Call for Papers
Sessions sponsored by AARHMS
(American Academy of Research Historians of Medieval Spain) and SSPHS
(Society for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies) at the 43nd
International Congress on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan
University, Kalamazoo, May 8-11, 2008.
To
propose a twenty-minute paper, please send the organizer an abstract
and a completed abstract cover sheet by September 15. Abstract cover
sheets are available on-line through links at:
http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/submissions.html
If your proposal is not accepted, you may submit to another session
(before Sept. 15), or (after Sept. 15) the organizers will forward it
to the Congress
Committee to be considered for a general session.
AARHMS no. 1:
Early Medieval Iberia: Culture and
Society (400-1050)
This session is open to a full range of proposals on culture and
society in Early Medieval Iberia.
Organizer:
James D'Emilio
5245 La Jolla Hermosa Avenue
La Jolla, California 92037
email: demilio@shell.cas.usf.edu
AARHMS no. 2/co-sponsored by SSPHS:
Beyond Missionizing: the Church and
Religious Minorities in Daily Life
This session addresses the timely issue of interfaith relations, a
subject of increasing prominence in medieval studies. Here, we are
proposing a challenge to traditional emphases upon the efforts of the
medieval Church to bring Europe's religious minorities -- Muslims and
Jews-- into the fold by means of polemical arguments, active
proselytizing, and forcible missionizing campaigns. It is becoming
increasingly clear that such "conversionary" activities often had to
confront deeply entrenched social, economic and institutional
structures, some of which the Church had a direct interest in
preserving. We aim to draw attention to the substrata of ordinary,
day-to-day interactions between the clergy and the members of religious
minorities. We are especially interested in contacts that took place at
the local level, where the clergy engaged their non-Christian neighbors
in property transactions, sought credit from Jewish moneylenders,
employed Muslim and Jewish servants and laborers, exercised
jurisdiction over non-Christian communities, etc. The session is
intended to bring together scholars who are interested in investigating
this important but understudied aspect of interfaith relations in
medieval and early modern Europe, and we will welcome studies examining
similar interactions in non-European and/or early modern contexts.
Organizers: Robin Vose (St. Thomas
University) and Maya Soifer (Princeton University)
email: rvose@stu.ca and msoifer@Princeton.edu
SSPHS no. 1/co-sponsored by AARHMS
Spain and the Schism: the Iberian
Peninsula in a Time of Crisis
This session will treat the Great Western Schism. The rupture, which
lasted from 1378 to1417, is usually seen as a theological crisis, but
the most recent research by Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski, Poets, Saints, and Visionaries of the
Great Schism (Penn State P., 2006), has shown that the
detrimental effects of the Schism were felt profoundly in all levels of
European society. Moreover, most traditional histories of the Schism
focus geographically on the relationship among the rival papal curiae
of Avignon and Rome, and the Iberian peninsula has received little
attention in the historiography of the Schism.
This session would focus on the effects of the
Schism on the people of the Iberian peninsula. We would consider papers
on political, economic, social, cultural, religious, and intellectual
history as well as interdisciplinary studies or proposals from outside
history. Comparative studies or studies of other areas of Europe that
might suggest a comparative dimension would also be considered. Papers
might include: political and diplomatic relations between Iberian
kingdoms and the Papal curiae; popular, apocalyptic preaching within
the Crown of Aragon, engendered because of the Schism; commentary by
Iberian theologians on the ramifications of the Schism; and artistic
and philosophical developments in the Iberian Peninsula inspired by the
Schism.
Organizer: Michael Ryan (Purdue
University)
email: ryan6@purdue.edu
SSPHS no. 2
Making Meaning: Workshop Practices and
the Meaning of Imagery in Iberian Romanesque Churches
This session will examine the relationship between workshop
practices and the meaning of Romanesque sculpture. Traditionally,
studies of workshop practice addressed questions about chronology and
authorship, or focused on stylistic development. Our session invites
speakers to propose diverse and fluid descriptions of the workshop --
along the lines suggested by Robert Maxwell in his recent article
(2007) in the Journal of the Society
of Architectural Historians -- and
to consider their implications for the meaning of Romanesque imagery.
We encourage
speakers to look beyond familiar monuments and to consider how workshop
practices shaped the meaning of Romanesque imagery in ways that go
beyond traditional dichotomies of secular/sacred, laity/clergy,
artist/patron. Our concern with how workshop practices may alter the
meaning of familiar images in different contexts complements the
attention to the plurality of meanings that is characteristic of
current studies of reception.
Organizers: James D'Emilio
(University of South Florida) and Tessa Garton (College of Charleston)
email: demilio@shell.cas.usf.edu
and GartonT@cofc.edu
This session will be complemented by a
special session, Making Meaning:
Workshop Practices and
the Meaning of Imagery in Romanesque Churches, which is designed
to present material from outside of Spain and Portugal and facilitate
discussion between specialists in different geographic areas.
As the contact person for AARHMS and SSPHS, my name has been listed in
the Call for Papers for the entire block of sessions, but it is
preferable for presenters to send their proposals directly to the
individual organizers. I will forward any submissions I receive to
them.
Information on the Medieval Congress and the full Call for Papers are
on the web at:
http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/
http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/sessions.html