by Chris

Digital Medieval Studies Institute (DMSI) 2025
Wednesday, March 19, 2025, 8:30-17:00
Cambridge & Boston, Massachusetts

Logo of Digital Medieval Studies Institute

Sponsored by Harvard University, Boston College, McMullen Museum, Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, and Digital Medievalist

Organizers: Laura K. Morreale and N. Kıvılcım Yavuz

Call for Participation

In cooperation with Harvard University, Boston College, McMullen Museum, Digital Medievalist, and the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, the third annual Digital Medieval Studies Institute (DMSI) presents a one-day program featuring workshops on digital scholarly methods specifically tailored for medievalists.

The day will begin with a lecture on data methods by Gabriel Pizzorno (Senior Preceptor on History and Faculty Chair, Digital Scholarship Support Group, Harvard University), entitled “Building on Solid Foundations: The Importance of Data Structures to Digital Scholarship.” Lightning talks by a selected number of participants will follow. After lunch, five separate concurrent workshops will be offered, each with a total teaching time of 4 hours. The day will conclude with a reception at the McMullen Museum at Boston College.

For the lightning talks, workshop participants can propose a short presentation (lightning talk )on any aspect of digital medieval studies, such as an ongoing project, a methodology, or a specific research finding; the topic of the lightning talk does not have to be the same as the workshop in which the participant enrolls. Participants will be able to present a lightning talk only if they are accepted to attend the full-day program.

Each participant may choose one of the following workshops. Unless indicated, all workshops will take place at Boston College’s McMullen Museum, with transportation from Harvard to the Museum provided.

Rendering Spaces Virtually Using Photogrammetry (Rachel Chamberlain)

Participants will explore the various uses of photogrammetry, particularly in capturing interiors to display virtually. You will learn to photograph a space, stitch it together, and layer multiple forms of media on top to provide a rich, immersive experience to digital visitors.

Rendering 3D Artifacts for Virtual Exhibits Using Photogrammetry (Antonio LoPiano)

Photogrammetry is a powerful and flexible technology for the capturing, digitization, and visualization of 3D artifacts, especially in the context of rendering them for use in virtual exhibits or repositories. Participants will learn how to capture images of an artifact, use the Metashape photogrammetry software to process images, and export the resulting models for use in virtual environments.

Mapping Humanities: The Medieval Version (Kahil Sawan)

This workshop explores various mapping methods used in medieval digital humanities. Participants will be introduced to GIS (Geographic Information Systems), geo-referencing, and spatial data. You will learn how to use tools that will enable you to integrate geography and digital mapping into your own research projects.

Networking Old English Charters Using Gephi (David Thomas)

Network analysis enables scholars to untangle patterns of relationships in historical documents whose complexity is beyond human comprehension. Participants will use the network analysis tool Gephi to analyze and visualize the relationships of over 2,500 individuals who appear in over 500 charters from Old English kingdoms, from the seventh to the ninth centuries, zeroing in on major figures.

Digitizing Manuscripts (Anthony Harris & Sara Powell)

In this interactive workshop on the essentials of manuscript digitization, participants will learn how to capture the textual and material aspects of medieval fragments. You will gain hands-on experience working with Houghton Library’s fragments, collaborating to select, describe, scan, and prepare items for upload to a digital repository. This workshop will take place at the Houghton Library.

All registered participants will be charged a fee of $100 to participate in DMSI 2025

Applications are open to everyone, but preference will be given to applicants who demonstrate how they plan to apply what they learn in their research, teaching, or professional practice. A maximum of 8-10 participants will be accepted into each workshop. It will only be possible to enroll in one workshop. We are offering a small bursary for 5 participants (one per class) to cover the participation fee; the bursary is needs-based.

To apply, please fill out the DMSI 2025 application form, which will require the following:

Contact information
Two-paragraph statement of interest specifying the three workshops you are most interested in participating (in order of preference) and explaining how you plan to incorporate the skills and knowledge gained at DMSI into your current work.
Concise CV (maximum 1 page).
Optional:

If the applicant would like to propose a short presentation, a title and a 200-word abstract,
If the applicant would like to apply for a bursary, a brief indication of financial need (no documentation, please). The bursary will cover the $100 cost of participation ONLY (no funds are available for travel or accommodation).

PLEASE NOTE: Workshops will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Applicants will be admitted to each workshop on a rolling basis.

First round of applications are due by January 30, 2025.

Please note that the cost of lodging is not covered in the institute fee, and individuals arriving in for DMSI should be prepared to make arrangements for accommodations accordingly.

For all questions and/or concerns, please contact the organizers at dmsi.hello@gmail.com.

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Call for Papers -Proof & Authenticity in Medieval Cities

Posted on November 27, 2024 by Chris

Proof & Authenticity in Medieval Cities
(c.1050–1500)
Dar fe en la ciudad medieval
(siglos XI-XV)

Complutense University of Madrid, May 29^th – 30^th 2025

Format: 20-minute presentations, to be given in person in either English or Spanish

Send proposal abstracts (c.250 words) to: proofandproving@gmail.com

Proposal Deadline: January 10^th 2025

How did people prove their credentials in the pre-modern era? Although the tension between oral and written authentication is an old debate within historiography, over the past decade the issue has ignited scholarship in new ways (Ho, 2021). Whereas Michael Clanchy once cited royal bureaucracy and the early universities as the twin agents of a shift to written record, the emphasis has increasingly shifted to urbanization itself. Some have pointed to the power of notaries and scribes as bearers of public faith, who as well as establishing the terms for recording and fixing oral testimonies preserved proofs of ties and transactions across the urban space. Others have stressed how the changing social fabric of cities prompted new documentary practices, which destabilized and transformed conditions of proof in the process. But despite these recent debates there remain unanswered questions about the nature of proof itself. What did it mean to prove in an ever-evolving urban setting? How was the concept of proof itself inflected by theological, scholastic, economic, or commercial practices? Which forms of proof were considered most reliable, and who oversaw them? And how did practices of proof relate to processes of community-building, or condition the writing of collective memory?

This seminar aims at exploring the social, political, and cultural mechanisms for securing proof in premodern cities, and the evolving nature of the concept within shifting urban contexts. Although one of our focuses is the urban panorama of the Iberian Peninsula, we are interested in comparative views from across European cities in the broad period c.1050–1500.

Specifically, we are interested in three distinct but overlapping branches of discussion:

1) Legal forms of proof: How were legal definitions of proof fixed or agreed upon, especially in the evolution from the use of ordeals to the use of witnesses and witnessing? Contributions may explore the power of proof to determine social order, the social impact of mechanisms of proof, the influence of jurists’ opinions in the matter and the significance of notaries and notarial culture in the establishment of an urban society that progressively relied on written forms of social trust.

2) Bureaucracy and the transformation of proof: As the seminar considers these issues over the longue durée (11th-15th centuries), we wish to analyze how the emergence of a complex and refined bureaucracy transformed practices related to the creation of proof and authenticity. Exploring the institutions that tested or approved mechanisms of proof, this discussion may engage with a range of documentary evidence, from financial accounts to charters, receipts and identity papers, scrutinizing the use of proof in the rise of bureaucratic governments whose power was predicated on the mastery of record-keeping.

3) Material & alternative sources of proof: Beyond legal and bureaucratic procedures, we are also interested in the materiality of proof, embodied in objects, patrimonial artefacts and seals. Our aim here is to offer a fuller picture of the diversity of pre-modern proof mechanisms, appreciating the role of objects and images in the shaping of collective memories.

Contributions might focus on:
— Legal codifications of proof in specific contexts and their application in urban settings.
— Documentary and diplomatic practices of proof in the medieval and early modern city. This may include cases related to the production and uses of forgeries.
— The agents of proof: jurists, witnesses (as urban inhabitants), notaries and institutions.
— Language and the making of proof.
— Seals and other forms of verifying documents.
— Proof of identity and identification in the medieval and early modern city.

— The role of proof in the constitution of collective forms of (urban) memory.

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Barbara Newman (Northwestern University) appointed Editor of Speculum

Posted on November 27, 2024 by Chris

Editor of Speculum

The Medieval Academy is thrilled to announce that Barbara Newman has been appointed the next editor of Speculum, beginning 1 July 2025.

Newman is a renowned scholar of medieval literature, religion, and gender. During her term as Editor of Speculum she will continue as Professor of English and John Evans Professor of Latin at Northwestern University, where she also holds courtesy appointments in the departments of History, Religion, and Classics and has directed the graduate Medieval Studies Cluster since its inception in 2003. She received her PhD in Medieval Studies from Yale University, is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society and has received awards and fellowships from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the ACLS. Newman has written or edited more than a dozen books, covering an impressive range of disciplines and language traditions. Her 2013 monograph, Medieval Crossover: Reading the Secular against the Sacred, won an Outstanding Academic Title Award from Choice, and in 2009 God and the Goddesses: Vision, Poetry, and Belief in the Middle Ages was awarded the Charles Homer Haskins Medal by the Medieval Academy.

The search committee was deeply impressed both by Newman’s long record of exemplary and cutting-edge scholarship and by her vision for moving Speculum forward. It is clear that Speculum’s mission to advance our field and its status as the flagship journal for top-quality scholarship in the multiple disciplines of medieval studies will thrive under her leadership.

During Newman’s tenure as Editor, Northwestern University will house the editorial offices of Speculum on its campus. A process for sending books for review directly to the reviewers has been instituted. Katherine Jansen, the current editor, continues in her role until 30 June 2025 and will handle the production of issues that are already in process.

The Medieval Academy warmly welcomes Barbara, and thanks Kate Jansen for her wise, capable, and visionary guidance of Speculum since 2019, the Catholic University of America for its support of Speculum throughout Jansen’s term as editor, Northwestern University for its support of Newman as she undertakes the role, and the search committee (consisting of Cecilia Gaposchkin, Aden Kumler, Sara Lipton, Peggy McCracken, and Cord Whitaker) for its hard work.

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Jobs For Medievalists

Posted on November 18, 2024 by Chris

Call for the Position of Executive Editor

Digital Philology: A Journal of Medieval Cultures is seeking applications for the position of
executive editor.

The executive editor will review submissions, select outside readers, o;er editorial
feedback to authors, solicit special issues, coordinate with a copy editor, and collaborate
with a production manager to edit two issues of the journal per year. Additionally, in
consultation with the current editorial board, the executive editor will lead the periodic
renewal of the board.

Please note that this position is not remunerated and requires approximately 8–10 hours of
work per week, though time demands vary seasonally. The Press supports the executive
editor’s travel to one prominent academic conference in the field, typically the
International Congress on Medieval Studies, when organizing panels sponsored by the
journal.

Published by the Johns Hopkins University Press, Digital Philology is a peer-reviewed online
journal dedicated to the study of medieval texts and cultures. The journal releases two
issues per year and aims to encourage new research that crosses traditional field
boundaries, embraces new methods for studying medieval materiality, and advances both
applied and theoretical digital humanities. For further information, all back issues can be
consulted on Project Muse (https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/550).

The ideal candidate will be an established scholar with a compelling vision for the
discipline’s future and, ideally, supported institutionally through release time that enables
them to fulfill editorial responsibilities. The incoming editor would assume their position on
15 May 2025 (negotiable).

Application Process: To apply, please send by 15 January 2025 a statement describing your
interest and qualifications to Albert Lloret, Co-Founding Editor, at lloret@umass.edu.

The application should include:
• A cover letter detailing your interests and qualifications.
• A current CV.
• Names and contact information for three references.

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Inscribing Sacred Matter: Reading and Writing Inscriptions on Byzantine Relics

Posted on November 18, 2024 by Chris

Inscribing Sacred Matter: Reading and Writing Inscriptions on Byzantine Relics
Brad Hostetler, Kenyon College
Thursday, December 5, 2024 | 12:00 PM (EST, UTC -5) | Zoom

Byzantium was replete with inscriptions. Buildings, wall paintings, mosaics, and portable objects alike were adorned with words that labeled iconography, documented patronage, and articulated prayers. Little is known about what the Byzantines did with this rich culture of epigraphy. Did they read these inscriptions once or repeatedly, and in which contexts? This talk brings together literary and material sources that speak to the act of reading and writing inscriptions in situ, focusing on those that were attached to relics and reliquaries. Episodes from saints’ lives, miracle tales, and histories reveal the ways in which the Byzantines engaged with their epigraphic culture. Far from being a passive feature of relics, it is argued that inscriptions were an essential component to the identification and veneration of sacred matter.

Brad Hostetler is Associate Professor of Art History at Kenyon College (Gambier, Ohio). He specializes in the art and material culture of Late Antiquity and Byzantium, with a focus on text and image relationships.

Advance registration required. Register: https://maryjahariscenter.org/events/inscribing-sacred-matter

Contact Brandie Ratliff (mjcbac@hchc.edu), Director, Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture, with any questions.

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Call for Papers – The Memory of the Crusades and the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem in texts, images, and liturgies.

Posted on November 7, 2024 by Chris

The Twelfth Annual Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies will take place from June 9-11, 2025, at Saint Louis University, in St. Louis, MO. The Crusade Studies Forum at SLU invites proposals for scholarly papers related to the memory of the crusades and the Kingdom of Jerusalem in texts, images, and liturgies. We are also happy to accept papers of any topic related to the scholarly investigation of medieval crusading. Papers will be twenty minutes each in two sessions scheduled for ninety minutes.

Abstract of 250 words should be submitted to Evan McAllister at evan.mcallister@slu.edu. The deadline for submissions is December 1, 2024. Decisions will be made by the middle of December.

www.crusadestudies.org

www.smrs-slu.org

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MAA News – Matching Challenge

Posted on November 7, 2024 by Chris

WE DID IT!

Thanks to you, we have exceeded our two-year goal of raising $150,000 to trigger the Match, and we did it in only 18 months! In fact, since the beginning of the Campaign in 2023, we have raised nearly $175,000.

But we aren’t done yet…

Help us raise an additional $50,000 by year’s end, an amount that will bring us to $225,000 for 2025, our Centennial year

By making an end-of-year donation to the Campaign, you will help ensure that the MAA can continue its important support of scholars, scholarship, and expanded programming to fulfill our vision of a stronger, more inclusive Medieval Studies. Members wishing to support Speculum specifically should note that funds donated to our Endowment are used, via the annual Draw on these funds, to directly support operating expenses such as Speculum staffing.

Medieval Studies, along with higher education in general, faces grave challenges now and in the foreseeable future. As the foremost organization in the world promoting scholarship and knowledge of the Middle Ages, the Medieval Academy of America is determined to address challenges that border on becoming existential threats with new programs, a broader, more inclusive membership base, and educational outreach that will complement and strengthen its ongoing mission.

As we approach the celebration of our Centennial in 2025, we seek to secure gifts and grants that will help underwrite the Medieval Academy’s renewed agenda. Even as we continue to publish the highest-quality scholarship in the pages of Speculum and support research and teaching throughout the field, we are looking to expand programming and support in 2025 and beyond. Your generous contribution will help support ongoing and innovative priorities:

Centennial Fund: Donations to the Centennial Fund will support grants to individuals and institutions nationwide that promote and publicize medieval art, music, and theater during our Centennial year.

Mentoring Fund: In 2022, the Mentoring Program brought more than a dozen scholars from underserved demographics together for remote and in-person mentoring focusing on grant-writing, dissertation abstracts, and conference proposals. In 2023, the program was entirely remote, but with additional funding we hope to conduct a fully in-person summer mentoring program in 2024 and beyond.

MedievALLists Fund: Donations to this Fund will help to make the MAA more inclusive and to strengthen the field by supporting medievalists working beyond the tenure track. Here, too, the need is increasing as more scholars are obliged to work on short-term contracts with no benefits. Expanding support for scholars working beyond the tenure track is a critical priority.

Endowment: Donations to the Endowment support our journal Speculum as well many of our other grants, fellowships, and programs. Such donations are crucial for the long-term fiscal stability of the Medieval Academy of America.

Unrestricted: Donations to this Fund will be allocated by the Council to one of the four specified Matching Funds (Centennial, Mentoring, MedievALLists, or Endowment) at their discretion and as needed.

With your help, we can continue and expand our work: supporting medievalists and Medieval Studies in North America and beyond.

Donate by check or credit card by returning form you’ll soon receive by mail, or donate online by following the links here: http://www.medievalacademy.org/page/MatchingChallenge

Thank you!

Sara Lipton, President, Medieval Academy of America