Medieval Graduate Students in English at UNM

New Online Version of the Bosworth and Toller Old English Dictionary

2010-03-29T21:41:00.002-06:00

You might be interested in the latest digital version of the Bosworth and Toller Old English Dictionary:

http://bosworth.ff.cuni.cz/

Ondřej Tichý, who maintains the site, is a friend of mine from the ISAS digital workshop last summer.

If you have used one of the other digital Bosworth and Tollers online, you will be happy to find this one has vastly greater search capabilities. For instance, you can used the advanced search to find all words that contain a particular root (I experience a brief period of euphoria when I search for 'mod'; that was a lie: I am still in that state of euphoria after a good hour), and you can search not only head words, but also definitions (helpful if you want to throw the occasional Old English into your Facebook status update).

I also posted a link on the MEGSE website, along with links to the other two digital alternatives:

http://megse.unm.edu/research/web.html

UNM Graduate Student Sweep MAP Founder’s prizes

2010-03-07T18:23:00.002-07:00

Three University of New Mexico graduate students swept the Medieval Association of the Pacific's Founder's prize for best paper by a graduate student at the 2009 conference: Francesca Tuoni, Douglas Ryan VanBenthuysen, and Shelece Easterday.

Visiting Scholar Dr. Ian Levy Presents on the Medieval Church

2010-03-02T15:17:00.000-07:00

Dr. Ian Levy, a medievalist who is UNM's inaugural Visiting Chair of Catholic Studies, presented on "The Crisis of Authority in the Late Medieval University." His presentation touched on such key figures as John Wycliffe, Jean Gerson, and Pierre d'Ailly.

Visiting Scholar Dr. Chauncey Wood Gives Two Presentations: One Scholarly, One Professional

2010-02-25T17:30:00.000-07:00

Visiting Scholar Dr. Chauncey Wood gave two presentations today. The first, "Developing the Research Component of Your Career," part of the English Graduate Student Association's lunchtime lecture series, provided practical advice for students concerned about publishing. The second, "Observation in the Flesh; Observation in the Spirit: The 'Duplex Sentence' of Chaucer's Characterization," covered some interesting observations about the history of Chaucer scholarship. Professor Wood is currently visiting UNM, teaching a graduate seminar on Chaucer.

Old English and Old Norse Keyboard Layouts – Mac Versions

2009-10-25T01:44:00.001-06:00

...just uploaded.

http://megse.unm.edu/research/internal/keyboards.html

Beowulf: Prince of the Geats

2009-10-09T15:48:00.001-06:00

The Medieval Studies Student Association will be showing a medieval themed movie during the medieval themed homecoming week. The showing will take place on October 22 at 6PM, in SUB Fiesta Room A&B.

We are very happy to announce that we have been granted the rights to show the film Beowulf: Prince of the Geats. Scott Wegener, the producer of the film, has generously granted us these rights with no charge. This film, which Wegener describes as "not the typical Hollywood production" and has earned two regional Emmy Award nominations from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, was produced with a zero budget and all profits will be donated to the American and Norwegian Cancer societies. At Mr. Wegener's request, we will be collecting donations for the American Cancer society at the event. You can read more about the film and its anti-cancer mission here: http://www.princeofthegeats.com/.

After the film, MSSA members will lead a discussion on the film and on the portrayal of the medieval world in film. You can read about the event on the MSSA website: http://mssa.unm.edu/homecoming2009.htm.

Old English & Old Norse Keyboards

2009-09-07T01:47:00.001-06:00

...just uploaded, along with detailed instructions:

http://megse.unm.edu/research/internal/keyboards.html

Added Norse Resources

2009-09-03T07:00:00.001-06:00

I added a few Old Norse resources on the Web Resources page.

Spring Lecture Series: Day 4

2009-04-30T17:00:00.001-06:00

Thursday, April 30, 5:15 p.m.

The University of New Mexico Early Music Ensemble, directed by Colleen Sheinberg

"Musical Visions in the Medieval World"

Medieval composers have given us visions of sin and worldly vices, visions of beauty, and visions of the divine and the hereafter. This concert will present music from a variety of medieval sources, including the Cantigas de Santa María, the Llibre Vermell, and the Roman de Fauvel, as well as songs by visionary composers Hildegard of Bingen and English hermit St. Godric. The UNM Early Music Ensemble is a class in which students learn to play period instruments in order to better understand how music from earlier times would have sounded to contemporary listeners. This concert marks the fourth time the ensemble has performed as part of the Medieval Spring Lecture Series.

Performers

Mandy Brown—voice, flute, recorders, percussion
Bill Burns—voice, recorders, dulcimer, percussion
Yuval Carmi—voice, recorders, percussion
Gwen Easterday—voice, organ, hurdy gurdy, harp, percussion
Zack Kear—voice, harp, organ, recorders, saz, percussion
Elena Maietta—voice, vielle, viola da gamba, percussion
Rikk Murphy—voice, vielle, recorder, viola da gamba, percussion
Don Partridge—voice, recorders, percussion
Colleen Sheinberg—voice, recorders, vielle, viola da gamba, percussion
Krystal Tuning—voice, rebec, vielle, percussion
Kathy Wimmer—voice, harp, saz, recorder

Colleen Sheinberg is a lecturer in early music performance at the University of New Mexico Department of Music, where she has been involved in directing the UNM Early Music Ensemble since 1995. In addition to coaching the Early Music Ensemble, Ms. Sheinberg is also a founding member and director of the acclaimed professional early music group, Música Antigua de Albuquerque. Música Antigua performs regularly in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, and has given guest performances throughout the state. The group has also performed by invitation on the PSALM concert series in Houston and on the Early Music Now! series in Milwaukee and was the recipient of the Albuquerque Arts Alliance's 2002 Bravo Award for Excellence in Music. Ms. Sheinberg has recorded three CDs with Música Antigua (including two on the Dorian label of New York): A Rose of Swych Virtu, The Sport of Love, and Music to the Max: Music at the Court of Maximilian I.

Barbara Newman

"Love Was His Meaning: A Dramatic Performance Based on the Writings of Julian of Norwich"

Julian of Norwich (1342–ca. 1416) is medieval England's most famous visionary and the first known female author in the English language. She recorded the fruit of her visions, the Revelation of Love, after living for years as an anchoress in a cell attached to the church of St. Julian at Norwich in eastern England. Her book reveals her to be a profound and daring theologian—writing of the Trinity in domestic terms, for example, and comparing Jesus to a mother who is wise, loving, and merciful. Barbara Newman will bring Julian's career and influence to life through a multimedia performance that will offer an extraordinary climax to this year's lecture series. She will present readings from the Revelation interspersed with other medieval texts, liturgical chants, images from Julian's visual and artistic world, and modern poems about the mystic, in order to convey an in-depth portrait of the woman to whom Christ promised, as she lay dying in May 1373, that "all shall be well, and thou shalt see thyself that all manner of thing shall be well." Professor Newman will be assisted by actors Bill Burns and Kathy Wimmer, and by a plainchant choir featuring members of Música Antigua de Albuquerque: Hovey Dean Corbin, Jr., Dennis Davies-Wilson, Ruth Helgeson, David McGuire, and Colleen Sheinberg.

Barbara Newman is Professor of English, Religion, and Classics and John Evans Professor of Latin at Northwestern University. She is widely recognized as an international expert on female religious figures of the Middle Ages and their mystical and visionary experience. She has held Fellowships from the Mellon Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation at Bellagio, and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and is a Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her many influential books include Sister of Wisdom: St. Hildegard's Theology of the Feminine (1987); From Virile Woman to WomanChrist: Studies in Medieval Religion and Literature (1995); Voice of the Living Light: Hildegard of Bingen and Her World (1998); and God and the Goddesses: Vision, Poetry, and Belief in the Middle Ages (2003). The last-mentioned title recently received the Medieval Academy of America's Charles H. Haskins Medal, which recognizes especially significant and innovative publications in the field of Medieval Studies.

Spring Lecture Series: Day 3

2009-04-29T18:16:00.002-06:00

Wednesday, April 29, 5:15 p.m.

Katherine H. Tachau

"Light and Color, Optics and Alchemy in Thirteenth-Century Paris"

Of all the sciences that developed in medieval European universities, that of optics (perspectiva, or "seeing through") has had the most long-lived effects, both for the history of art and for physics today. The efforts to explain light and its workings, the geometry of its transmission, the nature of colors, and vision, gained contributors and audience in part because of the intellectual context within which the science was interwoven. Some of this context was theological, some experimental—a realm where alchemists and such artisans as those who produced the illuminated books of Paris, the Bibles moralisées, could meet. Among those who studied optics in the thirteenth-century universities was one of the most intriguing characters of the entire Middle Ages, the Franciscan friar Roger Bacon, known to his contemporaries as the doctor mirabilis. Revered by some modern scholars as a founder of the experimental method and a significant influence on later scientists such as Johannes Kepler, Bacon skirted controversy in his own time and was suspected of sorcery and practice of the black arts. His contributions to optics are especially revealing of the underlying assumptions and inner dynamic of medieval science.

Wednesday, April 29, 7:15 p.m.

Christopher Kleinhenz

"Dante's Vision of the Afterlife"

Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy has justly been termed the supreme masterpiece of medieval civilization. Offering a panoramic perspective on human life on earth as well as on the afterlife in its three realms of Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise, the Comedy abounds in poetic insights that dazzle the imagination. In this lecture, Christopher Kleinhenz will first discuss the various sorts of "visions" and "ways of seeing" present in the medieval world in general before looking specifically at the ways in which Dante represented the afterlife in the Comedy. He will examine the afterlife both as a real and traversable place/space and as a moral and spiritual construct. He will also consider the meaning and functionality of the afterlife in the Comedy, examining in particular how the poem represents the operation of Divine Justine through the nature of the punishments in the Inferno, the purgation process in Purgatory, and the concept of beatitude in Paradise. The lecture will incorporate discussion of the artistic sources of Dante's rich poetic language and imagery, and of the lively illustrative tradition that his poem generated in manuscript illuminations and book illustrations. The lecture will be accompanied by many fine visual images.

Christopher Kleinhenz is the Carol Mason Kirk Professor of Italian Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin, and one of North America's most distinguished experts on medieval Italian literature and culture. A former President of the American Association of Teachers of Italian and of the American Boccaccio Association, he has received the City of Genoa Medal for the Promotion of Italian in North America (1998), the Leonard Covello Educator of the Year Award (2005), the Medieval Academy of America's Award for Outstanding Service to Medieval Studies (2008), and the WisItalia Lifetime Achievement Award. His numerous publications include The Early Italian Sonnet: The First Century (1220–1321) (1986) and Movement and Meaning in the "Divine Comedy": Toward an Understanding of Dante's Processional Poetics (2005). He is editor of The Dante Encyclopedia (2000) and of Medieval Italy: An Encyclopedia (2004). Professor Kleinhenz is a Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America.

Spring Lecture Series: Day 2

2009-04-28T16:49:00.000-06:00

Tuesday, April 28, 5:15 p.m.

Jeffrey F. Hamburger

"'As It Were': Mysticism and Visuality"

By definition, the ineffable—that which surpasses the powers of human expression—lies beyond representation of any sort, be it visual or verbal. In its root sense, the word "mysticism" derives from the Greek myein, "to remain silent" or "to close the lips or eyes." What place can there be for any discourse on the visible in the context of a system of thought that, by definition, is predicated on obscurity and blindness? The paradox extends from sight to speech: were mystics to fall silent, there would not be any mystical literature. Yet when they speak, they very often are called to describe what they see. The description of mystical vision might seem to rest upon the assumption that—in defiance of the aphorism to the contrary—a thousand words are worth a single picture. The visible, however, is often said to defy verbal description; one must therefore ask what, and how, mystics "see," and why "vision," however defined, is so indispensable to their way of framing the world and their experience of it. Perhaps the ultimate paradox, when speaking of mysticism and visuality, is that a discourse that by definition shuns the senses came, over the course of the medieval millennium, not only to legitimize but even to redeem the senses. Given the incarnational emphasis of late medieval piety, one must use the word "redeem" advisedly, if cautiously, given that mysticism's sensory and, at times, sensual side was never without controversy. The sensory was integrated into the spiritual. In the spirit of "as it were," illusionistic strategies, some driven by the desire for divine presence, only served to make images more persuasive. Changing attitudes towards works of art form a part of this picture. As Jeffrey Hamburger will show, not even the Reformation was able to undo the effects of this affirmation of the visual.

Tuesday, April 28, 7:15 p.m.

Katherine H. Tachau

"Illuminating the Science of the Stars in the Thirteenth-Century Bibles Moralisées"

The Bibles moralisées, a series of Bible picture books produced for members of the French royal family during the thirteenth century, present a feast for the eyes, being the most sumptuously illustrated codices of the medieval period. Each Bible moralisée manuscript contains several thousand images which not only picture scenes from the Old and New Testament but also establish typological parallels between the two Testaments and contemporary medieval life. As Katherine Tachau will show in this lecture, the text and images of the Bibles moralisées reflect the intellectual world of the thirteenth-century University of Paris and of theologians active within that context. They also cast intriguing light on the medieval study of astrology and logic. Scholars have often wondered why, when Heloise gave birth some time before 1120, she and the father, Abelard, made one of the odder choices of baby name by calling their child "Astrolabe" after the astronomical instrument that represents the movements of the planets and stars. Nothing written by or about either parent tells us why. The Bibles moralisées, however, produced about a hundred years after Astrolabe's birth, offer clues to the solution of this mystery and others. Professor Tachau's lecture will delve into these clues.

Katherine H. Tachau is Professor of History at the University of Iowa, where she has taught since 1985. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin and spent two years at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, before taking up faculty positions at Montana State University and Pomona College. Her interests in medieval history span the fields of science, religion, and art. Her study of the medieval science of optics, Vision and Certitude in the Age of Ockham: Optics, Epistemology, and the Foundations of Semantics, 1250–1345 (1988), received the Medieval Academy of America's John Nicholas Brown Prize for the best first book in the field of Medieval Studies. She has also received the Medieval Academy's Van Courtland Elliott Prize for the best first article on a medieval topic. Her recent work on the Bibles moralisées is embodied in a forthcoming book to be titled Bible Lessons for Kings: Scholars and Friars in Thirteenth-Century Paris and the Creation of the Bibles Moralisées. Professor Tachau has received Fellowships from the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, the National Humanities Center, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Stanford Humanities Center, and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

Spring Lecture Series: Day 1

2009-04-27T19:02:00.000-06:00

Monday, April 27, 7:15 p.m.

Jeffrey F. Hamburger, Harvard University

"Openings"

Jeffrey Hamburger will get this year's lecture series under way with a presentation examining the key visual unit that structured the manner in which medieval scribes and artists presented their work, and in which their readers perceived that work: the opening—that is, the two pages that faced one another when a medieval book was opened at any point. In an age of mechanical, and now virtual, reproduction, it is perhaps too easy to lose sight of the importance of this basic visual unit. From the origins of the bound book in Late Antiquity, and in contrast to the scrolls used in the ancient world, the confrontation of the verso of one leaf with the recto of the following leaf provided the field of opportunity within which scribes and artists operated, often with consummate skill. Openings made possible the visual elaboration of the words of the text with figured initials, frames, and full-page miniatures. Professor Hamburger will explore the complex semantics and literally revelatory possibilities of this new medium of the opening as it developed over the medieval millennium, from the fifth to the fifteenth century.

Jeffrey F. Hamburger is the Kuno Francke Professor of German Art and Culture at Harvard University. He received his Ph.D. from Yale University and taught at Oberlin College and the University of Toronto before moving to Harvard in 2000. A distinguished expert on the art of later medieval Germany, Professor Hamburger has a special interest in the work of female artists and in the pictorial representation of mystical visions. He has been the recipient of Fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung, the American Philosophical Society, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. His many publications include Nuns as Artists: The Visual Culture of a Medieval Convent (1996); The Visual and the Visionary: Art and Female Spirituality in Late Medieval Germany (1998); and The Mind's Eye: Art and Theological Argument in the Medieval West (2005). He has received five major national book awards. In 2005 Professor Hamburger played the leading role in compiling an international exhibition, Krone und Schleier ("Crown and Veil"), which centered on the art of female monasticism and was sponsored by the German government. Professor Hamburger is a Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America.

2009 Spring Lecture Series: Vision and Visionaries in the Middle Ages

2009-04-27T17:00:00.000-06:00

This week, the Institute for Medieval Studies will be hosting its annual spring lecture series. I will be posting information from the program about the presentation and the presenters through the week.

Medieval Works in Progress: Dr. Paul Acker, St. Louis University

2009-04-07T19:30:00.000-06:00

Dr. Paul Acker, currently a Visiting Professor of Viking Mythology at UNM, presented today on the Viking influence on the Pre-Raphaelites. His presentation considered the artwork of Elizabeth Siddal, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones, William Morris, Frank Bernard Dicksee, and Frederick Sandys.

Here's an interesting image from F. Dicksee, called "Startled." Can you find the Viking ship?

Piers Plowman Recording

2009-03-08T19:12:00.000-06:00

At the MAP conference this weekend, Chaucer Studio had a room set up to record Piers Plowman. Dr. Anita Obermeier and I were responsible for Passus II-IV, with me playing the parts of Conscience, Reason, Theology, ect, and her the part of Lady Mead and the narrator. We only managed to get through Passus II, but we will be recording the rest in Kalamazoo this May.

Medieval Association of Pacific Conference

2009-03-08T18:36:00.000-06:00

This weekend, the University of New Mexico Institute for Medieval Studies hosted the Medieval Academy of the Pacific Conference.

The program can be found here: http://www.csun.edu/english/map09/conference09.php

Several UNM graduate students and faculty presented papers and presided over sessions.

The weekend culminated with a visit to the Acoma Pueblo.

MSSA Colloquium

2009-02-25T15:55:00.000-07:00

Several UNM graduate students presented papers today informally in preparation for the upcoming Medieval Association of the Pacific conference, being held at UNM next week.

Here are the papers:

Shelece Easterday on verbs associated with treasure in Beowulf.
Douglas Ryan VanBenthuysen on the punctuation of line 1553b in the 4^th edition of Klaeber's Beowulf.
David Lawrence on depictions of Chaucer's Wife of Bath
Christine Kozikowski on Privacy in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde

The event was held in the Leon Howard Memorial Library on the 3^rd floor of the Humanities building.

Medieval Works in Progress: Dr. Justine Andrews, University of New Mexico

2009-02-24T18:09:00.000-07:00

Today Dr. Justine Andrews presented at the UNM Institute for Medieval Studies' Medieval Works in Progress Series. Dr. Andrews is currently working on a book on Medieval Cyprian Architecture, the fruits of her recent Fulbright grants to visit the island. The presentation, titled "Gothic Cyprus: Sources and Functions of 14^th Century Latin Architecture" considered two Cyprian Gothic churches: Santa Sophia in the central city Nicosia and St. Nicolas in the port city Famagusta. Her presentation not only discussed the architectural style of these two churches, which she characterized as demonstrating "memory of the Holy Land finding purchase in 14^th century Cyprus," but also their political function, as both sites served both as religious centers and political ones: both had served as coronation sites.

St. Nicolas, Famagusta

Santa Sophia, Nicosia

MLA 2009 CFP

2009-02-10T10:35:00.002-07:00

The MLA has released its CFP for 2009. Below are the relevant topics for English literature:

Old English Language and Literature

Burga, Beagas, and Barrows in OE: Archaeological Approaches to OE Literature
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Aesthetics and OE Literature
Open Session

Middle English Language and Literature

Devotion in Translation
Family Affairs
Lyric and Lyricism: A Roundtable

Chaucer

Chaucer and the Medieval Household
Chaucer and Visual Culture
Global Chaucer: The Circulation of Translation in the 14th and 21st Centuries

Piers Plowman Recording at MAP Conference

2009-02-06T12:06:00.001-07:00

At the Medieval Academy of the Pacific (MAP) conference, which will take place at UNM from March 6-9, several scholars, organized by Prof. Michael Calabrese of California State University at Los Angeles, will be recording Piers Plowman. Dr. Anita Obermeier and I will be handling Passus 2-4 as a duet, with me playing the part of Conscience. (I can only assume I have been given this role because tale of my moral uprightness is far-flung!).

I will post more details about the MAP conference, including details about papers being presented by our own graduate students and faculty, as the date approaches.

Studies in Medievalism XVII

2009-01-27T08:36:00.001-07:00

Boydell & Brewer has just released Studies in Medievalism XVII, which contains my article "Seamus Heaney's Audio Beowulf: An Analysis of the Omissions." It is available here: http://www.boydell.co.uk/43841843.HTM.

Lecture: Dr. E. Paul Durrenberger, Penn State University

2008-11-07T15:49:00.001-07:00

The Journal of Anthropological Research, a UNM Publication, presented a seminar by its 2008 Distinguished Lecturer, Dr. E. Paul Durrenberger of Penn State University. His lecture, titled "Archaeology & Literature: the Political Ecology of Medieval Iceland during the Settlement Period, 870-1262," explained the progression in Iceland from a slave-based economy to a wage-worker based economy by looking at both archaeological evidence and evidence from Icelandic sagas. Dr. Durrenberger's fantastic PowerPoint slides illustrated the relationship between slave labor, acquisition of provisions, increased followers, and ultimate the need for wage labor. He then went to illustrate how this economic growth led to the need for more territory, and ultimate more bloodshed between Icelandic tribes.

Dr. Durrenberger also discussed the archaeological site in the Skagafjörður region of Iceland where the Icelandic home of Guðríður Þorbjarnardóttir, the first woman of European decent to give birth in the Americas, was discovered.

This well attended seminar was a joy to students of archaeology, anthropology, and us medievalists, and we are grateful to Dr. Durrenberger's for his visit.

Lectures: Dr. Maria Panayotidi, University of Athens

2008-11-05T21:00:00.001-07:00

Dr. Maria Panayotidi of the University of Athens, department of Byzantine Art and Archeology, visited the UNM campus today to give two lectures about Byzantine Art. She appeared as a part of the Institute for Medieval Study's Medieval Works in Progress Series. Dr. Panayotidi has been visiting the United States on a grant provided by the Alexander S. Onassis Foundation. UNM was lucky to have been chosen as one of three universities she will be visiting.

Her first lecture, held at noon in the Humanities building, was titled "The Problem of Local Artistic Production in the 13th Century at St. Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai." Dr. Panayotidi is an expert on the Monastery. This lecture focused on her assertion that, because the Monastery did not have its own workshop, it was something of a gathering place for the work of iconographers around the region in the 13th century.

Her second lecture of the day, held in the evening at the UNM Art Museum, was titled "The Apogee of Byzantine Monumental Art." This lecture discussed the spread of Byzantine monumental art throughout the Europe and North Africa.

We are very grateful to Dr. Panayotidi for her visit!

MSSA Fall 2008 Calendar of Events

2008-10-03T20:14:00.002-06:00

Pizza at the Brickyard (2216 Central Ave.)

Friday, October 10, 4-6PM

Book & Bake Sale with Pumpkin Carving

Wednesday October 29, 10AM-2PM, Near Alumni Clock @ the Duck Pond
To donate baked goods or volunteer to work the table: Email mssa@unm.edu
We will have 50/50 raffle tickets available for sale for $0.50 each, and
PUMPKINS for you to carve!

Colloquium Abstracts are due to mssa@unm.edu
Wednesday October 29

Byzantine Works in Progress Lecture
First Week of November—Title & Date TBA, watch the MSSA list-serv.

Fall Semester Student Colloquium
Wednesday, November 12, 9AM-2PM, SUB, 3rd floor, Cherry Silver Room

Movie Night: The Sorceress
Friday, November 21, 4-6PM, HUM 108

SEMA 2008, Day 2

2008-10-03T19:37:00.002-06:00

Today was the second day of the SEMA conference.

I went to three sessions today, as well as Jeffrey Jerome Cohen's plenary. Below are some highlights.

Session: Vagina Dialogues: Sexual Dynamics in Medieval Comic Literature.

this session focused specifically on French fabliaux
Nathaniel Dubin's paper provided some interesting information on medieval sexuality and recounted some very interesting moments from various fabliaux, which I must now make a point of reading

Session: Chaucer I

all three of these papers were very interesting, but the one that sticks out is Joseph E. Marshall's, which is titled "Sterile Bodies: Simony, Sodomy, and the Summoner's Compeer"
Marshall's paper discussed the necessity of viewing the Pardoner, a member of Chaucer's band of pilgrims who is often viewed only in physical terms, in both spiritual and physical terms. The really interesting point that the paper makes is that simony and sodomy were considered equally sterile acts--one leading to no growth in the spiritual life, the other resulting in no chance for conceiving life physically.
there is also apparently a trend in French, Spanish, and perhaps in Middle English literature of using the image of a coin or relic bag as a euphemism for testicles

Session: Lyricism, Sin, and Divided Holy/Secular Bodies

this was the session in which I presented my paper, which unfortunately means I missed the BABEL Working Group sponsored session for which Amy Hollywood was the featured respondent
Curtis Jirsa gave a wonderful paper on Piers Plowman and associated medieval lyrics, and he gave me some fine suggestions to incorporate into my own work after the close of the session
Candace Gregory-Abbott gave an intensely interesting paper on a 15th-century English text that even in discussing the spiritual, does so in very physical terms.
Cynthia Ho gave a paper on St. Francis and the avoidance of sexual temptation in the records of his life that are extant.

Plenary: "Bodies in Motion/Mandeville, Defective"

Cohen's plenary was an examination of the text(s) of Mandeville's Travels, and it probed the meaning of travel, return, and cicumnavigation of the world, of identity.

Exhibit: "What a Piece of Work Is a Man--Reading the Body in Medieval Manuscripts"

This display featured a number of facsimile images from Books of Hours to treatises on food preparation

I also made it to the book exhibit and to the Vatican Film Library.

SEMA 2008 in St. Louis "Bodies, Embodiments, Becomings"

2008-10-02T21:46:00.002-06:00

Today was the first day of the SEMA conference in St. Louis. So far the atmosphere has been pleasant and friendly, especially to those medievalists who enjoy modern critical theory.

I was able to see two sessions:
Faces, Nudity, Angel Bodies, Friendship and The Literary Construction of Religious Bodies: The Human, the Divine, and the Profane.

Among the papers from these two sessions, one particular point seems to stick out in my mind. Rabia Gregory's paper, "Naked Mystic, Naked God" and Brittany Whitstone's paper, "Revelation, Consecration, and Embodiment: Touching the Invisible World in AElfric's Easter Sermon," both made the point that the body and the spirit/soul are not so cleanly divided in the medieval period as we would perhaps sometimes like to suggest. In particular, Whitstone notes the need to tame the flesh, not reject it. This idea resounds nicely with Michael Edward Moore's paper, "Meditations on the Face in the Middle Ages," which dealt beautifully with the idea that the face of man is a reflection of the face of God.

Books I found out about today that I must read (links are to Amazon):
Alterity and Transcendence by Emmanuel Levinas
Cities of Ladies: Beguine Communities in the Medieval Low Countries, 1200-1565 by Walter Simons

I also discovered another reason to read the OE Andreas: it contains cannibalism.

Tomorrow afternoon I will be presenting my paper after which I will be able to attend the first plenary, which is to be given by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen.

Perhaps the most delightful thing so far has been my discovery of a paper title associated with a roundtable that makes reference to lolcats. I'm hoping to attend that session, but there are some other sessions looking equally interesting.

More to come...

Lecture: Dr. John McKinnell, Durham University

2008-04-28T15:23:00.002-06:00

The Institute for Medieval Studies Medieval Works in Progress and the Medieval Students Student Association sponsored today a lecture by visiting scholar Dr. John McKinnell titled: Beware of Your Family! Murderous Relatives in the Legends of the Early Kings of Sweden.

Dr. McKinnell has been serving as a visiting scholar this semester, teaching a course in Viking mythology.

MEGSE honored at AISS Outstanding UNM Faculty and Staff Recognition Luncheon

2008-04-25T11:14:00.002-06:00

Marisa Sikes was nominated by one of her current English 101 students, Alexsandra Serrano, to be an honoree at a luncheon sponsored by American Indian Student Services during Nizhoni Week on the UNM campus. Alex thanked Marisa for making the classroom an open environment in which she felt she could have a voice.

The luncheon was organized in order to recognize UNM faculty and staff who have had a positive influence on Native students through teaching, advising, or other modes of support. The luncheon also facilitated interdepartmental conversations about diversity and advocacy on campus during Nizhoni Week. Nizhoni Week is a week of student-centered activities, open to the public, during which Native students, Native student organizations, and supporting UNM departments celebrate and share Native culture with all of UNM and the surrounding Albuquerque community.

At the luncheon ceremony Marisa received a certificate from AISS, which featured Alex's praise of her.

Nizhoni Week continues on campus through Sunday, and the remaining events can be viewed here.

Two MEGSE have won Spring 2008 First-Year English Teaching Awards

2008-04-25T08:38:00.002-06:00

Last week both Jen Nader and Douglas Ryan VanBenthuysen won awards that illustrate their teaching effectiveness and success as graduate student teachers of First-Year English courses here at the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of New Mexico. The winners of the awards from this year will become judges for the Spring 2009 FYE Teaching Awards, which are open to all graduate student instructors within the department and were chosen by the Interim FYE Director and a committee of Rhetoric and Writing Graduate Student TAs.

Jen Nader won the award for Outstanding Instructor.

Douglas Ryan VanBenthuysen won the award for the best sequence designed for an English 101 or 102 class.

Jen and Doug will receive certificates and a monetary award at an awards ceremony at the end of this semester, May 14. Doug’s winning sequence and a general announcement regarding this years’ winners of the FYE Teaching Awards should be posted soon on the UNM English Department Homepage. We’ll update our blog here too after the award ceremony.

Medieval Studies Student Association Colloquium, Spring 2008

2008-04-16T22:10:00.004-06:00

Today the UNM MSSA members held their student colloquium, which occurs each semester, and provides both MSSA undergraduate and graduate members the opportunity to share their work with one another and to give one another feedback. For many it has been a venue to share their work prior to going to conferences such as the International Congress on Medieval Studies hosted by Western Michigan University.

Today we heard seven papers, five of which were from our undergraduate members. The topics ranged from codicological considerations of the Book of Kells to early Christian practices and reforms to rhetorical examinations of various medieval texts.

Both graduate student papers, written by myself and Katie Newell, will be presented this May at the 43rd Congress in Kalamazoo, MI.

The program is below:

Medieval Studies Student Association, UNM
Spring 2008 Student Colloquium
Wednesday, April 16, 2008, Noon-4PM
Cherry/Silver Room on 3rd Floor of the SUB

Program

Welcome and Refreshments: 12:00-12:15
Opening Remarks by MSSA President Christopher Franklin

Session 1: 12:15-1:45
The Traditions and Practices of Early Christianity
Presider: Megan Abrahamson

Training in Christianity: Minor Ornament in the Book of Kells
Kent Navalesi
Double Monasteries:
The Quiet but Powerful Role of Women in Anglo-Saxon England and Ireland
Christina M. Casaus
The Continuation of Ascetic Practices
Katherine Kontos

Session 2: 1:45-2:45
Reform and Authority in the Medieval Church
Presider: Karen Neuhauser

The Monks in the Middle:

Monasticism, Reform, and Heresy in the Early Middle Ages
Dale Enggass
Northmen, Narrative, and Legitimacy:
Using the Viking Invasions to Construct Authority in France, ca. 850-1250
Katie L. T. Newell

Session 3: 3:00-4:00
What’s in a Word? Rhetorical Strategies in Medieval Texts
Presider: Douglas Ryan VanBenthuysen

Molding Women:
Rhetorical Constructions of Authority in Late Medieval Conduct Literature
Marisa Sikes
Quite the Man from Quite the Class -

The Theme of Quiting in the Canterbury Tales
Christina Viviani

Southeastern Medieval Association CFP: Bodies, Embodiments, Becomings

2008-04-16T22:01:00.000-06:00

Southeastern Medieval Association CFP: Bodies, Embodiments, Becomings
2-4 October 2008 @ Saint Louis University in Saint Louis, Missouri

This conference looks like it will be exciting, especially since one of its plenary speakers is Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, who has written extensively on medieval concepts of the monstrous.

Abstracts are due via e-mail by May 30th.

Call for Papers
In his book Medieval Identity Machines, Jeffrey Jerome Cohen writes that we know the human body "is divisible into semidiscrete systems (nervous, digestive, circulatory, excretory, reproductive), but that these structures nevertheless form a bounded whole, a singular organism. The human body is therefore described as a marvel of God or of evolution, a system so autnomous from its environment that it can dream theology and science in order to envision how it came to be the culminating creation in a world of similarly distinct bodies and objects." But what if the body is less than this idealization and also "more than its limbs, organs, and flesh as traced by an anatomical chart"? What if it is "open and permeable," and what if "corporeality and subjectivity--themselves inseparable--potentially included both the social structures (kinship, nation, religion, race) and the phenomenal world (objects, gadgets, prostheses, animate and inanimate bodies of many kinds) across which human identity is spread?" Cohen urges us to see bodies as "sites of possibility" that are "necessarily dispersed into something larger, something mutable and dynamic, a structure of alliance and becoming," and which are always on the verge of escaping "the confines of somber individuality" in order to connect with other bodies and other worlds. Therefore, there is no "being," per se, only "becoming."

For the 34th Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Medieval Association, we invite paper and session proposals on any topic relative to the Middle Ages, but we especially encourage those proposals that address any and all aspects of the body, embodiment, and becoming in medieval arts and letters. Consider our definition of body to be wide open, to include human and nonhuman bodies, bodies of language and manuscripts and texts, bodies of history, bodies of knowledge, and bodies (of all types) as sites of transformation and possibility, of departures and arrivals, of enclosure and openness. Consider, also, if you will, the gendered body, the racialized body, the phenomenological body, the sexualized body, the colonial body, the medicalized body, the pathologized body, the animal body, the erotic body, the loving body, the spiritual body, the abnormal body, the medieval body, the communal body, the hybrid body, the post/human body, and so on. Consider the relationships between body and self-identity, between body and art, between body and mind, body and culture, body and technology, body and world, and so on. Consider, finally, the ways in which bodies and embodiment emerge out of historical times and spaces, and out of historical processes of becoming (coming-to-be through time and space).

Deadline for Submission: Friday, 30 May 2008

Send Paper or Session Abstracts to:
Eileen Joy Department of English
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
ejoy@siue.edu

*Submissions must be made via email.

Medieval Academy of America Chicago 2009 CFP

2008-04-16T21:58:00.002-06:00

Medieval Academy of America CFP for Chicago 2009

For those of you interested in presenting at a prestigious conference, the MAA released its annual call for papers earlier this spring. The basic information is below, or if you would like, you can access the MAA Newsletter online here:

http://www.medievalacademy.org/pdf/2008spring.pdf

The CFP appears on pg. 2 of the newsletter, and the abstracts are due by 15 May. If you look at the newsletter directly, be sure to check out the E-Resources listed on pg. 4.

Chicago 2009. The annual meeting of the Medieval Academy will be held 26–28 March 2009, at the Renaissance Chicago Hotel, hosted by the Illinois Medieval Association, DePaul University, Loyola University of Chicago, Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Illinois at Chicago. The Program Committee invites proposals for papers on all topics and in all disciplines and periods of medieval studies. Any member of the Medieval Academy may submit a paper proposal, except that those who presented papers at the annual meetings of the Medieval Academy in 2007 and 2008 are not eligible to speak in 2009. Please do not submit more than one proposal. Sessions usually consist of three thirty-minute papers, and proposals should be geared to that length. A different format for some sessions may be chosen by the Program Committee after the proposals have been reviewed. Session organizers may wish to propose different formats for their sessions, subject to program Committee approval.

Themes. The annual meeting of the Medieval Academy brings together medievalists from all disciplines and time periods. The Program Committee will capitalize on this strength by encouraging sessions that (1) address subjects of interest to a wide range of medievalists, and (2) put
scholars from different disciplines and time periods in dialogue with each other. We are seeking innovative proposals for papers and sessions and
hope to see cross-disciplinary participation wherever possible. For both the commissioned and the open sessions, we are looking for the broadest
possible range of proposals of topics and of time periods, within and across all the disciplines.

Selection procedure. Papers will be evaluated for promise of quality and significance of topic. Session organizers make an initial selection of
papers and submit a plan to the Program Committee, which makes final decisions by 15 September 2008. Notification of acceptance or rejection
will take place shortly thereafter.

Submissions. Proposals should be submitted, in two copies, to Barbara Newman, Dept. of English, University Hall 215, 1897 Sheridan Rd.,
Evanston, IL 60208-2240. The deadline is 15 May 2008. Please do not send proposals to session organizers or to the Academy office.
The proposal must have two parts: (1) a cover sheet containing the proposer’s name, statement of Academy membership (or statement that the
individual’s specialty would not normally involve membership in the Academy), professional status, postal address, home and office telephone
numbers, fax number (if available), e-mail address (if available), and paper title; (2) a second sheet containing the proposer’s name, session for
which the paper should be considered, paper title, 250-word abstract, and audio-visual equipmentrequirements. If the proposer will be at a different address when decisions are announced in September, that address should be included.

Topics. The Program Committee solicits papers for the sessions listed below. For information about a specific session, contact the session organizer.
1. Music and Mysticism. Organizer: Anne Robertson (Univ. of Chicago)
2. History of Emotions. Organizer: Barbara Rosenwein (Loyola Univ.)
3. Matters of Exchange: Byzantine Art and the Mediterranean. Organizer: Cecily Hilsdale (Northwestern Univ.)
4. Theology in the Early Middle Ages. Organizer: Willemien Otten (Univ. of Chicago)
5. Biblical Exegesis. Organizer: Frans van Liere (Calvin Coll.)
6. Jewish and Christian Magic. Organizer: Kate Mesler (Northwestern Univ.)
7. Political Theorists and the Rule of Women. Organizer: Theresa Earenfight (Seattle Univ.)
8. Medieval Drama across Boundaries. Organizer: Edward Wheatley (Loyola Univ.)
9. Chicago’s Chaucer: Manly and Rickert’s Edition, Seventy Years On. Organizer: Christina von Nolcken (Univ. of Chicago)
10. Bishops in the Empire. Organizer: Jonathan Lyon (Univ. of Chicago)
11. Parish Life: Town and Country. Organizer: Katherine French (SUNY-New Paltz)
12. Metalworking: Sacred and Secular. Organizer: Scott Montgomery (Univ. of Denver)
13. Medieval Chinese Philosophy. Organizer: Brook Ziporyn (Northwestern Univ.)
14. Minority Languages and Interlinguistic Contact. Organizer: Ray Wakefield (Univ. of Minnesota)
15. Roads, Bridges, and Waterways. Organizer: Chuck Bowlus (Univ. of Arkansas-Little Rock)
16. Fires and Phoenixes: Catastrophe and Opportunity. Organizer: Richard Kieckhefer (Northwestern Univ.)
17. Angels and Demons. Organizer: Dyan Elliott (Northwestern Univ.)
18. Late Medieval Ecclesiology. Organizer: Takashi Shogimen (Univ. of Otago, New Zealand)
19. Humanist Hagiography. Organizer: Ray Clemens (Illinois State Univ.)
20. Santiago: A Computer Model of the Pilgrimage Church. Organizer: John Dagenais (UCLA)
21. Law and Legal Culture in Anglo-Saxon England. Organizer: Andrew Rabin (Univ. of Louisville)
22. The Romance of the Rose and Its Offshoots. Organizer: Lori Walters (Florida State Univ.)
23. Cultural Crossings: Medieval Travel Writing. Organizer: Susie Phillips. (Northwestern Univ.)
24. Urban Legends: Foundational Myths and Medieval Cities in Western and Eastern Europe. Organizer: Alfred Thomas, Univ. of Illinois-Chicago)
25. British Holy Women. Organizer: Anne Clark Bartlett (DePaul Univ.)
26. 1300 Years of Reading Aldhelm. Organizer: Carin Ruff (Cornell Univ.)
27. New Directions in Boethian Studies. Organizer: Philip Phillips (International Boethius Soc., Middle Tennessee State Univ.)
28. Mapping Baltic Worlds: Centers, Peripheries, Conversions, and Crusades. Organizer: Elspeth Carruthers (Univ. of Illinois-Chicago)
29. Iberian Voices. Organizer: Ron Surtz (Princeton Univ.)
30. Translation and the Canon: Redefining the Boundaries of “Medieval Spain.” Organizer: Maria Menocal (Yale Univ.)
31. History, Law, and Theology: Iberian Cultures in the Americas. Organizer: Sabine MacCormack (Univ. of Notre Dame)

Other topics. The Program Committee welcomes submissions on other topics and will organize additional sessions to accommodate the best submissions.

Session proposals. The Program Committee will consider proposals for entire sessions if their subject matter does not conflict with that of other sessions. Please consult with the Program Committee chair before preparing a proposal. Session proposals require the same information
as individual paper proposals; abstracts for the papers in the proposed session with be evaluated by the Program Committee.

Audio-visual equipment. Requests for audiovisual equipment must be made with the proposal. Late requests cannot be honored.

Graduate Student Prizes. The Medieval Academy will award up to seven prizes of $300 each to graduate students for papers judged meritorious by the local committee. To be eligible for an award graduate students must, of course, be members of the Medieval Academy and, once their proposed papers have been accepted for inclusion in the program, must submit complete papers to the Program Committee by 10 January 2009.

Program Committee. The Program Committee consists of Barbara Newman, Chair (Northwestern Univ.), Anne Clark Bartlett (DePaul Univ.), Thomas Bestul (Univ. of Illinois-Chicago), Rachel Fulton (Univ. of Chicago), Theresa Gross-Diaz (Loyola Univ. of Chicago), Richard Kieckhefer (Northwestern Univ.), Susie Phillips (Northwestern Univ.), and Christina von Nolcken (Univ. of Chicago).

Local Arrangements Committee. The Local Arrangements Committee consists of Thomas Bestul, Chair (Univ. of Illinois-Chicago), William Fahrenbach (DePaul Univ.), Mark Johnston (DePaul Univ.), Barbara Rosenwein (Loyola Univ.), and Christian Sheridan (St. Xavier Univ.).

Google Books: An Amazing Resource

2008-04-15T12:14:00.003-06:00

I've been looking for a copy of John Mitchell Kemble's Beowulf for a project I am doing in my medieval research and bibliography class. This book is not easy to find, and I was even planning a road trip to the University of Arizona to look at thier library copy. I also tried to order it through inter-library loan, but being that it is an old, rare book, I wasn't expecting it.

Then I discovered Google Books. All I have to say is, wow! And here it is, in full text. You can even dowloand a PDF.

The site seems to have full text on many old books that no longer have copyright issues. Newer books have either limited preview or nothing.

Anyway, I suspect I'll be visiting Google Books frequently. In fact, I'm a bit concerned that I might spend too much time looking around and archiving books.

I've added a link to Google Books on our web resources page.

Quixotic New Mexico: A Spanish Heritage in Modern New Mexico

2008-04-03T20:38:00.002-06:00

Thomas E. Chávez, former Director, National Hispanic Cultural Center, Albuquerque; former Director, Palace of the Governors, Santa Fe

Dr. Chávez's concluding presentation summed up the presentations given during the week, emphasizing the theme of combinations of cultures. He then went on to discuss the changes in Spanish culture that occurred once it reached New Mexico. Special consideration was given to images of the Virgin Mary, particularly a 11th or 12th century Our Lady of Guadalupe from Guadalupe, Spain. He also discussed the role of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation in creating animosity in Europe, particularly between England and Spain, in the shaping of the Southwest. Dr. Chávez concluding by saying that New Mexico is the "hub of this meeting," and this intermingling of societies, along with the other intermingling discussed during the week, is still part of the "cultural baggage" of the area.

Spanish Roots: New Mexico's Musical Heritage

2008-04-03T19:20:00.002-06:00

The UNM Early Music Ensemble wonderfully performed several songs related to Spanish roots in early New Mexico.

“Ayo visto lo mappamundo,” Anonymous (Naples, c.1450)

“Mariam matrem,” Anonymous (Libre Vermell, 14th century)
“Belial vocatur,” Anonymous (Codex Las Huelgas, 13th century)

“Quen a omagen,” Anonymous (Cantigas Santa María, 13th century)
“Santa Maria amar devemos,” (Cantigas Santa María, 13th century)
“Como poden per sas culpas,” (Cantigas Santa María, 13th century)

“Albuquerque, Albuquerque,” Anonymous (Cancionero musical de palacio)
“Guarda, dona, el mio tormento,” Anonymous (Cancionero musical de palacio)
“In te, Domine, speravi,” Josquin des Prez (c.1450-1521)
“Antonilla es desposada,” Juan del Ençina (1468-1529/30)
“¡Deh fosse la qui mecho…!” Anonymous (Cancionero musical de palacio)
“Fata la parte,” Ençina

“Que todos se pasan en flores,” Anonymous (Cancionero de Upsala)
“Por las sierras de Madrid,” Francisco de Peñalosa (c.1470-1568)
“Recercada segunda,” Diego Ortiz (c.1510-c.1570)

“Un sarao de la chacona,” Juan Arañés (?-c.1649)
“A la fuente de bienes,” Juan de Herrera
“Ave sanctissima Maria,” Anonymous (Guatemala City Cathedral)

“Lavava y suspirava,” Anonymous (Sephardic song)
“Por allí pasó un cavallero,” Anonymous (Sephardic song)
“Rahelica baila,” Anonymous (Sephardic song)

Here’s a list of the performers:
Colleen Sheinberg: director, voice, recorder, vielle, harp, percussion
Gaby Benalil: voice, vielle, crumhorn, recorder, viola da gamba, percussion
Bill Burns: voice, recorder, crumhorn, percussion
Yuval Carmi: voice, recorder, percussion
David Duncan: voice, shawm, recorder, vielle, viola da gamba, percussion
Gwen Easterday: voice, organ, hurdy gurdy, recorder, harp, percussion
Zack Kear: voice, lute, shawm, saz, harpsichord, recorder, percussion
Don Partridge: voice, recorder, crumhorn, percussion

One particularly interesting song, “Fata la parte,” the tune of which was surprisingly upbeat, told the story of a man discovering his wife’s infidelity. Here is a translation:

Fatal news! Fatal news!
Come all and hear!
that Miçer Cotal’s wife
is dead!

“Because I found her
with a Spaniard
alone in his house
therefore I killed her.
The Spaniard has escaped
by his strength and cunning.”

“Miçer, my friend,
mercy to her and to you.
Leave it to me
and don’t trouble yourself.
Very bad it seems to me,
is he who puts the horns on you.”
(tr. Paola Quargnali)

MEGSE Site Launches

2008-04-03T15:56:00.000-06:00

The MEGSE Website has now officially launched.

Many thanks to Dr. Helen Damico, Megan von Ackermann, Amy Jameson, and the UNM English Department for their support in this endeavour.

The Matachines Dance: Spiritual Conquest and Ritual Memory

2008-04-02T20:15:00.001-06:00

Sylvia Rodriguez, Professor of Anthropology, University of New Mexico

The Sephardic Legacy in New Mexico: A History of the Crypto-Jews

2008-04-02T18:15:00.001-06:00

Stanley M. Hordes, former New Mexico State Historian

A Medieval Story from New Mexico: Santa Fe’s Conquering Virgin

2008-04-01T20:43:00.002-06:00

Amy G. Remensnyder, Brown University

Dr. Remensnyder's webpage: http://research.brown.edu/research/profile.php?id=10097

Dr. Remensnyder's presentation used a 1992 controversy in Santa Fe concerning an artwork depicting a sexualized Our Lady of Guadalupe as a means to discuss the history of the Virgin Mary as an image of military conquest and geological purity. During this controversy, a protester referred to Mary as La Conquistadora, the name of another controversial statue connected to Spanish colonialism. The Bishop of Santa Fe then stepped in by referring to La Conquistadora not as a military conqueror, but representing "conquering love." Dr. Remensnyder then went on to show the link to the medieval use of Mary as a patron of military victory, and went on to characterize this peaceful view of La Conquistadora as "wishful rewriting of the past." She also linked the use of Mary as a means to establish geological purity, either spiritual or literal.

Dr. Remensnyder concluded by showing a recent artwork depicting La Conquistadora as a Pueblo corn maiden, with hopes that this would signify the beginning of La Conquistadora standing as a symbol of peace between cultures.

Complex Connections: Pueblo and Catholic Symbols and Stories

2008-04-01T19:09:00.002-06:00

Brian D. Vallo
Museum Director, Indian Pueblo Cultural Center; former First Lieutenant Governor, Acoma Pueblo

One fascinating aspect of New Mexico culture is the existence of Native American pueblos. Mr. Vallo’s presentation gave us a look into those pueblos, with an emphasis on how the Catholic culture of Medieval Spain collided with ancient Native culture and how this fusion of culture still exists today. Each of the Pueblos still retains a mission church from the Spanish colonial days, and in each of these Pueblos excepting the Zuni, the feast day of the saint for which the church was named is honored with a ceremony, open to the public, that has elements of both Catholic and Native culture.

The incorporation of Catholic symbolism into Pueblo culture remains a point of controversy. For example, there is a debate as to whether mission churches in the Pueblos should be understood as permanent symbols or not. Some want them gone, while others incorporate the Churches into their own culture. In any case, as Mr. Vallo pointed out, the symbols from the Churches have taken on an entirely different meaning for Pueblo residents than they did for the Christians who brought them. Examples range from the use of religious iconography to the use of symbols of authority. These symbols are sometimes seen redefined in the context of Pueblo culture and tradition, and other times viewed as symbols of oppression.

In any case, the “complex connections” continue to emphasize, says Mr. Vallo, that the Natives of the Pueblos “are still at a place where we are trying to make sense of the world.”

The Old World and the New: Sites of Encounters and Cultural Production

2008-03-31T20:31:00.002-06:00

Dr. Teofilo F. Ruiz, University of California, Los Angeles

Website: http://www.history.ucla.edu/people/faculty?lid=869

Dr. Ruiz, who interestingly enough grew up in Cuba across the street from Ernest Hemmingway, presented on the historical background in medieval Spain which set the tone for the arrival of settlers and conquerors in the "new world." Here are a few highlights of the points Dr. Ruiz made:

Castile, during the period leading up to and after 1492, was a "monolithic religious society." The key events during this period were the conquest of Grenada, the expulsion/conversion of Jews, and the so called "discovery" of the "new world".
"Columbus was crazy!" He was obsessed with prophecy and his own role in it. Also, no one with knowledge of the ocean at Columbus's time believed the Earth was flat.
The conflict between the Spanish and Aztecs was the result of a mutual misunderstanding.
Many Spanish conquerors wanted to conceive of the Natives as other than human to assuage guilt at conquering them. However, the prevailing idea was that the Spaniards conceived of the Natives as humans without advanced civilization, thereby giving a mandate to the Spaniards to civilize them. (Prof. Ruiz compared this to similar actions in the 19th century and even contemporary events like the attempt to bring democracy to Iraq).
There is no way that Tenochtitlan was conquered by the Spaniards. Instead, the Spanish counted on large numbers of Native allies.
The name Mexico (and New Mexico) comes from the term that the Aztecs called themselves (Mēxihcah). Also, the Aztecs originated from what is now the Southwestern United States.
This violent encounter was also a place of creation for a combination of cultures, as in Acoma, where both Native culture and Spanish culture combined to form something that is both new and vibrant.

Blogging Medieval New Mexico

2008-03-31T19:22:00.002-06:00

This week, we will be making blog posts about each of the presentations at the conference "Medieval New Mexico: A Celebration of Tradition and Cultural Interaction in the Land of Enchantment." We will be listing the titles of the presentations, the speakers, and a brief summary of the content in order to encourage discussion on the blog.

2008 Spring Lecture Series

2008-03-31T09:00:00.001-06:00

Today marks the beginning of UNM’s Institute for Medieval Studies’ 2008 Spring Lecture Series. This year’s theme is “Medieval New Mexico: A Celebration of Tradition and Cultural Interaction in the Land of Enchantment.” The lectures have been held annually as a public service since 1989. This year the speakers are from the University of California, Los Angeles; Brown University; and the University of New Mexico, as well as from the local Indian Pueblo Center. Also featured are esteemed scholars who have formerly held the positions of New Mexico State Historian and Director of the National Hispanic Cultural Center.

All the lectures will be held in Woodward Hall, Room 101; Monday night there will be only one lecture, held at 7:15 PM, but Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, there will be two lectures, one at 5:15 and one at 7:15 PM.

Tonight’s opening lecture will be given by Dr. Teofilo F. Ruiz of UCLA and is titled: “The Old World and the New: Sites of Encounters and Cultural Production.”

Keep an eye on our weblog for posts about the different lectures later this week.

Link to 2008 SLS Program Schedule.

Link to UNM Campus Map.

Link to Past Lecture Series’ Programs.

Link to 2006 Lecture Series available for viewing online. The Lecture Series was videotaped and archived, and can be accessed freely online by the public. Its theme was “Medieval Innovations: How the Middle Ages Changed Western Culture,” and featured lectures by the following scholars Michelle P. Brown, Virginia Chieffo Raguin, C. Stephen Jaeger, Michael T. Davis, and John H. Van Engen.

MEGSE Site Launch Scheduled for Monday

2008-03-28T17:30:00.000-06:00

MEGSE is pleased to annouce that, barring unforseen circumstance, our website will launch this Monday. In the meantime, feel free to have a look around the site!