Summer Digest 2015: Digital Publics, Diversity, Disability, Donuts

by JONATHAN HSY

[First, read all about JEFFREY's two new collaborative projects!]

NOTE: UPDATED with a few more links on August 31, 2015.

Summer is coming to a close and a new academic year approaches. It was productive and eventful summer for me, but the downside was I never got around to writing any new blog posts here at ITM.

In the spirit of trying new things, I present what I'm calling an ICYMI (In Case You Missed It) Summer Digest 2015: my own idiosyncratic listing of some interesting links and noteworthy things that happened over these summer months. (This list also gives you a vague sense of "What Jonathan Did Over Summer Break.")

ICMY Medievalist Summer Digest 2015

Conference Roundups:

May: International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI (#Kzoo2015):

• This #Kzoo2015 blogroll is my earlier compilation of blog posts and links [last updated May 30]; the 2015 conference also marked the emergence of the silly but somehow oddly compelling #MedevalDonut meme. JEFFREY also played a big part in all this. (A brief resurgence of #MedievalDonut also occurred on World Donut Day; check out these tweets archived by Sjoerd Levelt!)

• N.B. Leila K. Norako's writeup after Kalamazoo about the "Public Medievalist" roundtable and a lively session marking the 25th anniversary of the publication of Carolyn Dinshaw's Chaucer's Sexual Poetics.

June-July: The Middle Ages in the Modern World, Lincoln, UK (#MAMO15):

• "Diverse Pedagogies of Medievalism" Roundtable (org. Helen Young). Presenters: Helen Young, Kim Wilkins, Molly Brown, Carol Robinson [virtually via recorded presentation], Dorothy Kim, and Jonathan Hsy. The full videorecording is available online (includes a link to Robinson's presentation and a link to the slides from my talk), and there's also bit more info at Medievalists.net.

July: International Medieval Congress, Leeds, UK (#IMC2015):

• Panel of public medievalists (org. by the Grad Student Committee of the Medieval Academy of America). Presenters: Matthew Gabriele, Andrew James Johnston, and Erik Kwakkel: see Peter Konieczny's curated archive of live-tweets.

• Roundtable entitled "The Twitterati: Using Twitter in Scholarship and Pedagogy" (org. Carla María Thomas). Presenters: Dorothy Kim, Jonathan Hsy, Kristen Mapes, Angela Bennett Segler, and Kristen Mapes. Check out my curated archive of live-tweets from the session and this excellent summary of the conversation (by Carla María Thomas); note also a summary of the undelivered presentation by Shyama Rajendran. N.B. you can also read the full text of the informative talk by Kristin Mapes, and explore Mapes' collected data on twitter usage at Kalamazoo and Leeds in 2014.

• "Queer Manuscripts" thread: two sessions (orgs. Roberta Magnani and Diane Watt); check out Watt's archive of live-tweets from these conversations.

July: London Chaucer Conference ("Science, Magic, and Technology"), University of London, UK (#Chaucer2015):

• Plenaries by J. Allan Mitchell and Lisa H. Cooper; browse my archive of all the live-tweets.

Online Conversations and New Communities:

Public Medievalists (forum):

• Open access (i.e., FREE) postmedieval forum on "The Public Middle Ages" (featuring Holly A. Crocker, Marion Turner, Brantley L. Bryant, Kathleen E. Kennedy, Matthew Gabriele, Bruce Holsinger, Leila K. Noriko, David Perry).

• Over on his own blog, Perry offers this posting with his reaction to Bryant, his reaction to Kennedy, and reaction to Gabriele [more postings may be forthcoming].

• Richard Utz (at the Chronicle of Higher Education), "Don't Be Snobs, Medievalists." Note David Perry's subsequent response, and Utz responding to Perry.

#ILookLikeAProfessor (twitter hashtag):

• This twitter hashtag was created to combat stereotypes in academia and started a number of conversations about gender, race, class, disability, and the "public face" of university instructors and educators. Read accounts by co-creators Adeline Koh, Michelle Moravec, and Sara B. Pritchard; see also this piece by Kelly J. Baker (addressing gender as well as disability). The meme was also picked up by Buzzfeed, Colorlines, and Mashable (with a few medievalists featured each time).

The Lone Medievalist (community):

• New online network oriented toward anyone who is the only medievalist scholar in their campus or community; access via the website (requires login), Facebook community page, or follow on twitter @LoneMedievalist.

Society for the Study of Disability in the Middle Ages (SSDMA): 

• The SSDMA launched a Facebook group that is open to anyone interested in the study of disability, impairment, and varied modes of embodied difference in medieval culture.

Various other things (for academics on and off the tenure-track):

• Katie Rose Guest Pryal (at Chronicle Viate) offers an excellent perspective on freelance academics as public intellectuals.

• Eric Anthony Grollman (via Conditionally Accepted) collates some sound advice for new assistant professors.

New Open Access Publications:

• Interfaces: A Journal of Medieval European Literatures. Entire inaugural (2015) issue "Histories of Medieval European Literatures: New Patterns of Representation and Explanation" is available online; among a stellar international array of contributors are Simon Gaunt, Karla Mallette, and David Wallace.

• The Medieval Globe (edited by Monica H. Green). The inaugural (2014) issue "Pandemic Disease in the Medieval World: Rethinking the Black Plague" features a range of interdisciplinary and international contributions. Green's essay on "Making the Black Death Global" is well worth your time.

Upcoming Dates and Deadlines:

• Aug 31 (thread/session proposals due): Medieval Colloquium “Medieval Natures” in Sewannee, TN (plenary lectures by Caroline Walker Bynum and Carolyn Dinshaw; with "Defining Nature" seminar by Kellie Robertson), Apr 1-2, 2016.

• Aug 31 (individual paper proposals due): International Medieval Congress (Theme: “Food, Feast & Famine”) in Leeds, UK, Jul 4-7, 2016.
  
  
• Sep 1 (initial abstracts): edited volume on Embodied Difference: Monstrosity, Disability, and the Posthuman in the Medieval and Early Modern World (co-editors: Richard H. Godden and Asa Simon Mittman)

• Sep 15 (early registration ends): BABEL Meeting “Off the Books” in Toronto, ON, Oct 9-11, 2015 (featured speakers: Micha Cárdenas, Malisha Dewalt, David Gersten, Alexandra Gillespie, Randall McLeod [aka Random Cloud], Whitney Anne Trettien).

• Sep 15 (proposals due): Fordham Conference “Manuscript as Medium” in NYC, Mar 5-6, 2016 (confirmed speakers: Jessica Brantley, Kathryn Rudy, Andrew Taylor).

• Sep 15 (paper proposals due): International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, MI, May 12-15, 2016.

• Sep 15 (paper/session proposals due): MLA (Modern Language Association of America) International Symposium "Other Europes: Migrations, Translations, Transformations” in Düsseldorf, Germany, Jun 23-26, 2016.

• Sep 30 (session proposals due): International Medieval Congress (Theme: “Food, Feast & Famine”) in Leeds, UK, Jul 4-7, 2016.

• Oct 15 (paper/sessions proposals due): GW MEMSI (Medieval and Early Modern Studies Institute) Graduate Conference "Premodern Disorder” (keynotes: Sharon Kinoshita, Drew Daniel) in Washington, DC, Feb 16, 2016.

• Oct 15 (paper/panel abstracts due): “Composing Disability: Crip Ecologies" at GWU (speakers include Sunaura Taylor and Riva Lehrer) in Washington, DC, Apr 7-8, 2016.

• Oct 16 (abstracts due): BABEL, punctum books, and Studium join forces for the MLA (Modern Language Association of America) Subconference, Austin, TX, Jan 6-7, 2016.

• Oct 15-16: “The Provocative 15th Century” at the Huntington, CA (orgs. Lisa H. Cooper and Andrea Denny-Brown). Presenters: Anthony Bale, Anne Bernau, Jessica Brantley,  Lisa H. Cooper, Andrea Denny-Brown, Shannon Gayk, Alexandra Gillespie, Robert Meyer-Lee, Jenni Nuttall, Catherine Sanok, James Simpson, Daniel Wakelin).

• Oct 30: “Futures of the Past” Conference at GWU in Washington, DC. Presenters: Kim Hall, Patricia Clare Ingham, J. Allan Mitchell, Julie Orlemanski, Coll Thrush, Henry S. Turner.
  
  
• Nov 1 (proposals due): “Method and the Middle English Text” at UVA (plenary pairings: Alexandra Gillespie & Patricia Ingham; Andrew Cole & Kellie Robertson; Steven Justice & Emily Steiner), Charlottesville, VA, Apr 8-9, 2016.

• Nov 1 (proposals due): “Romance in Medieval Britain” at UBC in Vancouver, BC (plenaries: Suzanne Conklin Akbari and Corinne Saunders), Aug 17-19, 2016.
  
  
• Nov 2 (proposals due): Vagantes Grad Student Conference (including keynote by Diane Wolfthal on “Occupy the Middle Ages: Representations of Household Help”) at Rice University, Houston, TX, Feb 18-20, 2016.

• Dec 15 (queries and proposals): “Making Early Middle English” at University of Victoria, BC, Sep 23-25, 2016.

• Dec 31 (proposals due): “Anglo-Saxons 2016: Exchange, Cultures, Ideas, and Materials” in Edinburgh, Jun 9-10, 2016.

• Jan 31 (submissions welcomed from Fall 2015 term): Digital Medieval Disability Glossary, Society for the Study of Disability in the Middle Ages (see the CFP here; if you you have difficulty reading the image file, try this link).