Cultures of Translation

The conference organisers at Monash have just released the program for ‘Cultures in Translation,’ the nineth biennial ANZAMEMS conference. 

Forget ‘lost’ in translation; leisurely perusing the line-up with my tea this afternoon, among the friends, colleagues, and distinguished guests, I ‘found’ quite a few of us ECRs I’m looking forward to seeing in Melbourne the week after next.

On Wednesday 13th:

Rebecca McNamara, “Pro Timore: Criminal Suicide in the Middle Ages”

Una McIlvenna, “Shame in Early Modern Public Execution”

On Thursday 14th:

“Academic Border-Crossing: A Roundtable on International Opportunities,” where myself and Rebecca will join Clare Monagle (one of ANZAMEMS’s illustrious organisers) and Krijn Pansters (of Tilburg University) to talk about cultural translations of our own… Namely, our experiences of studying and working in academic environments overseas. The session has been organised by Elizaveta Strakhov (U Penn), current chair of the Medieval Academy’s Graduate Student Committee.

Raphaele Garrod, “The King’s Heart: Françoys, Gallicans, Jesuits and the Politics of Mourning”

Spencer Young, “Lecturers, Debaters, Preachers: Theologians and Theological Endeavour at the Early University of Paris”

Sarah Randles, “Signs of Emotion Pilgrimage Badges from the Cathedral of Notre Dame of Chartres”

On Friday 15th:

Charlotte Rose-Millar (postgraduate student at Melbourne Uni) “Sleeping with Devils: The Sexual Witch in Seventeenth-Century England”

and myself on “Conflicting Emotions” in the fifteenth-Century debate of the Eye and the Heart

On Saturday 16th:

François Sayer, “Hatred Through Print: the crafting of a best-selling antisemitic book in seventeenth-century Spain”

I have also asterisked in my copy of the program –  Philippa Maddern on “Moving Scenes: emotional performance and court judgements in late medieval English courts” (as well as the rest of her panel, with its enticing line-up of papers by Merridee Bailey and Claire Walker), Stephen Knight on “Emotion an Socialism in Early Arthurian Story,” Andrew Lynch’s fabulously titled, “…igon is al mi blisse”: Emotion and Action in Layamon’s Arthur Story,” and Aleksondra Hultquist’s “Adapting Desires in Six Versions of Aphra Behn’s The History of the Nun.” (I’ve asterisked plenty of others, rest assured!, but I highlight these as particularly ’emotional’).

There is – not suprisingly – a strong focus on the emotions at ANZAMEMS this year (and it interests me that this is the word we are using, it seems, over ‘affect’ or ‘feeling;’ all quite different, of course, but I’m nonetheless intrigued to see this consensus) from those in the “Medieval World” and “Early Modern Culture” more broadly, to “Emotions of Crime and Death in Medieval and Early Modern Europe” (Rebecca and Una; “Emotions and Objects” (myself and Sarah), and  “Emotions in Socio-Legal Contexts” to medieval literary genres, “Comic Translations,” and Ovidian “love” in renaissance texts.

So, that’s afternoon tea over. Hope you enjoyed the break, and hopefully see you in Melbourne Tuesday week!

Let me know if I’ve missed anything. What is everyone else planning to see?

Posted by Stephanie Downes