Medieval Studies
Election news:
Please welcome and thank our new members on the board!
Liusa Nardini, Music, and Michael Johnson, French and Italian (Advisors, one-year terms--2012)
Raúl Ariza-Barile, English (Graduate Student Representative, one-year term--2012)
Amy Papalexandrou, Art and Art History (graduate-student fellowship committee, one-year term--2012)
Recent news:
Marjorie Woods (English) has been inducted into the Academy of Distinguished Teachers at UT, an honor that crowns the many teaching awards she has already won. Jorie is at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton for this academic year. (See http://www.utexas.edu/know/2011/12/09/distinguished_teachers/ for more details.)
Reports from recipients of MDV grants in spring 2011:
Ali Kotoch (Art History) writes: I used the Medieval Studies Research Grant in combination with the Kress Fellowship for Language Study to help offset the cost of learning French at Middlebury College this past summer. I plan to carry out dissertation research in Europe next year and because of the training I received at Middlebury College I am confident that I will be able to research effectively in French archives, libraries and museums, communicate with pertinent staff, and function independently both in and outside of those institutions. Middlebury College has given me a solid foundation in the French language and the tools necessary to continue improving my language skills on my own.
Aaron Mercier (English) writes: I used my funding to help take a research trip to London’s British Library to examine editions printed by England’s first printer in the late 15th century. There has been a flurry of publication on William Caxton in the last several years. But the records of his life are thin, and the artifacts of his press are so spread out in different collections, that much remains to be done in terms of filling out our understanding of the man and his business. To continue that process of filling out, I spent three weeks examining 16 volumes produced by Caxton between 1476 and 1489.
Martino Lovato (Comparative Literature) writes: At the end of Spring 2011, I started working on my project “Setting sails for Leo Africanus”, and by June 15, I arrived to transcribe around 200 of the 506 pages of the manuscript. On June 16-17, in Rome, I attended the conference Echi Oltremare, presenting a paper entitled “The Mediterraneity of Leo Africanus and the Role of an Epilogue”, a new version of a paper I previously presented to which I added some of the new elements I encountered in my work. The transcription of the text had confirmed some hypotheses on Leo Africanus’ return to Africa, and I tried to give the paper a form that could make it publishable. The conference went well, and I had the chance to present my paper to some Italian scholars, like Bernardo Picciché and Armando Gnisci, both struggling in theorizing the Mediterranean and themselves interested in Leo Africanus. Encouraged by this experience, in late June and July, I continued my work of transcription, and I arrived at page 350, more than two thirds of the manuscript. By the beginning of September, I have been able to complete the comparison between text of the manuscript and that of the printed Italian version of the Description of Africa.
Joe Fees (Spanish-Portuguese) writes: The Medieval Studies Research Grant from U.T. Austin gave me the opportunity to spend three weeks at the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid, Spain in July and August 2011 to do research on my dissertation topic “New Directions in Kharja Studies: Gender, Sexuality and Religion”. I was also able to combine this grant with a Summer FLAS and I studied for six weeks at the ALIF in Fez, Morocco before doing research in Madrid. During my time in Madrid I was able to read many older journals from the 1930s, 40s and 50s including Sefarad, Al-Andalus and many others which contain the earliest articles about the discovery of the Romance kharjas, possible translations and the critics’ reception of them including Samuel Stern, Millás y Vallicrosa and Menéndez y Pelayo. Many of these journals are not available at U.T. and I was able to read through all of the ones I needed for the first chapter of my dissertation. In addition, I was able to read a lot of criticism related to my topic and also look at some histories of al-Andalus and society that relate to other parts of my dissertation. Lastly, I was able to look at some copies of manuscripts of the kharjas and muwashshahs edited by Alan Jones as well as examine some lesser known translations of them in Spanish available at the Biblioteca Nacional.
Bibiana Gattozzi used a Medieval Studies graduate scholarship to attend the Gregorian Institute of Canada's summer colloquium: http://www.gregorian.ca/ She reports: I just returned this week from Halifax, Nova Scotia, where the conference was held. It was an instructive and interesting experience for all 50 or so attendees. The conference combined theory and practice. Susan Hellauer, founding member of the ensemble Anonymous 4, led several workshops on Gregorian chant singing, while scholars from various universities of Canada, Europe, and the U.S.A. (including the University of Texas, Case Western Reserve University, the University of Arizona, the Univerisity of Florida, Notre Dame University, and Yale University) presented their research on the topic "Chant: Old and New." I presented my Master's thesis research and received valuable feedback from the scholars in attendance. The proceedings for the conference will be published by the Pontifical Institute for Medieval Studies. The conference theme focused especially on the recent re-discovery of a sixteenth-century chant book from Liege housed at St. Mary's University in Halifax known as the Salzinnes Antiphonal: http://www.smu.ca/administration/archives/salzinnes.html. The unusual and interesting properties of the manuscript make it a treasure for scholars interested in art, illuminations, Gregorian chant, liturgy, and history.
2010-11 theses and dissertations completed:
Cheryl Kaufman, PhD in History, "The Augustinian Canons of St. Ursus: Reform, Identity, and the Practice of Place in Medieval Aosta," advisors Drs. Martha G. Newman and Alison K. Frazier
William Sherrill, PhD in Musicology, "The Gradual of St. Yrieix in Eleventh-Century Aquitaine," advisor Dr. Luisa Nardini
Bibiana Gattozzi, M. Music in Musicology, "St Vincent and St Peter: Location and the Liturgical Connection between Two Feasts in Ben 35," advisors Dr. Luisa Nardini and Dr. Michael Tusa, Division of Musicology and Ethnomusicology
Kara Scott, MA in Art History, “Manuscripts and Memory: Charles V (1364-1380) at Vincennes,” advisor Dr. Joan A. Holladay
Sharon Silzell, MA in Middle Eastern Studies, "Miḥna and Muṣḥaf: Caliphal Authority and the Written Qur’ān " advisers Drs. Denise Spellberg and Samer Ali
Shannon Steiner, MA in Art History, "Agent of Touch and Transformation: A Pilgrimage Token of Saint Symeon the Younger in the Menil Collection," advisors Drs. Glenn Peers and Amy Papalexandrou
