Timing is Everything

Timing is everything

So I'm supposed to leave on a research trip to London on Wednesday. I hope to kibbitz with many colleagues and write the introduction to the Big Project (no contract yet, but they are asking me about artwork and for a blurb for the advert), and maybe even get something done on a second article.

Today, I arrived home to find a Jury Summons. For two dates during the period I'm going to be gone.

*rhymes with 'clucking bell'*

Update: Thanks to a wonderful clerk, who ran the paperwork up to the judge just before today's sessions started (so I wouldn't have to wait to find out), and a kind judge, I am flying off to London as planned. Thanks!

relativity at the gym

relativity at the gym

So I finally dragged my butt to the gym after getting settled into a new apartment and going to Berks and then really getting settled. And I went at the end of the day, so surprise! it was busy. All the treadmills but one taken.

And I was going to rant about the fact that the only three treadmills that catch the a/c and the fans were being used by people who were walking. And how selfish it seemed to me at the time, because I run on the treadmill. And it's really hot, especially when it's really hot outside.

But maybe those people were working up a sweat walking, and I should just shut up and be happy that I can run.

In other news, I am trying to figure out how to both cut an article down AND add more references and citations.

Carnivalesque up!

Carnivalesque is up!!

Hey all, there's and Early Modern Carnivalesque up at Janice Liedl's place! Go and read!!

Calling all Medievalists

Calling all Medievalists

Hi all -- I am reprinting (with permission), parts of a letter I received regarding the Berks conference. If you are looking for a fantastic conference and do anything on the history of women -- and this doesn't mean you have to be a women's historian or even a feminist historian per se -- please consider adding this conference to your roster. I had a fantastic time this year, and hope I can go again.

Dear Colleagues,

I just returned from the 14th Berkshire Conference on the History of Women at the University of Minnesota, where I was happily surrounded by medievalists, and not just those who study the European Middle Ages. I’ve been going to the Berks since 1992, when it was at Vassar, and it is always an intellectual high. But this year, thanks to Ruth Mazo Karras and a superb program committee, there were not only more panels devoted specifically to medieval women, there were more medieval historians, art historians, literary scholars, and theologians taking part in an impressive array of panels, workshops, and seminars that crossed temporal and geographic boundaries. The theme of the conference, “Continuities and Changes,” is evident in the following panels that directly addressed or touched on medieval feminist scholarship (see the Berks website for details here):

* Foreign Queens of the Bible as Political Tropes (session 13)
* Women’s Authority, Authorship, and Authorizing (29)
* Women, Royalty and Politics in Comparative Perspective (32)
* Feminist Provocations: Judith Bennett’s History Matters (47)
* Interrogating Women’s Agency: Voice, Choice, and Power in the Premodern World (56)
* Mothers, Wetnurses, and the Evolution of Reproductive Medicine in Premodern Europe (81)
* Seeing Women in Byzantine Society (112)
* Gendering the Plague (152)
* Using the Archives of Medieval Religious Houses to Reflect on their Secular Sisters (182)
* Discovering Women’s Lives amidst Premodern Numbers: The Application of Demography to Premodern Europe and North America (185)
* Managing Property, Constructing Gender (196)
* Singlewomen (199)
* Women and the Law Courts in Global Historical Perspective (202)


Many SMFS members presented papers, were discussants or chairs, and if the blogs (see the Berks website) are any indication, the conference will continue to generate the sorts of ideas and conversations that make our field so vibrant and vital.

If you have not been to a Berkshire Conference, put this on your list of things to do. And, believe it or not, start thinking now about the Berks of 2011. That may seem a long ways away, but it’s not. The conference organizers get to work very early and solicit session proposals roughly 18 months before the conference, so start brainstorming now. It is best to submit complete panels, and since these can sometimes take a while to put together, it's not too soon to begin to sound out colleagues about potential panels. As a rule, participants may take on only one role in a panel, although anyone can organize it. (But a presenter will not be a chair, for example, nor a commenter.) At this point in the calendar, we don't know yet where the Berks will take place, but it will most likely be on the east coast, and it will be around the second weekend in June. The schedule then, will look something like this:

* Summer/Fall 2009: Call for papers/panel proposals
* February 2010: Deadline for submissions
* June-July 2010: Panels accepted
* June 2011: Conference


The Berks conference is held every three years (this is called the Big Berks, not to be confused with the annual retreats called the Little Berks). If you are not a historian per se, don’t stop reading. Non-historians can deliver papers and act as chairs and comments. They also welcome proposals from independent scholars, whether or not they define themselves as historians. As a general rule, though, individual papers (and the panels and roundtables in which they appear) need to be intelligible to an audience made up largely of historians of women, and to be relevant to the current historical enterprise, broadly conceived.

Panels typically involve a chair, two to three papers, and a comment. Often panels focus more narrowly on a specific historical problem, field, area, or time period (though many are comparative across regions or periods, and they can be interdisciplinary). Roundtables tend to take on "larger," and somewhat more speculative (and sometimes more controversial) subjects, and they often feature shorter, more informal presentations by a larger number of people, and they usually include more discussion time for audience members. This year, for the first time, the Berks held a series of seminars and workshops based on pre-circulated papers; this format was generally successful, and it is likely conference organizers will do it again. These were held simultaneously on Sunday morning for 2 1/2 hours.

And, in the spirit of what Miri Rubin, in her plenary address termed the “generous history” of feminist scholarship, the Berks is not just for or written by women. I was impressed by the number of men, among them many graduate students and junior faculty, who study women’s history.

For those of you who subscribe to the medfem-L but have not yet joined the SMFS, please consider making us part of your array of professional organizations. We are devoted to keeping medieval feminist scholarship at the forefront of scholarship on the European Middle Ages and we not only welcome your expertise and your voice, we need you to continue to keep feminist scholarship at the forefront of intellectual life.

And finally, stay tuned to medfem-L. As the Berks organizers get ready for 2011, we will send you information so that you, too, can be part of a tremendous intellectual and feminist experience.

My colleague says this far better than I, but I have to say, she's absolutely right.

I heart John Scalzi

I heart John Scalzi

Well said, that man

Transformative Conferences

Transformative Conferences

Wow. I'm at the Big Women's History Conference. I had dinner last night with the plenary speakers (OMG I am still in major fan squee from being allowed to sit at their feet and drink in their wisdom!) and with women whose work I've been catching up on, because it has more and more to do with my own. And throughout this conference, I've been struck by how much generosity there is -- I've found that before, at the Late Antique conference especially, and at K'zoo. But it's a bit different here.

The transformative part, though, is the realization that women's history (and I'm not particularly a women's historian) forces us to be inclusive in ways that more traditional male-oriented history doesn't. I think many of us can and do regularly consider issues of class, gender, and race (where applicable), in our work, but it's because we are interested. Women's history seems to demand that those things be considered.

OTOH, I have heard two papers where the larger political and religious contexts were under-considered, IMO. Balance is good.

Otherwise, having a wonderful time, and am just enjoying myself, since I'm done with my paper!

Allen rehashes

Re-hashing Allen by Allen

Charlotte Allen re-hashes her weekly standard column and bashes at various interdisciplinary studies programs. It's pretty sad, really, in terms of writing (quoting the same passage twice in the same paragraph?) and in terms of her attacks. It's also pretty funny that she cites the sad case of Betsey Fox-Genovese, an academic who began as the type of Marxist feminist Allen derides, and ended up being anti-feminist and hugely conservative as she grew older. Allen's presentation of F-G as a victim of those "studies" people conveniently overlooks easily Google-able reports of a sex harassment lawsuit and other indications that she was not a powerless victim at Emory.

I suppose the up-side of all this is that Allen is coming off more and more like a sad crank.

HT to Matt Gabriele Larry Swain at Modern Medieval

Trying to gear up

Trying to Gear Up

Ok -- the school year and conference crap are over. I should be working on research, no? Except that I'm teaching a summer course so that I can afford my research trip, and I'm moving in 10 days. So this is not the post on gearing back up. This is the post that holds the place of that post. Meanwhile, I need to get to the gym and then to the office. And then go get more boxes. Eep.

Was she at the same conference?

Was she at the same conference? (warning: here be swearing)

Oh, for fuck's sake. Just ... can someone please bring me a clue stick?

A better question -- Why bother? Because let me tell you, it's not generally a good idea to go to conferences to pick out the papers you don't like. Some of us actually go to Kalamazoo and manage to go to plenty of good papers. Of course, maybe it's because I do the Late Antique and Early Medieval rounds, and we're still all about being stodgy proper scholars? Doesn't keep us from the wine hours and the dance, though.

Thank goodness for Scott Nokes, who has a much better post than I can manage at the moment. The comments there are good, too. And thanks, sort of, to Dr. Virago for pointing it out.

Basically, Charlotte Allen is the worst sort of big, fat liar with an agenda -- the kind who includes just enough of the truth that some things can't be denied. Yeah, there's more theory at the Zoo than you can shake a stick at, and some of it I can't fathom. And some of the papers have ridiculous titles and are on subjects than lots of us think are pretty silly. Me, I'd rather see some of the more lightweight stuff ditched rather than have the evil Thursday night session of doom -- but then I'd be fine with a couple of 8:30 a.m. sessions rather than an evening session.

But generally, it's just a bunch of half-truths cobbled together by a crank. Yeah, K'zoo is the cheaper conference for USians -- and perhaps there are more North Americans (Canada is actually a different country, last time I looked -- Canadians count as international) there than folks from other places, but you know what? Those cheap dorm rooms also make it possible for our foreign colleagues to make it there. And there are lots of them. Really. Ms. Allen, I knew there were well over 3,000 medievalists in the world. It's one of the reasons the job market is so tough -- not that you'd have first-hand experience of that yet. And it's not just the poor, bedraggled non-ivy folk who stay in the dorms (and I'm certainly not up there with the glitterati, but ever since LDW and I went to my first Zoo, I've stayed at the Rad. Shuttle service, good beds, and quiet, thanks) -- lots of the Big Names stay in the dorms, too. I actually get shit about this from some of my colleagues who are big names -- Fellows of the Medieval Academy -- who stay in the dorms, and think I'm a big wuss.

And apparently, there are no Important People who attend the conference. Let's see -- maybe that's true for the some fields, I guess. But I find it hard to believe anybody in my field would say that Ralph Mathisen, Danuta Shanzer, Paul Fouracre, Bryan Ward-Perkins, Bernard Bachrach, Charles Bowlus, Thomas FX Noble, Patrick Geary, Judith Bennett, Barbara Hanawalt, Paul Hyams, Florin Curta, Michael Kulikowski, Walter Goffart (not there this year, but a frequent attender) ... you get the idea. If they aren't Important, maybe Ms. Allen forgot to send them the memo? Because you know? I have a PhD from a reputable R1 program, and I've met at the Zoo probably 2/3 of the people whose work I needed to read to pass my comps. The ones I haven't met? A bunch of them are singing with the choir invisible. Or they go to Leeds. Even the Big Names can't go to ALL the conferences! When it comes to the up-and-coming scholars, it's also the place to be. There are some pretty cool projects that come out of those wine hours, after all.

Speaking of things that come out ... that excrement stuff? Dunno -- didn't go. Because I go to the Zoo to learn new stuff relevant to what I do (as well as to socialize). But I do know a couple of historians who work with shit. That is, they do archaeological and ecological stuff, and those people can find some cool stuff by looking at middens. But you know, you'd have to think in order to get that far. Ms Allen is going for the cheap shots.

I suppose she's right about our dress sense -- Many of us dress sensibly, rather than at the height of fashion. Some are old and famous and don't care. Some are young and don't have the cash to waste on being fashion plates for people who care more about the quality of our minds and our scholarship -- and possibly, about whether we are nice people -- than about our clothes. Some of us have been to the Zoo enough to know that only crazy people try to hike from the Valleys to Schneider in heels! But most of us show up in presentable professional garb, appropriate to our age and station. Kind of like people in general.

I'm not entirely sure what her beef with the dance is, except that she seems to believe that there are age and weight restrictions on having fun? Me, I kind of like seeing the different styles of dancing, which reflect generational AND geographical difference. But then, it's hard to appreciate much about the Zoo when you've got such a giant stick up your ass that it's grown through to form an incoherent chip on your shoulder.

A conrep, of sorts

A conrep, of sorts

Since I'm finally done with the post-conference catching up, I thought I'd post something about this year's K'zoo, as experienced by ADM...

Panel highlights:

Kulikowski on Ammianus and the dating of book 31 (I think -- I was a minute or two late). Absolutely convincing and elegant, I thought (the paper!), especially in terms of the dating argument. Followed by a couple of interesting papers on Sidonius that elicited good questions. Then a very tight paper by Andy Cain on Jerome's adoption and use of a phrase found only in the younger Pliny.

Duelling Bachrachs! (actually, not so much of the duelling -- in fact, it was a very collegial panel), followed by a mad rush across campus to hear a paper on Dragontius, which was lucid and made me laugh to hear parts of Ghostbusters quoted!

Coin hoards on e-bay!! Bryan Ward-Perkins on what looks to be a really neat project (Late Antique statues), and a good paper by a very brave grad student on natural disasters and civic reconstruction.

If you've noticed a theme, yes, I was mostly at the really early papers -- there were very few Carolingian ones this year. Went to another LA panel in the afternoon, where I ended up getting ideas to send to LDW for his current project, and sat through one paper that managed to connect the Battle of Omdurman (implied through a poor choice of illustrations) to LA church councils.

Early Medieval stuff at last! Two papers that were very interesting, although I'm not sure I bought them entirely. Still, the discussion was fab, and all kinds of Big Names (and some of us not-so-big ones) jumping in to ask questions. There were responses to all of the questions, although not exactly answers. And a note to presenters ... some of us find it really distracting when you constantly lean/step backwards and forwards whenever you speak.

After that, another good bunch of papers, including one by Paul Fouracre on perpetual lighting. I wish I'd been looking at my documents before the conference, and the paper made me realise just how much more I need to know about various types of land transactions. If anybody has some good basics, feel free to send me references. The problem is that I'm working with a set of documents where the editor just calls them traditiones, venditiones, etc., and one has to read through to see if they are praecarial grants, and even then the words aren't always used...

Oh -- and my panels were good, too! Fantastic discussion (I thought) between the audience and some of my co-panellists, and the panel I chaired was really, really impressive.

Social Highlights:

Lunch with Beachy U friends -- I was at loose ends, and went down to Valley III, where I kind of expected to see them, and there they were!

Blogger meet-up!!!! But sadly, none of the folk from ITM were there. Still, I met lots of new folk, and didn't get to spend enough time with some of them.

Wine hour with narsty yet cheaply seductive K'zoo wine, and then off to a dinner, where my friends and I arrived and sat by ourselves -- until we were all of a sudden a packed table of wimmins! Seriously, one person I've always found very intimidating, and a bunch of people I should have found intimidating, but it was terribly fun!

Dinner with Tiruncula and Meg and a few other really cool folk.

More wine hours -- more subdued than last year. Met lots of nice people, and re-met a few more. Promised a senior colleague I would try to catch up with him in an Oxbridge-y place this summer. Was reminded yet again how truly generous people some of the people in my field can be.

Wonderful dinner with Steve Muhlberger, Lisa Carnell, Mike Drout, the Digital Medievalist, and MacAllister Stone, too! Some talk of medieval history and lit, but lots more talk about things Whedon, Tolkien, Frank Herbert, and even more on the sf/f side of things. Shouldn't have had dessert, though -- I think it wiped me out, because I honestly couldn't stay at the dance for more than an hour. But that was cool, because Extremely Cool Colleague and I hadn't had much time to catch up, even though we were sharing a room!

The trip back:

Weather. Not actually in Kalamazoo. In Chicago and Atlanta. Eejits in Kazoo airport couldn't decide on whether to put us on buses or not. So they sent us through security, and then after a couple of hours brought us back to put us on a bus, maybe, and then decided no, we were taking our plane, maybe. And then it was a mad dash to get back through security to get to the plane, then (a good thing, considering I got to O'Hare about 3 hours late) waiting for a couple of hours for my plane, back at about 2 am, and back to work!

It was a good K'zoo, but I missed a lot of friends, and didn't spend enough time with the ones I did see.

Carnivalesque XXXIX

Carnivalesque XXXIX

Hey everybody -- somewhen while I was writing a conference paper that just about killed me, the ever-fab Jon Jarrett has posted the latest Ancient/Medieval Carnivalesque. If you don't know Jonathan's blog, you really should go. It was mentioned many a time at the Zoo this year, because it's one of the really erudite and scholarly medieval blogs. I know what my internet breaks will consist of today!

sunday funny

Sunday Funny

Because I'm still writing that damned paper.

More drive-by Kazoo Blogging

More drive-by Kazoo Blogging -- RBOK version

Still writing a conference paper and getting together a proposal to send to Matt Gabriele tomorrow, but before I forget ... some conference highlights:

• OMG People!! Mike Drout is like, totally famous in Taiwan! His fans squeed over him AND took pictures with him
  
• I had my own (subtle, I hope) fan squee -- I met Bryan Ward-Perkins and was not a complete dolt, I don't think
  
• I discovered that a senior medievalist from the other coast, who has always scared the heck out of me, and about whom I had heard rumours of unkindness, is not above gently teasing a nervous panel chair auf Deutsch
  
• Cornell seems to have cornered the market on really good dancers
  
• The people I had dinner with on Saturday night are awesome -- more on that later!
  
• Notorious, PhD and I know we know each other from somewhere, but can't figure out where. OH! maybe MAA when it was in Seattle? Anyway, one of the people on the panel I chaired really likes the Girl Scholar's blog!

Right, back to the paper.

Watch this space

Watch this space

So I have a gajillion things to do, but need to remind myself that I need to post about the absoeffinglutely craptastic trip home from the Zoo, where YOU PEOPLE WHO WORK FOR UNITED IN KALAMAZOO??? YES, YOU!!!!! YOU ARE THE MOST FRAKKIN', GORRAM INCOMPETENT MISFITS EVER TO BE EMPLOYED BY A MAJOR AIRLINE!!!!

Seriously. If there were awards in boobish incompetence, these people would get all of them. Ever.

Meetup over

Meetup Accomplished

OK -- this is way too funny. I'm blogging this from the computer bank in Fetzer, where someone who logged on earlier had logged on and looked at this site to find out where the meetup was! Attendees were Steve Muhlberger, Ancarett, New Kid, Tiruncula, Dr. Virago, Dame Eleanor, meg, MacAllister Stone, Digital Medievalist, and Lisa Carnell (I don't think I left anybody out). Scott Noakes showed up at the end. If you missed us, check the wine hours in Valley III later.


I made a promise to start blogging substantial things again, but not till I'm done with the conference (which I shall blog) and my paper for the next conference ...

Think the Humanities are important?

Think the Humanities are important? Sign the petition!

Lots of people are writing
about this situation at the University of Toledo.

I am really sorry that I haven't time to blog properly on this -- regular, thoughtful blogging will recommence after May 15. But it is something that bothers me, as I see evidence of this sort of thought even at SLAC, where my school is seen primarily as a n unwelcome service necessity -- some of the other schools can't exist without those of us who teach a traditional university liberal arts curriculum. I fight this regularly, and it makes me really angry. Things at Toledo are much worse. If this sort of thing bothers you, Go Sign The Petition.

Kazoo meetup post #3 -- time adjustment?

Kazoo meetup post #3 -- time adjustment?

Ok -- is anybody actually planning on going to the plenary? Because I've been reminded that 7:30 is awfully early, and the first actual session isn't till 10 ... so I'm thinking 7:45 or 8 might be a bit more civilized ...

Otherwise, I'll be there at 7:30, I guess, with some sort of super-sekrit token of my identity.

Making us cry in hope and anger

Making us cry in hope and anger

Bitch, PhD has posted some amazing links today.

Second Notice -- Kazoo Blogger Meet-up

Second Notice -- Kazoo Blogger Meet-up

Hey, all -- I noticed elsewhere that people were asking about the meet-up, so here are the details again. I am pretty sure the name of the coffee shop is Mug Shots, if anyone can confirm. Please feel free to pass on the info.


See you there!

No surprises

No Surprises

Got this in the mail from the AAUP. All about salaries. It's not surprising. And it pisses me off.