New book – The Care of the Brain in Early Christianity, by Jessica L. Wright, pub. by University of California Press

About the Book

CFP – ICMS kalamazoo – Mutual Aid and the Middle Ages (virtualsession) org. by Abby Ang

Mutual Aid and the Middle Ages

Contact: Abby Ang
Modality: Virtual
The COVID-19 pandemic instigated global mutual aid activity, inspired partly by Peter Kropotkin’s Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (1902). Kropotkin draws from a variety of sources to argue that horizontal cooperation, rather than competition, is what has allowed various species to survive and thrive. He describes guilds and unions of the Middle Ages as sites where mutual aid thrived. 120 years after its publication, this paper panel considers how works of the Middle Ages might have explored cooperation, responsibility, and solidarity across experiences of gender, race, sexuality, disability, and class—and how such care may remain urgent and crucial today.

CFP – The Body’S Health, the Soul’s Salvation: Healthcare and Religion in Rural Areas (Western Europe XVth-XIXth Centuries) – International colloquium of the Société Suisse d’Histoire Rurale (SSHR) (Swiss Society for Rural History)

Yates Thompson 19 f. 40 @britishlibrary (Brunetto Latini)

Organisers: Sandro Guzzi-Heeb, Madline Favre, Aline Johner, Lucas Rappo, Alessandro Ratti (SSHR/Université de Lausanne), Nathalie Dahn-Singh (SSHR/Université de Fribourg)

1–2 September 2022, Université de Lausanne, Switzerland

Deadline for proposal submissions: 1 February 2022

 

***Please find the English version below***

 

Appel à communications
pour le colloque international de la Société Suisse d’Histoire Rurale (SSHR)
Santé des corps et salut des âmes :
soins et religion en milieu rural (Europe occidentale, XVe-XIXe siècles)

Depuis quelques années, on assiste à un véritable regain d’intérêt pour l’étude des pratiques dites « populaires » en relation avec la santé ; en parallèle, de nouvelles approches émergent également autour de l’histoire des expériences religieuses. Néanmoins, les démarches qui visent à mettre en lumière le rapport entre ces deux sphères, notamment dans les régions périphériques (rurales et de montagne), demeurent rares.

L’objectif de ce colloque est donc d’approfondir la problématique de l’interpénétration entre soins, corps, santé et religion dans le monde rural, en adoptant une approche à la fois interdisciplinaire et dans une perspective de longue durée. Comment revisiter, à l’aune des récents développements de la recherche historique (histoire, histoire des religions, histoire de l’art, anthropologie historique…), des pratiques, des savoirs et des objets qui, jusqu’à présent, ont surtout été abordés par les folkloristes et par les ethnologues ?

Les contributeurs·trices seront invité·e·s à réfléchir à cette question générale en accordant une attention particulière aux acteurs·rices. D’un côté, le rôle joué par les spécialistes de la santé et du salut des âmes – curés, apothicaires, guérisseurs et guérisseuses, sages-femmes –, ainsi que par les institutions religieuses (confréries, hospices, monastères…) : qui sont-ils/elles et comment agissent-ils/elles dans leurs rôles d’intermédiaires entre le(s) corps, la santé et l’univers religieux ? Quelle est leur fonction dans la prise en charge matérielle, physique et spirituelle des populations en milieu rural et alpin ? D’autre part, le colloque se penchera sur les usages que les hommes et les femmes mettent en place afin de prendre soin de leur santé et de leur propre corps, – soit les pratiques « d’autosoins » telles qu’elles se manifestent dans la population.

Les deux journées du colloque visent à mobiliser et valoriser une documentation variée et produite hors des seuls cercles érudits (écrits personnels, almanachs, objets dévotionnels, ex-votos, icônes, images…) et à enquêter sur des lieux particuliers (sanctuaires, chapelles, lieux de guérisons ou énergétiques, mais aussi la maison et l’espace domestique). Le cadre proposé invite ainsi à analyser les traditions anciennes, les croyances religieuses et les connaissances scientifiques, afin de réfléchir à la transmission des savoirs sur la relation entre les corps et les âmes en dehors des circuits savants. Les contributions prenant en compte la dimension du genre seront particulièrement les bienvenues.

Nous invitons donc des propositions originales s’inscrivant en priorité dans les axes thématiques suivants :

  • Un premier axe s’oriente autour du « corps sain » : comment la religion est-elle utilisée pour soigner les corps en milieu rural ? Les propositions s’inscrivant dans cet axe aborderont d’une part les pratiques qualifiées de « superstitieuses » (recettes médicinales, formules magiques, recours au « secret » …) associées à un rapport à la transcendance et à l’univers de la magie. D’autre part, les usages admis par les autorités religieuses seront également interrogés, tels que le recours à l’intercession des saint·e·s, les pèlerinages, les processions ou l’utilisation d’exvotos et de reliques. Enfin, il s’agit également d’aborder le rapport quotidien des hommes et des femmes aux prescriptions religieuses concernant les corps, notamment l’hygiène, l’alimentation, l’habillement, mais aussi l’érotisme et la sexualité.
  • Un deuxième axe interroge le « corps saint ». D’abord, celui des vivant·e·s : comment atteindre le salut par des pratiques qui purifient le corps ? Qu’il s’agisse d’habitudes alimentaires (jeûnes, interdits…), de l’abstinence sexuelle ou encore, plus radicalement, de l’ascétisme ou de la flagellation, comment les croyant·e·s modifient-ils/elles leurs pratiques corporelles dans un but spirituel ? Les soins apportés aux corps s’étendent également au domaine de la mort : comment les membres d’une communauté prennent-ils/elles en charge les corps des défunt·e·s pour assurer le salut de leur âme, et qui sont les acteurs·rices qui se consacrent à ces gestes (famille, voisinage, confréries) ?
  • Un troisième axe s’intéresse aux pratiques liées aux « cycles de la vie », soit aux rituels autour de l’enfance, de la grossesse, des menstruations, de l’accouchement, de la vieillesse et de la mort. Cet axe abordera les gestes et les célébrations qui marquent les étapes de la transformation des corps. Les croyances autour des « corps » immatériels (esprits, revenants), ainsi que des médiateurs·rices intervenant comme intermédiaires entre deux états (médiums, curés, exorcistes…) permettront d’interroger plus directement encore les entrelacements constants des différents cycles entre corps et repos des âmes, tels qu’ils s’articulent dans le monde rural.

Soumission des propositions
Les propositions de communications comprendront un titre et un résumé (env. 2500-3000 caractères, espaces et notes compris), ainsi qu’une courte présentation personnelle (env. 1000 caractères, y compris la fonction, l’affiliation institutionnelle, les principales publications et le courrier électronique), le tout dans un unique document Word. Les propositions doivent être envoyées d’ici au 1er février 2022 à l’adresse suivante : guillaume.favrod@unil.ch.

Les candidat·e·s seront informé·e·s des résultats de la sélection au cours du mois d’avril 2022. Les communications dureront 20 minutes. Les langues du colloque sont le français et l’anglais. Les participant·e·s seront invité·e·s à remettre un résumé de leur conférence (2 pages) 15 jours avant le colloque.

Les organisateurs·trices souhaitent publier une sélection des communications présentées, en tenant compte de l’avis d’un comité scientifique. En ce sens, ils et elles invitent les participant·e·s à proposer une recherche originale et inédite.

Modalités pratiques
Les frais d’hébergement et de voyage ainsi que les repas durant les deux journées seront pris en charge.

Comité d’organisation
Sandro GUZZI-HEEB, Madline FAVRE, Aline JOHNER, Lucas RAPPO, Alessandro RATTI (SSHR/Université de Lausanne), Nathalie DAHN-SINGH (SSHR/Université de Fribourg).

Comité scientifique
Vincent BARRAS (Institut des humanités en médecine IHM, Lausanne) ; Anne BONZON (Université Paris 8) ; Simona BOSCANI LEONI (SSHR – Université de Berne) ; Christian GROSSE (Université de Lausanne) ; Philip RIEDER (Institut éthique histoire humanités IEH2, Genève) ; Rahel WUNDERLI (SSHR – Université de Berne).

 

***

 

Call for papers
for the international colloquium of the Société Suisse d’Histoire Rurale (SSHR) (Swiss Society for Rural History)
The Body’S Health, the Soul’s Salvation:
Healthcare and Religion in Rural Areas (Western Europe.  XVth-XIXth Centuries)

Recent years have seen renewed interest for the study of so-called “popular” practices in relation to health; likewise, new approaches have emerged in the history of religious experiences. However, studies that aim to highlight the relationship between these two spheres – notably in peripheral areas, both rural and alpine – remain rare.

This colloquium aims to further examine the issue of interpenetration between healthcare, bodies, health, and religion in the rural context by adopting both an interdisciplinary approach and a “long view” (perspective de longue durée). In light of recent developments in historical research (history, history of religions, art history, historical anthropology…), how can we revisit practices, knowledge, and objects which, until now, have mostly been studied by folklorists and ethnologists?

Contributors will be invited to discuss this general question by focusing particularly on the actors. On the one hand, the role played by specialists of health and the salvation of the soul – parish priests, apothecaries, healers, midwives – and religious institutions (confraternities, hospices, monasteries…): who are they and how do they act in their roles as intermediaries between bodies, health, and the religious realm? What function do they have in the material, physical, and spiritual care of rural and alpine populations? On the other hand, the colloquium will investigate practices and habits which men and women established in order to take care of their own health and bodies – such as “self-healthcare” practices.

Over the span of two days, we will mobilize and highlight various documents produced outside of erudite circles (personal writings, almanacs, devotional objects, ex-votos, icons, images…), and inquire about particular spaces (sanctuaries, chapels, healing grounds, but also the household and the domestic sphere). Thus, we invite the analysis of ancient traditions, religious beliefs, and scientific knowledge for the purpose of discussing knowledge transmission pertaining to the relationship between bodies and souls, as it manifests itself outside of the scholarly context. Papers that consider the gender dimension are most welcome.

We therefore invite innovative work in line with the below thematic focus:

  • Our first axis explores the “healthy body”: how is religion used to heal the body in rural areas? These papers will treat of practices deemed “superstitious” (medical recipes, magical formulas, use of the “secret” …), associated with transcendence and the magical realm. Furthermore, practices allowed by religious authorities will also be discussed, such as the intercession of the saints, pilgrimages, processions, the use of ex-votos and relics. Lastly, this axis will also consider how men and women daily related to religious prescriptions concerning bodies, hygiene, nutrition, clothing, as well as eroticism and sexuality.
  • Our second axis explores the “holy body”: concerning the living, how can they attain salvation through practices of bodily purification? Whether it be through nutritional habits (fasts, interdicts…), sexual abstinence, and more radically, ascetism or flagellation, how do believers modify their bodily practices for spiritual aims? Care of the body also concerns death: how do communities take care of their dead in order to secure their salvation and who are the actors in charge of these practices (families, neighbors, confraternities)?
  • Our third axis explores practices that concern “life cycles”, such as rituals surrounding infancy, pregnancy, menstruation, birth, old age, and death. This axis will discuss gestures and celebrations that mark milestones of the transformation of bodies. Moreover, inquiry will focus on beliefs about immaterial bodies (spirits, revenants), as well as mediators and intermediaries (mediums, parish priests, exorcists…), thus allowing us to question how rural society articulates the constant interweaving of life cycles, bodies, and souls’ rest.


Submission of proposals
Paper proposals will have a title and an abstract (circa 2500-3000 characters, spaces and footnotes included), as well as a short biographical presentation (circa 1000 characters, mentioning your academic position, institutional affiliation(s), primary publications, and email address), and will be in Word format. Proposals must be submitted before 1 February 2022 to the following address: guillaume.favrod@unil.ch.

Candidates will be informed of their selection in April 2022. Paper presentations should last 20 minutes. The colloquium will be held in French and in English. Participants will submit a two-page summary of their paper 15 days before the colloquium.

The organizers wish to publish a selection of the papers presented at the colloquium, taking into consideration the scientific comity’s opinion. Therefore, we encourage all participants to propose original and unpublished research.

Practical modalities
Costs pertaining to accommodation, traveling, and meals during both days will be covered.

Organizers
Sandro GUZZI-HEEB, Madline FAVRE, Aline JOHNER, Lucas RAPPO, Alessandro RATTI (SSHR/University of Lausanne), Nathalie DAHN-SINGH (SSHR/University of Fribourg).

Scientific committee
Vincent BARRAS (Institute of Humanities in Medicine IHM, Lausanne); Anne BONZON (University Paris 8) ; Simona BOSCANI LEONI (SSHR – University of Berne); Christian GROSSE (University of Lausanne); Philip RIEDER (Institute of Ethics History Humanities IEH2, Genève); Rahel WUNDERLI (SSHR – University of Berne).

CFPs on disability for the International Congress on Medieval Studies – Kalamazoo (and online) 2022

Medieval Sermon Studies I: Disease, Health, and Sermons

Contact Person: Jessalynn Bird ; jbird@saintmarys.edu

Principal Sponsoring Organization: International Medieval Sermon Studies Society

This session explores the rhetoric, metaphors, and physical realities of spiritual, mental, and physical illness in the medieval period in pastoral literature and sermons. Discourse between pastoralia and other genres is encouraged (liturgy, hagiography, miracle stories, vernacular literature, hospital records and medical treatises).

Deadline for New Submissions: Wednesday, September 15, 2021
 
 
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Of Pestilences and Plagues: Sickness in the Medieval Court

Contact Person: Shawn Cooper

Principal Sponsoring Organization: International Courtly Literature Society (ICLS), North American Branch

The International Courtly Literature Society (North American Branch) invites paper proposals for a sponsored session: Of Pestilences and Plagues: Sickness in the Medieval Court. We welcome submissions addressing the depiction of illness in courtly literatures, chronicles, histories, and other artistic media. Comparative readings of medieval and modern depictions of sickness in the setting of the medieval court are also welcome. Presenters will receive a year’s membership in the ICLS-NAB, and may be eligible for presentation-related grants and awards of the society.

Deadline for New Submissions: Wednesday, September 15, 2021
 
 
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Trauma, Disability, and the Anchorhold

Contact Person: Michelle Sauer

Principal Sponsoring Organization: International Anchoritic Society

Trauma studies and work that links studies of disability and trauma finds ample representation in the texts and contexts of anchorites, and their frequent citation of Christ’s wounds and the valorization of sickness, pain, and distress in the anchorhold. For this panel, we are seeking papers that interrogate the role and use of trauma and its attendant concerns—witnessing, wounds, pain—in the study of anchorites, their texts, and the responses to both. Papers are welcome that touch on the material realities of these figures and their receptions, or which concentrate on the figurative significance of trauma.

Deadline for New Submissions: Wednesday, September 15, 2021.
 
 
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The “New Paradigm” of Plague Studies: Expanded Geographies and Chronologies of the Medieval Pandemics

Contact Person: William York

Principal Sponsoring Organization: Medica: The Society for the Study of Healing in the Middle Ages

In 2014, Monica Green wrote “the field of historical plague studies … must be redefined in three dimensions: its geographic extent, its chronological extent, and the methodological registers we use to investigate it.” Since then, work on the full extent of both the 1st and 2nd Plague Pandemics has continued as Green anticipated, now encompassing the Mongol Empire (and perhaps the Xiongnu before them) and extending, perhaps, into sub-Saharan Africa. Whereas prior scholarship focused on the Mediterranean and Europe, pandemic studies must necessarily cast a wider net. This panel invites presentations of the latest work in the field.

Deadline for New Submissions: Wednesday, September 15, 2021.
 
 
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The Globalization of Medieval Medicine: Ideas, Authorities, and Products 1000-1600

Contact Person: William York

Principal Sponsoring Organization: Medica: The Society for the Study of Healing in the Middle Ages

This panel explores the globalization of medieval medicine, beginning in the eleventh century via the Silk Road and continuing through the early modern era of exploration and discovery. It will look at how medieval European medical practice and theory changed due to the influx of new ideas, practices, and pharmaceutical products. Panelists will also consider how medical consumerism and the transmission of ideas were affected by economic, religious, cultural, political, and technological changes, such as the advent of printed medical texts and the popularization of medical authorities outside of the ancient canon.

Deadline for New Submissions: Wednesday, September 15, 2021.
 
 
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Age in Monastic Life

Contact Person: Amelia Kennedy ; amelia.kennedy@uni-graz.at

From child oblates to venerable seniors, age plays a crucial role in monastic life. Yet it is easy to overlook mentions of age in historical sources as merely recording objective facts. This panel explores age as a socially constructed category within the monastery, asking how “age” was calculated, asserted, and negotiated. We invite proposals for 15-20-minute papers analyzing concepts of age and the life-cycle in medieval monasticism: How did monastic authors understand the aging process? How were relationships among different generations governed? What are the relationships between age and gender, authority, disability, or spirituality?

Deadline for New Submissions: Wednesday, September 15, 2021
 
 
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From Farm to Sick Bed: Food, Illness, and Medicine in the Medieval West

Contact Person: John Bollweg ; admin@mensetmensa.org

Principal Sponsoring Organization: Mens et Mensa: Society for the Study of Food in the Middle Ages

From epidemics traced to so-called “wet markets” dealing in food and medicine to the pursuit of longevity through the “Mediterranean Diet” — foods, diet, and regional foodways to be presented as both a cause and cure of illness. For this session, we seek papers on any examples (historical, literary, natural philosophical, religious, etc.), from Europe or the Mediterranean basin, in the years 500 C.E. through 1600 C.E., of food or drink as either the creator or the corrector of diseases physical or moral, individual or communal. This session continues the theme of a Fall 2021 conference.

Deadline for New Submissions: Wednesday, September 15, 2021
 
 
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Disability, Disease, and Health: New Voices, New Directions

Contact Person: Leah Parker

Principal Sponsoring Organization: Society for the Study of Disability in the Middle Ages

Paper proposals on any topic relating to disability, disease, and/or health will be welcomed, on any period between c. 500–1500 and on any geographical area. Topics might include, but are not limited to: lived experiences of impairment, medicine, healing, stigma, pandemic, contagion, textual or visual representations of bodily difference, archaeological evidence of impairment, theological/political/social attitudes toward disability, the body in law, etc. Presenters may be emerging in terms of their career (e.g., graduate students or early career researchers) or emerging by bringing their research into a new direction (i.e., newly engaging with the study of disability, disease, and/or health).

Deadline for New Submissions: Wednesday, September 15, 2021
 
 
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Medicine and Health Care in Medieval Iberia

Contact Person: Elisa Manzo

Principal Sponsoring Organization: Association of Graduate and Early Career Scholars of Medieval Iberia (AGECSMIberia)

Studies on premodern medicine have had a remarkable increase in the last decades and the recent global pandemic has done no more than further increase this trend. This session invites contributions on medicine and health care in Medieval Iberia from graduate and early career scholars, coming from a range of backgrounds and working on different aspects of this field. Potential topics may include: continuity or disruption in the medical practice between Roman and Post-Roman Iberia, regulations to safeguard physicians and patients, Jewish medicine in Christian and Arabic milieus, women healers’ status, the social effects of the so-called “medical pluralism”.

Deadline for New Submissions: Wednesday, September 15, 2021
 
 
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Medicine in the Global Middle Ages

Contact Person: Meg Oldman ; oldman@tarleton.edu

Principal Sponsoring Organization: Medieval Makars Society

After a year, the world is beginning to see an end to the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout it all, we have heard various ways to cope with or test our resilience against the novel coronavirus, from logical public health recommendations such as mask wearing and hand washing to abstract suggestions like injecting bleach and holding our breaths for 10 seconds. Suggestions such as these are nothing new. Prior to public health initiatives we know today, folklore was an important method of transmission for medical knowledge. We are looking for papers that explore global transmissions of medical knowledge through folkloric methods.

Deadline for New Submissions: Wednesday, September 15, 2021
 

Seminar – Uncommon Bodies – “The Trajectories of Early Modern Disability Studies” ; Simone Chess, “Hacking Sex in the Renaissance.” Lindsey Row-Heyveld, “Careless Arden: Able-bodiedness in As You Like It.” – 10-12 Feb 2021 – Event Free on Zoom

 
Uncommon Bodies: CSPW/CEMH Event
 
Please join us for two Uncommon Bodies events on disability studies and early modern sexuality, featuring Lindsey Row-Heyveld and Simone Chess


If you’re thinking you that you may come, we would like to know! Even if you ultimately can’t make it, we want to ensure that accommodations are available for you. So please RSVP.

When: Wed. Feb. 10, 2021 — Behind-the-scenes methods talk (11AM-12:30 PM CST)
and Friday, Feb. 12, 2021 Double header! (12- 1:30 PM CST)
Where: Zoom (please RSVP for link or check on the Center for Early Modern History UMN site)
Who: This event is free and open to the public, and to anyone who might be interested in disability studies, disability community, and early modern scholarship

Feb 10:
“The Trajectories of Early Modern Disability Studies”
Topics include: what brought us each to early modern disability studies? Where was early modern disability studies when we first met and first began this work? What has changed, in the field and in our own thinking? Where do we see gaps or space for growth? How did we pick the topics we’ll be talking about as models for what might be coming next in the field?


Feb. 12:
These talks approach the question of what might come next in early modern disability studies from two very different angles: Lindsey Row-Heyveld’s work on able-bodiedness and inattention explores a disability studies that could help us understand the construction of normalcy, modeling ways that disability knowledges apply broadly outside of the usual canon of early modern disability texts, while Simone Chess’s work on adaptive sex practices experiments with a disability studies centered in embodiment, modeling an increased specificity about disabled practices in history. Despite these very different approaches, the papers dovetail in their shared commitment to envisioning a capacious, creative, and multi-vocal future for early modern disability studies.

Simone Chess, “Hacking Sex in the Renaissance.”
Lindsey Row-Heyveld, “Careless Arden: Able-bodiedness in As You Like It.”
 
 
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