University of Birmingham Gender and the Family, 2010, Programme

Gender and the Family, 2010, Programme

Thursday 7 January 2010

2pm onwards: Registration in Arts Building Room 103. This is on the first floor, on the corridor to the right of the main staircase. Please see the Travel page for full details of how to find the conference venues.
All panels will be held in Arts Building, Lecture Rooms 6 and 7. These are on the second floor, on the corridor immediately behind the main staircase.

3-4.30pm Session 1: Paradigms of Parenthood in the Early Middle Ages

• Pirkko Koppinem (Royal Holloway): ‘Sarig sang (a sorrowful song) of parenthood in Beowulf’
• Andy Hyde (Birmingham): 'Suhtergefæderan in Old English Texts'
• Emma Southon (Birmingham): ‘Early medieval fatherhood’

4.30pm Tea

5pm  Keynote Lecture, to be given by Professor Guy Halsall, University of York: 'Gender and the family: change around 600AD'

6.30pm Wine reception, sponsored by the School of English, Drama and American and Canadian Studies, University of Birmingham

Friday 8 January 2010

9.30-11am Session 2: The Family Beyond Europe

• Azadeh Mehrpouyan (Pune): ‘Images of gender & family in the literature of medieval Islamic society’
• Mohammed Suwaed (The Western Galilee Academic College and Kinneret College): ‘The wives of the Ottoman Sultan and their involvement in political life’
• Mudita Pandey (Hardwar): ‘The paradigm of family in Indo-Muslim literature’

11.00am Coffee

11.30-1pm: Parallel Sessions 3a and 3b

Session 3a: Gender and the Family (MEMO Sponsored Session, Swansea University)

• Liz Cox (Swansea): ‘Be fæder lare: Thryth’s ‘decapitation’ at the hands of the patriarchy’
• Pamela Morgan (Swansea): ‘Eremitic versus coenobitic: representations of social and familial relationships in and around St Guthlac’s beorg’
• Tom Underwood (Swansea) : ‘Female inheritance in thirteenth-century Normandy: a cross-Channel perspective’

Session 3b: Gender and the Byzantine Family

• Leslie Brubaker (Birmingham): 'Looking at the Byzantine Family' 
• Eve Davies (Birmingham): ‘The Byzantine Life Course’
• Eirini Panou (Birmingham): ‘The neglected parents: Sts Anna and Joachim before and after Iconoclasm’

1pm Lunch

2-3.30pm Session 4: Family and Vernacular Literature in the later Middle Ages

• Wendy Matlock (Kansas State): ‘The elusive carpenter in The Debate of the Carpenter’s Tools: family and labour in a craftsman’s household’
• Diane Watt (Aberystwyth): ‘Troubled kinships in The Book of Margery Kempe’
• Susanne Hafner (Fordham): ‘‘Mama's boy riding the mere’: Perceval, his mother, and sex’

3.30pm Afternoon tea

4.15-5pm: The University of Birmingham's Centre for Early Music, Performance and Research (CEMPR) presents STELLA MARIS - a medieval ensemble formed of postgraduate students, performing a programme of medieval French, Spanish and English music on themes relating to Maidens, Mothers and Mary.
5-6pm: Cheese and Wine Reception

Saturday 9 January 2010

9.30-11am Session 5: Constructions of the Family in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries

• Gillian Wright (Birmingham): ‘Isabella Whitney, constructions of family, and the politics of literary attribution’
• Sara Gordon (Oxford): ‘Visual and social decorum: courtesy literature and manuscript illustration as models of behaviour for the late medieval aristocracy’
• Simon Lambe (St Mary’s): ‘Family, patriarchy and the state: elite families and political power in early Tudor Somerset, 1485-1547’

11.00 Coffee

11.30-1pm Session 6: Holy Mothers

• Andriani Georgiou (Birmingham): ‘Motherhood in Byzantium: Helena’s role as part of Constantine’s ideal Christian image’
• Simon John (Swansea): ‘Ida of Boulogne as a ‘holy mother’: crusading propaganda?’
• Marian Bleeke (Cleveland State): ‘From Annunciation to Visitation at Rheims Cathedral: medieval women as wives and mothers’

1pm Lunch

2-4pm Session 7: Models for the Family

• Sarah Tatum (Manchester): ‘Who’s the daddy? Representations of Pippin the Elder as father, husband and paragon’
• Sheila Sweetinburgh (Kent): ‘A tale of two mazers: images of nurturing mothers and caring sisters for the hospital family’
• Jennifer Brown (Marymount Manhattan College, NY): ‘Catherine of Siena and her ‘famiglia’ of followers’
• Adin Lears (Cornell): ‘Sporting solas and spiritual glee: gender and affect in the Digby Killing of the Children of Israel’'

4pm Tea

4.30-6pm Parallel Sessions 8a and 8b

Session 8a: The Family in Iceland

• Nic Percivall (Exeter): ‘The good, the bad and the ugly: three Icelandic brothers and their approaches to fatherhood’
• Philly Ricketts (Independent Scholar): ‘Þórdis Snorradóttir and Óræckja Snorrason: a brother and sister’s access to power in thirteenth-century Iceland’
• Chris Callow (Birmingham): 'Children and childhood in Sagas of Icelanders: what were they for?'

Session 8b: The Family and Social Roles

• Colleen Slater (CUNY): ‘Pre desiderio delicti uiri sui: women, gender, family and hostage and captive ransoming’
• Marwan Nader (Independent Scholar): ‘Property division, inheritance and legal status: the burgess family and the concept of familia communi iure in the Latin kingdom of Cyprus’
• Mariana Goina (Central European University): 'Written Culture and Women in 15th-Century Wallachia'

7.30pm  Conference dinner

Sunday 10 January 2010

10-11.30am Parallel Sessions 9a and 9b

Session 9a: Lifestyle and agency: medieval wives and mothers

• Danna Messer (Bangor): ‘Expectations of the uxorial lifestyle and evidence of female agency in medieval Wales, c. 1140-1283’
• Laura Hohman (Catholic University of America): ‘A middle ground vantage point for twelfth-century women:  Hildegard and Trota’s unique perspective on women’s health and sexuality’
• Rachel Gibbons (Bristol): ‘Royal motherhood: findings from the court of fifteenth-century France’

Session 9b: Family and the Church

• Lisa Alberici (Birmingham): ‘Spiritual order and family ties: ascetic mothers and daughters in Late Antiquity’
• Ionut Untea (EPHE, Paris): ‘Attitudes and disputes between and within Roman and Byzantine Churches over the cleric’s family’
• Robert Shaw (Oxford): ‘The Dictamen de laudibus beati Josephi of Pierre Pocquet, Provincial of the French Celestine monks: St Joseph’s fatherhood and later medieval religious reform’

11.30am Coffee

12pm Closing Meeting

Gender and the Family, 2010

Gender and the Family: Annual Gender and Medieval Studies Conference

The next annual Gender and Medieval Studies Conference will be held in the Arts Building at the University of Birmingham, 7-10 January 2010. Please see details on the travel page for instructions on the location of the Arts Building.
This conference will examine the functions and representations of the medieval family in a range of contexts, examining how gender roles inform its definition and affect its economy, dynamics, and links to other institutions and networks. 


Despite the current snowy weather across the UK, we are intending to go ahead with the conference as planned. At present there is snow on the ground to a depth of a couple of inches in Birmingham, but roads are open and trains and buses are operating.
If you are coming to speak at the conference, please factor extra time into your travel plans if at all possible. If your journey is delayed, we would be grateful if you could let us know via email to gender.family.2010@googlemail.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

 


Source and more... http://medievalgender.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2&Itemid=2

Conferences, Calls for Papers, and Special Events

Call for Papers
Gender and Transgression in the Middle Ages
23rd- 24th April 2010

We are pleased to announce a call for papers to Gender and Transgression 2010, a two-day interdisciplinary postgraduate conference hosted by the St Andrews Institute of Mediaeval Studies. Now in its third year, the conference aims to create a lively and welcoming forum for postgraduate students and academic staff to build contacts, present research and participate in creative discussion on the topics of gender and transgression in the Middle Ages. We are especially keen to explore the ways in which these topics, frequently studied in reference to points of rupture or breakdown, may also be discussed in their relation to growth and change in the past.
We invite speakers working in the areas of History, Language, Literature, Art History, Theology, Philosophy, and any other relevant discipline to submit proposals for papers of approximately 20 minutes in length which engage with the themes of gender and/or transgression in the mediaeval period. This year’s keynote speaker will be Emeritus Professor R I Moore (School of Historical Studies, University of Newcastle), author of The Birth of Popular Heresy (1975), The Formation of a Persecuting Society (1987), and The First European Revolution (2000).
Possible topics for papers might include, but are by no means limited to:
How may concepts of gender and/or transgression have been significant in mediaeval contexts?
In what ways do these categories of analysis affect our study of religious (both ortho- and heterodox), social, economic or political history?
Can transgression be seen as a constructive force in the Middle Ages?
To what extent can the analytical categories of gender and transgression be usefully combined?
Against what did mediaeval people transgress? (a point raised at the 2009 conference by keynote speaker Professor John Arnold)
All delegates are invited to attend an evening meal after the first day’s sessions. Refreshments will be provided throughout the second day, which will conclude with an informal roundtable discussion and wine reception. Please send abstracts for papers of approximately 300 words to: HYPERLINK "mailto:genderandtransgression@st-andrews.ac.uk" genderandtransgression@st-andrews.ac.uk.
The deadline for submission is 14th February 2010.
http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/saims/Gender%202010.html

Studium Conference: Sacred Space and their Cities

An international conference, Tours (France), 10-12 June, 2010
Keynote speaker: Maureen Miller, University of California Berkeley

The history of many European cities was shaped by one or more saintly figures whose ties to the city—real or imagined—had both spiritual and tangible consequences. The topography of the city, its economy, its institutions, its liturgy, its reputation, and even its inhabitants’ sense of civic pride, could all be shaped by and were dependent upon an idiosyncratic understanding of the saint’s association with the city. The figure of the bishop-saint, moreover, bestowed with extraordinary spiritual and temporal prerogatives, represents a distinctive type which this conference seeks to address. What was his impact on religious, political, and cultural practices and institutions in a given city? What are some of the privileges associated with promoting his cult? In what ways do local claims on the bishop-saint evince tensions on a regional/national level or between elites and the masses? Possible perspectives on these and other related issues may include, but are not restricted to, liturgy, music, hagiography, art history, theology, history, and paleography.
The conference organizers are soliciting abstracts for individual papers and proposals for complete sessions for its 2010 Conference, and are inviting scholars from a wide variety of disciplines to offer their perspectives on issues coinciding with the Conference’s theme. Ideally, papers will deal with different parts of Europe and address periods ranging from the Middle Ages to the present. Abstracts in French or English of 300 words or less for a 20-minute paper should be emailed to Christine Bousquet (Christine.bousquet@univ-tours.fr) or to Yossi Maurey (ymaurey@mscc.huji.ac.il) no later than 30 January, 2010. Authors of accepted papers will be responsible for their own travel costs and conference registration fee (reduced for students and post-docs).
The conference is sponsored by the Université François-Rabelais de Tours, and by Le Studium
Program committee: Christine Bousquet (University of Tours), Yossi Maurey (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem/ Le Studium).

Source:http://cas.uchicago.edu/workshops/medieval/conferences.html

GENDER AND CLASS IN BYZANTINE SOCIETY: XVITH BIENNIAL CONFERENCE

GENDER AND CLASS IN BYZANTINE SOCIETY: XVITH BIENNIAL CONFERENCE
16-18 April 2010
University of New England
The Australian Association for Byzantine Studies calls for papers for its XVIth Biennial Conference. The conference is being held in honour of Professor John Melville-Jones and the theme will be 'Gender and Class in Byzantine Society'.
Plenary speakers:
Dr Tom Brown, Reader, School of History, Classics and Archaeology, The University of Edinburgh
Professor John Melville-Jones, Classics and Ancient History, University of Western Australia
Dr Shaun Tougher, Senior Lecturer in Ancient History, Cardiff University (to be confirmed)
Gender and class were key social indicators in Byzantine society, as in many others. However, masculine and feminine roles were not always clearly defined, while eunuchs made up a 'third gender'. Social status was also in a state of flux, as much linked to patronage networks as to wealth, as the Empire came under a series of external and internal pressures. This fluidity applied in ecclesiastical as much as in secular spheres. We welcome papers on all aspects of the theme of gender and/or class from the 4th to the 15th centuries, from the Greek East to the westernmost reaches of the Byzantine Empire.
Contributors are invited to interpret the theme broadly and we welcome submissions from all fields. Both scholars with academic affiliation and working independently, as well as postgraduate students, are encouraged to apply.
Registration is now open: download and post the registration form or register online.
The Conference will be held 16-18 April 2010 at the University of New England in Armidale, New South Wales, Australia.
Please submit abstracts of up to 500 words for 30-minute papers (including 10 minutes of questions) by 1 April to:
Associate Professor Lynda Garland
School of Humanities
University of New England
Armidale
New South Wales 2351
tel +61 2 6773 3236
fax +61 2 6773 3520
PLENARY SPEAKERS
Dr Tom Brown, Reader, School of History, Classics and Archaeology, The University of Edinburgh
The View from the Provinces: Gender and Society in Byzantine Italy from Justinian to Robert Guiscard
After working as a Research Fellow at Dumbarton Oaks and Birmingham, Tom Brown taught medieval studies at the Australian National University in Canberra for two and a half years. Since 1980 he has taught medieval history at the University of Edinburgh, where he is now Reader. He was the founding editor of the journal Early Medieval Europe. Among his many publications he is perhaps best known for the book Gentlemen and Officers: Imperial Administration and Aristocratic Power in Byzantine Italy 554-800 (London, 1984). His most recent publications include 'The Role of Arianism in Ostrogothic Italy: The Evidence from Ravenna' in The Ostrogoths from the Migration Period to the Sixth Century: An Ethnographic Perspective (Boydell Press, 2007), 'Byzantine Italy, 680-876' in J. Shepard (ed.), The Cambridge History of the Byzantine Empire  (Cambridge, 2008 and 'Lombard Religious Policy in the Late Sixth and Seventh Centuries: The Roman Dimension' in Giorgio Ausenda, Paolo Delogu and Chris Wickham (eds), The Langobards (Boydell, 2009).

Professor John Melville-Jones, Classics and Ancient History, University of Western Australia
The Deplorable Life and Disgusting Death of Andronicus I Comnenus
Professor John Melville-Jones (FRNS, FAHA) is the Winthrop Professor in Classics and Ancient History at the University of Western Australia. Over the course of a distinguished career spanning five decades, he has made a major contribution to Byzantine Studies in Australia. His research specialisations are in the areas of Greek numismatics and the history of the later Byzantine empire, particularly its relations with Venice. He was President of the Australian Association for Byzantine Studies from 2000 until 2005.
For his outstanding work in these areas he has received two Greek awards: the Aristotle Award (1999) and the Onassis Foundation Senior Visiting Scholar (2002). In 2009 he worked in the State Archives in Venice as a guest of the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, collecting material which documents the relationship between Venice and Constantinople in the 15th century.
A patron of the Perth Numismatic Society, he has published a variety of material relating to ancient Greek and Latin texts which provide information about coinage and its use in the ancient world. He will soon publish the second of two volumes of collected sources documenting the Venetian occupation of Thessalonica in 1423-1430. Some of his most recent publications are:
J.R. Melville-Jones and D. Gilliland Wright, The Greek Corespondence of Bartolomeo Minio, Dispacci from Nauplion (1479-1483) (Padova: Unipress, 2008)
J.R. Melville-Jones, Testimonia Numaria Volume II (London: Spink, 2007)
J.R. Melville-Jones, 'Venetian History and Patrician Chroniclers' in Chronicling History: Chroniclers and Historians in Medieval and Renaissance Italy, (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2007).

Dr Shaun Tougher, Senior Lecturer in Ancient History, Cardiff University (to be confirmed)


source: http://home.vicnet.net.au/~byzaus/conferences/16th2010/