Call for Papers

“Artists, Activists, and Manuscript Evidence”

2017 Theme for the

Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
Permanent Panels
at the
Midwest Modern Language Association

2017 Convention
Cincinnati, Ohio
November 9-12, 2017

[Update:  At our recent Open Business Meeting (see our 2017 International Congress on Medieval Studies Report), the organizer of these panels reported that the deadline for proposals for papers has been extended to 1 June.  Please send your proposals to Justin Hastings, as described below.  We hope to see you at the panels.]

The Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, in keeping with the 2017 M-MLA Convention’s theme of “Artists and Activists,” is sponsoring panels on manuscripts and printed books and the illuminators, scribes, editors, and other artists who created them and the scholars and readers who used them. The session invites all approaches, including textual, art historical, codicological, and paleographical.

Possible foci include but are by no means limited to:

• Scriveners, the Book Trade, and Early Modern Printed Editions
• Textual Transmission and Reception: Inscribing Alterity and Change
• On the Margins: Glosses, Illustrations, and Illuminations

Interested panelists should send brief abstracts of no more than 300 words to the organizer by 5 April 2017:

Justin Hastings
Department of English
Loyola University Chicago
Chicago, Illinois 60626
jhastings@luc.edu .

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A New Tradition

For information about the Events of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, to which these Sponsored Panels belong, please see our Events and Events Archive.  For convenience, we distinguish between these Events elsewhere and our many Congress Activities over the years at the Annual International Congress on Medieval Studies, likewise with a Congress Archive, held at Western Michigan University each May in Kalamazoo.

Our Associate, Justin Hastings, generously offered to organize panels for the 2016 M-MLA Convention to be sponsored by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence. The Call for Papers yielded not one, but two panels, with contributions spanning a wide range of materials, texts, periods, and regions. These sponsored panels represented the first time, apart from the Kalamazoo Congress, that the Research Group sponsored meetings within an existing conference held in North America, although we have co-organized and co-sponsored Events afresh in various centers in North America and elsewhere, as described in the Events Archive.

2016 Poster 2 of 2

2016 Poster 1 of 2

The plan to sponsor the 2017 Panels follows our first appearance as a Sponsor at the 2016 M-MLA Convention — with 2 Panels on Marginalia in Manuscripts and Books in response to the Call for Papers for 1 Panel alone. See the 2016 M-MLA Report for these Panels, with the published Abstracts of the Papers and a view of the Posters.

The continuation of the tradition of Permanent Panels at the M-MLA Convention is most welcome, and we thank our organizer, Justin Hastings, and the Midwest Modern Language Association.  We congratulate Justin for his expert organizational skills and outstanding collegiality, and we applaud his willingness to continue to organize the panels for the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence.

Further information about the Convention can be found in the 2017 M-MLA Convention Permanent Section Call for Papers .

Another First

This year, responding gladly to Justin’s initiative, we issue a Poster for the Call for Papers.

As customary, the design of the Poster corresponds with the Research Group’s Style Manifesto, and employs our very own copyright font Bembino — available freely for download, along with the booklet describing its reasons and range.  (Tip:  The next version of Bembino is advancing toward its launch very soon, in the next few weeks!  Update:  It is now available!  See Bembino .)

Up to now, our Posters in recent years have accompanied our Congress Activities and Symposia, Colloquia, Workshops, and the like.  Circulated at those events or activities, the Posters now illustrate the Pages or Posts devoted to them on our website.  Also, a Gallery illustrates the sequence of our Posters on Display. They exemplify aspects of our multiple Layout Designs, which have a Gallery as well.

Sometimes, we issued a Poster for the Save-the-Date Announcement of an approaching Symposium.   Those specimens likewise appear in the Poster Gallery.  However, this is the first time for a Poster for the Call for Papers.  Nice!

Thank you, Justin.

Join the Event

Remember, please send your proposals by April 5th to Justin:
jhastings@luc.edu .

Many subjects and approaches may suit the themes of

“Artists, Activists, and Manuscript Evidence”

What do you think?

You might Contact Us and visit our FaceBook Page for further conversations.

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