The Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages, Inc. May 1996

News & Notes from TEAMS

Dear Friends of TEAMS:

Even as the sessions described in this newsletter are taking place in Kalamazoo, the Executive Committee of TEAMS will be meeting to discuss plans for 1997. The fall newsletter will include a call for papers; after May 15 you can find preliminary information on the World Wide Web. As always, we invite you to get involved with TEAMS by participating in the Congress sessions and by submitting suggestions, questions, articles, and announcements related to the teaching of the Middle Ages for inclusion in this newsletter. What's working well in your class? What are your greatest frustrations? We are particularly interested in the ways you are using TEAMS publications in the classroom.

My own obsession with the World Wide Web (see last issue) sometimes makes me wonder how we ever studied the Middle Ages without high-speed modems. Michael Curschmann's report on the Mappamundi Project at Princeton University shows us what technology and dedicated teachers can do together. But although I will continue to share the locations of my favorite websites and electronic discussion groups, I am eager to hear from you about the best ways to teach The Middle Ages Unplugged. Please write.

Karen Saupe
Department of English
Calvin College
3201 Burton S.E.
Grand Rapids, MI 49546

E-mail: ksaupe@calvin.edu

TEAMS Sessions at the Medieval Congress

Teaching Medieval Literature with Computers

Thursday, May 9 at 1:30 p.m., 2040 Fetzer
Leslie Z. Morgan, Loyola College - Maryland, Organizer and Presider

Teaching Paleography with Computers - David P. Bénéteau, Seton Hall University

HyperText and the Medieval French Literature Course - Susan F. Spillman, Xavier University - Louisiana

Reading the Past on the Roads of Tomorrow: Internet Resources for Undergraduate-Level Medieval French Literature - Robert D. Peckham, University of Tennessee-Martin

Roundtable on Professional Issues
Medieval Studies in the College Curriculum - Dead or Alive?

Thursday, May 9, 8:00 p.m., 1005 Fetzer
Bonnie Wheeler, Southern Methodist University, Organizer and Presider

Panelist Stanley Katz is the Executive Director of the American Council of Learned Societies, and thus speaks for us all collectively and professionally. Our topic really concerns both a quest for information (Do we think it is true that medieval subjects have been marginalized in our departments and universities?) and a quest for answers (What can we do to amplify the teaching of medieval subjects in our colleges and universities?). Joining Katz will be Giles Constable, Institute for Advanced Studies; Allen Frantzen, Loyola University; Laurie Finke, Kenyon College; and Elizabeth Kirk, Brown University.

Fruits of NEH Summer Seminar

Friday, May 10, 10 a.m., Room 1030 Fetzer
Ronald Herzman, SUNY-Geneseo, Organizer and Presider

The Themes of Death and Courage: Why Early Germanic Literature is Relevant in 1995 - Robert P. Largess, Boston Latin Academy

Eros and Gnosis: A Meditation of Sufi Love Poetry, The Troubadors, Courtly Love, and Objects of Desire - Richard Gwyn Davies, Culver Academies

The Eye of the Beholder: Gaze, Power, and Desire in Grail Romance - Beverly Arden Williams, Loyola Sacred Heart School

Roundtable: The Teaching of the Medieval Liturgy

Friday, May 10, 7:00 p.m., 2020 Fetzer
E. Ann Matter, University of Pennsylvania, Organizer
Thomas Heffernan, University of Tennessee, Presider

Liturgy as Social Performance: Expanding the Definitions - Pamela Sheingorn, Baruch College-CUNY, and Kathleen Ashley, University of Southern Maine

Liturgy and the Liturgical Life in the Medieval Greek World - Demetrios J. Constantelos, Stockton State College

Medieval Liturgical Manuscripts - Jeanne E. Krochalis, Pennsylvania State University - New Kensington

The Liturgy and Vernacular Literature - Evelyn Birge Vitz, New York University

Teaching Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales

Saturday, May 11, 1:30 p.m., Room 302
Thomas H. Ohlgren, Purdue University, Organizer and Presider

Robin Hood and the Bad King Genre - Stephen Knight, University of Wales

"Exempt me Sire, for I am afeard of women": Male Bonding and Homophobic Panic in Robin Hood Stories - Thomas Hahn, University of Rochester

Childe Hood: The Infantilization of Medieval Legend - Julie Nelson Couch, Brown University

Robin Hood and Critical Theory: Some Approaches - Thomas H. Ohlgren

The Middle Ages in the Classroom

Sunday, May 12, 10:30 a.m., 1355 Schneider
Ron Herzman, SUNY-Geneseo, Organizer
Martin B. Shichtman, Eastern Michigan University, Presider

What Kennings Reveal About Beowulf: A Classroom Approach - Georgia Marketos, American College of Greece and Pierce College

Swutol Sang Scopes: The Singing of Beowulf - Howard Shepherd, Ashville High School

The Medieval Mystique: Observations and Approaches for Secondary Teachers - Jane Vogt, The Stratford Academy
Articles, news items, and announcements related to the teaching of the Middle Ages are welcome. Please send items for this newsletter by August 15 or February 15.

Announcements

The Hill Monastic Manuscript Library in Collegeville, Minnesota, will host a summer symposium, Servi Textus: The Servants of the Text, July 10-13, 1996. The conference will focus on the history and tradition of the book arts, with special emphasis on the interaction among the scholar, the collector, and the calligraphic artist. For more information, visit the HMML home page or contact the Hill Monastic Manuscript Library at

The Bush Center - Saint John's University
Post Office Box 7300
Collegeville, MN 56321 USA
(320) 363-3514 (voice) 3222 (fax)


Call for Papers

Conference: Writing Cultures/Making Cultures: Sites, Stages, and Scenarios of Medieval Studies

The Thirtieth Annual CEMERS Conference, October 18-19, 1996

Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Binghamton University (SUNY)

This conference will engage the interdisciplinary domain of Medieval Studies from two distinct but ultimately related directions. We will examine the reception by medievalists of newer theoretical paradigms, in particular the engagement with the notion of culture and the recourse to the methodologies of "cultural studies": this process has occurred long enough that a review of its outcomes is both possible and desirable. We are particularly interested in the implications of new research directions for pedagogical principle and curriculum design, especially in the larger context of the current redefinition of the objectives and responsibilities of American higher education. We envisage poster sessions featuring integrative pedagogical projects of particular interest.

At the same time, we will examine the active involvement, actual or potential, of Medieval Studies in the production of culture, in various senses of that word. In particular, we will review the institutional and disciplinary spaces within which Medieval Studies is constituted and from which it variously addresses a range of audiences both in and beyond the academy. CEMERS itself, at its 30th anniversary, offers a promising object for such a review; others include the wide spectrum of interdisciplinary centers and research programs in colleges and universities, departments of medieval art in museums, and related institutions (especially those with active and innovative outreach programs), research centers and archives, and publishing houses. We also hope to review the range of serial publications in Medieval Studies publishing work by medievalists on a regular basis.

Contact: Charles Burroughs, Director, CEMERS
Binghamton University, PO Box 6000
Binghamton, New York 13902-6000
Telephone: 607-777-2730
E-mail: CEMERS@bingsuns.cc.binghamton.edu

Deadline for abstracts is June 1, 1996

New Publications from TEAMS

Middle English Texts Series

  • Four Middle English Romances: Sir Isumbras, Octavian, Sir Eglamour of Artois, Sir Tryamour, ed. Harriet Hudson

  • Medieval English Political Writings, ed. James M. Dean

  • The Poems of Laurence Minot, 1333-1352, ed. Richard H. Osberg

  • Forthcoming: The Book of Margery Kempe, ed. Lynn Staley

  • Reprinted: King Arthur's Death, ed. Larry D. Benson, rev. Edward E. Foster

    • Documents of Practice Series

  • Sources for the History of Medicine in Late Medieval England, ed. Carole Rawcliffe

    • These titles will be on display at the TEAMS Exhibit table in Valley II Cafeteria.


    TEAMS publications are available through Medieval Institute Publications
    Walwood Hall
    (616) 387-8755 Western Michigan University
    FAX (616) 387-8750 Kalamazoo, MI 49008-3801