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I already follow Got Medieval?, which is worth it just for Marginalia Monday... but what other medieval studies-related blogs are good? Anyone have any recs?
conference, and squee
Mar. 7th, 2010 10:44 amI had a marvelous time at the MAP conference with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
morganlf. I have reams and reams of handwritten notes, which I will begin work transcribing so I can post them!
In general, it was very interesting to go to an academic conference as a non-academic. It's the first academic conference I'd ever been to. (Sirens has the shape of an academic conference, but is run by fans, and so is not quite the same thing. In a good way.) I'm sure there must've been at least one other person who just went as a person interested in medieval studies (as opposed to as a grad student, post-doc, or professor), but I didn't see any.
In a lot of ways I think I enjoyed it all the more for that: I didn't have to network if I didn't want to, could just attend whatever sessions caught my fancy (and skip sessions if I felt like it; I spent a few sessions with a cup of coffee and my laptop, writing, because I wanted a break from Focused Listening), and was free of the pervasive anxiety about acceptances, publications, jobs. I listened to fascinating sessions, and enjoyed a beautiful, clear, blue-sky spring day on the lovely University of Puget Sound conference with the daffodils coming up and the apple trees in bloom.
The highlight, though, was on Saturday. We'd just sat through the plenary (which featured the most unbelievably beautiful illuminations from the Arnstein Bible), and were discussing going home early since poormorganlf was coming down with a dreadful head cold. (I hope you feel better, by the way!) And then, across the room, I spied a familiar profile.
In college, I had a professor, one of the medievalists, who was my favorite prof and my senior thesis adviser. I took a ton of classes with him over the course of my time there, from the general medieval overview course my freshman year through a series of courses focusing on various elements of medieval central Europe (Poland, Hungary, Bohemia, Austria). He was my adviser for my thesis on Charlemagne's capitularies and manorial management. But it hadn't even occurred to me that he might be there.
"OMG," I said tomorganlf, "that's my professor!"
"Go say hi to him!" she said. "I'll watch your laptop!"
So I lunged across the rotunda, saying, "Doctor Knoll! Doctor Knoll!" And I had that little flash of thinking, wait, he's had thousands and thousands of students, it'll be kind of embarrassing if he doesn't really remember me....
But he turned around and smiled really wide and said, "Connie!"
We had a nice chat, during which it became even more clear that he actually did remember me. ("I was just thinking of you this year. I'm trying to reorganize my library before my move, and I was wishing I had someone to help me who had both an understanding of library organization and the history of central Europe, and you popped immediately to mind.") He also didn't seem to be fazed about the fact that I just went to work after college instead of grad school, and he was downright delighted that I was still interested enough, nonetheless, to attend the conference so I could keep learning. I also found out that he retired two years after I graduated, and is moving to Portland soon. So we exchanged contact info.
I'm really glad. He was part of what made my undergraduate experience at USC so great: he was very intelligent and academically rigorous in his classes, and pushed us to do well—but in a way that was unfailingly supportive and genuinely kind, and that made me believe that he actually cared and wanted every one of us to do well. And he was a fantastic thesis adviser. I'm so glad I got to see him again. It was absolutely the perfect ending to a very fun conference.
morganlf. I have reams and reams of handwritten notes, which I will begin work transcribing so I can post them!In general, it was very interesting to go to an academic conference as a non-academic. It's the first academic conference I'd ever been to. (Sirens has the shape of an academic conference, but is run by fans, and so is not quite the same thing. In a good way.) I'm sure there must've been at least one other person who just went as a person interested in medieval studies (as opposed to as a grad student, post-doc, or professor), but I didn't see any.
In a lot of ways I think I enjoyed it all the more for that: I didn't have to network if I didn't want to, could just attend whatever sessions caught my fancy (and skip sessions if I felt like it; I spent a few sessions with a cup of coffee and my laptop, writing, because I wanted a break from Focused Listening), and was free of the pervasive anxiety about acceptances, publications, jobs. I listened to fascinating sessions, and enjoyed a beautiful, clear, blue-sky spring day on the lovely University of Puget Sound conference with the daffodils coming up and the apple trees in bloom.
The highlight, though, was on Saturday. We'd just sat through the plenary (which featured the most unbelievably beautiful illuminations from the Arnstein Bible), and were discussing going home early since poor
morganlf was coming down with a dreadful head cold. (I hope you feel better, by the way!) And then, across the room, I spied a familiar profile.In college, I had a professor, one of the medievalists, who was my favorite prof and my senior thesis adviser. I took a ton of classes with him over the course of my time there, from the general medieval overview course my freshman year through a series of courses focusing on various elements of medieval central Europe (Poland, Hungary, Bohemia, Austria). He was my adviser for my thesis on Charlemagne's capitularies and manorial management. But it hadn't even occurred to me that he might be there.
"OMG," I said to
morganlf, "that's my professor!""Go say hi to him!" she said. "I'll watch your laptop!"
So I lunged across the rotunda, saying, "Doctor Knoll! Doctor Knoll!" And I had that little flash of thinking, wait, he's had thousands and thousands of students, it'll be kind of embarrassing if he doesn't really remember me....
But he turned around and smiled really wide and said, "Connie!"
We had a nice chat, during which it became even more clear that he actually did remember me. ("I was just thinking of you this year. I'm trying to reorganize my library before my move, and I was wishing I had someone to help me who had both an understanding of library organization and the history of central Europe, and you popped immediately to mind.") He also didn't seem to be fazed about the fact that I just went to work after college instead of grad school, and he was downright delighted that I was still interested enough, nonetheless, to attend the conference so I could keep learning. I also found out that he retired two years after I graduated, and is moving to Portland soon. So we exchanged contact info.
I'm really glad. He was part of what made my undergraduate experience at USC so great: he was very intelligent and academically rigorous in his classes, and pushed us to do well—but in a way that was unfailingly supportive and genuinely kind, and that made me believe that he actually cared and wanted every one of us to do well. And he was a fantastic thesis adviser. I'm so glad I got to see him again. It was absolutely the perfect ending to a very fun conference.
(no subject)
Mar. 4th, 2010 10:36 amOne thing I hadn't mentioned, simply because I kept forgetting it was coming up so soon: I'm attending the Medieval Association of the Pacific 2010 conference this weekend. Then next week I'm going back to horse camp! Hooray!
Really, even though they're totally separate events with totally different people, they feel like part of the same thing: a break from work and normal life to spend a lot of time focusing on something I love. And doing it with other people who love the same things.
So anyway, the conference schedule is here. I'm really interested in "Philosophy and Spirituality" and "Irish, Welsh and Norse Literature," and I'm really really interested in "Perceptions of Powerful Women" and "Naming, Knowing and Remembering Monsters," but those last two are unfortunately at the same time so I'll have to pick.
I'll be taking notes. Would anyone be interested if I were to post the notes on the sessions I sit in on?
Really, even though they're totally separate events with totally different people, they feel like part of the same thing: a break from work and normal life to spend a lot of time focusing on something I love. And doing it with other people who love the same things.
So anyway, the conference schedule is here. I'm really interested in "Philosophy and Spirituality" and "Irish, Welsh and Norse Literature," and I'm really really interested in "Perceptions of Powerful Women" and "Naming, Knowing and Remembering Monsters," but those last two are unfortunately at the same time so I'll have to pick.
I'll be taking notes. Would anyone be interested if I were to post the notes on the sessions I sit in on?
Friday Linkspam
Nov. 20th, 2009 10:33 am...This is an experiment! But I keep seeing links I'd like to share, and then I don't do it, because I can't write a whole post around them. So instead, linkspam, with comments.
( Linkspam includes: medieval marginalia, publishers behaving badly, race at the movies, Choose Your Own Adventure books, a requiem for the history channel, feminism and the late show industry, sexual assault prevention, adults and children, three Liquid Story Binder tutorials, and recipes )
( Linkspam includes: medieval marginalia, publishers behaving badly, race at the movies, Choose Your Own Adventure books, a requiem for the history channel, feminism and the late show industry, sexual assault prevention, adults and children, three Liquid Story Binder tutorials, and recipes )
on medieval food
Nov. 13th, 2009 10:54 pmDear world,
Medieval cooks didn't use spices because they were covering up the taste of rancid or rotten meat. There is a very simple reason for this: eating bad meat will make you very very sick, and quite possibly kill you (especially if you live in a time when you can't get electrolyte drinks or IV fluid replacement). Covering it up with cinnamon and pepper will not fix that. Medieval people did not eat rotten meat, because, while they didn't have our modern germ theory, they were capable of noticing that people who ate meat that smelled bad got very sick and often died.
It is true that a lot of meat in the middle ages was not eaten right away, but then, a lot of modern meat is not eaten right away -- what do you think aged steak is? And yes, accordingly, some of the meat eaten at the time probably had a somewhat different taste and texture than our refrigerated meats. (Also, not surprisingly, they very often dealt with the no-refrigeration problem by preserving meats, by salting or drying or sugaring or pickling or submerging in fat. But they preserved them before they went bad, because that's the point of preserving.) And yes, absolutely, people in the middle ages liked their food heavily spiced, and also sweeter than most modern people do. But they liked it that way because that was what they liked; it was a luxury, and also just a preference. I like the way pickles taste, but that doesn't mean I eat them because I had to do something with a bagful of rotten cucumbers.
But they didn't eat rotten meat, because eating rotten meat isn't something people do -- our digestive tracks can't handle it. It's almost impossible to hide the smell or taste of rotten meat (being as it's one of the things our bodies are designed to teach us not to eat), and even if you could, you'd get out of that habit pretty quickly after the first round of people got sick and died.
(Also, since spices were extraordinarily expensive, and therefore province of the wealthy, it just doesn't make sense. You save nothing by refusing to throw out a piece of meat and instead putting on spices that cost many times the cost of the meat; it would be financially wiser to just throw out the meat and slaughter another animal.)
Medieval people didn't think like modern people, but they weren't stupid. They just liked spiced food, when they could afford it.
Yours in the puncturing of historical just-so-stories,
Cora
the irritated history geek who just watched Top Chef
Medieval cooks didn't use spices because they were covering up the taste of rancid or rotten meat. There is a very simple reason for this: eating bad meat will make you very very sick, and quite possibly kill you (especially if you live in a time when you can't get electrolyte drinks or IV fluid replacement). Covering it up with cinnamon and pepper will not fix that. Medieval people did not eat rotten meat, because, while they didn't have our modern germ theory, they were capable of noticing that people who ate meat that smelled bad got very sick and often died.
It is true that a lot of meat in the middle ages was not eaten right away, but then, a lot of modern meat is not eaten right away -- what do you think aged steak is? And yes, accordingly, some of the meat eaten at the time probably had a somewhat different taste and texture than our refrigerated meats. (Also, not surprisingly, they very often dealt with the no-refrigeration problem by preserving meats, by salting or drying or sugaring or pickling or submerging in fat. But they preserved them before they went bad, because that's the point of preserving.) And yes, absolutely, people in the middle ages liked their food heavily spiced, and also sweeter than most modern people do. But they liked it that way because that was what they liked; it was a luxury, and also just a preference. I like the way pickles taste, but that doesn't mean I eat them because I had to do something with a bagful of rotten cucumbers.
But they didn't eat rotten meat, because eating rotten meat isn't something people do -- our digestive tracks can't handle it. It's almost impossible to hide the smell or taste of rotten meat (being as it's one of the things our bodies are designed to teach us not to eat), and even if you could, you'd get out of that habit pretty quickly after the first round of people got sick and died.
(Also, since spices were extraordinarily expensive, and therefore province of the wealthy, it just doesn't make sense. You save nothing by refusing to throw out a piece of meat and instead putting on spices that cost many times the cost of the meat; it would be financially wiser to just throw out the meat and slaughter another animal.)
Medieval people didn't think like modern people, but they weren't stupid. They just liked spiced food, when they could afford it.
Yours in the puncturing of historical just-so-stories,
Cora
the irritated history geek who just watched Top Chef
