The
e-Newsletter of the Texas Medieval Association (TEMA) - Winter 2003-2004
Published by TEMA through the Department of Social Sciences at Northwestern
State University, Natchitoches, Louisiana 71497
Edited by Kent G. Hare khare@nsula.edu
In this Issue:
From the President: A Preview of TEMA 2004
Past issues of Mirabilia: Winter 2002-03 Summer 2003
My sincere thanks to those who responded to my pleas for news to fill out this third issue of the revived Mirabilia and make it something more than just minutes of our conferences and my own ruminations, which were soon going to be reduced to such as the following: "Q: Why were the Middle Ages called the 'Dark Ages'? A: Because there were so many knights." Thanks also once again to our webmaster, Ed Duncan, for all the work he does on the website and getting this newsletter posted and distributed - and making sure that the news items submitted actually make it to me. Everyone, please remember that news can be personal as well as professional - anything you wish to announce - and you can send it directly to me at the e-mail address in the header. - Kent
Texas medievalists
who were unable to attend this year's conference, the thirteenth annual gathering,
missed another great little conference. Baylor University provided us with very
nice and spacious accommodations in their Cashion Business Center, for which
we thank primarily this year's organizer and outgoing president, Paul Larson.
From the opening informal reception that Paul hosted at the conference hotel,
the Waco Hilton, to the various smaller informal gatherings on Saturday evening
once the conference had ended, we once again had opportunities to renew acquaintances
and friendships among our ranks.
The conference did seem smaller than usual. There were about sixty-nine papers
in twenty-four sessions held on Friday and Saturday. Quite a bit of (I believe)
well-founded speculation attributed the lower numbers to budget cuts impacting
on travel. I know that this issue directly affected a TEMA stalwart, Ed Duncan
of Towson University. Both he and Theresa Vann of St. John's University have
sent their woeful apologies and promised by e-mail that they will be with us
next year. As usual, however, presenters made their way to Texas from as far
away as Minnesota, North Carolina, and California. The papers that were presented
were, moreover, the typical mix of the usually entertaining, sometimes amusing,
and always insightful offerings - ranging from history and literature (both
medieval and modern), through religion and philosophy, to practical issues of
pedagogy in today's higher educational environment.
There were two plenary sessions. The first, on Friday evening, was offered by
Bonnie Wheeler of Southern Methodist University, entitled "Slander in Malory."
Bonnie's perceptive discussion of slander and verbal violence tied into Malory's
portrayal of Lancelot included Tom Hanks' reading of passages in his inimitable
style. The Saturday Tex-Mex buffet luncheon and business meeting (on which see
below), and a brief set of presidential remarks by Paul Larson, "Dueling
Signs: The Roman and the Greek from the Libro de buen amor," were
followed by the second plenary session. Jeremy Adams (also of SMU) discussed
his experience putting together a seminar in "Discovering Rodrigo Diaz:
A Teacher's Quest," in which the issue of translations, especially of poetry,
was enlivened by a series of various readers presenting the original language
and various modern English versions.
In the business meeting, Don Kagay reported that TEMA has accomplished a great
achievement - enough financial success and funds sufficient to need a tax identification
number for the first time! He likewise appealed for TEMA members to send the
newsletter editor (yours truly) any news they might have that might be of interest,
including the names and topics of graduate students who are being directed by
TEMA members. He announced that TEMA will once more sponsor six sessions for
Kalamazoo (see the previous issue of Mirabilia),
but that two of those sessions still needed filled - the subjects were murder
and madness, I believe, and it was my impression that his request elicited enough
offerings to fill the sessions. Upcoming meetings of TEMA had to be adjusted
slightly. The sequence now is: 2004 at the University of Dallas, under the presidency
of Philipp Rosemann; 2005 at the University of Houston, under the presidency
of Sally Vaughn (TEMA's fifteenth conference, by the way); 2006 will be back
at Baylor, under the presidency of Tom Hanks or his designate, since Tom wasn't
present to accept his appointment; and 2007 will be at Texas A&M, under
the presidency of Cary Nederman. The changes to 2006 and 2007 were voted by
acclamation.
Incoming president Philipp Rosemann announced a new book series, "Dallas
Medieval Texts and Translations." Two volumes have already been published:
Manegold of Lautenbach's Liber contra Wolfelmum, and Ranulph Higden's
Ars componendi sermons. He suggested we ask for these and future volumes
for our various university libraries, and requested suggestions for future volumes.
See the University of Dallas website
for more information.
Sally Vaughn made a pitch for TEMA-sponsored sessions at the International Medieval
Congress in Leeds every summer. The deadline for the upcoming meeting, July
2004, was 30 September 2003, but she suggested we think about sponsoring such
sessions in the future.
Finally, just prior to his plenary address, Jeremy Adams was presented, on behalf
of TEMA, with a plaque recognizing his seventieth birthday by "his sometime
gardener" Don Kagay.
- Kent Hare (with help from Don Kagay on events before my own arrival on Saturday
morning).
From the President: A Preview of TEMA 2004
As you know,
our fourteenth annual conference will be hosted by the University of Dallas.
Thanks to Dr. Sally Vaughn we already have a (potential) plenary speaker lined
up: Dr. Michael H. Gelting, of the Danish National Archives. Dr. Gelting is
a historian of the high Middle Ages with a specialization in France and Denmark.
Please note that Dr. Gelting's presence at the TEMA conference will be dependent
on his ability to obtain a Fulbright Scholarship.
We will no doubt invite a second plenary speaker, but no decision has yet been
taken in that regard. (Suggestions are welcome.)
Since the University of Dallas is located in a suburb, Irving, which is not
exactly a teeming metropolis, it might be preferable to arrange accommodation
in downtown Dallas. There is a historic and recently renovated hotel right opposite
the main train station. It's called the Hotel Lawrence. A train runs frequently
from the main station to South Irving, where a bus could pick TEMA people up
in the mornings and take them to UD, with a similar arrangement in the evenings.
The opening reception too could be held at the Hotel Lawrence.
The sessions themselves will of course be held at UD, but it is too early to
say where exactly. I am currently discussing this matter with our "events
coordinator."
Dallas and UD are easy to reach: we are only a few minutes from DFW International
Airport. Thus, we are hoping that many TEMA members will make the trip to Dallas
next September.
As for more precise details, the exact date of the meeting, and a call for papers,
watch the next issue of Mirabilia!
- Philipp W. Rosemann
Anyone interested
in working on some unexplored 14th- and 15th-century German and Italian manuscripts
on knightly fighting arts, or having suggestions on who might be interested,
please contact John Clements at ARMAdirector@aol.com.
John has given two demonstrations/presentations of the western martial arts
tradition at TEMA (2001 and 2002), and it's pretty amazing - not much like anything
you see in the movies.
Cary Nederman of Texas A&M announces the appearance of two books and a number
of articles. The books are: Rhetoric and Renewal in the Latin West 1100-1540:
Essays in Honour of John O. Ward, which Cary co-edited with Constant J.
Mews and Rodney M. Thomson; and Political Thought in Early Fourteenth-Century
England: Treatises by Walter de Milemete, William of Pagula, and William of
Ockham, edited and translated by himself.
As a follow-up to his announcement at the business meeting, Philipp Rosemann
sends word that the third volume in the Dallas Medieval Texts and Translations
series is now published. It is a Latin edition and English translation, by James
McEvoy, of two influential commentaries on the Mystical Theology of Pseudo-Dionysius
the Areopagite (namely, the commentaries by Robert Grosseteste and Thomas Gallus).
The fourth volume, also on a Dionysian text, is currently in press, and twenty
more are under contract. Proposals for future volumes are welcome. For further
information, see http://www.udallas.edu/dmtt.
Jane Chance and Jessica Weinstein of Rice University have just received confirmation
that their article entitled "National Identity and Conversion Through Medieval
Romance: The Case of Hrafn Gunnlaugsson's Film 'I Skugga Hrafnsins'" will
be published in the upcoming Scandinavian Studies. This is a longer version
of the paper they presented at TEMA 2002, University of St. Thomas.
Finally, in case anyone thinks our Secretary-Treasurer lazes about with nothing
to do between conferences, here's what Don Kagay of Albany State University
in Georgia has been up to: He has just published a collection of essays for
Brill with Andy Villalon of the University of Cincinnati entitled Crusaders,
Condottieri and Canon: Medieval Warfare in Societies around the Mediterranean.
He has also published articles this year in the Journal of Medieval Military
History, Mediterranean Studies, The Journal of the Georgia Association
of Historians, and the Anuario de Estudios Medievales, and had reviews
in De re militari, the Sixteenth Century Studies Journal, and the Catholic
Historical Review, and the American Historical Review. He's been
appointed to the Governor's Committee on History in Georgia and to the executive
committee of the Georgia Association of Historians. On top of this, Don has
led two searches at ASU which were finally successful "after about a year
of hell." Wow!
Let's all wish
Beth Allison Barr the best of luck in defending her dissertation at the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, entitled "Gendered Lessons: The Pastoral Care
of Women in Late Medieval England," under the direction of Judith M. Bennett.
Beth is currently lecturing in the history department at her undergraduate alma
mater, Baylor University. Her defense is set for December.
In response to Don Kagay's idea of names and topics of medievalist graduate
students, Mirabilia has received the following: Cary Nederman of Texas
A&M announces that his most senior doctoral student in Political Science, Phillip
Gray, is at work on a dissertation on "Just War Theory: Historical and Contemporary
Perspectives."
Sally Vaughn of University of Houston has a regular passel of graduate students. In no particular order, they include:
Thanks again to all those who contributed items to this issue of Mirabilia. I am still looking for good medieval jokes, though, in case submissions slack off ("good" as opposed to the one in the "From the Editor" section!). The next issue will probably come after Kalamazoo next May - which it looks like I'll be able to report on directly for once. So, hope to see y'all in K'zoo. - Kent