Early Modern History at the University of York.
Researching sound, culture, religion, nuns, travel, mobility, and multilingualism. Not always all at once.
On the council of the Royal Historical Society.
Have joined Bluesky and it's looking pretty exciting folks! If I get an invite code I'll send it on, but in the meantime if you're already there come find me! @emilieKMmurphy
This petition is a way of showing support for our colleagues in #medieval and #earlymodern studies at Australian Catholic University, who are facing extreme cuts to their program as part of a clear (and wrong-headed) disinvestment in the #Humanities by ACU administration. Please consider signing.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScLAzmPu84ys2STLOX599BHoc53QmOm03upXJe3yqujeB1TiQ/viewform
The Australian Catholic University has unveiled a 'change plan' which recommends disestablishment of its world-leading medieval and early modern studies research program. Medieval and early modern studies is an interdisciplinary area that encompasses historical, literary, theological, religious, philosophical, art and music studies and more. It is not simply an area of 'history' (as has been identified by the ACU cuts), but an area that traverses and engages with many academic areas of inquiry. It is an area at ACU that has been specifically identified as a key area of investment over the last five or so years. Our staff of 7 are high performing, world leading academics. We have positioned ourselves as the hub of MEMS activity in Australasia over the last few years and we are growing an HDR cohort nationally and internationally, while also developing partnerships and networks across the globe. Our focus on the global Middle Ages (especially the global south), projects on racism and conspiracy theories in the early modern world, histories of home and homelessness, histories of religious mobilities, and histories of legal medievalism and medievalism in LGBTQI cultures make us not only a uniquely variegated MEMS program, but also put us at the cutting edge of many areas of contemporary resonance. At a university that prides itself on its Catholic mission and focus, it is therefore surprising that an integral area of study that contextualises, explains and advances its Catholic history and inquiry in all its historical and contemporary forms would be chosen to be cut. ACU’s ‘Faith and Values’ statement asserts that the university draws ‘inspiration from the “heart of the Church” building on the ancient tradition which gave rise to the first universities in medieval Europe. Retaining a dedicated research program in the areas that are fundamental to this inspiration is of critical importance. Please sign below to protest this plan. Thank you, Prof Megan Cassidy-Welch, Director , Medieval and Early Modern Studies Research Program, ACU.
Fantastic to be at the Royal Historical Society Visit Day in Canterbury yesterday, jointly hosted by the historians at Canterbury Christ Church University and the University of Kent.
We started with a productive and stimulating roundtable on how university History can thrive (and survive...!) in the current contexts we all find ourselves in.
We finished with a phenomenal lecture from William Pettigrew, who introduced us to the vitally important work he and his collaborators have been doing compiling the Registers of British Slave Traders. https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FV004417%2F1#/tabOverview
The database holds the details of 12000 individual investors (10% women) and scores of institutions - all beneficiaries of the trafficking of enslaved Africans. The depth and breadth of involvement across UK society is profound. The recorded lecture will be shared by
the Royal Historical Society on their website soon, so look out for it. https://royalhistsoc.org/
I've spoken to a lot of folk informally about my seeming inability to properly conceptualise and execute a monograph (my brain seems only to function effectively for article length projects) so am putting this out there now for anyone else that feels this way!
BUT I am now making a solid segue and have just pressed send on a book proposal for a MINIgraph. Baby steps people, baby steps!
The journey of David Ingram was, without doubt, extraordinary.
I can't begin to explain how much more I wished we knew about it, but if you'd like to read the meticulous reconstruction of an Elizabethan sailor's incredible long walk from Tampico, Mexico, to the mouth of the Saint John River on the Bay of Fundy in Canada (3600 miles!!) then this is the book for you!
OK, #Medievodons, help me find my way in an area I know little about. What is the state of research into late medieval ideas about dying well? Is the ars moriendi still a useful notion? What is a good book or article I can read to orient myself and find helpful further reading?
Context: I’m trying to contextualize something someone in the mid 15th century wrote about his own forthcoming death. Some of the books he owned are germane to the larger matter but not directly to his own text.
Hi folks - another #introduction from me as I've migrated to hcommons - hello to my fellow humanists and #histodons
I'm an #earlymodern historian at the University of York in the UK. Currently attempting to write a short book which uses Samuel Purchas's four volume Purchas His Pilgrimes as a case-study to argue that travel writing is only fully understood if we listen to it. #sound #audiation #travel #mobility
My other main research focus in recent years has been #multilingualism and #transnationalism in English Convents in Exile - which I'll be returning to soon. #nuntastic
More anon!
#CFP Sound Faith: Religion and the Acoustic World, 1400-1800 at the University of York, 12-14 June 2024.
Confirmed keynotes from Felipe Ledesma-Núñez (Harvard); Jan-Freidrich Missfelder (Basel); Lucía Martínez Valdivia (Reed College).
Abstracts and bios by 1 September 2023 (to me - [email protected])
#earlymodern #histodons #academia #medievodons #medieval #sound #religion #soundscapes #musicology
Yvonne Seale
Gabriel Hankins
Jeffrey J. Dean