Medieval Matters: Is It Nearly 0th Week?

The weather is getting chillier, undergraduates have been sighted in Oxford city centre, and a sense of excitement is in the air... it can only mean one thing: 0th Week is almost here! This means, of course, that Medieval Matters will shortly be resuming in full force. I will once again be your guide for all things medieval in Oxford this year, and am excited to more formally welcome everyone back next week. In the meantime, there are a few matters that require your attention:

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Medieval Booklet Submissions. Thank you very much to all who have sent these to me so far! For those of you who still have submissions pending, you must send them to me by October 1st if you wish to ensure that they are included in the booklet for its 0th week release. Your submission should include, wherever possible, a time and location for your events / seminars. If you have not finalised all of the details yet, please do send the working document with any unconfirmed titles / speakers etc highlighted as "TBC".
Medieval Blog Submissions. This year we are hoping to feature a greater range of blog posts to highlight Oxford's vibrant medievalist community. We would like to have one blog post per week, and are currently looking for volunteers for MT. If you have a project / book release / manuscript that you would like to highlight, please do contact me. The OMS blog is seen by medievalists in and outside of Oxford and is a great place to showcase the achievements of our medieval community.
New Graduate Students / Staff Members. If you are the convenor of a medieval-focussed MSt/MPhil, have new DPhil students, know of new medieval staff members or are hosting visiting scholars, please send me a list of all of their email addresses so that I can sign them up for the mailing list. Alternatively, please distribute the following self-service link to allow them to sign up: https://web.maillist.ox.ac.uk/ox/subscribe/medieval-news.
EVENTS / SAVE THE DATE:

Wednesday 27th September:

Lecture: ‘Three Renaissance Grotesques: Holbein, Dürer, Massys’. A Public Lecture by Professor Alexander Marr (University of Cambridge). 27 September 2023, 5pm to 6pm. Free entry. Magdalen College, Grove Auditorium (entry via Longwall Street).

Wednesday 27th-Friday 29th September:

A Special Relationship? Gender on Medieval Mount Athos: Third Workshop for the ERC Starting Grant “Mount Athos in Medieval Eastern Mediterranean Society: Contextualizing the History of a Monastic Republic (ca. 850 - 1550)”. As is well-known, Mount Athos is today an exclusively male monastic preserve governed by the so-called baton (“untrodden”) rule, which prohibits the access of both women and female animals to the peninsula. Nonetheless, throughout history, women were connected with the Holy Mountain in manifold ways, in dynamics of patronage, spiritual advice and familial ties. The aim of this workshop is not only to uncover this largely neglected aspect of Athos’ history during the medieval period but also to explore other forms of gender, such as that of masculinity (including eunuchs). For full details, please click here.

Tuesday 10th October:

Oxford Medieval Studies Social and Steering Group: We warmly invite you to join us for medievalist revelry to welcome in the new academic year, kindly hosted by the Medieval Church and Culture seminar. Further details to follow!

OPPORTUNITIES:

CFP: Gender and Sainthood c. 1100–1500 Conference at the University of Oxford and Online, 5–6 April 2024: Gender and sanctity are inextricably intertwined. Medieval saints and holy people exceeded, enshrined, and subverted cultural constructions and expectations of gender, yet were also contained, defined, and controlled by these same practical and discursive ideas. We invite paper proposals for 20-minute papers to consider the relationship between sanctity and gender in the medieval period, with both concepts understood as broadly and inclusively as possible. We particularly invite contributions from postgraduate and early career researchers, but proposals from scholars at any career stage are welcome. To apply, please send an abstract (max. 300 words) and a short biography to Edmund van der Molen (edmund.vandermolen@nottingham.ac.uk) and Antonia Anstatt (antonia.anstatt@history.ox.ac.uk) by 15 October 2023. For full CFP please click here. 
Registration now open: The Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies is pleased to announce that registration is open for the 16th Annual Lawrence J. Schoenberg Symposium on Manuscript Studies in the Digital Age: The Image of the Book: Representing the Codex from Antiquity to the Present, November 16-18, 2023. The symposium will be held in person with an option to join virtually. All are welcome to attend. A link to register and program details are available here.
CFP: Medieval Germany Workshop 2024, German Historical Institute London: This one-day workshop on the history of medieval Germany (broadly defined) will provide an
opportunity for researchers in the field from the UK, continental Europe, and the USA to meet in a relaxed and friendly setting and to learn more about each other’s work. Proposals for short papers of 10–15 minutes are invited from researchers at all career stages with an interest in any aspect of the history of medieval Germany. Participants are encouraged to concentrate on presenting work in progress, highlighting research questions and approaches, and pointing to yet unresolved challenges of their projects. Presentations will be followed by a discussion. Please send your proposal, which must include a title, an abstract of c.200 words, and a biographical note of no more than c.100 words, to Marcus Meer: m.meer@ghil.ac.uk. Questions about all aspects of the workshop can also be sent to Len Scales: l.e.scales@durham.ac.uk. For full details, please click here. 
Tenure-Track Position in Medieval Literature and Language: The Marco Institute is pleased to announce that the Department of English at University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is now inviting applications for a tenure-track Assistant/Associate Professor of Medieval Literature & Language, capable of teaching courses in both the Old English and Middle English periods, with a research specialization in either field. We particularly welcome candidates with interest in one or more of the following areas: digital humanities, medical humanities, and the global Middle Ages. Duties include active participation in both graduate and undergraduate programs, plus significant research and publication. Salaries and teaching loads are competitive, and our endowment provides ample support for research and travel.  For more information and to apply, visit this Interfolio link: https://apply.interfolio.com/130790
Call for blogpost writers: Dr. Jörn Günther Rare Books AG is looking for blogpost writers. We are looking for bibliophiles interested in writing short and accessible blogposts (max. 500 words) engaging with one of our objects. See our latest blog here: https://guenther-rarebooks.com/blog/70-popes-conversos-and-the-eternal-c.... The blogpost will be featured on our website, newsletter, instagram, and twitter account. Dr. Jörn Günther Rare Books AG has currently over 15’000 followers on instagram with a worldwide audience, consisting of institutions, collectors, and academics. If you are interested and would like to know more, send me (Natascha Domeisen) an email at: nd@guenther-rarebooks.com. Very much looking forward to hearing from you!
New Fellowship: The journal Early Medieval Europe has just launched a new fellowship in partnership with the British School at Rome. It is aimed at ECRs whose research would benefit from spending one month at the BSR. For more details and instructions on how to apply please see the following link: https://bsr.ac.uk/bsr-early-medieval-europe-fellowship/. Application deadline: 31 January 2024.
Assistant Professor - Medieval Latin Studies and Culture 1100-1300:  The Centre for Medieval Studies (CMS) in the Faculty of Arts and Science at the University of Toronto invites applications for a full-time tenure stream position in Medieval Latin Studies and Culture from 1100 to 1300. The appointment will be at the rank of Assistant Professor, with an expected start date of July 1, 2024. For full details please click here.

Finally, I'm pleased to announce that our companions for this year's Medieval Matters Newsletters will be the newly digitised bestiary, St John's College, MS 61 (by permission of the President and Fellows of St John's College, Oxford), and wisdom from the Epistolae project, which catalogues letters to and from medieval women. To start the term, here is a plea from your communications officer, hoping to receive a few kind words and greatly longing to hear your submissions to the medieval booklet:

Illud etiam peto, ut rusticitatem huius epistolae digneris emendare; et mihi aliqua verba tuae affabilitatis exempli gratia transmittere non recusses, quae inhianter audire satago.
["I beg you to be so kind as to correct the unskilled style of this letter and to send me, by way of example, a few kind words, which I greatly long to hear"]
Letter from Lioba abbess of Tauberbischofsheim (c.732)

I hope that your preparations for term are going well, and am really looking forward to welcoming you back properly in my 0th Week email,

Luisa