Other Upcoming and Recent Events

The Bayeux Tapestry has attained near iconic status. Although extremely well known because it depicts one of the most famous events in English history and is the subject of numerous studies, many aspects of the Tapestry remain contentious – even enigmatic. In recent years there has been increased interest in the Bayeux Tapestry and further advances in our understanding of it, with scholars examining how, where and why it was made, questioning its reliability and value as a historical source, and excavating its hidden meanings.

This conference seeks to highlight recent and new research on the Tapestry, and to disseminate those findings to a wider audience, in the hope of furthering discussion, debate and the sharing of ideas about this unique textile.

SPEAKERS

David Bates, George Beech, Pierre Bouet, Shirley Ann Brown, Richard Burt, Michael R Davis, Martin Foys, Jill Frederick, Jane Geddes, Carola Hicks, David Hill, Liesbeth van Houts, Sylvette Lemagnen, Michael Lewis, John McSween, Gale Owen-Crocker, Linda Neagley, François Neveux, Elizabeth Pastan, Derek Renn, David Spear, Patricia Stephenson, Dan Terkla, Hirokazu Tsurushima, Carol Neuman de Vegvar, Stephen White, Ann Williams, and Gareth Williams.

CONFERENCE FEE

The fees for this conference are £10 a day or £15 for both days.

Please send a cheque (payable to The British Museum), together with your contact details, to
Dr Michael Lewis
Portable Antiquities and Treasure
British Museum
London WC1B 3DG

For further details, contact Michael Lewis: mlewis@thebritishmuseum.ac.uk
Telephone +44 (0)20 7323 8611

Early Music in Columbus presents the Good Pennyworths

This lively NYC-based quartet delivers an excellent concert of songs popular during the reign of Elizabeth I infused with their own brand of sly humor. These bawdy ballads, lovelorn laments, and rarely-heard satirical songs feature music by John Dowland and Thomas Morley, as well as lyrics by none other than Shakespeare and Marlowe. The event is sure to provide a terrific evening of music, fun and fancy for all who attend.

Suggested Donation: $10

For reservations or more information, call 614-861-4569

Early Music in Columbus presents The Early Interval

For three centuries, beginning in the fourteenth century, Flemish composers dominated the composition of music in a large portion of Europe. This exciting concert will feature vocal and instrumental music from the medieval and Renaissance periods composed and published by Flemish musicians who worked in greatly varied musical genres and national styles.

Tickets: $25, $20 (Seniors), $10 (Students)
Available through Ticketmaster (614-431-3600), CAPA (614-469-0939) or Early Music in Columbus (614-861-4569).

Justice, Cartography, Perspective: Thoughts on Ottoman Visual Culture

How did the Ottoman administration govern a world empire without the help of visual representations, such as maps? How were the vast expanses of the empire envisioned and represented? In this lecture I will offer some speculation about Ottoman visual culture and the symbolism of the view. I will present some examples of visual representation based on the concept of a mobile observer, as opposed to the Ptolemaic principle of a stable perspective.

Presented by the Department of Near Eastern Studies as part of the Department Lecture Series.

Refreshments provided.

Power and Patronage in the Middle Ages

Keynote Address:
“Humphrey and the Werewolf”
Richard Firth Green,
Humanities Distinguished Professor of English and Director of the Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies at the Ohio State University

Beholding Violence: A Conference on Medieval and Early Modern Culture

Keynote Speakers:

W.J.T. Mitchell
“Cloning Terror: The War of Images, 9-11 to Abu Ghraib”
Plenary Talk
(Provost Lecture Series/ArtTalks)
Thursday, February 28, 2008, 7:00 p.m.
206 Bowen-Thompson Student Union (Theater)
Bowling Green State University
Reception to immediately follow lecture

Michael Uebel
“Masochism in America”
Keynote Speaker
Friday, February 29, 2008, 6:00 p.m.
Little Theater
Toledo Museum of Art
2445 Monroe Street
Toledo, OH 43620
Reception to follow at the Toledo Arts Commission

The Newberry Library Center for Renaissance Studies: Milton Seminar

Sponsored by DePaul University, the University of Illinois at Chicago, Loyola University Chicago, Northwestern University, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Newberry Library Milton Seminar is directed by Christopher Kendrick, Loyola University Chicago; Michael Lieb, University of Illinois at Chicago; Helen Marlborough, DePaul University; Regina Schwartz, Northwestern University; and David Loewenstein, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Now in its twenty-second year, this seminar brings together interested scholars to read and discuss selected papers on aspects of Milton. Each meeting is conducted by a seminar leader, who will deliver a brief presentation based upon a paper he or she has written. This paper will be distributed in advance via email attachment when you register for the seminar.

While there is no fee to attend this seminar, participants should register in advance. To register, please contact the Center for Renaissance Studies at 312.255.3514, or at renaissance@newberry.org.

Funds may be available for graduate students and faculty of Consortium institutions to travel to the Newberry Library to attend the Romance and Epic Seminar. If you have any questions, please contact the Center for Renaissance Studies.

The Newberry Library Center for Renaissance Studies: Romance and Epic Seminar

The Romance and Epic Seminar is sponsored by the University of Kentucky, the University of Minnesota, and Purdue University.

While there is no fee to attend the Romance and Epic Seminar, participants should register in advance. To register, please contact the Center for Renaissance Studies at 312.255.3514, or at renaissance@newberry.org.

Conference: Faith and Fantasy in the Early Modern World

The conference will examine the intersection of religious belief and the creative imagination in the early modern world (1300-1650). In particular, it will examine how religion (Classical, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Indigenous, etc.) shaped or, in turn, was shaped by human creativity and invention, whether literary, artistic, historical, scientific, or psychological. Our two plenary sessions will be Andre Zerner (History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University), speaking on "Religion and the Affirmation of Self in the Work of Jean Duvet," and Elizabeth Harvey (English, University of Toronto), speaking on "Samson Agonistes and Milton?s Sensible Ethics."

Some of the areas to be considered might include:
- the impact of art or literature on religious beliefs and practices
- the interpretation of religious beliefs by means of the creative imagination
- imaginative descriptions of religious beliefs and institutions (Utopias, etc.)
- literary/artistic production as synthesis of faith and imagination (Dante, Bosch,etc.)
- encounters with other religious belief systems (within and outside Europe)
- determination of truth or falsehood in religion (Inquisition, scholarship, etc.)
- mysticism, visions, hallucinations
- conversion experiences
- the creation and use of legends of the saints
- the self and religion (Montaigne, etc.)
- sexual and/or gendered approaches to faith or religion
- satire of religious beliefs and institutions

For more information, visit the conference Web site at http://www.crrs.ca/events/conferences/faith/faith.htm.

The Chinese Renaissance of the Eleventh Century

Christian de Pee, Assistant Professor of History, University of Michigan

Friday, October 19, 2007, 7:00 p.m.

4th Floor Rackham Amphitheatre
915 E. Washington St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109

During the Song dynasty (960-1279 CE), China had the largest cities in the world, with bustling night markets, antique shops, restaurants, and theaters. It was the time when the compass, gunpowder, and printing with movable type were invented. Increasing settlement of the well-watered regions south of the Yangzi River allowed an expansion of agricultural production, especially rice, generating in turn an intensive trade in staple foods on roads and waterways across the empire. The imperial court recruited officials through a system of layered tri-annual examinations, creating thereby not only a body of dependable servants, but a learned, gifted elite with a shared, sophisticated culture. The interrelated developments in economy, technology, social relations, philosophy, religion, literature, and painting during this period bear a close resemblance to those of the Italian Renaissance, yet the achievements of the Song dynasty are much less well known than those of Florence, Venice, and Rome.

Professor de Pee completed his doctorate in history at Columbia University in 1997 and joined the faculty of the University of Michigan in 2006. His primary areas of specialization include Tang-Song-Yuan China, representations of imperial power, text and writing, and Chinese archaeology. His book The Writing of Weddings in Middle-Period China: Text and Ritual Practice in the Eighth through Fourteenth Centuries was just published by the State University of New York Press in 2007.

For more information, please contact the U-M Center for Chinese Studies at 734-764-6308; Suite 3668 SSWB, 1080 S. University; Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1106; Web site: www.lsa.umich.edu/chinanow .

Frankel Institute Colloquium: Venice, the Jews, and Italian Culture

Murray Baumgarten, Frankel Institute Fellow from University of California - Santa Cruz

Thursday, October 18, 2007, 12:00 p.m.
Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, 202 S. Thayer Street, Room 2022, Ann Arbor, MI 48104-1608

Venice, the city that invented the Ghetto in 1516, speaks to a narrative of Jewish exile as it also tells of creative responses to that condition including five resplendent synagogues and the flowering of Hebrew and Jewish publishing. This colloquium focuses on some writers who participate in its cultural representations and add to the city's symbolic capital.

Professor Baumgarten?s observations on what Dickens, Zangwill, and Brodsky found in Venice set a context for understanding the seventeenth century Venetian Jewish writers, Sara Copio Sullam and Leone Modena what they articulate, reveal, and disguise. He argues that their writings are virtuoso performances of civic virtue.

Further, Dr. Baumgarten explore how these writers help us think about the place of Venice and its Ghetto in modern Jewish culture. In counterpoint he also discuss how some contemporary Israeli poets conceive of Venice as a place of pilgrimage.

Free and open to the students, faculty and the general public
Sponsored by the Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies

For more information, visit the Web site at http://www.lsa.umich.edu/judaic.

Begin OSU masthead and toolbar

Other Recent and Upcoming Events

Listed in reverse chronological order

New Research on the Bayeux Tapestry