Fall Newsletter
September 2017
Prof. Thomas E. Burman, Robert M. Conway Director of the Medieval Institute

FROM OUR DIRECTOR

"JOIN THE FELLOWSHIP." You’ll see that phrase on a poster this week in the Medieval Institute library announcing a great new initiative of Maj-Britt Frenze, one of our terrific Ph.D. students. Our graduate and undergraduate Medieval Studies students, she observed, have almost no meaningful interaction, something that is a shame for a half dozen reasons. Why not, she suggested, create graduate-undergraduate reading groups in which community can arise out of sharing a text. Linda Major, the Institute’s Director of Undergraduate Studies, and I unhesitatingly supported the idea, and so it is that Maj-Britt is leading the “Join the Fellowship” reading group, which is exploring the medieval roots of Tolkein’s universe and its stories.
But there are other new medieval fellowships around here too. Three new MI-funded working groups will begin collaborating this term, one on Byzantine Asceticism and Spirituality, one on the Transformation of Classical Texts in the Middle Ages, and another on Pluralism and Religion in the Medieval Mediterranean. Proposed by groups of faculty and graduate students, these working groups will meet regularly during the term to present their own work in progress, read the latest relevant scholarship, and hear from outside speakers as they work collaboratively to generate ground-breaking research.
I hope you’ll allfaculty and students alikeconsider joining (or even founding) some scholarly fellowship or other this academic year, and I would welcome the chance to talk with you about how the MI can help make that happen. There is no better use of our resources.
In the meantime, all best wishes for the coming academic year!

IN THE NEWS

Did you know the MI releases news features of interest to medievalists on its web site each week? Read our most recent release, on alumnus Garrett R. Smith, below. Want more? Visit our news feed.  

Medieval Institute Alumnus Accepts Prestigious Lifetime Appointment at University of Bonn

Garrett R. Smith, a 2014 Medieval Institute graduate with expertise in Latin text editing and the philosophy of Duns Scotus, and of Scholasticism more broadly, has been offered and has accepted a prestigious permanent appointment as Akademischer Rat at the Institut für Philosophie of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn in Germany. Dr. Smith will oversee the Bonn branch of the Scotus Edition, a long-term project begun at Notre Dame and now supported by a twenty-five-year grant from the German government, to produce a critical edition of Franciscan philosopher and theologian John Duns Scotus' work at the University of Paris in the early fourteenth century. Read more...

Meet our Mellon Fellow

Since 2001, through the generous response of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to a challenge grant awarded to Notre Dame by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Medieval Institute has offered an A. W. Mellon Junior Faculty Fellowship in Medieval Studies to an outstanding young tenure-track faculty member to do research while in residence for the year at Notre Dame. This year's Fellow is Taylor Cowdery, Assistant Professor of English at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. During his year at the Medieval Institute he will be working on his book entitled Matter and Form in Late Medieval Literature: English Poetry and Poetics, 1300-1550. Read more...

SAVE THE DATE

Throughout the year you can keep up with events of interest to medievalists by visiting our events feed and subscribing to our Google calendar.

Conway Lectures

The 2017 Conway Lecture series, “Manuscripts for Musicians: 750 to 900,” will be delivered by Susan Rankin, Professor of Medieval Music at the University of Cambridge. Her three lectures are entitled "Carolingian Transformations," “Singing the Psalter," and “Books for Cantors." The second and third lectures will feature performances by Katarina Livljanić, singer and musicologist at the Sorbonne and founder and director of the vocal ensemble Dialogos. Lecture dates are October 5, 10, and 12 at 5 p.m. The first lecture will be followed by a reception. Read more...

Book Launch for Abducted in Iraq, by Bishop Saad Sirop Hanna

How do we respond in the face of evil, especially to those who inflict grave evil upon us? Abducted in Iraq is Bishop Saad Sirop Hanna’s firsthand account of his abduction in 2006 by a militant group associated with al-Qaeda. As a young parish priest and visiting lecturer on philosophy at Babel College near Baghdad, Fr. Hanna was kidnapped after celebrating Mass on August 15 and released on September 11. Hanna’s plight attracted international attention after Pope Benedict XVI requested prayers for the safe return of the young priest. Read more...
Bishop Hanna is a medievalist and frequent visiting researcher at the MI. The book launch is scheduled for October 26, with a book signing on October 27.

OPPORTUNITIES

The Chequered Board

Need some digital humanities experience? Looking to boost your online presence? The grad student blog The Chequered Board wants you as a blog contributor! A wide variety of topics are welcome: your own research, medieval studies and current culture, and the state of the profession are just a few things you might write about. To join in, view the posting schedule and additional details and then contact Karrie Fuller (ND '16) at kfuller2@alumni.nd.edu to sign up. Happy blogging!

CFPs & Job Announcements

Visit our online notice board for a robust list of the fellowship and job announcements, calls for papers and submissions, upcoming conferences, and other academic notices that we receive. The board is updated frequently, so check back often!
medieval.nd.edu
@MedievalND
medinst@nd.edu
Subscribe to our email list.