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CFP: New Media and the Middle Ages
*Deadline extended to December 7, 2012.*
“New Media and the Middle Ages”
8th Annual Pearl Kibre Medieval Study Graduate Student Conference
CUNY Graduate Center, New York, NY
March 1, 2013, 10am-4pm
The field of medieval studies has a relatively long and recognized history of scholarship assisted by technology. The 2013 PKMS Graduate Student Conference aims at addressing some of the key concepts, questions, and methodologies concerning the convergences between developments in both new and old technologies and our study of the medieval past.
One of the first to merge new advances in technology with humanities scholarship was a medievalist, Fr. Roberto Busa, who in the 1940s conceived and developed the Index Thomisticus, a tool for performing text searches within the massive corpus of Aquinas’s works, in collaboration with IBM. Today dozens of digital resources are available for the medievalist: online collections of digitized manuscript images, full- text databases, online scholarly editions, and tens of thousands of books and journals. One of the more recent and popular trends amongst medievalists in new media technology is the transformation of medieval texts and data- widely conceived- into new forms of media and technology. Projects such as Piers Plowman Electronic Archive and the Mapping Medieval Chester project exemplify only a few of the innovative applications of new media to our study of the medieval world. Shared amongst these projects’ use of digital tools is an emphasis on remediation, taking data in one form and transforming and transposing it into another form of usable media. Additionally, through a greater focus on developments in contemporary technology, or as result of its proliferation, scholars and researchers have also become more attuned to the use, development, and creation of medieval technologies in the contexts of the written word, manuscripts, works of art, music, architecture, warfare, urban planning, and others.
Papers might address such questions as: What insights might digital humanities allow in our study of medieval texts, architecture, music, manuscripts, and art? What kinds of multimedia objects or events existed in the medieval period, and how might we as modern scholars still have access to them? What are the consequences of considering medieval manuscripts, texts, and works of art as multimedia works?
Other topics for presentations may include:
· Translation and dictionary projects
· Digital projects in the visual and performance arts
· Encoding of medieval manuscripts and printed texts
· Management and preservation of digital resources
· The cultural impact of new media
· The role of digital humanities in academic curricula
· Funding and sustainability of long-term projects
Graduate students, please submit your abstract of no more than 300 words by
December 7, 2012.
Include your name and affiliation.
Papers must be 15-20 minutes in length.
Submissions should be emailed to medievalstudy@gmail.com
Caroline Walker Bynum Lecture
Please join us for a lecture by Caroline Walker Bynum on Friday, November 9, 2012 at 4:00 pm in the Segel Theater of the Graduate Center, CUNY.* Dr. Bynum is Professor emerita of Medieval European History at the Institute for Advanced Study, and University Professor emerita at Columbia University.
“The Anthropomorphic and the Other: Medieval Holy Objects in Comparative Perspective”
Students of comparative religion, cognitive scientists, art historians, and historians sometimes use paradigms from non-western religions to raise questions about the role of material objects in Christianity. Recently, such discussion has focused on images and controversies about them. In her talk, Prof. Bynum argues that the most important material manifestation of the holy in the western European Middle Ages was the Eucharist and suggests both that understanding it is enhanced by the use of comparative material and that considering it as a case study of divine materiality leads to a more sophisticated formulation of comparative paradigms.
*The Graduate Center is located at 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY.
This event is co-sponsored by the Pearl Kibre Medieval Study and The Center for Humanities.
Grant Workshop Resources
Thanks to all of our presenters at the PKMS Grant Workshop that was held on Friday, September 7 and to all who attended.
Below is a list of resources from the workshop.
Professor Anne Stone recommends Scholarly Pursuits, an ebook by Cynthia Verba, available online from the Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. http://www.gsas.harvard.edu/current_students/scholarly_pursuits.php
Professor Dagmar Herzog has shared Grant Writing Strategies, a PDF that you can download here.
GRANT-WRITING STRATEGIES HERZOG
Deborah Hillborn demonstrated resources from the Graduate Center’s Office of Research and Sponsored Programs (RSP) including Pivot/COS. For more information contact the RSP: http://www.gc.cuny.edu/About-the-GC/Provosts-Office/Sponsored-Research-Grant-Funding
She also demonstrated Grant Advisor Plus, accessible in the Mina Rees Library list of databases online:
http://www.grantadvisor.com.ezproxy.gc.cuny.edu/tgaplus/
Grant writing workshop
The PKMS will host a Grant Writing Workshop on Friday, September 7 at 3:30 pm in GC room 5409.
Speakers will give short talks about their own grant writing experience or advice for grad students; there will be a short demonstration of a grant database that is available to GC students; and there will be time for a Q & A after the talks.
Speakers will be:
Professor Anne Stone, Music
Professor Dagmar Herzog, History
Professor Michael Sargent, English
Debra Hillborn, PhD student in Theater
While some aspects of the workshop will be directed toward medievalists, much of the information will be useful for students in any field. All are welcome.
PKMS tentative schedule of events
Welcome to the PKMS blog.
PKMS tentative schedule of events for Fall 2012:
Aug. 23, 12:30pm DSC Open House (room 5105)
Sept. 7, 3:30pm Grant writing workshop (room 5409)
Oct. 19, 6:00pm Pizza & Movie (room 5409)
Nov. 9, 4:00pm Guest speaker: Caroline Walker Bynum (Segal Theatre)
Dec. 2, 2:00pm Medieval Feast (room 5414; ID required for weekend entry)
Dec. 7, 3:30 St. Augustine Film & Discussion (Segal Theatre)
Mar. 1 Graduate Student Conference on “Digital Humanities”
April New Directions Roundtable
May 9-12 Panel on “Medieval Peripheries” at the Medieval Congress
Other upcoming medieval activities:
Aug. 31, 6 pm Friends of the Saints Rubin Museum exhibit tour
Sept weekends New York Renaissance Faire
Sept 30, all day, Medieval Festival at Fort Tryon Park and the Cloisters
Oct. 5, 7:30 pm Medieval Club of NY, Met Arms and Armor tour
