News

The American Academy of Research Historians of Medieval Spain (AARHMS) welcomes applications for our newly-renamed Simon Barton Memorial Junior Scholar Travel Grants. In 2018, AARHMS will offer up to three grants of $500 each in support of travel for research or conference presentations in the field of medieval Iberian history. These grants are offered in memory of Simon Barton, a historian of medieval Iberia whose research was surpassed in quality only by the depth of his commitment to mentoring young scholars. It is AARHMS's hope that these small grants will make a big difference for the devoted young scholars who are striving to achieve great things.

Qualifications and Scope: The grant program is open to US citizens or permanent residents wishing to travel abroad for research or conference presentation, and to non-US citizens who wish to travel to the US for one of these purposes. All applicants must be active members of AARHMS, and must either be enrolled in doctoral programs or have received their doctorate within the previous five years.

Application Process:  Applicants must send a current CV, a letter of application explaining how they intend to use the grant, a brief external letter of endorsement, and a simple proposed budget. Applicants for a conference travel grant must also provide proof of their acceptance on an academic conference panel. All applications must be submitted as PDF files, via email, to the Secretary of AARHMS, at sec.tres.AARHMS@gmail.com.  Please submit any questions to the same email address. Applications must be submitted by February 15, 2019.

Conditions: The names of successful applicants will be announced by March 15, 2019. Grants will be directly payable to the awardees, who will be asked to write a reflection on their travel and experiences for the AARHMS website blog. All publications resulting from research or conference presentations supported by the grant must acknowledge the support of AARHMS.

The Centro de Estudos de Sociologia e Estetica Medieval (CESEM) and the Instituto de Estudos Medievais (IEM) of the NOVA University of Lisbon are organizing two sessions for scholars working in the following areas: Musicology, Art History, Political and Social History, Codicology and Palaeography, Philosophy, Literature and Material studies.

We aim to approach Iberian manuscripts from the point of view of their materiality and production processes as well as from analysis of their artistic and literary meanings and contents. These two sessions promote an intense engagement with the concept of ‘intermediality’. Manuscripts are multifaceted and can be seen as material artefacts and as repositories of artistic creations, ideas, concepts, as well as of Iberian culture in a broader sense. The concept of intermediality helps us to understand how these aspects interact and can be approached by discussing texts, images and music, but also techniques, institutions, communities, geographical spaces, and changes along time. Concepts such as convergence, combination, influence, interaction, dependence (both explicit and implicit), communication, transmission, reception, integration, common and multiple discourse, might also be explored.

Intermediality will be tackled from both a methodological and epistemological perspective. Indeed, we encourage the analysis of case studies by multidisciplinary teams that work together by applying knowledge and methods that complement one another in addition to papers from individual researchers.

The deadline for sending the proposals is September 15, 2018. Please send your proposal (up to 300 words) and CV to Alicia Miguélez (amiguelez@fcsh.unl.pt). More info at: https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress

"Coins in Medieval Material Culture"

Proposed Sessions for the Leeds International Medieval Congress,

July 1-4, 2019

Commentators from Aristotle to Aquinas have recognized that coinage is primarily a

medium used to measure the need for or utility of other objects. But by its nature, coinage also forms a conspicuous part of a society’s material culture. While medieval coins did not carry the high-relief portraits of their ancient predecessors, they nonetheless give us direct evidence of visual and textual messages promulgated by governments. These sessions will broadly consider the extent to which coins in Latin Europe, Byzantium and Islam helped shape or were shaped by

the societies in which they circulated. Was the success of a coin dependent simply on its reliable fineness and weight or was its physical appearance a factor? Did authorities successfully employ coins as propaganda? How relevant were coin legends in a world where literacy was not widespread? Did coins successfully circulate across political or cultural boundaries? 

Please send a one‑page abstract along with a very brief curriculum vitae no later than 21 September 2018 to either:

Alan M. Stahl

Curator of Numismatics

Firestone Library RBSC

One Washington Road

Princeton NJ 08544

astahl@princeton.edu

(609) 258-9127

or

James Todesca

Department of History

Georgia Southern University

Savannah, GA 31419

jtodesca@georgiasouthern.edu

(912) 344‑2850

The American Academy of Research Historians of Medieval Spain (AARHMS) welcomes applications for our newly-renamed Simon Barton Memorial Junior Scholar Travel Grants. In 2018, AARHMS will offer up to three grants of $500 each in support of travel for research or conference presentations in the field of medieval Iberian history. These grants are offered in memory of Simon Barton, a historian of medieval Iberia whose research was surpassed in quality only by the depth of his commitment to mentoring young scholars. It is AARHMS's hope that these small grants will make a big difference for the devoted young scholars who are striving to achieve great things.

Qualifications and Scope: The grant program is open to US citizens or permanent residents wishing to travel abroad for research or conference presentation, and to non-US citizens who wish to travel to the US for one of these purposes. All applicants must be active members of AARHMS, and must either be enrolled in doctoral programs or have received their doctorate within the previous five years.

Application Process:  Applicants must send a current CV, a letter of application explaining how they intend to use the grant, a brief external letter of endorsement, and a simple proposed budget. Applicants for a conference travel grant must also provide proof of their acceptance on an academic conference panel. All applications must be submitted as PDF files, via email, to the Secretary of AARHMS, at sec.tres.AARHMS@gmail.com.  Please submit any questions to the same email address. Applications must be submitted by May 31, 2018.

Conditions: The names of successful applicants will be announced by June 30, 2018. Grants will be directly payable to the awardees, who will be asked to write a reflection on their travel and experiences for the AARHMS website blog. All publications resulting from research or conference presentations supported by the grant must acknowledge the support of AARHMS.

After three years with the honor of serving as President of the American Academy of Research Historians of Medieval Spain, I am delighted to announce that-following the recent AARHMS elections-I will be succeeded by Prof. Maya Soifer Irish (Rice University) for the three-year term 2018-2021.

As AARHMS members will know, Prof. Irish is a highly accomplished scholar whose pivotal book Jews and Christians in Medieval Castile , which examines the rich fabric of a multiethnic society along the Camino de Santiago and beyond, mines a wide range of local archival sources in order to trace the waxing and waning fortunes of the Jewish community over a three-hundred-year period, to the brink of catastrophic violence. Her article "Beyond convivencia," published in the very first issue of the Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies, has become an essential point of reference for all of us working on interfaith relations in medieval Spain. The first female president of AARHMS, Prof. Irish will bring new perspectives to the field at a time when exciting changes are afoot in the framing of medieval studies as a whole, while continuing our efforts to expand outreach to new communities of scholars in all parts of the world.

My warmest congratulations both to Prof. Irish and to Prof. Miguel Gómez (University of Dayton), who has been re-elected as Secretary-Treasurer of AARHMS. Prof. Gómez has helped to ensure that the organization remains on an excellent financial footing, allowing us to offer a number of junior scholar travel grants in 2017, for the first time in the organization's history. Finally, thanks to Kyle Lincoln (Kalamazoo College), who-inter alia-has been responsible for the smooth running of our elections and our website. As we move into a new phase of AARHMS history, we welcome your ideas and initiatives, your blog entries and your book reviews; don't forget to renew your membership, and consider offering one as a gift to a junior colleague in the field!

To the Membership:

Our triennial elections had a solid turnout, and have selected as the new President of AARHMS:

Maya Soifer Irish, Associate Professor of History, Rice University

Simon Doubleday now assumes the position of Former President, and retains ex officio, a seat on the AARHMS' Executive Board.

The election for Secretary-Treasurer confirmed for re-election to that same post: 

Miguel D. Gómez, Lecturer of History, Dayton University.

Thanks to all who voted in these elections, and best wishes to Maya and Miguel as they embark on their new, three-year term.

I would like to thank the American Academy of Research Historians of Medieval Spain for their generous support of my research through the 2017 Junior Scholar Travel Grant. This award facilitated my participation in the bi-annual conference of the Society for the Medieval Mediterranean at the University of Ghent in July 2017. For this conference, I organized a panel with other junior scholars with the title “Political Ideology and the Search for Legitimacy in Twelfth- and Thirteenth-Century al-Andalus.” The panel explored the exercise and expression of power in different Muslim kingdoms and taifastates, and examined how leaders projected their authority through a range of materials and forums to their subjects with varying degrees of success. The fruit of this research bridges a gap in the narrative of medieval Spanish history about Andalusi politics after the collapse of the taifa states and the rise of Magrebi regimes on the peninsula. 

I also provided a paper for the panel, “A Taifa in Exile: The Survival of the Banu Hud in the Twelfth Century and Beyond,” which represents the first chapter of a new book. The project traces the history of the Banu Hud over the course of two centuries, examining how the exiled Zaragozan dynasty participated in Andalusi political affairs and exercised power in the face of Magrebi and Christian overlordship and conquest. This particular chapter establishes trends in the Banu Hud’s political platform after their exit from Zaragoza, showing how one Hudid leader used Islamic political traditions, coinage, and a network of fellow exiles to become a symbol of resistance and solidarity.

The panel’s focus on the fashioning of legitimacy fit well within the conference’s theme of “Communities, Imaginations and Emotions in the Medieval Mediterranean” and generated a productive discussion after the panel about future directions for research. I am particularly grateful for the support of the AARHMS through this grant as it allowed me to present a new project to a diverse body of distinguished scholars from around the world. With the feedback that I received during and after the panel, I look forward to incorporating my notes from the conference into the project as I go forward with the monograph. Many thanks again to the grants committee and fellow members of the AARHMS.

The American Academy of Research Historians of Medieval Spain (AARHMS) welcomes applications for our newly-created AARHMS Junior Scholar Travel Grants. In 2017, AARHMS will offer three grants of $500 each in support of travel for research or conference presentations in the field of medieval Iberian history.

Qualifications and Scope: The grant program is open to US citizens or permanent residents wishing to travel abroad for research or conference presentation, and to non-US citizens who wish to travel to the US for one of these purposes. All applicants must be active members of AARHMS, and must either be enrolled in doctoral programs or have received their doctorate within the previous five years.

Application Process:  Applicants must send a current CV, a letter of application explaining how they intend to use the grant, a brief external letter of endorsement, and a simple proposed budget. Applicants for a conference travel grant must also provide proof of their acceptance on an academic conference panel. All applications must be submitted as PDF files, via email, to the Secretary of AARHMS, at sec.tres.AARHMS@gmail.com.  Please submit any questions to the same email address. Applications must be submitted by May 15, 2017.

Conditions: The names of successful applicants will be announced by May 31, 2017. Grants will be directly payable to the awardees, who will be asked to write a reflection on their travel and experiences for the AARHMS website blog. All publications resulting from research or conference presentations supported by the grant must acknowledge the support of AARHMS.

In collaboration with the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas in Madrid and Princeton's departments of Art & Archaeology and History, the Index of Christian Art will sponsor a two-day interdisciplinary conference, “The Medieval Iberian Treasury in the Context of Muslim-Christian Interchange,” on 19-20 May 2017.

The medieval treasury offers an extraordinary material witness to the desires, aspirations, and self-conception of its creators. Treasuries could function as sources of gifts (and obligations) for their allies, as prestigious private storehouses for ostentation before an elite audience, or as financial reserves that could be made use of in times of need. Luxury items from non-Christian cultures, such as the many Islamic objects that found their way into church treasuries, or those made from materials of great intrinsic value, such as ivory, gold, silver, or silk, became even more valuable if the piece were turned to a sacred use. We will examine these dimensions of the treasury by giving special emphasis to the rich holdings of the royal-sponsored monastery of San Isidoro de León in northern Spain. Taken as a whole, both texts and objects offer a rich body of evidence for interdisciplinary investigation and serve as a springing point for larger questions about sumptuary collections and their patrons across Europe and the Mediterranean during the central Middle Ages.

Hosted at the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies, the conference brings together international and US scholars from multiple disciplines and professions, with specializations including Islamic law and sumptuary production, Christian chronicles, patronage and royal studies, identity and gender studies, and political history across the cultures of medieval Spain. The diversity of questions and perspectives addressed by these scholars will shed light on the nature of treasury collections, as well as on the broad efficacy of multidisciplinary study for the Middle Ages.

For further information, contact Pamela Patton: ppatton@princeton.edu

SPEAKERS

THOMAS BURMAN, ROBERT M. CONWAY DIRECTOR OF THE MEDIEVAL INSTITUTE, UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME

        “Seeing and Not Seeing Islam in Twelfth-Century Europe”

ANA CABRERA, VICTORIA & ALBERT MUSEUM, AND MARÍA JUDITH FELICIANO, INDEPENDENT SCHOLAR AND DIRECTOR, “MEDIEVAL TEXTILES IN IBERIA AND THE MEDITERRANEAN”

      “Medieval Textiles in León in the Iberian and Mediterranean Context”

JERRILYNN DODDS, SARAH LAWRENCE COLLEGE 

      “The Treasury, Beyond Interaction”

AMANDA DOTSETH, MEADOWS MUSEUM, SOUTHERN METHODIST UNIVERSITY AND PRADO MUSEUM, MADRID

      “Medieval Treasure and the Modern Museum: Christian and Islamic Objects from San Isidoro de León” 

MARIBEL FIERRO, INSTITUTO DE LENGUAS Y CULTURAS DEL MEDITERRÁNEO Y ORIENTE PRÓXIMO, CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTÍFICAS

      “Christian Relics in al-Andalus” 

JULIE HARRIS, SPERTUS INSTITUTE FOR JEWISH LEARNING AND LEADERSHIP

      “Jews, Real and Imagined, at San Isidoro and Beyond” 

EVA HOFFMAN, DEPARTMENT OF ART AND ART HISTORY, TUFTS UNIVERSITY

      “Arabic Script as Text and Image on Treasury Objects across the Medieval Mediterranean” 

JITSKE JASPERSE, INSTITUTO DE HISTORIA, CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTÍFICAS

      “Set in Stone: Questioning the Portable Altar of the Infanta Sancha (d. 1159)” 

BEATRICE KITZINGER, DEPARTMENT OF ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY

      “The Treasury, a Material Witness to Long-Distance Contact and Pivot Point for Interdisciplinary Exchange” 

EDUARDO MANZANO, INSTITUTO DE HISTORIA, CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTÍFICAS

      “Beyond the Year 900: The ‘Iron Century’ or an Era of Silk?” 

THERESE MARTIN, INSTITUTO DE HISTORIA, CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTÍFICAS

      “Ivory Assemblage as Visual Metaphor: The Beatitudes Casket in Context” 

PAMELA A. PATTON, INDEX OF CHRISTIAN ART, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY

      “Demons and Diversity in León” 

ANA RODRÍGUEZ, INSTITUTO DE HISTORIA, CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTÍFICAS

      “Narrating the Treasury: What Medieval Iberian Chronicles Choose to Tell Us about Luxury Objects” 

ITTAI WEINRYB, BARD GRADUATE CENTER

      “The Idea of North”

https://ica.princeton.edu/conferences/

The annual race for funding from the Ministerio de Cultura, Educación y Deporte begins tomorrow: 

http://www.mecd.gob.es/mecd/servicios-al-ciudadano-mecd/catalogo/general/cultura/201577/ficha.html