Please join us for our next event:

"The Sorrow of Being"
Nicola Masciandaro (CUNY)

Thursday, November 12th, 6:30 p.m.
19 University Place, room 224
(non-NYU guests, please bring photo ID to sign into the building)

From Professor Masciandaro:
Sorrow seems universally related, in one way or another, to the principle of evil or privation. Sorrows of love, of loss, of pain, of disappointment, of conscience—all are barely thinkable without reference to some problematic object, the negative thing that one sorrows over. This relation is exemplified by Augustine’s definition of sorrow as counter-volition or refusal: “cum . . . dissentimus ab eo quod nolentibus accidit, talis voluntas tristitia est” [sorrow is the will’s disagreement with something that happened against our will]. But is there a form of sorrow that remains or emerges when all possible objects of sorrow are taken away, when there is nothing to sorrow over, a sorrow of being? The idea of such sorrow, a sorrow that takes sorrow beyond its own possibility, appears at once obvious and absurd. Existence simultaneously is and is not the greatest “something that happened against our will.” A pure sorrow, a perfect sorrow, a sorrow whose meaning is infinite? In dialogue with The Cloud of Unknowing and other late-medieval mystical texts, this lecture speculates about the nature of such sorrow and its relations to facticity, actuality, work, interpretation, and ecstasy.

We will work to reschedule this event. To learn the new date and details of the event, you can join our mailing list, or check for updated information here at the CELCE blog.

Our apologies for this last-minute cancellation.

If you have questions, contact Liza Blake, elizabeth[dot]blake[at]nyu[dot]edu, Katie Vomero Santos, kathryn[dot]vomero[at]nyu[dot]edu, or Sarah Ostendorf, sco229[at]nyu[dot]edu.

September 10
CELCE Fall Kick-Off Reception
6pm
Great Room

September 17
The French Disease
Karen Newman
(NYU)
Room 224

October 8 -- POSTPONED!!
The Untimely Mammet of Verona
Gil Harris
(GWU)
Room 222

November 2 (Monday)
Renaissance Typos and Philosophies of Chance: A Colloquium
Jacques Lezra and Juliet Fleming
(NYU)
Room 224

December 3
Romance Ekphrasis: A Language of Sociability
Elizabeth Bearden
(University of Maryland)
Room 222
Co-sponsored with the Comparative Literature Department

If you have questions, contact Liza Blake, elizabeth[dot]blake[at]nyu[dot]edu, Katie Vomero Santos, kathryn[dot]vomero[at]nyu[dot]edu, or Sarah Ostendorf, sco229[at]nyu[dot]edu.

September 10
CELCE Fall Kick-Off Reception
6pm
Great Room

October 1
In the Merchant's Bedchamber
Glenn Burger
(CUNY)

November 12
The Sorrow of Being
Nicola Masciandaro
(CUNY)

November 19
Trojan Itineraries: The Fall of Troy and the Francophone Court of Robert of Anjou, King of Naples
Marilynn Desmond
(Binghamton University)
Room 222
Co-sponsored with MARC and with the NYU French Department

Monday, March 30, 7pm
Silver Center, Room 503, Department of Classics, 100 Washington Square East

Professor Trüstedt will be speaking about Carl Schmitt's essay "Hamlet or Hecuba: The Intrusion of Time in the Play." She has pre-circulated a copy of the Schmitt essay; if you would like a copy, please email us at the address(es) given below.

All are welcome!

If you have questions, contact Liza Blake, elizabeth[dot]blake[at]nyu[dot]edu, or Katie Vomero, kathryn[dot]vomero[at]nyu[dot[edu].

Please note that our talks will be held in various locations around NYU this semester. (Visitors from outside NYU should bring photo ID to sign into NYU buildings.)

All are welcome!

If you have questions, contact Liza Blake, elizabeth[dot]blake[at]nyu[dot]edu, or Katie Vomero, kathryn[dot]vomero[at]nyu[dot]edu.

February 12
"The Portingale: exploring the Portuguese community in late Elizabethan London"
Alan Stewart
(Columbia University)
Silver Center, Room 503, Department of Classics, 100 Washington Square East
Co-sponsored with CELCE

March 12
"Kermes Trismegistus: Dyes and Deceit in Chapman's Hellespont"
Miriam Jacobson
(Wake Forest University)
Silver Center, Room 503, Department of Classics, 100 Washington Square East

March 24 (Tuesday)
"Richard Hakluyt, Translator, and the Early Modern Global Imaginary"
Henry Turner
(Rutgers University)
19 University Place, Great Room (first floor)
6:00pm
Co-sponsored with the Medieval and Renaissance Center (MARC)

March 30 (Monday)
"Hamlet against Hecuba: Carl Schmitt and the Stake of Modern Tragedy"
Katrin Trüstedt
(Europa-Universität Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder))
7pm
Silver Center, Room 503, Department of Classics, 100 Washington Square East
Co-sponsored with the NYU Comparative Literature Department

April 30
"Marlowe's Last Poem"
Dympna Callaghan
(Syracuse University)
19 University Place, Room 225 (French Seminar Room)
Co-sponsored with CELCE

Please note that our talks will be held in various locations around NYU this semester. (Visitors from outside NYU should bring photo ID to sign into NYU buildings.)

All are welcome!

If you have questions, contact Liza Blake, elizabeth[dot]blake[at]nyu[dot]edu.

February 5
"The Weight of the Past"
Jeffrey Cohen
(George Washington University)
19 University Place, Room 222
Reception at 6pm; lecture at 6:30pm
Co-sponsored with the Anglo-Saxon Studies Colloquium

February 19
"Wondering through the World: Ibn Battuta among the Mongols"
Christine Chism
(Rutgers University)
To be held at 754 Schermerhorn, Columbia University
Reception at 6pm; lecture at 6:30pm
Co-sponsored with Columbia University

March 10 NEW DATE! Tuesday, March 10
"Cures and Closures: Surgery, Intersex, and the Demands of Difference"
Leah DeVun
(Texas A&M University)
IHPK Conference Room, 285 Mercer Street, 10th Floor
Co-sponsored with CELCE

April 2
"Mythic Capital: Medievalism, Heritage Culture and the Order of the Garter, 1348-2008"
Stephanie Trigg
(University of Melbourne)
19 University Place, Room 222
Co-sponsored with the Medieval and Renaissance Center (MARC)

April 23
"The Politics of the Subjunctive"
Paul Strohm
(Columbia University)
Department of Classics, 100 Washington Square East, Silver Center 503

Thursday, Feb. 12, 6:30pm
PLEASE NOTE THE LOCATION:
Silver Center 503, Department of Classics, 100 Washington Square East
(visitors from outside NYU should bring photo ID to sign into the building)

A schedule of Spring Early Modern Forum events will follow shortly. If you have questions, contact Liza Blake, elizabeth[dot]blake[at]nyu[dot]edu, or Katie Vomero, kathryn[dot]vomero[at]nyu[dot]edu.

Thursday, Feb. 5
Reception 6:00pm
Lecture 6:30pm

Room 222 of 19 University Place
(visitors from outside NYU should bring photo ID to sign into the building).

A schedule of Spring Medieval Forum events will follow shortly. If you have questions, contact Liza Blake, elizabeth[dot]blake[at]nyu[dot]edu.

We are pleased to announce the list of events for the NYU English Department Early Modern Forum. The Early Modern Forum meets fortnightly on Thursday evenings at 6:30pm. All events will be held in 19 University Place, room 224, unless otherwise noted (visitors from outside NYU should bring photo ID to sign into the building). All are welcome!

Please note that for our first event, happening on Thursday, September 18, John Archer has pre-circulated his paper. To pick up a copy, go the the NYU English Department (5th floor of 19 University Place). The papers can be found in the pigeon hole labeled "CELCE" directly across from the elevators. If the supply is exhausted or you would like the paper over email, please email us at the address(es) given below.

If you have questions, contact Liza Blake, elizabeth[dot]blake[at]nyu[dot]edu, or Katie Vomero, kathryn[dot]vomero[at]nyu[dot]edu.

September 18
"Islam and Tamburlaine’s World-Picture"
John Archer
(NYU)
This event will be held in room 222 of 19UP.

October 16
"Shakespeare’s Speech"
David Schalkwyk
(University of Cape Town)

October 30
"'Oh that my Tongue were now with Silver tipped': Avian Automata in the Renaissance"
Wendy Hyman
(Ithaca College)

November 13
"Early Modern Passion: An Aristotelian Approach"
Ross Knecht
(NYU)

RESCHEDULED:
November 25
"Shakespeare, Ovid and Bellini Feast with the Gods"
Susanne Wofford
(NYU)
This event will be held in room 222 of 19UP.

December 11
Medieval/Renaissance Graduate Final Paper Workshop

We are pleased to announce the list of events for the NYU English Department Medieval Forum. The Medieval Forum meets fortnightly on Thursday evenings at 6:30pm. All events will be held in 19 University Place, room 224, unless otherwise noted (visitors from outside NYU should bring photo ID to sign into the building). All are welcome!

If you have questions, contact Liza Blake, elizabeth[dot]blake[at]nyu[dot]edu.

September 11
"'Variety': a study in pre-modern aesthetic values"
Mary Carruthers
(NYU and All Souls College, Oxford)

September 25
"Exempla and Authority in Fifteenth-Century England"
Amanda Leff
(NYU)

October 9
"A Taxonomy of Creatures in the Second-Family Bestiary"
Susan Crane
(Columbia)

October 23
"Informing Poetics: Soul, Body and Gender in Chaucer's Rhyme Royal Tales"
Elizabeth Robertson
(University of Colorado, Boulder)
Co-sponsored with the Columbia University Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program

November 6
"Embodied texts, entexted bodies: performance and performative poetics in and of Beowulf"
Mark Amodio
(Vassar College)
Co-sponsored with the Anglo-Saxon Studies Colloquium (ASSC)

November 20
"Translating the diversity of the Middle Ages"
Simon Gaunt
(King's College, London)
Co-sponsored with CELCE and the Medieval and Renaissance Center (MARC)

December 4
"Convert Identity in the Late Middle Ages"
Steven Kruger
(Queens College, CUNY)

CONFERENCE SCHEDULE:

Session I: Working with Accessories
9:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.
Chair: Richard McCoy
Natasha Korda: “Stiff and Starchy Accessories: Froes, Rebatoes and Other ‘Outlandish Comodityes’”
Beth Holman: “Papal Dress and Accessories in the Renaissance”
Adam Smyth: “Functional Ornaments: Early Modern Scissors”

Session II: Renaissance Erotics
11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Chair: Juliet Fleming
Anne Jones: “Busks and Bodices: The Bound Renaissance Body”
Will Fisher: “‘Had it a codpiece, ’twere a man indeed’: The Codpiece as a Constitutive Accessory”
Elizabeth Blake: “Renaissance Dildos and Accessories: The Functions of Early Modern Strap-Ons”

Break: 12:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Session III: Dressing Up
2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Chair: Virginia Cox
Evelyn Welch: “Perfumed Buttons and Scented Gloves: Smelling Things in Renaissance Italy”
Karen Raber: “Chains of Pearls: Gender, Property, Identity”
Bella Mirabella: “Embellishing Herself with a Cloth: The Double Life of the Handkerchief”
Eugenia Paulicelli: “From the Sacred to the Secular: The Gendered Geography of Veils in Italian Cinquecento Fashion”

Session IV: Taking Accessories Seriously
4:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Chair: Georgina Dopico
Jane Tylus: “The Garment of Translation”
Karen Newman: “Accessories and the Sartorial Economy of Secondariness”
Joseph Loewenstein: “Hamlet's Mourning Garment”

Response: 6:00 p.m.
Peter Stallybrass

Reception: 6:30 p.m.

"Accessorizing the Renaissance Body" is cosponsored by the NYU Department of English, the NYU Department of Italian, and the NYU Medieval and Renaissance Center. If you have questions, contact Nicole DeRise, nicole[dot]derise[at]nyu[dot]edu.

John Archer
Professor of English, NYU

Thursday, Sept. 18, 6:30 pm
Room 224 of 19 University Place
(non-NYU visitors, bring a photo ID to sign into the building)

Professor Archer will give a brief presentation then lead a discussion of his paper "Islam and Tamburlaine's World-Picture." Professor Archer has pre-circulated the paper to be discussed. To pick up a copy, go the the NYU English Department (5th floor of 19 University Place). The papers can be found in the pigeon hole labeled "CELCE" directly across from the elevators. If the supply is exhausted or you would like the paper over email, please email us at the address(es) given below.

This is the inaugural event in the NYU English Department's Early Modern Forum. The Early Modern Forum will meet fortnightly on Thursday evenings (a full schedule of speakers and events will follow).

If you have questions, please contact Liza Blake, elizabeth[dot]blake[at]nyu[dot]edu or Katie Vomero, kathryn[dot]vomero[at]nyu[dot]edu

Mary Carruthers
Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford; Erich Maria Remarque Professor of Literature, NYU; Professor of English, NYU

Thursday, Sept. 11, 6:30 pm
Room 224 of 19 University Place
(non-NYU visitors, bring a photo ID to sign into the building)

Professor Carruthers will deliver the inaugural talk in the NYU English Department's Medieval Forum. The Medieval Forum will meet fortnightly on Thursday evenings (a full schedule of speakers and events will follow).

If you have questions, please contact Liza Blake, eab429[at]nyu[dot]edu.

On behalf of my co-coordinator and myself, I’d like to welcome you to another exciting year with the Colloquium on Early Literature and Culture in English. We’ll be putting out our full schedule soon, but in the meantime, make sure to keep your Thursday evenings free in Fall 2008, as we’ve got space reserved on Thursdays from 6-8pm. Details to follow.

As a way of welcoming all those you soon-to-be-new to NYU grad students, we've prepared a list of resources that might be helpful to you as an incoming med/ren student.

CELCE blog. If you’re already here, this probably seems obvious, but make sure to check back or add us to your blogroll as we’ll use this space to announce upcoming events, CFPs, and other useful info for CELCE members.

NYU listservs. These will keep you up to date on upcoming area events and relevant CFPs. You can add yourselves to lists from the NYU homepage. “medren-nyu” pertains to events in the greater New York area. “margnet” is the list for MaRGiN, the interdisciplinary med/ren graduate group at NYU. And don’t forget to sign up for “celce”!

Medieval and Renaissance Center (MARC). This is an interdisciplinary center that organizes speakers and events throughout the academic school year. Their website sometimes helpfully collects courses of interest across departments and schools in the doctoral consortium. The graduate student portion of MARC, the Medieval and Renaissance Graduate Information Network (MaRGiN), brings together graduate students from across disciplines for events.

The Medieval Club of New York (MCoNY). Run out of CUNY, but connecting medievalists across the city, the MCoNY organizes speakers and other events throughout the year. They also operate a blog.

New York Libraries. We’re in the middle of university central: take advantage of it. The Columbia Library, CUNY grad center library, and New York Public Library (just to name a few!) all provide great backup to our own NYU library. Don’t forget also opportunities to access rare books at the libraries already mentioned, as well as at the Morgan and, for those interested in history of science and medicine, the New York Academy of Medicine Library.

We'll be back on this blog with a list of events later in the summer. In the meantime, keep checking back and we look forward to seeing you this fall!

Liza and Katie