Below you will find schedules for Medieval Lunch in previous terms, including speakers and their talk titles.
Fall 2023 Medieval Lunch Series
December 18: Madeline Fox (English), “‘Optics of Fortune’: Misperception and Despair in Chaucer’s Franklin’s Tale and Knight’s Tale.”
Lunch provided.
November 10: Katherine Tapia (Comparative Literature), chapter on approaches to the Aberdeen Bestiary
Lunch provided.
October 20: Julia LaPlaca (History of Art), Rethinking UMMA’s Medieval and Early Modern collections
Winter 2023 Medieval Lunch Series Wednesdays in 1014 Tisch Hall, 11:30-12:30
January 18: Allison Grenda (History of Art) “A Byzantine Gnadenstuhl: The Reception of a Western Iconography in Rural Venetian Crete”
Sam Winikow (History) “The Circulation and Use of Culinary Manuscripts in Safavid Iran 1501-1722”
Lunch Provided.
February 8: Jennifer Playstead (History) “Elsje Thymens’ Garden: Women in Early Modern Colony Building and the Legacy of the Renaissance”
Frank Espinosa (History) “How (Not) to Stop a Riot: The Muslims of Valencia in the Summer of 1391”
Lunch Provided
March 15: Emma Olson (History) “Sonic Violence on the Baltic Frontier: Sounds of Crusade in the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia“
Srishti Sankaranarayanan (History of Art), “Reframing the Architectural Envelope of the Sarangapani Procession Car”
Fall 2022
September 20: Introductions and Summer Reading Presentations, lunch provided
October 11: Ryan Abramowitz (History of Art), “Art and Sensory Experience in the Ancient World: Reanimating the Sanctuary of the Great Gods on the Island of Samothrace”
Erin Johnson (History), Dissertation Chapter
Lunch provided
November 8: Zachary Severs (Romance Languages), Dissertation Chapter
Lunch provided
December 6: Grant-Writing Workshop, facilitated by Profs. Enrique Garcia Santo-Tomas (Romance Lang. & Lit.) and Megan Holmes (History of Art)
Lunch provided
Fall 2019
11/13 Samet Budak (Middle East Studies), “A Mediterranean Ecumene: Intellectual Contacts and Networks in the Late Medieval Mediterranean”
12/4 Alice Sullivan (History of Art), “Architectural Representations in Late Medieval Donor Portraits”
Winter 2019
2/20 Talin Tahajian (English, Helen Zell Writers’ Program), “‘As hit cleve schulde’: Aurality, Hendiadic Confusion, and Sonic Syntax in the Pearl Poet”
3/13 David Patterson (History), “Making Weather: Meteorological Agency in the Early Middle Ages” & Esther Ladkau (History), “A House Aflame: Displacement, Hunger, and Relief During the Kanshō Famine”
3/27 Blake Gutt (RLL, Michigan Society of Fellows), “Holy Queer and Holy Cure: Sanctity, Disability, and Transgender Identity in Tristan de Nanteuil“
4/17 Michelle Al-Ferzly (History of Art), “Oleg Grabar’s Qasr al-Hayr Archives and the Beginnings of Islamic Archaeology”
Fall 2019
9/18 Karla Mallette (RLL, Middle East Studies), “Risk (Genoa, 1154)” & Shai Zamir (History), “No shoes allowed: Jewish Tradition between Spain and the Maghreb”
10/23 Rheagan Martin (History of Art), “Jacopo de’ Barbari and the Limits of Knowledge”& Brenna Larson (History of Art), “I Blu di Genova: The Lenten Tradition of San Nicolò del Boschetto”
11/6 Tyler Johnson (IPCAA), “Stop and Spoliate: Ends and Beginnings in the Late Roman/Early Medieval Houses of Central Italy”
11/27 Noah Blan (Institute for the Humanities), “Sources for Early Medieval Animal Demography” & Sam White (History, Ohio State University), “A (Volcanic) Winter’s Tale: New Research on the Climatic and Human Dimensions of Sixteenth-Century Eruptions”
12/11 Tonhi Lee (English), “English Metrical Psalms and Vox Populi”
Winter 2018
1/30 Paired Presentation: Hussein Fancy, History—”The Race of History and the History of Race in Spanish Medievalism” & Annika Pattenaude, English Language and Literature—”‘I don’t think that I was even born then’: A Case for ‘Race’ in the Fables of Marie de France”
2/14 Shamil Jeppie, University of Cape Town, Historical Studies—”Medieval/Africa: Past and Potential”
3/7 Cameron Cross, Near Eastern Studies—”A Prisoner of His Skin: The Paradoxes of King Mobad’s Power”
3/27 Sheila Coursey, English Language & Literature—”‘And for his sake to help his neighbor’: Nice Wanton and Neighborhood Surveillance”
4/17 Paired Presentation: Paroma Chatterjee, History of Art—”Ancient statues in medieval Constantinople: History, Longevity, and Orthodoxy” & Haley Bowen, History—”Seeking Christ’s Peace: the Rhetoric of Religious Reconciliation in Sixteenth -Century France”
Fall 2017
9/ 19 Paired Presentation: Christian de Pee (History)—“Text and the City: Literary Topography and Urban History in Middle-Period China, 800-1100” & Rob Morrissey (Art History)—“Performing the Capital: Aristocratic Culture as Utopia in Fourteenth-Century Kyoto”
10/ 10 Laura Romaine (English)—“In the Mouth of the Beholder: Linguistic and Rhetorical Uses of Vision in Early English Texts”
10/ 31 Paired Presentation: Ryan Szpiech (Romance Languages & Literatures) & Kate Waggoner Karchner (History)—”Riccoldo Redux: The Against the Saracen Law of Riccoldo da Monte di Croce, from the Fourteenth to the Sixteenth Centuries”
11/ 14 Michail Kitsos (Near Eastern Studies)—”It Happened Earlier Than You Think: Jewish-Christian Disputations in Late Antiquity”
12/ 5 Val Kivelson (History)—“Expressive Gestures: Affect and Violence in the late 16th century Russian Illustrated Historical Chronicle”
Winter 2017
2/8 “What If Humans Don’t Have to Scapegoat Anyone? Peace Offering and Redemption in al-Mutanabbi’s Poetry,” Samer Mahdy Ali, Arabic and Islamic Studies
2/22 “When Past is Present: Courtiers, Casters, and Forgery in Late Medieval Japan,” Paula Curtis, History
3/8 “Scribal Protagonism in in the Codex Albeldensis,” Catherine Brown, Comparative Literature
3/22 “Making Chaucer in the ‘Un-English’ Book,” Megan Behrend, English Language and Literature
4/12 “Montserrat, Marseille, and the Sainte-Baume: Sacred Mountaineering in the Western Mediterranean, c. 1360-1520,” Achim Timmermann, History of Art
Fall, 2016
10/12 “Lulling and Soothing in ‘Lullay Lullay Littel Child,'” Margo Kolenda, English
10/26 “Defining ‘Faith’ for ‘Ordinary Christians’ in the Fifth-Century Mediterranean,” Tiggy McLaughlin, Greek and Roman History
11/9 “A Saint and his Fighting Peasants: Research into a Genre Painting from the Dutch Golden Age,” Martin Walsh, LSA Residential College – Drama,
11/30 ‘Heloisa Philosophia,’ Donka Markus, Classical Studies,
12/14 Riccoldo da Montecroce and Dominican Approaches to Islam: How Genuine were Thirteenth-Century Missions?” Kate Waggoner, History,
Winter 2016
Jan 20: “Islam, Buddhism, and The Mongols: Debating the Fate of Chinggis Khan’s Soul in Medieval Iran,” Jonathan Brack, History
Feb 2: “Feasting on a “Chocolate-Covered Tarantula”: The Siege of Jerusalem in Annus Domini Time,” Miriamne Krummel, Frankel Center for Judaic Studies
Feb 17: “Circulation and Flow: Acupuncture, Hydraulics, and Finance in Eleventh-Century China,” Christian De Pee, History
Mar 8: “’Lest the Memory of Such a Marvelous Thing Be Destroyed’: Writing Sacred History in Early Modern Italy,” Emily Price, History
Mar 23: “The Communion of the Apostles Theme and Its Iconographical Variants: Toward a Re-Assessment of the Met Epimanikia (10.168.1 and 10.168.2),” Alice Sullivan, History of Art
Fall 2015
Sept 23: “The Use and Abuse of Royal Letters in 15th Century Spain: Petitions of Grievance and their Aftermath,” Yanay Israeli, History
Nov 4: “Executing Romance: Sovereignty, Spectatorship and the Death Penalty in Havelok the Dane and Athelston,” Sheila Coursey, English Language and Literature
Nov 11: “Remodeling Authorship in Lydgate’s Fall of Princes,” Gania Barlow, Honors College, Oakland University
Dec 2: “Hameter/Elcius: The Construction of a Jesuit Martyrology, 1580-2,” John Paul Hampstead and Amrita Dhar, English Language and Literature
Dec 16: “Salt, Robes and Blood: Honor and Loyalty Across the Asian ‘Medieval’ World,” Stewart Gordon, Center for South Asian Studies
Winter 2015
1/21 – Steven Mullaney (English)
Title: The Conversion of the Jews in Shakespeare’s London
2/4 – Emmamarie Haasl (History)
Title: “The Material Household in Late Fourteenth- and Fifteenth Century Yorkshire: Materiality and Early Consumerism in Rural and Urban Inventories”
2/18 – Karla Mallette (Romance Languages and Literatures)
Title: “Writ in Water: Paper and Watermarks across the Mediterranean”
3/11 – Pamela Stewart (History of Art)
Title: “‘I seem to see another Jerusalem’: Stational Crosses and Confraternal Procession in Borromean Milan”
3/25 – Lehti Keelmann (History of Art)
Title: “Living the Brotherhood Life: Art, Ambition, and the Tallinn Brotherhood of the Black Heads”
4/8 – Noah Blan (History)
Title: “The ABCs of Counting Sheep in Central Medieval Languedoc”
Fall 2014
9/24 – Bruce Mannheim (Anthropology)
Title: “What kind of Text was Guaman Poma’s Warikza Arawi?”
10/22 – Esther Ladkau (History)
Title: “In the Absence of the Thing: Authenticity and the Agency of Japan’s Three Sacred Treasures.”
11/5 (CANCELED) – Aiyub Palmer (Near Eastern Studies)
Title: “Al-Tirmidhi’s Mystical Theosophy as a Theoretical Basis for the Religious Public Sphere in Islam.”
12/3 – Gina Brandolino (English)
Title: “Working Miracles.”
12/17 – Stefan Stantchev (History, Arizona State University)
Title: “Beyond Trade and Crusade: The Republic of Venice and the Ottoman Enterprise, ca. 1378-ca. 1453.”
Winter 2014
2/5 – Ali Hussain (Near Eastern Studies)
Title: “Between the Saint and Text: Embodied Knowledge in Medieval Islamic Mysticism”
2/19 – Tiggy McLaughlin (Greek & Roman History)
Title: “Learning through the Liturgy in 5th and 6th Century Gaul Part I: The Example of Public Penance.”
3/12 – Mark Burde (Romance Languages & Literatures, Residential College)
Title: “Brigands Rush In: Swearing, Equivocal Oaths, and the Second Shepherds’ Play.”
3/26 – Sherry Funches (History)
Title: “Aristocratic Women and the Imperial Court in Late Medieval Japan.”
4/9 – Jonathan Farr (History)
Title: “Travelling Saints and Dominican Spiritual Networks in Southern France.”
Fall 2013
9/25 Michael Bonner (History)
Title: “Istakhri-Balkhi Question”‘ revisited: locating and translating a tenth-century Iraqi geographer and traveler.”
10/16 Emily Price (History)
Title: “Premodern Pilgrimages to Nazareth”
11/13 Alice Isabella Sullivan (Art History)
Title: “Moldavian Monastic Architecture: Observations on Its Features and Spatial Solutions.”
11/20 Martin Walsh (Department of Theatre & Drama, Residential College)
Title: “The Carnivalesque (Past and Present) in the Celebration of the Feast of Martin of Tours.”
12/11 Jeremy Ledger (History)
Title: “Imagining the Mediterranean in Tripoli: The Nautical Chart of Ibrahim al-Mursi, 865 AH/ 1461 CE.”
Winter 2013
2/6: Nathan Kelber (English, University of Maryland)
“The Play of Objects: Medieval Drama, Ludi, and Games”
2/20: Aaron P. Proffitt (Asian Languages and Cultures)
“Riding the Vajra-yana to the Pure Land: Dohan’s (1179-1252) “Himitsu nenbutsu” in medieval Japanese Buddhism”
2/27: Douglas Trevor (English and Creative Writing)
“Marguerite Porete and Perfect Charity”
3/13: Donka D. Markus (Classical Studies)
“Modernitas in Walter of Chatillon’s Vita S. Brandani”
3/27: Jonathan Brack (History)
“Messiahs, Mongol Converts and Inter-religious Violence in Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries Anatolia and Iran”
4/3: Paula R. Curtis (History)
“Rights, Rites, and Writing: Reconceptualizing “Power” for Artisans, Aristocrats, and Warlords in Late Medieval Japan”
Fall 2012
9/19: Noah Blan (History)
“The Limitations of Peach Cultivation and Consumption in Carolingian Europe, c. 750-950 CE”
10/3: Hitomi Tonomura (History & Women’s Studies)
“Did samurai women really fight? Warrior class women in a war prone society”
10/17: Maxim Romanov (Arabic & Islamic Studies)
“Writing the Digital History of the Pre-modern Muslim World (670-1300 CE)”
11/28: Yanay Israeli (History)
“Narrating Crisis in Late Medieval Spain”
12/5 : Achim Timmermann (History of Art)
“Good and Bad Prayers: Observations on a Late Medieval Crucifixion Allegory in the Heiliggeistspital in Wismar”
Winter 2011
Ryan Szpiech (Romance Languages & Literatures)
“Hermeneutical Muslims?: Islam as Witness in Medieval Christian Polemic against Jews”
Christopher Davis (Comparative Literature)
“‘Chascus en lor lati’: William IX and the Language of Poetry”
Yanay Israeli (History)
“Displays of Faith: The Politics of Loyalty and Conversion in the Latin Chronicles of the First Crusade”
Paolo Squatriti (History; Romance Languages & Literatures)
“Dark Ages and Old Chestnuts in Italy”
Nadine Kuperty-Tsur (Romance Languages; University of Tel Aviv)
“A Huguenot Activist in Sixteenth-Century France: Charlotte Duplessis-Mornay and Her Memoirs”
Jonathan Farr (History)
“Reshaping Memory and Space in Thirteenth-Century Toulouse”
Fall 2010
Catherine Brown (Comparative Literature; Romance Languages & Literatures)
“Remember the Hand: Bodies and Bookmaking in Early Medieval Iberia”
Angela Heetderks (English)
“‘Beclosed in Jhesu’: Gender and Julian of Norwich’s Imagery of Enclosure”
Elizabeth Kamali (History)
“The Idea of Rome in the Medieval English Common Law”
Noah Gardiner (Near Eastern Studies)
“Ḥadīth Manuscripts as Actors and Archives: Michigan Islamic MS 479, Faḍa’il al-ramī fī sabīl Allāh”
Hitomi Tonomura (History & Women’s Studies)
“Sex before Marriage in Ancient and Medieval Japan”
Stewart Gordon (Center for South Asian Studies)
“Pilgrims and Their Routes: Considering Compostela, The Hajj, and the Silk Road to India”
Diane Owen Hughes (History)
“Dance and Diplomacy in Renaissance Italy”
Welcome to FoRMS! 