Friday, September 9, 2005
2005-2006/006
Ground-breaking scholar returns to UIUC Sept. 16-17 for symposium in her honor
Mary Carruthers, Erich Maria Remarque Professor of Literature and Dean of the Humanities, New York University, and a Mellon Distinguished Fellow in Medieval Studies at the U. of I. in the spring semester of 2005, will return to campus for a symposium in her honor Friday and Saturday, Sept. 16-17.
The symposium, Making Thoughts, Making Pictures, Making Memories in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, is scheduled to be held in the Auditorium of Temple Hoyne Buell Hall on the U. of I. campus, Friday, from 4-8 p.m. and Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. It is free and open to the public.
The symposium will include papers by Mary Carruthers (NYU), Adam Cohen (University of Toronto), Herbert Kessler (The Johns Hopkins University), Georgia Frank (Colgate University), Albrecht Classen (University of Arizona), and Anne D. Hedeman (UIUC).
Carruthers has published ground-breaking work on Middle English literature, medieval rhetoric and literary theory, and the history of thought. Her research covers a period spanning more than a thousand years and encompasses texts ranging from masterpieces of vernacular literature to highly technical scholastic treatises in Latin.
Early in her career, Carruthers did important work on the canonical authors of fourteenth-century English literature, William Langland and Geoffrey Chaucer. Subsequently, Carruthers reputation has been extended well beyond the confines of Middle English literary studies by her two ground-breaking books on medieval memory, both published by Cambridge University Press: “The Book of Memory” (1990) and “The Craft of Thought” (1998).
Previous scholarship on memory in the Middle Ages had emphasized the mnemonic schemes derived from classical treatises on rhetoric. However, Carruthers study of memory extends far beyond the disciplinary confines of rhetoric, demonstrating that medieval culture was fundamentally memorial. She shows how memory was an active, creative praxis for the Middle Ages, not a mere repository of stored information but a machine for creating new meaning by subdividing and recombining what had been read and assimilated. Her books are massively erudite and equally impressive in their theoretical sophistication and ability to move easily across theoretical boundaries.
The impact of Carruthers’ work can be measured not only by the frequency with which it is cited, but also by the honors and awards it has earned her. She has been elected president of the two major professional organizations in her field: The New Chaucer Society (1996-98) and the Medieval Academy of America (2005-2006). The Medieval Academy of America elected her a fellow in 1996 and awarded her 1998 book the Haskins medal, which recognizes the most outstanding book in all areas of medieval studies published during the previous five years.
Carruthers was a Distinguished Mellon Fellow in Medieval Studies at UIUC from April 10-24. Her upcoming visit is sponsored by the UIUC Program in Medieval Studies.
For more information about the symposium, see the calendar at the U. of I. Program in Medieval Studies web site:
h ttp://webspace.ncsa.uiuc.edu/cgi-bin/calendars/viewcal?CID=11.
Other symposium speakers:
Adam Cohen is Professor of Art History at the University of Toronto. A specialist in western medieval art, he is author of "The Uta Codex: Art, Philosophy, and Reform in Eleventh-Century Germany" (University Park, Pa.: Penn State University Press, 2000) and a book-in-progress on "The Garden of Delights: Medieval Art and Ideas." He is also preparing an edition of essays on Anglo-Saxon and early medieval art by Robert Deshman.
Herbert Kessler is Professor of Art History at the Johns Hopkins University and a specialist in Early Christian and Medieval art. His most recent among many publications publications include "Seeing Medieval Art" (Petersborough, Ont: Broadview Press, 2004); "Old Saint Peter’s and Church Decoration in Medieval Italy" (Spoleto: Centro italiano di Studi sull’alto medioevo, 2002); (with Johanna Zacharias) "Rome 1300: On the path of the Pilgrim" (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000); "Spiritual Seeing: Picturing God’s Invisibility in Medieval Art" (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000); and "Kunst und Liturgie im Mittelalter (Akten des internationalen Kongresses des Bibliotheca Hertziana und des Nederlands Instituut te Rome," September 1997) (Munich, 2000).
Georgia Frank is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Colgate University. A specialist in Ancient Christianity and women in antiquity, with interests in ancient Christian spirituality, pilgrimage, icons, relics, and monasticism, she published "The Memory of the Eyes: Pilgrims to Living Saints in Christian Late Antiquity" (Transformation of the Classical Heritage, 30), (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000).
Albrecht Classen is professor of German Studies at the University of Arizona, Tucson. He has a broad range of research interests covering the history of German literature from about 800 to 1600. His most recent books include "Discourses on Love, Marriage, and Transgression in Medieval and Early-Modern Literature," ed. A. Classen (Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2004); "Late-Medieval German Women’s Poetry: Secular and Religious Songs." Trans. from the German with Introduction, Notes and Interpretive Essay by A. Classen (Woodbridge, Suffolk, and Rochester, NY: D. S. Brewer, 2004); "Violence in Medieval Courtly Literature," ed. A. Classen (New York and London: Routledge, 2004); "Meeting the Foreign in the Middle Ages," ed. A. Classen (New York and London: Routledge, 2002); "‘Mein Seel fang an zu singen'. Religiöse Frauenlieder des 15.-16. Jahrhunderts" (Leuven: Peeters, 2002); "Verzweiflung und Hoffnung. Die Suche nach der kommunikativen Gemeinschaft in der deutschen Literatur des Mittelalters" (Frankfurt a.M.: Lang, 2002); "Deutsche Liederbücher des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts" (Münster and New York: Waxmann, 2001); and "Frauen in der deutschen Literaturgeschichte. Die ersten 800 Jahre. Ein Lesebuch" (New York: Peter Lang, 2000). Currently he is serving as editor of the international and interdisciplinary journal "Tristania" and co-editor of "Mediaevistik."
Anne D. Hedeman is Professor of Art History and Director of the Program in Medeival Studies at the University of Illinois. Her research concentrates on French 13th-15th century illuminated manuscripts and has concerned royal patronage, illuminations of Mirrirs of Princes, and the relationships between the first French humanists and the arts around 1400. Her books include "The Royal Image: The Illustrations of the Grandes chroniques de France, 1274-1422, " California Studies in the History of Art, 28 (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1991); "Of Counselors and Kings: The Three Versions of Pierre Salmon’s Dialogues," (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2001); and a book in progress on "Boccaccio in Context: Early Fifteenth-Century Copies of Des cas des nobles homes et femmes" (Los Angeles: Getty, forthcoming).
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