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italian-studies: Scholarly discussions in any field of Italian studies

Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies
Binghamton University (SUNY)

Interdisciplinary Conference
"Science, Literature, and the Arts in the Medieval and Early Modern World"

The Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (CEMERS) at Binghamton
University invites session and paper proposals for its semiannual
interdisciplinary conference, October 22-23, 2004. The conference will
bring together scholars from a range of disciplines working on connections
among science, literature, and the arts from approximately 400-1750, in
both European as well as non-European cultures. Science should be conceived
of broadly, as the study of the physical world and of human psychic and
social life, and as including such branches of learning as medicine,
alchemy, astrology, cosmology, and theology. We especially welcome papers
attentive to epistemological issues in and across various cultures, as
producing or constitutive of "science." Papers may address the use of
scientific material in a particular work of art or literature, or broader
issues such as portrayals of literature and the arts in scientific
treatises (and vice versa); other potential fields of inquiry include, but
are not limited to:

--Literary, artistic, and scientific constructions of gender:
intersections/contradictions
--Science and (/vs.) magic, including portrayals of each in literature and art
--The convergence of scientific and artistic activity in specific
courts/cultural centers
--Cross-cultural scientific/artistic exchange (e.g. between Europe and the
Islamic World)
--Treatises on dreams and dream narratives
--Bestiaries, lapidaries, and herbals as a hybrid of scientific and
literary genres
--Renaissance debates over astronomy and astrology
--Botany/horticulture: scientific approaches to (and in) the garden
--Cartography/mappae mundi and the arts
--The systematization/institutionalization of knowledge production in
universities
--The Aristotelian/scholastic method (and reaction against it)
--The encyclopedic tradition
--Science and technology, including construction
--Literary/artistic depictions of scientific instruments, experiments, "men
of science", etc.
--Literary device/technique in scientific writings
--Implicit critiques of science in medieval romance and other types of
fantasy literature
--Premodern literature/art and 21st-century technology

Plenary speakers include:
John Freccero, New York University
Monica Green, Arizona State University
Nancy Siraisi, CUNY Graduate Center and Hunter College
Carol Bier, Textile Museum, Washington, D.C.

Deadline for submission of proposals: June 1, 2004

Please send two copies of session proposals or one-page abstracts, along
with a copy of your current c.v. including e-mail address and phone number,
and any requests for audio-visual equipment. E-mail submissions are
welcome. A volume of proceedings is projected.

Send inquiries and proposals to:
Dana Stewart, Conference Organizer
Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies
Binghamton University (SUNY)
Binghamton NY 13902-6000
[log in to unmask]
http://cemers.binghamton.edu/

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