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Identity and the Environment in pre-modern Race-craft

An Interactive Workshop by Dr. Molly Jones-Lewis

Location

Performing Arts & Humanities Building : 441

Date & Time

March 11, 2024, 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

Description

The world before the Atlantic slave trade was one of great diversity, cooperation, and conflict where people negotiated complicated webs of identity and belonging. It was also one with several models for race - a process of categorizing people into groups with differing levels of inclusion and exclusion. A particularly durable idea, present from the 6th century BCE and dominant into the early modern period, is that of environmental determinism: people are shaped by the land they inhabit and external conditions create human difference. In this workshop, led by Dr. Molly Jones-Lewis of Ancient Studies, participants will explore this early form of "scientific" racecraft and its legacy and think through the ways we still map people into the landscape.

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Game Night! - CANCELED

Location

Performing Arts & Humanities Building : 246

Date & Time

May 9, 2023, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Description

Due to family emergency, this game night is canceled and will be rescheduled.

Want to play theme-appropriate strategy games like Carcassonne, mingle with fellow MEMS-aficionados, and eat pizza?
Come to our game night and learn about the minor and get to know our small but enthusiastic community.

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An Early Modern Salon

Location

Earl and Darielle Linehan Concert Hall

Date & Time

May 5, 2023, 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm

Description

Come to our loose interpretation of an early modern salon! Leave your concert-going expectations at the door. This quasi-theatrical event puts the audience and the performers in conversation and in close proximity, as would have occurred during a meeting of a musical society in seventeenth-century Tuscany. Written by MEMS students and performed by members of Collegium, this collaboration will be an evening to remember!

Reception to follow.

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History Behind Henry V at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company

Masculinity, Warfare and the State, with Dr. Froide

Location

Off Campus

Date & Time

May 1, 2022, 1:15 pm – 2:00 pm

Description

Chesapeake Shakespeare Company is very excited to host Masculinity, Warfare, & the State: The History behind Henry V on Sunday, May 1, at 1:15 pm.  This pre-show discussion is free and followed by a performance at 2 pm of Shakespeare's "Henry V."  Dr. Amy Froide will lead a discussion on some of the real people and events that appear in Shakespeare's text.  These include the Hundred Year's War between England and France, the role of the English yeomen and their weaponry at the battle of Agincourt, emerging English nationalism, and the popular idea of the 'warrior king' who leads his men into battle. This is an ideal that still holds resonance today and can be seen in the media's portrayal of President Zelensky during the present Russia-Ukraine War.
The theater is offering UMBC faculty and students $24 (half price) seats for the performance.  You can reserve seats online at chesapeakeshakespeare.com or by calling the box office at 410-244-8570 and using the code H5student.  This is an in-person event--you will need to bring proof of vaccination and wear a mask.  Chesapeake Shakespeare Company is located at 7 South Calvert Street Baltimore, MD 21202.

ONLINE PURCHASING INSTRUCTIONS FROM CHESAPEAKE SHAKESPEARE'S BOX OFFICE:
Once you have selected which section you would like to sit in from Orchestra or 1st Mezzanine, choose your seat from the BASIC price level (or the green colored seats online).  This will add them to your cart.  You will then select if you want your tickets emailed to you, or if you prefer to have them held at will-call.  Then you click NEXT.  On the following screen, you will enter your discount code H5student.  This will apply the discount and unlock the $24 ticket price.  You then complete the remaining personal information and payment on the final screen.  

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Mini-MEMS Lunch and Learn: Sex workers, But No Sex

Prostitutes, Notaries, and the Communities They Built

Location

Online

Date & Time

March 17, 2022, 12:15 pm – 12:45 pm

Description

This presentation, with Professor Susan McDonough, brings together two Mediterranean institutions, legalized prostitution and the notariat, to explore how the region's sex workers collaborated with notaries to establish their belonging within their communities.  Despite the social stigma surrounding prostitution and legal limitations on prostitutes' movements, prostitution was both legal and widespread in the Northern Mediterranean.  Equally widespread was the use of notaries: people in the Northern Mediterranean relied on notaries to document their debts, procuratorships, business arrangements, and final wishes.  Dr. McDonough will share some notarial documents from different Mediterranean archives and we can think together about what they suggest about sex workers' enmeshment in their communities.

Event Registration

4 people registered
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Did You Know the Aeneid Has a Sequel? Renaissance Addendum!

Mini-MEMS Lunch and Learn February 23 at 12:15 on WebEx

Location

Online

Date & Time

February 23, 2022, 12:15 pm – 1:00 pm

Description

Professor Timothy Phin, Ancient Studies, leads our newest online installment of the Mini-MEMS Lunch and Learns on February 23 from 12:15-12:45 PM on WebEx:
Modern students of Latin have often felt that the 12th book of the Aeneid ends on an abrupt note.  Maffeo Vegio, a poet of the 15th century, agreed.  He penned an addendum to Vergil's poem, "completing" the work, and securing for himself quite a bit of fame.  This talk is an exploration of the Aeneid's "future." We will look at Vegio's work, his life, and the fervor for Vergil in the Renaissance.

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Did You Know the Aeneid Has a Sequel? Renaissance Addendum!

Mini-MEMS Lunch and Learn December 1, 12:15 on WebEx

Location

Online

Date & Time

December 1, 2021, 12:15 pm – 12:45 pm – Canceled

Description

Professor Timothy Phin, Ancient Studies, leads our newest online installment of the Mini-MEMS Lunch and Learns on December 1 at 12:15 on Webex:
Modern students of Latin have often felt that the 12th book of the Aeneid ends on an abrupt note.  Maffeo Vegio, a poet of the 15th century, agreed.  He penned an addendum to Vergil's poem, "completing" the work, and securing for himself quite a bit of fame.  This talk is an exploration of the Aeneid's "future." We will look at Vegio's work, his life, and the fervor for Vergil in the Renaissance.

Event Registration

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Law and Order in Ancient Rome and Beyond

A return of Mini-MEMS Lunch and Learns!

Location

Online

Date & Time

November 1, 2021, 12:15 pm – 12:45 pm

Description

Mini-MEMS Lunch and Learns are chances for the professors working with the Medieval and Early Modern Studies minors to informally share their work through a brief presentation and Q and A.  Our first Lunch and Learn of the school year will be led by Dr. Molly Jones-Lewis in Ancient Studies.

Law & Order in Ancient Rome and Beyond
You probably know that Roman Law formed the basis for modern European law, but what was that law like? How do we know what it was, and what can it tell us about law today? This will be a crash course in the way Romans tried to regulate their society with an interactive hypothetical case that we'll work through together. Be prepared for traffic drama, murderous barbers, and sketchy doctors with questionable business models!

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Mini-MEMS Lunch and Learn

Imagined Beauty in the Venetian Ospedali Grandi

Location

Online

Date & Time

May 5, 2021, 12:15 pm – 12:45 pm

Description

Dr. Maust, UMBC Department of Music, will share her research in-progress in this final Mini-MEMS Lunch and Learn of the semester.
Eighteenth-century tourists flocked to Venice's four renowned institutions for orphans and foundlings, the Ospedali Grandi, to experience music-making by the infamous figlie del coro.  Many penned accounts praising the women's virtuosic mastery of demanding instrumental and vocal repertoire, declaring them among the best musicians in Western Europe.  The women performed behind a lattice screen, which left them shrouded in mystery and resulted in fantastical accounts that imagined them to be beautiful, young virgins.  In a rare first-hand meeting with the figlie del coro in 1743, Jean-Jacques Rousseau was horrified to discover that the musicians serenading him were mature women aged 21-60, and many were physically deformed, scarred from illness, and otherwise unattractive to him.  Struggling to rectify the women's enchanting musical performance with their overwhelming physical "flaws," Rousseau eventually resolved that the women's intellectual wit and musical prowess rendered them sufficiently attractive to him. This presentation theorizes eighteenth-century female "ugliness" as a social disability and evaluates the complex intersection of physical disability with female musical virtuosity and enfreakment.  

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MEMS Colloquium: "Listeners as Players, Music As Play"

Presented by Dr. Elizabeth Randell Upton (UCLA)

Location

Online

Date & Time

April 7, 2021, 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Description

The Medieval and Early Modern Studies minor of UMBC's Department of History hosts Dr. Elizabeth Randell Upton, an Associate Professor of Musicology at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music.  Dr. Randell Upton's primary research area is medieval music. Her recent work examines late fourteenth and early fifteenth century vocal music to discover evidence for the experiences of performers and listeners in the medieval past, recorded in surviving musical notation.  
Join us on Zoom for her lecture: "Listeners as Players, Music as Play."  
For questions or further information, contact Laurel Bassett: lburgg1@umbc.edu.

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