Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

Events

2022-2023 Events

 

Premodern Encounters

To launch the new graduate certificate in Premodern Cultures & Communities, a five-part colloquium series will occur over Spring – Fall 2023. Each colloquium brings together two scholars whose recent work engages with similar themes from different cultural and temporal premodern moments. Rather than formal talks, speakers will initiate a dialogue that places their related works in conversation.

I. Premodern Takes on Race – 2 February 2023

Shao-yun Yang, Denison University, author of The Way of the Barbarians: Redrawing Ethnic Boundaries in Tang and Song China (2019) & Michael Gomez, NYU, author of African Dominion: A New History of Empire in Early and Medieval West Africa (2018)

II. Premodern Book Cultures – 30 March 2023

Marina Rustow, Princeton University, author of The Lost Archive: Traces of the Caliphate in a Medieval Synagogue (2020)  and Daniel Wakelin, St. Hilda’s College, author of Immaterial Texts in Late Medieval England: Making English Literary Manuscripts, 1400–1500 (2022)

III. Ecocriticism and the Premodern – 13 April 2023

Lydia Barnett, Northwestern University, author of After the Flood: Imagining the Global Environment in Early Modern Europe (2022) & Adam Goldwyn, North Dakota State University, author of Byzantine Ecocriticism: Humans, Nature, and Power in the Medieval Greek Romance (2018)

Premodern Encounters is made possible thanks to the generous support of Page-Barbour, Clay Endowment, & the Medieval Studies Program


The Princess Bride
Free Showing, Newcomb Theater
Free Snacks!

6 PM, Friday, October 21

Co-Sponsored by the Medieval Studies Program and UPC

 


October 2, 2021 | 7:00 pm (in person)

McIntire Amphitheater (located on McCormick Road on Central Grounds)

Please join us for a free outdoor screening of The Green Knight (2021). The film, released this summer and based on A24 and David Lowery's adaptation of the fourteenth-century poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, has won widespread critical acclaim. Snacks will be provided, as well as a limited number of blankets. The screening will be followed by a roundtable discussion with medievalist graduate students. This event is generously sponsored by the Medieval Studies Program, the Department of English, and the University Programs Council.

October 6, 2021 | 12:30-1:30 pm (in person)

Physical room to be announced.

Graduate students, please join us for a lunch and discussion with Julie Singer, Professor of French at Washington University in St. Louis. She will share a recent piece that she is currently working on: "Hearing Contagion in the Urban Plague Soundscape." Please email Katherine Churchill (krc2pr@virginia.edu) to RSVP and place your lunch order from Roots (menu).

October 6, 2021 | 5:00-6:00 pm (in person and on Zoom)

Nau Hall 101. Online attendees, please join us on Zoom at this link. Meeting ID: 941 0353 1737 | Passcode: 099404

Please join us as Julie Singer, Professor of French at Washington University in St. Louis, gives a talk titled "Playing Innocent: Child Testimony and the Performance of Justice in Medieval French Narratives." This event is generously sponsored by the Department of French and the Medieval Studies Program. 

November 2, 2021 | 6:00-7:00 pm (on Zoom)

Join the Zoom meeting here. Meeting ID: 953 6284 5643 | Passcode: 415203

Please join us for a Writing Roundtable and Q&A featuring Professors Elizabeth Fowler (English), Jack Chen (East Asian Languages, Literatures, & Cultures), and Fotini Kondyli (Art, and Interdisciplinary Archaeology Program). Topics include the transition from seminar papers to dissertations, early-career pubishing, writing for a public audience, and writing best practices.

The 97th Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America

The 97th Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America will take place on the campus of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville from March 10-13, 2022. Plenary addresses will be delivered by Roland Betancourt, Professor of Art History, University of California, Irvine; Seeta Chaganti, Professor of English, University of California, Davis; and Thomas E. A. Dale, Professor of Art History, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and incoming president of the Academy. This conference will be a hybrid event in light of the pandemic and related issues of accessibility. Stay tuned for the full program and details about attending!


2020-21 Events 

September 17, 2020 | 4:00-5:00 pm (Zoom)

Please join MSP for an afternoon Q&A with author Cord J. Whitaker of Wellesly College who will discuss with us his book, Black Metaphors: How Racism Emerged from Medieval Race-Thinking (UPenn 2019). A limited number of copies of the book are available for those interested in joining the discussion, as is a .pdf of the Introduction. Please contact the Director of Medieval Studies, Deborah McGrady (dlm4z), for text copies and for details to join the discussion. This event is possible thanks to the support of New Literary History and the Department of English.

September 24, 2020 | 5:00-6:00 pm (Zoom)

Professor Cord Whitaker will deliver the Rushton Lecture in the Department of English. 

October 1, 2020 | 5:30-6:30 pm (Zoom)

Join Professor McGrady (Director of the Medieval Studies Program) and Ms. Katherine Churchill (Ph.D. student in the department of English) to discuss one of the more recent cinematic treatments of Joan of Arc. Directed by Luc Besson and with stunning performances by Milla Jovovich (Joan) and John Malcovich (Charles VII), this rendition is considered to be one of the most violent accounts of Joan’s life. Bring your thoughts and questions to the discussion (and popcorn!). Please contact Prof. McGrady (dlm4z@virginia.edu) for link to streamed film.

October 8, 2020 | 5:30-6:30 pm (Zoom)

Join Professor McGrady (Director of the Medieval Studies Program) and Professor Al-Rahim (Professor of Religious Studies) to discuss the 1963 film Saladin the Victorious, directed by the Cannes award-winning Egyptian director, Youssef Chahine. The movie provides an uncommon view of the Third Crusade that will surely spark a lively conversation. Please contact Prof. McGrady (dlm4z@virginia.edu) for a link to stream the film.

October 15, 2020 | 4:00-5:00 pm (Zoom)

Please join a co-sponsored session of the Medieval Studies Program Reading Group with the UVA Early Modern Workshop that will speak to the author Nükhet Varlik of Rutgers University about her book, Plague and Empire in the Early Modern Mediterranean World: The Ottoman Experience, 1347-1600 (Cambridge UP 2015). A limited number of copies of the book are available for those interested in joining the discussion, as is a .pdf of the Introduction. Please contact the Director of Medieval Studies, Deborah McGrady (dlm4z), for text copies and for details to join the discussion. This event is possible thanks to the support of New Literary History.

October 22, 2020 | 5:30-6:30 pm (Zoom)

Join Professor Deborah McGrady and Professor Amy Ogden (French) to discuss the 2001 film Knight’s Tale, a delicious romcom that breaks all the rules of “historical” movies. With a 1970s rock soundtrack and a peasant who pretends to be a knight, this film will not only amuse but lead you to rethink medieval chivalry.  Praise equals critique of this film – and your thoughts? Join us to share your views. Available through UVA library on Swank here.

October 23, 2020 | 4:00-5:00 pm (Zoom)

Join Courtney Watts (PhD English) and Adrianna Streifer (Assistant Director, the Center for Teaching Excellence) for a discussion of anti-racist pedagogy in medievalism via Zoom. The fraught history of racism in medievalism and racist appropriations of the Middle Ages can lead to particular challenges navigating race in the classroom for medievalists. In this workshop, we will discuss an introductory article on anti-racist pedagogy and discuss field-specific challenges as well as methods for confronting overt and covert racism in the classroom. For details and the Zoom link, contact Courtney Watts (clw3cr@virginia.edu).

November 19, 2020 | 2:00-3:30 pm (Zoom)

Naomi Standon, Professor of Medieval History, University of Birmingham will speak on “Taking China out of Premodern Global History: Bodies, Threads and Fabrics.” Talk co-hosted by the East Asia Center and the Medieval Studies Program.

November 12, 2020 | 5:30-6:30 pm (Zoom)

Join Professor McGrady, Ms. Courtney Watts, and Dr. Casey Ireland to discuss Highlander (1986), a fantasy action adventure that follows the immortal life of a swordsman of the Scottish highlands who will compete for prize money in modern day New York. His premodern past will be revisited through a series of flashbacks. Access to movie available through Virgo.

February 25, 2021 | 6:30-7:30 pm (Zoom)

Join Dr. Casey Ireland to discuss The Seventh Seal (1957), a Swedish historical fantasy film directed by Ingmar Bergman. Set in Sweden during the Black Death, the film follows the journey of a medieval knight who plays chess with a personification of Death. Register for the event and for film access here.

February 26, 2021 | 2:00 pm (Zoom)

Please join Professor Peter Baker of the UVA Department of English for a Medieval Paleography Workshop. In this engaging virtual workshop, participants will learn the ins and outs of reading and transcribing medieval handwriting. Register here.

March 11, 2021 | 6:30-7:30 pm (Zoom)

Join Professor Amy Ogden and Katherine Churchill to discuss The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), directed by Michael Curtiz and William Keighley. The film follows Robin Hood, Maid Marion and a band of outlaws as they outwit Prince John in a technicolor retelling of the classic tale. Register for the event and for film access here

March 19, 2021 | 3:00-4:30 pm (Zoom)

Professor Nahir Otaño Gracia, Assistant Professor of English at the University of New Mexico, will lead a pedagogy workshop that focuses on practical ways medievalists and non-medievalists alike can employ anti-racist work in the classroom and in academia, and shift institutional spaces using community building and life-affirming strategies.

March 26, 2021 | 3:00-4:30 pm (Zoom)

Please join us for a second pedagogy workshop focused on building and editing syllabi following Professor Nahir Otaño Gracia’s workshop. Bring a syllabus, or an idea for a syllabus, that you would like to workshop based on the principles of inclusion and anti-racism. Students and scholars of all levels welcome!

April 1, 2021 | 6:30-7:30 pm (Zoom)

Join graduate students Courtney Watts and Alexandra Kennedy in a discussion of Throne of Blood (1957), a Japanese historical drama co-written and directed by Akira Kurosawa. The film’s plot follows that of William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, but is set in feudal Japan and includes stylistic elements drawn from Noh drama. Register for the event and for film access here.

April 9, 2021 | 5:00-6:00 pm (Zoom)

Please join us for three fascinating virtual presentations from UVA faculty members followed by questions and conversation. Professors Bruce Holsinger, Amanda Phillips, and Nizar Hermes will discuss their recent research projects and interests, ranging from the global history of parchment to the interdisciplinary study of textiles as both objects and sources for writing other kinds of histories.

April 19, 2021 | 6:00-7:00 pm (Zoom)

Please join special guest Professor Helen Young, Lecturer in Writing and Literature at Deakin University, for a discussion of representations of the medieval in the popular video game Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Register for the event and for film access here.

April 21, 2021 | 6:00-7:00 pm (Zoom)

Helen Young, Lecturer in Writing and Literature at Deakin University, will speak on the functions and significance of the medieval in modern constructions of whiteness. This talk follows a special appearance from Professor Young at MSP Film Club (see below), where she will lead a discussion on the portrayal of the medieval in the popular video game Assassin’s Creed Valhalla

April 22, 2021 | 6:30-7:30 pm (Zoom)

Join Professor Gregory Hays and Julie Wilson to discuss the film The Name of the Rose (1986), a mystery and historical drama directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud. The film follows Franciscan Friar William of Baskerville (Sean Connery), who is called on to solve a deadly mystery in a medieval abbey. Register for the event and for film access here.

April 30, 2021 | 3:00-4:00 pm (Zoom)

Geraldine Heng, Perceval Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Middle Eastern Studies, and Women’s Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, will give a talk on teaching early global literatures and the decentering of Europe-based and western-based curricula.

For additional talks on medieval matters this semester, check out the series sponsored by the Islamic Studies Colloquium!


2019-2020 Events