RSA Webinar Series: Online Renaissance Dance Workshop

RSA members are invited to attend an online workshop on Renaissance dance with Dorothy Olsson and Peggy Murray on Sunday, May 2, 2021, from 2 to 3:30 PM EDT.

The workshop introduces some of the popular western European dances from the late 16th and early 17th centuries, including pavane, branle and gaillarde. After a brief discussion about dance sources, participants will have the opportunity to try steps for some simple yet enjoyable dances (with recorded music). A handout will be available. Participants should wear comfortable flat or low-heeled shoes. No prior dance experience is necessary! Registration required.

This online workshop will be recorded and posted on the RSA webinar page following the event. Visit the RSA webinar page for more resources about research, teaching, and fellowships and grants.

Resource Portal on Anti-Racism and Decolonial Approaches to Art History and Visual Culture

The Association for Art History’s “Resource Portal on Anti-Racism and Decolonial Approaches to Art History and Visual Culture” contains hundreds of references arranged along subject, themes and media in eight bibliographies. The portal provides access to materials on anti-racist, postcolonial, and decolonizing art histories and is meant for anyone conducting research in those areas in art history or in visual or spatial culture. The portal is also meant to support academics in making meaningful changes in their departments, their teaching and their research.

The resource portal was conceived and initiated by members of the Association’s Higher Education Committee, compiled by Edwin Coomasaru with guidance from Amy Tobin and Joanna Woodall, and supported by contributors to a crowd-funding initiative. Community members are encouraged to contribute to the bibliographies. Visit the resource portal to access the eight bibliographies.

RSA members are also invited to contribute to the RSA Student Community’s resource lists.

RSA Virtual 2021

RSA Virtual 2021 starts this week! The conference will be held online April 13–15 and April 20–22, 2021. Register today, and acquaint yourself with our conference pages for useful information such as our meeting calendar and program calendar.

Our Annual Meeting will be held entirely online. Registration for the conference provides you access to:

More than 500 sessions by 1,800 presenters
More than 2,600 conference participants
Recordings of all sessions that are viewable for 30 days following the conference

Dates of Note

Graduate Student Social

Monday, April 12 at 3:00 p.m. (EDT)

Students are invited to attend the virtual Student Social and do not need to be RSA members to participate. Click here for details and registration.

RSA Awards Ceremony

Tuesday, April 13 at 4:00 p.m. (EDT)

Join us as we honor the recipients of the RSA awards and prizes for 2021. The Awards Ceremony is open to anyone who would like to attend and conference registration is not required. Please register here for the ceremony and we will send you a Zoom link shortly before the event.

Josephine Waters Bennett Lecture

Wednesday, April 14 at 2:00 p.m. (EDT)

The Josephine Waters Bennett Lecture will be presented during the conference by Ayanna Thompson, Professor of English at Arizona State University and Director of the Arizona Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies (ACMRS).

The official conference hashtag for our 67th Annual Meeting is #RenSA21. Please take a moment to review our conference policies and email us with any conference-related questions.

Society for Renaissance Studies Postdoctoral Fellowships

The Society for Renaissance Studies (SRS) invites applications for its Postdoctoral Fellowships, which support research in all aspects of Renaissance studies. There will be two Postdoctoral Fellowships awarded in the academic year 2021-22, each worth £15,000.

The SRS’ understanding of ‘Renaissance’ is broad: the SRS welcomes applications from all disciplinary backgrounds, and across a wide chronological and geographical spectrum; the SRS also prize innovative approaches to undertaking research. SRS supports the principle that academia cannot reach its full potential unless it can benefit from the talents of all, and so is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion.

Eligibility:

Applicants must be graduates of British or Irish universities, and currently engaged in full-time research, part-time teaching or independent scholarship.
Applicants must either already have been awarded their PhD (from a British or Irish university) no more than five years before 1 October 2021, or have been provisionally awarded their PhD by 31 May 2021, subject to no more than minor corrections. These corrections must be due to be completed and accepted by the awarding university no later than 1 October 2021. It is expected that the applicant’s referees will be able to confirm the status of the PhD.
The SRS Fellowships are not to be held alongside other postdoctoral awards or fellowships or jobs that constitute more than 0.5 of a full-time post.

Conditions:

The period of tenure is twelve months from 1 October 2021.
Fellows are required to become members of the SRS and will be invited to attend meetings of the Society’s Council.
Fellows will be asked to present their findings at the end of the period of award, and to submit a written report for publication in the Society’s Bulletin
Fellows must name the Society for Renaissance Studies in their affiliation in any publications and conference papers presenting the research.
There are no specific residence requirements for successful applicants taking up a Fellowship.

Applicants should complete the online application form available on the SRS website by 30 April 2021.

Queries should be addressed to the SRS Fellowships Officer: Dr. David Rundle

RSA Graduate Student Social

To kick off RSA Virtual 2021, the RSA Graduate Student Advisory committee is pleased to announce a virtual Student Social on Monday, April 12 at 3:00 p.m. EDT. Students are invited to attend and do not need to be RSA members to participate.

The Student Social will provide attendees with a space to meet and connect with one another in an informal setting. Members of the RSA Board will be present to engage with students and enable attendees to get to know the RSA’s leadership. If you are interested in attending, please RSVP online. We will follow up in the weeks ahead with more specifics about the event!

In addition to the Graduate Student Social, the RSA will also be launching a Graduate Student Member Slack channel, where graduate students can further connect and discuss panels and presentations at RSA Virtual 2021. Please submit your name and email address to join the channel.

For more information, please contact the Graduate Student Advisory committee.

Frick Art Reference Library Digital Art History Fellowship 2021–22

The Frick Collection and Frick Art Reference Library is pleased to announce the availability of a one-year part-time fellowship for an outstanding graduate student in art history, the digital humanities, computer science and/or information science. The successful candidate will complete a digital project (preferably Open Access) of their own design that utilizes the rich digital resources of the Library, especially The Frick Digital Collections, the institution’s online archive, and its Art History Research Databases. Ideally, this project would support research for the fellow’s master’s thesis or dissertation; however, projects for course credit and independent initiatives will also be considered. During the tenure of the fellowship, which will be held remotely, the fellow will also be closely involved in all activities and public programming sponsored by the institution’s Digital Art History Lab. At the conclusion of the fellowship, the Fellow will be required to present their project in an online public event scheduled for May 2022.

Qualifications and Application Process

Applicants must be enrolled in an accredited graduate program in the United States or Canada. The Fellow will receive a one-time stipend of $15,000. The Fellow will be considered a part-time employee for the duration of their fellowship. The term of the award will begin in September 2021 and conclude in May 2022.

Applications must include the following materials:

A cover letter explaining the applicant’s interest in the fellowship and the Frick Art Reference Library’s digital resources more broadly. The letter must include a home address, phone number, and email address
An abstract, not to exceed three typed pages double-spaced, describing the applicant’s proposed project
A complete curriculum vitae of education, employment, honors, awards, and publications
Two letters of recommendation (academic and professional)

Please submit application materials to dahlprograms@frick.org. Letters of recommendation should be sent to this email address directly from recommenders; PDFs of signed letters on university or business stationary are preferred.

The application deadline for the fellowship is April 30, 2021.

Finalists will be interviewed via video conferencing. The Library plans to make the appointment by May 31, 2021.

Visit the Frick Part-time Fellowship page for more information.

Post-Doctoral Fellow and Assistant to the Director for Academic Programs, I Tatti

Start Date: I Tatti, September 1, 2021
Application Deadline: April 1, 2021
Reports to: Paul E. Geier, Director of Villa I Tatti
Location: Villa I Tatti, Florence, Italy

I Tatti offers a Post-Doctoral Fellowship/Assistant to the Director position in art history of the early modern period, including the historiography and impact of the Italian Renaissance in the Modern Era (19th–21st centuries). The successful candidate will spend approximately half of the time working on his/her own project, chosen to be in keeping with I Tatti’s own academic agenda and research profile. The other half of this individual’s time will be spent working closely with the director and with key staff members to organize and coordinate academic programs.

This position is located at Villa I Tatti (The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies) in Florence, Italy, and is for a term of two years, with the possibility of an extension. This individual will be a key liaison with the resident fellows and will interact with visiting scholars.

Major Responsibilities for Program Coordination

Liaison with Fellows Principal liaison for resident fellows (both full and part-year) concerning academic programs and scholarly activities, as well as daily life at the Villa.
Supports the Director in the full-year and short-term fellowships application process.
With staff both on-site and in the Cambridge (USA) office, coordinates information flow and activities related to fellows.

Basic Qualifications

Ph.D. in Art History; fluency in English, both written and oral, and proficiency (written and oral) in Italian. Applicants should be in the early stages of their career, having received a Ph.D. between 2010–20.

Additional Qualifications

Demonstrated scholarly interests in Renaissance studies; strong academic sensibility and career orientation; excellent communication skills, both written and oral; previous work experience with humanities-based academic programs and events desired; demonstrated ability to work effectively in a highly collaborative environment and with all levels within the academic and scholarly spheres; demonstrated ability to plan and manage projects.

Applicants should send a CV and a project description of no more than 1,500 words. Two letters of reference are required and should be sent via email with the candidate’s name in the subject line. Visit the Villa I Tatti webpage for more information and to apply.

The World in the Book: 1300-1800: Newberry Library Undergraduate Seminar

Tuesday, September 28, 2021 – Thursday, December 9, 2021
(This program continues for multiple sessions)
Tuesdays and Thursdays
1–2:30 pm CST
Online

Led by Lia Markey, Rebecca Fall, and Christopher Fletcher, Newberry Library

Centuries before television, smartphones, and social media, books were the primary means by which people made sense of the world around them. In cultures throughout the world, manuscripts and printed materials of all kinds were used to archive professional and personal lives, cultivate relationships with the divine, care for minds and bodies, and visualize faraway lands and peoples. Today, these books stand as material witnesses to medieval and early modern efforts to engage with major social, intellectual, and cultural challenges.

Hosted by the Newberry Library’s Center for Renaissance Studies (CRS), this 10-week course will use the multidisciplinary field of book history to explore how medieval and early modern people used different media—theological texts, maps, travel narratives, reference works, literature, and more—to make sense of a changing world. Through lectures, discussions, and interactive workshops with faculty from CRS consortium institutions, participants will learn how book history can illuminate the ways in which premodern people used religion, science, art, and technology to grapple with new economic, intellectual, and cultural challenges in a rapidly-expanding global community. In so doing, students will develop a framework for using the past to help illuminate and guide their own contemporary experience.

Format

Confirmed Guest Speakers

Claudia Brittenham, University of Chicago
Kevin Gosner, University of Arizona
Elizabeth Hebbard, Indiana University
Stephanie Leitch, Florida State University
Ryan Netzley, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale
Julia Schleck, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
JB Shank, University of Minnesota
Jyotsna Singh, Michigan State University

Cost and Registration

This seminar is free and open for undergraduate students in any field of medieval or early modern studies, but space is limited. Priority will be given to undergraduates from CRS consortium institutions.

To apply for the course, complete the online application form on the Newberry website. Credits for the course will be given by students’ home institutions. Accepted students must make arrangements with their home institutions to receive credit for the course. Please direct any questions to renaissance@newberry.org.

Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies

The books listed on the Comitatus Review Titles (PDF) are available for review in Comitatus 52 (2021), the graduate student journal published by the UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies.

If you would like to write a review for Comitatus 52, email Allison McCann allisonmccann@humnet.ucla.edu with your top choice and an alternate. Please also include your university affiliation and a brief explanation of your research interests and the qualifications that make you an ideal reviewer for your requested title.

Please send your requests by March 12, 2021, at which time the editor will select reviews for inclusion in this year’s volume. We typically receive more requests than we can publish. Please note that, due to the ongoing response to COVID-19, we cannot guarantee a hard copy of every title.

All book reviews will be due June 1, 2021, and should be between 800 and 1500 words in length. Further information on formatting will be shared with reviewers once final selections are made.

California Rare Book School August 2021

California Rare Book School is a continuing education program dedicated to providing the knowledge and skills required by professionals working in all aspects of the rare book community, and for students interested in entering the field.

Founded in 2005, CalRBS is a project of the Department of Information Studies at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA. CalRBS is supported by an informal consortium of many of the academic and research libraries and antiquarian booksellers of Southern California.

Week One: 2–6 August, 2021

Digital Humanities for the History of the Book – Catherine DeRose
Critical Approaches, Zines, and Maker Spaces – Sean Pessin
History of the Renaissance Book – Craig Kallendorf & Daniel J. Slive
Critical Librarianship in Praxis – Emily Drabinski
Better Teaching with Rare Materials: Critical Approaches – Michaela Ullmann
Feminist Bibliography – Sarah Werner

Week Two: 9–13 August, 2021

Libraries and Social Justice: Through an Indigenous Lens – Sandy Littletree
Descriptive Bibliography – Gerald Cloud
Illustrated Scientific Books in Early Modern Europe – Daniela Bleichmar
History, Identification, and Preservation of Photographic Materials – Gawain Weaver
Developing and Administering Ethnic and Cultural Heritage Collections – Tamar Dougherty
CalRBS Director’s Intensive: Book History and Librarianship through Post- and De-Colonial Lenses – Robert D. Montoya

Week Three: 16–20 August, 2021

Donors & Libraries – Susan M. Allen & William P. Barlow, Jr.
Global Histories of the Book: Asia/Europe – Devin Fitzgerald
Communications and Grant-Writing for Libraries and Special Collections – Snowden Becker
Exhibiting Rare Books & Ephemera: Physically & Digitally – Marianne Lamonaca
Data Ethics and Activism in Practice – Stacy Wood
Rare Book Cataloging – Randal Brandt
Scientific and Secular Manuscripts – Melissa Conway & Cynthia White

Applications for a CalRBS tuition scholarship will be accepted until June 4, 2021 for all courses. For more information and how to apply please visit: http://www.calrbs.org/admissions/