Cyber Scriptorium Video Series

a guest post by Maria Johnson and Madeline Barnes (Graduate Assistants, Medieval Institute Publications)

            Amsterdam University Press (AUP), Medieval Institute Publicans (MIP), and Arc Humanities (Arc) — who form a consortium of publishers (learn more here) — are thrilled to bring you a video interview series with influential Medievalists, entitled “Cyber Scriptorium”!

            Cyber Scriptorium’s mission is to share the exciting new projects and research from some of the top scholars in Medieval Studies and to provide MIP with stimulating new ideas for publications and series. The idea was sparked during a brainstorming session with MIP’s director Simon Forde and the graduate students of Western Michigan University’s Medieval Institute. We wanted a way to utilize the International Congress on Medieval Studies to talk to the scholars whom we look toward for inspiration. Once we settled on scheduled sessions for discussions, we needed a venue for sharing the conversations. We tossed around ideas –– Twitter conversations, interview sessions with a small audience, or a continuous conversation over the course of the entire congress –– and then we thought, why not record the interviews? It allows for us to use all of those methods as well as allow those who cannot attend to see the discussions in their entirety. 

            Once we had decided to film video interviews, the graduate students and MIP jumped on the opportunity to contact the scholars they admired and wished to work with in the future. Several students –– including Julie Polcrack, Erin Lynch, Charles Lein, Meghan Connolly, and Madeline Barnes –– were selected to participate. They scheduled timings for the interviews and prepped questions. Madeline Barnes took on directing and organizing the Cyber Scriptorium project, and David Barnes of 9edge worked as videographer. Scheduling times that worked for everyone, setting up the recording area, and producing and editing the videos proved difficult, but the excitement of the students to work with such outstanding scholars was evident. Thus, we produced some wonderful videos.

Already we have published videos on our Youtube page and there are still more to come! Please, look below for the list.

Posted:

–––Dr. Luke Demaitre on Pandemic Diseases in the Middle Ages

Interviewee: Dr. Luke Demaitre, University of Virginia

Interviewer: Erin Lynch

–––Dr. Marcus Bull on Game of Thrones VS. Reality: Thinking Medieval

Interviewee: Dr. Marcus Bull, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Interviewer: Erin Lynch

–––Dr. Susan Morrison on Waste Studies and Medieval Liminality

Interviewee: Dr. Susan Morrison, Texas State University

Interviewer: Madeline Barnes

–––Dr. Peter Darby on Bede and the History of Heresy

Interviewee: Dr. Peter Darby, Nottingham University

Interviewer: Julie Polcrack

Upcoming:

–––Dr. Steven Vanderputten on Social Forgetting and Constructed History

Interviewee: Dr. Steven Vanderputten, University of Gent

Interviewer: Meghan Connolly

–––Dr. Richard Utz on Personal and Public Interest in the Middle Ages

Interviewee: Richard Utz, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts

Interviewer: Charles Lein

–––Dr. Robin Fleming on the Material Investigation of Post-Roman Britain

Interviewee: Robin Fleming, Boston College

Interviewer: Julie Polcrack

You can see all the videos, in on place, on our website: https://arc-humanities.org/news/videos/