Medieval and Early Modern Studies (MEMS)

Medieval and Early Modern Studies (MEMS) at UF is an interdisciplinary forum for the study of medieval and early modern culture and its influences on the modern world. This approach addresses the distinctive forms of cultural organization in the Middle Ages and Early Modern periods; the study necessarily crosses departmental boundaries.

Spring 2014 courses

See Courses

MEM3300-3301: Introduction on YouTube

The MEMS course sequence: MEM 3300: 'Castles and Cloisters' and MEM 3301 'Palaces and Cities, is the subject of a YouTube video in which Professors Mary Watt and Will Hasty discuss castles, cloisters, palaces, and cities. The video is an Open Ideas Production by Nicholas Cravey and Naomi Rivas, who were students in the course.

CFP: 40th Sewanee Medieval Colloquium (April 4-5, 2015). Also Undergrad session!

The Fortieth Annual Sewanee Medieval Colloquium will be held April 4-5 at the University of the South in Sewanee, TN. Our theme this year is Medieval Emotions.

We invite 20-minute papers from all disciplines, or proposals for 3-paper sessions.  Please submit an abstract (approx. 250 words) and brief c.v., electronically if possible; If you wish to propose a session, please submit abstracts and vitae for all participants in the session. Send material by  October 18 to medievalcolloquium@sewanee.edu.

There will also be a special undergraduate panel at the 40th annual Sewanee Medieval Colloquium. We invite 15-minute papers for an undergraduate panel from all disciplines on any medieval topic, though papers focusing on medieval emotions, feelings, or affects are especially encouraged.  Participants must be undergraduates currently enrolled in a college or university. Students should submit an abstract (approx. 150 words), electronically if possible, no later than 2 December 2013.

Our plenary speakers will be Dr. William Reddy of Duke University, author of The Making of Romantic Love: Longing and Sexuality in Europe, South Asia and Japan, 900-1200 CE, and Dr. Miri Rubin, author of numerous books on late medieval religious culture, including Emotion and Devotion: The Meaning of Mary in Medieval Religious Cultures. We will also feature a roundtable discussion on "Scholastic Emotions" led by Dr. Mark Jordan, author of The Invention of Sodomy in Christian Theology  and Rewritten Theology: Aquinas After his Readers.

Our website features more information, as well as an abstract submission form:
http://medievalcolloquium.sewanee.edu

“Once Prostitute, Now Nun: Liturgy as Reform in Late Medieval Vienna”
Cynthia Cyrus, Friday, Nov. 1, 1:55 pm, Friends of Music Room

The Musicology Colloquium presents Dr. Cynthia Cyrus, associate provost for undergraduate education and professor of musicology, Vanderbilt University. She will be visiting UF on Oct. 31-Nov. 1. Her lecture is based on her current book in progress. All are invited to attend, Friday, Nov. 1, 1:55, Friends of Music Room, University Auditorium, reception to follow.

19th New College Conference on Medieval and Renaissance Studies

March 6–8, 2014. The e call for papers is available at http://www.newcollegeconference.org.

In memoriam Lee Daniel Snyder (1933–2012), emeritus professor of Medieval and Renaissance History at New College of Florida

The newly established Lee Snyder Memorial Fund honors Lee's lifelong commitment to introducing the Middle Ages and Renaissance to new generations and to enlarging the community of scholars. If the conference that he founded has played a significant part in your professional life, please consider making a contribution to the Fund, which supports this Conference as well as New College students concentrating in Medieval & Renaissance Studies. Please see the Fund's webpage at http://www.ncf.edu/lee-snyder-memorial-fund for details, or to donate; you can also direct any questions about the Fund to info@newcollegeconference.org

The Snyder Memorial Fund supports the Lee Snyder Prize, which will be awarded for the first time in at the 2014 New College Conference. The prize carries an honorarium of $400 and will be given to the best paper presented at the conference by a junior scholar.

MEMS sessions at Kalamazoo in the news

WMMT News reported on the Medieval Congress at Kalamazoo, and one of the segments featured Serbian scholar Jelena Erdeljan, a presenter at a MEMS-sponsored session on Medieval Serbia organized by UF's Florin Curta. Another of Professor Curta's sessions, "The Archaeology of Early Medieval Europe: New Approaches to Ethnicity," literally overflowed the assigned room, with audience members standing in the halls outside the doors!

UF's Florin Curta & friends at the 48th International Medieval Congress, including participants in the MEMS sessions on "Medieval Serbia" and "Late Medieval Urban Identities in Southern and Eastern Europe." From left to right: Piotr Górecki (UC Riverside), Sebastien Rossignol (Dalhousie), Matthew Delvaux (MA at UF, now at Boston U), Jelena Erdeljan (U of Belgrade, Serbia), Ivan Stevoviić (U of Belgrade), Laurentiu Radvan (U of Iasi, Romania), Florin Curta (UF), Tatiana Subotin Goluboviić (U of Belgrade), Matthew Koval (UF PhD student in History), Katalin Szende (Central European U, Budapest), Cosmin Popa-Gorjanu (U of Alba Iulia, Romania).

Video: Florin Curta (UF) discusses gift-giving as a ruler's strategy in East Central Europe in the 9th century. (about 1 minute).

UCLA MEMSA Graduate Student Conference: Pedagogical Approaches to Medieval and Early Modern Studies CFP

UCLA's Medieval and Early Modern Student Association & UCLA's Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies will sponsor a conference on teaching medieval and early modern materials on June 7, 2013.

We welcome abstracts from a variety of fields within or adjacent to Medieval and Early Modern studies. While specific teaching techniques are encouraged, we’d like papers that include a broader theoretical and pedagogical scope. Abstracts of less than 500 words for 20-minute papers should be emailed to memsa.ucla@gmail.com by March 15 with the subject line CONFERENCE ABSTRACT. Papers should be timed to less than 20 minutes.

The James J. Paxson Memorial Travel Grant for Scholars of Limited Funds

The BABEL Working Group and postmedieval: a journal of medieval cultural studies, have established the James J. Paxson Memorial Travel Grant for Scholars of Limited Funds. The grant, in memory of the late U.F. English professor, will be available annually beginning in 2013 for presenters at the International Congress on Medieval Studies, held each spring at Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, Michigan). It was made possible by an initial gift from one of Professor Paxson’s former students at the University of Florida, Mead Bowen.

This grant of $1,000 will cover travel costs, registration fees, lodging and other expenses for one scholar who would otherwise find it a financial hardship to present his or her work at the International Congress on Medieval Studies. First priority will extend to those presenting on topics dear to Prof. Paxson: medieval English literature, especially medieval allegory, and even more especially Piers Plowman; medieval drama; science and literature; critical theory; and/or Chaucer. Scholars whose careers would benefit the most from this opportunity, such as early and mid-career researchers, and also graduate students and recent doctoral graduates, will also take precedence. 

Applicants for 2013 should send a brief prospectus of their accepted ICMS paper (350-500 words), a statement of financial need, and a brief c.v. to Eileen Joy at: eileenajoy@gmail.com by MARCH 15, 2013. The recipient of the grant will be announced by or before APRIL 15.

For more information, see http://www.inthemedievalmiddle.com/2013/02/announcement-james-j-paxson-memorial.html

UF Certificate Program in Medieval Archaeology

Faculty from he departments of History, Anthropology, and Geology, and the Florida Museum of Natural History, offer this new certificate. See the MedArch home page for details.

Stammtisch

The UF Center for Medieval and Early Modern Studies sponsors the Stammtisch series, in which graduate students working in any area of medieval and Early Modern studies may present a current research project and then discuss their research with attendees.