The Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies will host its annual symposium on Friday, February 21 and the morning of Saturday, February 22. This event brings together six scholars from OSU and around the country to discuss this emergent field of study. Papers from historical, literary and environmental perspectives will address such topics as underwater archaeology and the ethics of recovering historic shipwrecks; evolving patterns of fishing and consumption; shipboard entertainers and the representation of the sea in the poetry of Dante. A day of talks on Friday will be followed by a roundtable discussion on Saturday morning. All are welcome to participate.
The keynote speaker will be Dr. Roberta Morosini (European Languages and Transcultural Studies, UCLA), presenting “Between Discordant Shores: Mobility, Blu Humanism and the Futures of Europe, from Dante to Petrarch."
Morosini continues her research on the Mediterranean in Dante’s Commedia as both a literary and geopolitical space, exploring it through a cartographic lens. In this paper, she examines the works of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, emphasizing the significance of a "sea-level" perspective, or Blu Humanism, as envisioned by Paul Gilroy. She argues that these authors share a common maritime perspective on humanism and shows how what Édouard Glissant calls "archipelagic thought" is rooted in their works, offering a framework for thinking beyond traditional, fixed geographies. The talk specifically explores the advantages of thinking through water in Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio’s works, and particularly how Dante’s forced mobility—his exile—compelled him to prioritize Mediterranean crossings and migrations, including Europa’s navigation, taken against her will on the back of the bull. Morosini terms this a Mediterranean-centric perspective, which rethinks Europe from the vantage point of the water. This cartographic approach challenges geocultural notions of ‘center’ and ‘periphery,’ while reimagining spaces of alterity
More information, including the location and schedule is coming soon. For more information, email moriarty.8@osu.edu and request to be added to one of the CMRS mailing lists.
Speakers
Ellen Arnold (History, OSU)
Richard C Hoffmann (History, York U, Canada)
Roberta Morosini (European Languages and Transcultural Studies, UCLA)
Amanda Respess (History, OSU Marion)
Sara Rich (Assistant Professor, Coastal Carolina U.)
James Seth (Associate Professor, English, Central Washington University)
Abstracts
Richard Hoffman: “All the Fish in the Sea?”
Europeans spent the medieval millennium gradually finding their course to capture, trade, and consume oceanic fishes. Knowing how to navigate across a sea is not knowing how consistently to find and catch fish in it. That takes generations of practical experience on the water. For five centuries the catch was almost exclusively creatures from fresh, estuarine, anadromous or inshore habitats: eel, salmon, sturgeon, herring and some flatfishes. Diverse written sources exhibit more fear than familiarity with the sea. Even after what has been labeled the marine fisheries revolution of 1000CE reflected regional startups of what would become major 12th-13th century commercial fisheries -- herring, cod, hake and sardine -- scholastic natural philosophers still knew Aristotle better than they did any marine species. Only the experience and expertise of mostly illiterate fishers and traders enabled late medieval expansion offshore to bring more cod, herring, tuna and other fishes, all in preserved form, to fewer but often wealthier consumers far from the productive waters.
Bios
Richard C. Hoffmann professor emeritus and senior scholar in the Department of History at York University, Toronto. His most recent book is The Catch. An Environmental History of Medieval European Fisheries, published in May 2023 and available in several formats from Cambridge University Press. trained at Wisconsin and Yale in interdisciplinary medieval studies/economic history and spent his entire career (1971-2009 retirement) at York University in Toronto, evolving into a pioneer of medieval environmental history. He has authored 70 articles and chapters; 3 prize-winning books in the field, including An Environmental History of Medieval Europe (Cambridge, 2016); and now The Catch. An Environmental History of Medieval European Fisheries (Cambridge, 2023). A fellow of the Royal Society of Canada since 2017, he has taken equal pride from mentoring undergrads, post-grads, postdocs, and others who obtained tenured positions in a dozen North American and European universities.
The Humanities Institute and its related centers host a wide range of events, from intense discussions of works in progress to cutting-edge presentations from world-known scholars, artists, activists and everything in between.
We value in-person engagement at our events as we strive to amplify the energy in the room. To submit an accommodation request, please send your request to Megan Moriarty: moriarty.8@osu.edu
