Conway Lectures
In 2002, the Medieval Institute inaugurated a lecture series in honor of Robert M. and Ricki Conway. Robert Conway is a 1966 graduate of Notre Dame and trustee of the University, and he and his wife are long-time friends and supporters of the Medieval Institute. The annual Conway Lectures bring senior scholars of international distinction to Notre Dame each fall to speak on topics across a variety of disciplines. The lectures are then published by the University of Notre Dame Press.
2020 Conway Lectures: Race in the Middle Ages
This year's lectures will be on the topic of race in the Middle Ages with speakers Sara Lipton (Stony Brook University), Cord J. Whitaker (Wellesley), and Suzanne Conklin Akbari (Institute for Advanced Study), and will be held virtually over Zoom.
Schedule of Events
Thursday, November 5, 2020
2–3:30 p.m. Eastern (U.S. and Canada)
Sara Lipton, "'Jews Will Not Replace Us': Identity and Difference in Medieval Polemic and Modern Politics"
Lecture followed by Q&A
5–6:30 p.m. Eastern (U.S. and Canada)
Cord J. Whitaker, "'From Medieval America to Modern': Medieval Black Metaphors, the Harlem Renaissance, and Antiracist Chivalry Today"
Lecture followed by Q&A
Friday, November 6, 2020
2–3:30 p.m. Eastern (U.S. and Canada)
Suzanne Conklin Akbari, "Racializing Religion: The Case of the Ethiopian Magus and the Jews of Cologne"
Lecture followed by Q&A
4–5 p.m. Eastern (U.S. and Canada)
Roundtable with all speakers and audience Q&A
How to Join
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. This registration gives you access to all Conway lectures and the roundtable.
Questions?
Please email medinst@nd.edu.
Reading Group
A graduate-student-led reading group on premodern critical race studies has also been formed for the 2020–21 year. This biweekly reading group creates a space in which participants can read and discuss foundational theoretical texts within this subfield and think through ways to apply this theory to their own work. Readings for the fall semester will include books and articles published by the 2020 Conway speakers. Following the Conway lectures, readings and discussion topics will be chosen based on the needs and research interests of group participants. Please contact the organizers, Shela Raman McCabe and Eileen M. W. Morgan, for more information on participating.
Looking Ahead
The 2021 Conway Lectures will be on the theme of two important anniversaries: the 700th anniversary of the death of Dante Alighieri and the 75th anniversary of the Medieval Institute.
PAST SPEAKERS
2019
Peter Adamson (Ludwig Maximilians Universitat München), "Don't Think For Yourself: Faith and Authority in Medieval Philosophy"
The lecture videos are available on our YouTube channel:
Lecture 1 "Taqlīd: Authority and the Intellectual Elite in the Islamic World"
video | slides
Lecture 2 "Testing the Prophets: Reason and Medieval Religious Debates"
video | slides
Lecture 3 "The Right to Speak: Women in Byzantine and Latin Christian Philosophy"
video | slides
2018
Niklaus Largier (UC Berkeley), "The Rhetoric of Mysticism"
2017
Susan Rankin (Cambridge), "Manuscripts for Musicians: 750–900"
2016
William J. Courtenay (U Wisconsin–Madison), "Religious Ritual and Prayers for the Dead in the Medieval University of Paris"
Published as Rituals for the Dead: Religion and Community in the Medieval University of Paris (2018)
2015
John V. Fleming (Princeton), "Asceticism and Literature in the Middle Ages"
2014
Alice-Mary Talbot (Dumbarton Oaks), "Varieties of Monastic Experience in Byzantium, 9th–15th Centuries"
Published as Varieties of Monastic Experience in Byzantium, 800-1453 (2019)
2013
Anne D. Hedeman (U Kansas), "Visual Translation and the First French Humanists”
2012
Sylvia Huot (Cambridge), “Giants in Medieval Romance Literature”
Published as Outsiders: The Humanity and Inhumanity of Giants in Medieval French Prose Romance (2016)
2011
Barbara Newman (Northwestern), “Medieval Crossover: Reading the Secular Against the Sacred”
Published as Medieval Crossover: Reading the Secular Against the Sacred (2013)
2010
Roberta Frank (Yale), “Slip Slidin’ Away: The Nimble Leaps of Early Northern Verse”
2009
John Marenbon (Cambridge), “Abelard in Four Dimensions”
Published as Abelard in Four Dimensions: A Twelfth-Century Philosopher in His Context and Ours (2013)
2008
Jonathan Riley-Smith (Cambridge), “The Templars and the Hospitallers as Professed Religious in the Holy Land, 1120-1291”
Published as Templars and Hospitallers as Professed Religious in the Holy Land (2009)
2007
A. C. Spearing (U Virginia), “Medieval Autographies: The 'I' of the Text”
Published as Medieval Autographies: The "I" of the Text (2012)
2006
Beat Brenk (University of Basel), “Our Lady: The Apse and the Icon”
Published as The Apse, The Image, and The Icon: An Historical Perspective of the Apse as a Space for Images (Reichert Verlag, 2010)
2005
Calvin Bower (Notre Dame), “Grasping the Wind: Words for Melodies in South-German Liturgical Music, 800-1200”
2004
Rosamond McKitterick (Cambridge), “Perceptions of the Past in the Early Middle Ages”
Published as Perceptions of the Past in the Early Middle Ages (2006)
2003
Paul Strohm (Columbia), “English Writing and the Pre-Machiavellian Prince”
Published as Politique: Languages of Statecraft between Chaucer and Shakespeare (2005)
2002
Fr. Ulrich Horst (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität), “The Teaching Authority of the Pope”
Published as The Dominicans and the Pope: Papal Teaching Authority in the Medieval and Early Modern Thomist Tradition (2006)
