Fall 2010
All sessions meet in Wieboldt 207 on alternate Wednesdays at 12 pm unless otherwise indicated.
Wednesday, October 13.
Jesús Botello (PhD Candidate, Department of Romance Languages, University of Chicago); on “Cervantes, Philip II, and the Dialectics of Power.”
Wednesday, October 27.
Justin Steinberg (Associate Professor of Italian Literature, University of Chicago); on “Dante’s Writ of Safe Passage through Hell.”
Wednesday, November 10.
Thomas Christensen (Avalon Foundation Professor of the Humanities; Associate Dean and Master of the Humanities Collegiate Division, Department of Music, University of Chicago); on “Medieval Music Literature: A Taxonomy.”
Thursday, November 18, at 4:30.
Carla Rahn Phillips (Professor at the Department of History, University of Minnesota); on “Ladies at War: Aristocratic Women during the War of the Spanish Succession.”
Friday, December 3, at 12:00.
Ryan Szpiech (Assistant Professor of Spanish, University of Michigan); on “Hermeneutical Muslims? Islam as Witness in Christian Anti-Judaism.”
Event co-sponsored with the Medieval Workshop.
Winter 2011
Monday, January 24, 5:00.
Kathryn Swanton (PhD Candidate, Department of Comparative Literature, University of Chicago); on “The place of witness in King Lear and Los comendadores de Córdoba.”
Co-sponsored with the Renaissance Workshop. Please note that this workshop meets in Rosenwald 405.
Monday, February 14, 5:00. Roundtable conversation organized jointly with the Renaissance and the Early Modern Workshops.
Julius Kirshner (Professor Emeritus of Medieval and Renaissance History, University of Chicago); on “Jews as Citizens in Renaissance Italy.”
David Nirenberg (Deborah R. and Edgar D. Jannotta Professor, Committee on Social Thought, Department of History); on “Massacre or Miracle? Sovereign Indecision and the Forced Conversion of the Jews in 1391.”
Respondent: Richard Strier (Frank L. Sulzberger Distinguished Service Professor, Department of English, Divinity School, University of Chicago).
Wednesday, February 16, 4:30, Classics 110.
Rita Copeland (Professor of Classical Studies and English, Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Endowed Term Professor in the Humanities, University of Pennsylvania); on “Insinuating Authors.”
Organized in conjunction with the Nicholson Center for British Studies, the Department of English, and the Program in Medieval Studies.
Thursday, February 17, 4:30, Rosenwald 405.
David Wallace (Judith Rotin Professor of English, University of Pennsylvania); on “Where Europe Begins and Ends: Conceptualizing Literary History, 1348-1418.”
Organized in conjunction with the Nicholson Center for British Studies, the Department of English, and the Program in Medieval Studies.
Friday, February 18, 12:30, Rosenwald 405.
Rita Copeland (Professor of Classical Studies and English, Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Endowed Term Professor in the Humanities, University of Pennsylvania); on “Naming, Knowing, and the Object of Language in Alexander Neckam’s Grammar Curriculum;” and
David Wallace (Judith Rotin Professor of English, University of Pennsylvania); on Introduction to “Strong Women: Life, Text, and Territory 1347-1645.”
Co-sponsored with the Nicholson Center for British Studies, and the Early Modern, Medieval Studies, and Renaissance Workshops.
Monday, February 21, 4:30, Wieboldt 207.
Giacomo Todeschini (Professor of Medieval History, University of Trieste); on “Judas and the Christian common people: infidelity and economic inaptitude in the Middle Ages.”
Co-sponsored with the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, The Chicago Center for Jewish Studies, the Committee on Social Thought, and the Medieval Studies Workshop.
Wednesday, February 23.
Karla Mallette (Associate Professor of Italian and Near Eastern Studies, Associate Director of the Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies; University of Michigan); on “Lingua franca in the Mediterranean.”
Wednesday, March 2.
Mohamad Ballan (Graduate Student, Social Sciences, University of Chicago); on “Between Castilian Reconquista and Ottoman Jihad: A Reconsideration of the 1501 Hispano-Muslim Qasida to Sultan Bayezid II.”
Co-sponsored with the Middle East History and Theory Workshop.
Spring 2011
Wednesday, April 13.
Eduardo Ruiz (2010 Provost’s Postdoctoral Scholar, University of Chicago); on ” ‘How does the Moon Die?’ The Negotiation between Western Science and Native Voice in Sixteenth-Century Mexico.”
Wednesday, April 20.
Michelle Hamilton (Associate Professor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies, University of Minnesota); on “Dying in the Mediterranean: An Arabized Vernacular Dance of Death in Hebrew Romance.”
Wednesday, May 4.
Katie Chenoweth (Harper-Schmidt Fellow in the Humanities, University of Chicago); on “From Letters to Law: Instituting the Language of François.”
Event co-sponsored with the Renaissance Workshop.
Wednesday, May 18.
Diana Aramburu (PhD Student, Department of Romance Languages, University of Chicago); on “Unpacking the Chest of Memory in Mateo Alemán’s Guzmán de Alfarache.”
Wednesday, May 25.
Gregory Baum (PhD Student, Department of Comparative Literature, University of Chicago); on “Transvestite Translations: Disrobing Don Quixote in 17th-century England.”
Wednesday, June 1.
Felipe Rojas (PhD Candidate, Department of Romance Languages, University of Chicago); on “Representing An-‘Other’ Ganymede: The Multi-Religious Character of Ismael in Tirso de Molina’s La prudencia en la mujer.”