Category Conferences

Tolkien at Kalamazoo: The Hobbit on Its 75th AnniversaryTolkien at Kalamazoo: The Hobbit on Its 75th Anniversary“A Fragment Detached”: The Hobbit and The Silmarillion John D. Rateliff (Independent Scholar)This brief summary is just an overview of a paper given during one of the Tolkien at Kalamazoo sessions.

Session 72: English Cistercians and English CriticsSponsor: Center for Cistercian and Monastic Studies, Western Michigan Univ. Organizer: E. Rozanne Elder, Center for Cistercian and Monastic Studies, Western Michigan University Presider: Margory Lange, Western Oregon UniversityThe Liturgies of Cistercian Nuns in Medieval England Elizabeth Freeman (University of Tasmania) “Let Nothing be Put before the Work of God” – Chapter 43, Benedictine RuleSummaryThis paper focused on four Cistercian houses.

Tolkien at Kalamazoo: The Hobbit on Its 75th AnniversaryTolkien at Kalamazoo: The Hobbit on Its 75th AnniversaryThe Mythology of Magic in The Hobbit: Tolkien and Andrew Lang’s Red Fairy Book“Story of Sigurd”Jane Chance (Rice University)SummaryAndrew Lang was Tolkien’s favourite fairy story author and key to Tolkien’s view of magic.

The Medievalist and the Microbiologist: How Plague and Leprosy Have Opened Up New Perspectives on the History of HealthMonica H. Green, Arizona State UniversityPlenary Lecture given on May 27, 2012 at the Canadian Society for the History of Medicine Annual Conference, University of WaterlooMonica Green, known as “the foremost authority on medicine in the Middle Ages,” examines how her field has changed in recent years.

Session 72: English Cistercians and English CriticsSponsor: Center for Cistercian and Monastic Studies, Western Michigan Univ. Organizer: E. Rozanne Elder, Center for Cistercian and Monastic Studies, Western Michigan University Presider: Margory Lange, Western Oregon University Aereld of Rievaulx and the Creation of An Anglo Saxon Past Chad Turner (John Jay College of Criminal Justice CUNY)SummaryThis paper was part of a series on English Cistercians.

Difficulties in Reading the Naples Recipes: Was the Scribe a Woman?Paper by James Weldon, Wilfrid LaurierGiven at the Canadian Society of Medievalists Congress 2012, at Wilfrid Laurier University, on May 27, 2012Professor Weldon examines an anonymous fifteenth-century anthology, Biblioteca Nazionale, Naples, MS XIII.

Edward I and the Ritualization of English Royal Round Table FestivalsPaper by Chris BerardGiven at the 33rd Medieval Colloquium, University of Toronto (March 2012)In the Annales Angliae et Scotiae, a chronicle written around the year 1312 by a monk from the abbey of St Albans, there is a description of the wedding ceremonies between King Edward I and Margaret of France, that took place on 10 September 1299.

Session 72: English Cistercians and English CriticsSponsor: Center for Cistercian and Monastic Studies, Western Michigan Univ. Organizer: E. Rozanne Elder, Center for Cistercian and Monastic Studies, Western Michigan University Presider: Margory Lange, Western Oregon University Perfect Virgins and Suicidal Maniacs: Monks in Early Thirteenth-Century PastoraliaTristan Sharp (Centre for Medieval Studies – University of Toronto)The ecclesiastical hierarchy valued Cistercians.

The Prince, the Park, and the Prey: Hunting in and around Milan in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth CenturiesBy Cristina Arrigoni-MartelliPaper given at the 47th International Congress on Medieval Studies (2012)Session: Medieval Environments III: Exploiting and Managing Animal ResourcesCristina Arrigoni-Martelli of York University examines the efforts made by the Dukes of Milan during the later Middle Ages to take part in one of the most popular activities of medieval European aristocrats – hunting.

The Quality of Scottish Mercy: Royal Letters of Remission in Medieval ScotlandBy Cynthia NevillePaper given at the Canadian Society of Medievalists Plenary Session at the Congress 2012 of the Humanities and Social Sciences (2012)Professor Cynthia Neville of Dalhousie University is one of the leading historians of medieval Scotland.

Famine and Pestilence in the Irish Sea Region, 500–800 ADBy Michelle Ziegler (Saint Louis University)Paper given at the 47th International Congress on Medieval Studies (2012)Michelle Ziegler examines the questions on why does plagues seemed so much worse in the Middle Ages. Why did medieval populations die so much more frequently?

Fuck This: On Finally Letting Go (A Roundtable) Sponsor: BABEL Working Group Organizer: Eileen A. Joy (Southern Illinois University–Edwardsville) Presider: Myra Seaman (College of Charleston) SummaryThis roundtable garnered a lot of interest and courted a bit of controversy at this year’s Congress with it’s racy title and choice of topic.

ConferenceSaturday, September 29, 2012Brescia, ItalyThe meetings of I.S.T.A. (Incontri per lo Studio delle Tradizioni Alpine – Meetings for the alpine traditions study) have the aim to stimulate dialogues on common themes among the alpine valleys with the intent to give visibility to local heritage and to contribute to the advancement of the research through the comparison among the different areas.

Queer Pedagogy (A Roundtable)A roundtable discussion on teaching Queer Theory with Susannah Mary Chewning (Union County College) Lisa Weston (California State University–Fresno); and Michelle M. Sauer, (University of North Dakota)I attended an interesting roundtable at Kalamazoo as part of the Homosexuality in the Middle Ages studies/papers.

The Evolutions of Knowledge in Medieval Canon LawBy Andreas Thier (University of Zurich)Plenary Lecture given at the 14th International Congress on Medieval Canon Law, at the University of Toronto on August 5, 2012This paper discussed the way canonical texts were compiled and the history of the shift in their compilation.

XIV: Fourteenth International Congress of Medieval Canon LawAugust 5 – 11, 2012 (Toronto, Canada)Adultery in Late-Medieval Northern FranceSara McDougall (CUNY)Medieval canonists unequivocally condemned extramarital sex. What did people do with these laws? This paper examined gender and how these laws handled wife vs.

XIV: Fourteenth International Congress of Medieval Canon LawAugust 5 – 11, 2012 (Toronto, Canada)Qui facit adulterium, frangit fidem et promissionem suam: Adultery and the Church in Medieval SwedenMia KorpiolaThis paper focused on adultery and the church in medieval Sweden. In 1442 a woman was accused of adultery and murdering her husband.

XIV: Fourteenth International Congress of Medieval Canon Law August 5 – 11, 2012 (Toronto, Canada)Plenary Session: Learning the Law in the Carolingian EmpireAbigail Firey (University of Kentucky)How did Carolingians learn canon law? In councils, courts and through controversies, some learned in Roman law and in the capitularies issued by rulers.

Monastic ‘Centres’ of Law? Some Evidence from Eleventh-Century RomePaper by Kathleen G. CushingGiven at the 14th International Congress on Medieval Canon Law, University of Toronto (2012)Cushing discusses her very preliminary research, which is part of a book-project about Monks and Canon Law in Italy.

XIV: Fourteenth International Congress of Medieval Canon Law August 5 – 11, 2012 (Toronto, Canada)Processus iudiciarius secundum stilum Pragensem:Its Manuscripts and EditionBudský, DominikAbstract The author of this study speaks on the topic canon procedural law in Prague at the turn of 14th and 15th century.