The View From Kalamazoo

The Department of English at Ohio University invites applications for an assistant professor of Medieval Literature. Ph.D. in hand by September 1, 2010, required. The successful candidate is expected to teach; pursue, direct, and publish research; and participate in departmental/university governance. Must be qualified to teach History of the English Language. Position available September 7, 2010.

Deadline for applications: July 11, 2010. Women and other minorities are encouraged to apply. Ohio University is an EEO/AA employer. Ohio University is a Research-Extensive institution, enrolling 19,500 students on the Athens campus and more than 8,000 students on five regional campuses. The College of Arts and Sciences includes 340 tenured and tenure-track faculty and contains 19 departments, 7 of which offer the doctoral degree. Further information may be found at the University’s web site: http://www.ohio.edu. To apply: www.ohiouniversityjobs.com/applicants/Central?quickFind=56869

The successful candidate is expected to teach 7 course load, must be able to teach History of the English Language, will also include some writing and/pr lower level literature classes; pursue, direct, and publish research; and participate in departmental/university governance. Position start date, September 7, 2010.

We seek a candidate with a commitment in working effectively with students, faculty and staff from diverse backgrounds.

Send letter of application, C.V., and three current letters of recommendation to the following address:

Marsha Dutton, Chair
ATTN: Medieval Literature Search
Department of English
Ohio University
Athens, OH 45701

EMBODYING POWER: WORK OVER TIME

JOINT CONFERENCE OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR THEATRE RESEARCH, THE THEATRE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, AND THE CONGRESS ON RESEARCH IN DANCE

Seattle, WA
18-21 November 2010
The Renaissance Seattle Hotel

CALL FOR PAPERS & PARTICIPANTS FOR WORKING SESSIONS
DEADLINE: May 31, 2010*

Call for Papers for the Working Session entitled REVISITING MEDIEVAL PERFORMANCE: EVIDENCE, THEORY, PRAXIS
Conveners: Lofton Durham, Western Michigan University, and Jenna Soleo-Shanks, Briar Cliff University

The thousand years between the Roman theatre and Shakespeare’s stage was an extraordinarily fertile time in the history of Western performance, yet this era suffers from comparison with the adjoining periods. Still dogged generally by the problematic inheritance of 19th century philology and, more specifically, by the evolutionary paradigms established by medieval theatre scholars in the early 20th century, the study of medieval performance is ripe for new scholarship. As Carol Symes has argued, “the medieval theatre was more multifaceted, more immediate, and more representative (in every sense) than that circumscribed by the playhouses of the Renaissance. This is the medieval theatre we need to be studying.” Although scholars from various disciplines have made valuable and important contributions to the study of medieval performance, the future of medieval performance studies depends on the unique perspectives and specific theoretical tools of theatre scholars. Such scholarship contributes to our appreciation of performance as a dynamic cultural form by considering, among other ideas, how performance related or reacted to existing power structures and how the bodies of performers existed in and interacted with spaces that were not exclusively meant for performance. Theatre scholars also offer new perspectives on the limits and definitions of performance evidence.

This working group will bring together various theoretical perspectives and broad definitions of evidence, in order to explore the unique function and importance of performance in medieval cultures. We are particularly interested in three aspects of this topic: new primary source evidence or alternate applications of evidence; new or revised methodologies for approaching medieval performance practices; and theoretical applications that draw connections among disparate cultural phenomena, illuminate new bodies of evidence, and/or alter conventional understandings of medieval performance, theatre, and drama.

Session Format and Guidelines:
Session chairs will group papers in clusters. Each member of the cluster will be responsible for reading all papers in the cluster. At the conference, each cluster will receive a set of questions from the session chairs, which the cluster will consider as a group during a break-out session. After these break-out sessions, the clusters will give a summary report of their discussion to all session participants. The session chairs will facilitate the reporting session in order to create a summary report of the questions raised, lessons learned, and possible future actions or avenues of scholarship and dissemination.

To apply, send a 200-word abstract and a brief bio by MONDAY, MAY 31st to BOTH lofton.durham@wmich.edu and jsoleo@gmail.com. All participants will be required to join ASTR or CORD and register for the conference. Please visit http://www.astr.org/Conference/WorkingSessionsGuidelines/tabid/128/Default.aspx for more information on participants’ responsibilities.

Medievalists: pre-registration deadline is the 28th, after which a late fee will be applied.

Register  now, save that late fee to buy me a beer.  (lol)

I was recently reminded that although I have told this story to friends, in three weeks I’m going to encounter a lot of people (at the Congress) who haven’t heard it, and there will be those who ask about the tattoo on my wrist.

And after reflection I decided to post the story here, too, since I’ve used this platform for other parenting discussions. And also since I don’t want to repeat this, all or in part, multiple times.

Twenty years ago last month (on 3/16) I attended a Jesus and Mary Chain concert in Detroit; opening for them was Nine Inch Nails – I came in mid-set. I was 19 and burning out in art school and it was a fucked-up evening fucked-up by interpersonal fuckwittery—suffice to day, one I would have been happy to forget (and looking back, it was probably the opening death knell of an engagement that was through less than a year later). Except not quite… I came in, slunk against the wall and cold and pissed and looking like something the cat dragged in (with freckles) …and I was transfixed.

It seemed like a good date to get this, my first tattoo.

16 March 2010, immediately after tattoo was finished. (Pardon the lousy cellphone photo.)

The line is taken from a NIN song, but this isn’t about NIN nor about Trent Reznor (not really):

Lights in the Sky

She’s mostly gone
some other place.
I’m getting by
in other ways.

Everything they whispered in our ears
is coming true.
Try to justify the things
I used to do.
Believe in you.

Watching you drown.
I follow you down.
I am here,
right beside you.

The lights in the sky
finally arrive.
I am staying,
right beside you.

I tried to stay away,
just in case.
I’ve come to realize
we all have our place.

Time, time has a way you know,
to make it clear.
I have my role in this.
I can’t disappear,
or leave you here.

Watching you drown,
I’ll follow you down.
And I am here right beside you.

The lights in the sky
are waving goodbye.
I am staying right beside you.

Listen… it’s a quiet one, just piano:

There are a lot of NIN songs, through the years, that have resonated with me for one reason or another. Some still do, and others simply remind me of the time they did (and which I am happy not to be living, anymore).

When I first heard this one I sobbed. Still do, actually.

To understand why I need to tell you a story.

You see, I was a first-gen university student. There was the weight of expectations and the weight of culture-shock and the weight of a total lack of understanding by my parents of this different planet, this academia. I had Responsibility to Do The Right Thing and Make Them Proud (even in the face of being, personally, a pretty odd damn duck). I started in art but switched to humanities double majors/ double minors, got my BA, I stayed for an interdisciplinary MA… I had plans, potential… I gave conference papers, I worked hard (I worked through both degrees, at one point simultaneously half-time university staff, student, and teaching as a grad assistant). I applied for Ph.D. programs; I was accepted into my top choice. But. But it was without the funding needed to move a family out of state. I had money… enough to move just me. But. But I had two children, one of whose impairments we were just beginning to plumb the depths of. And I had a clear choice, one I had to make that I considered one that I could not un-make and I’d better fucking get it right the first time.

Work to reach my full potential, or sacrifice my dreams so Em could have any chance at reaching hers.

Let everyone down—my family, advisers, friends still in the field… even and especially myself—or let her down. All or one.

Watching you drown. I follow you down.
I am here, right beside you.

My choice was for the one.

Time, time has a way you know, to make it clear.
I have my role in this. I can’t disappear, or leave you here.

And as we’ve learned more and she’s worsened in so many ways and the way before us is clearer (but with information comes a lack of room for hope, sometimes) I remind myself that I made a decision. A choice. What happened to her chromosome might have been random, but nothing I could—can—do can be. I was not tricked, I was not trapped, I do not sit around feeling sorry for myself (although I deeply wish she didn’t have these challenges and limitations, and I certainly have days that make me wonder if I have the strength and emotional wherewithal to do this), I made a choice.

I chose her.

And now in addition to that imprint on my heart and mind, it’s on my skin as well.

Certainly there are other layers of meaning for this line I now have on my wrist… in my marriage there has been some very bad, very trying times—times that are past and that we are stronger for having survived. I have another child who struggles for a sense of normalcy in the face of instability, a shortage of ‘normal’. We all have our place.

And yeah, there is this band (this guy who is this band), whose music lent me sanity when I needed it, was the screaming I couldn’t vocalize, was hope (yes, I said hope) that is only possible after recognizing Things Are Very Wrong and, once recognized, opens a way. Who makes me cry, in whose instrumentals I find peace (in the inner landscapes they invoke), whose own journey was so clearly and painfully mapped from album to album (not the same road I was on, but the two sure ran parallel a lot of the time)… and so when I needed out of the bad places I had built inside myself to convince me of my own lack of worth there was a song, a line, a chord to lead the way, shine a light, kick me in the ass. I am loyal, long-term, to very, very few things… so when I realized that very nearly all of my adult life has had this one—one—constant I had to honor that.

And that is my tattoo.
Maybe for my birthday (40!) I’ll do the other wrist – for balance.

The International Congress on Medieval Studies has a Twitter account:

@KzooICMS

If you’re a Twitter-using medievalist, please follow!

There’s also a designated a hashtag #Kzoo2010 for use before, on-site, and after Congress for Congress-related tweeting and micro-blogging for searching ease.

Let the tweets begin!

(Yes, it’s me tweeting in my significantly more boring official capacity.)

Medieval Europe: 1-year visiting lecturer in Medieval History

PhD by August , 2010. Ability to teach introductory surveys in Western Civilization to 1689 and upper level courses in Medieval History, along with specialized courses in area of expertise. Ancient/Early Modern desirable.

Submit cover letter, c.v., letter of reference and graduate transcripts at https://careers.unco.edu/applicants/jsp/shared/frameset/Frameset.jsp?time=1258658519489 . (Humanities and Social Sciences Hiring Pool)

Official transcripts and letters of recommendation not submitted electronically can be sent to University of Northern Colorado, HSS Hiring Pool, Campus Box #91,Greeley, CO 80639. In addition, please send 2 syllabi to Medieval Europe Search Committee, Campus Box 116, Department of History, University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, CO 80639.

For full consideration, application materials must be received by April 23, 2010.
AA/EO employer, committed to fostering diversity in its student body, faculty and staff.

Ming and Ping are really, really nice.
SO nice that I’m sharing this – so enjoy.

Interesting posts with subsequent discussion re: tenure, graduate school, and expectations over at Blogenspiel.

Post 1
Post 2

The Program for the International Congress on Medieval Studies–online for a month–is printed and has been winging its way through (priority) US and international mail for a week. US bulk is going out in waves (so many thousands of books to process!) and should be complete this week.

Don’t forget to register. See you all in May.

CALL FOR PAPERS:
The Supernatural in Late Medieval and Early Modern Germany (GSA 2010)

German Studies Association Conference, October 7-10, 2010, Oakland, California.

Scholars have described Germany as the ‘heartland of the witch craze’ that afflicted Europe in the late Middle Ages and the early modern period. Alpine communities in Switzerland and southern Germany experienced early witch panics in the age of the Malleus Maleficarum, helping to spawn the mass witch-hunts that followed. Some of the most virulent witchcraft prosecution in European history took place in Germany’s Prince-Bishoprics during the Wars of Religion, as mass panics claimed thousands of victims. During the early modern period, the Holy Roman Empire was also a center of learned magic, astrology, and alchemy, as princely courts attracted magical practitioners. The organizer intends to feature a series of five or six panels on the supernatural in late medieval and early modern German-speaking Europe and is seeking
proposals.

Possible topics and themes include, but are not limited to: folklore and popular magical practices; learned sorcery and alchemy; ghosts and apparitions; possession and the diabolical; witchcraft beliefs and witch-hunting; astrology and fortune telling; the supernatural and the state; gender and the supernatural; the supernatural and witchcraft in literature and drama; witch-hunting manuals and demonological treatises; and skepticism and disenchantment.

Please email an abstract (maximum 250 words) and a brief CV with institutional affiliation by Monday, February 15 to the panel series organizer:
Jason Coy
College of Charleston
coyj[at]cofc.edu