Old English Newsletter

ISAS 2005: Munich

Professor Hans Sauer and the Department of English and American Studies at the University of Munich hosted the Twelfth Biennial Meeting of the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists at the Amerikahaus in Munich. Some sixty-one speakers presented their work in twenty-six sessions, including several project reports and three plenary speakers. Many of the papers dealt with the conference theme of "England and the Continent," as did the keynote lectures, Helmut Gneuss on "Anglo-Saxon Studies: Past, present and Future," Joyce Hill on "An Anglo-Saxon and the Continent: The Elevation of Bede's Authority" and John Hines on "No Place Like Home? The Social Landscape of Anglo-Saxon England in a Continental Perspective." Reports were given on the following projects: The Production and Use of English Manuscripts 1060-1220 (Elaine Treharne, Mary Swan and Orietta Da Rold), An Inventory of Script Categories and Spellings in Eleventh-Century English (Donald G. Scragg and Kathryn Powell), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in Microfiche Facsimile (A.N. Doane), Anglo-Saxon England ca. 570-720: The Chronological Basis (John Hines), The Alfredian Boethius (Malcolm Godden and Susan Irvine), The Face of the Text: The Dictionary of Old English (Antonette diPaolo Healey), The Visionary Cross (Catherine Karkov, Martin Foys, Daniel O'Donnell), Bodleian Digital Texts Series (Bernard Muir). A mid-week excursion to Regensburg afforded those attending a welcome break from an intense and fast-paced program of sessions. Receptions were hosted by Professor Sauer at the Augustiner in the city centre, and by the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek at the opening of the Manuscript Exhibition Angelsächsisches Erbe in München / Anglo-Saxon Heritage in Munich. The conference dinner was a splendid affair held at the Vinorant, Alter Hof 3, in downtown Munich. Professor Sauer and his fellow-organizers were duly honored, and a newly discovered cache of Anglo-Saxon manuscript fragments bearing inscriptions to the outgoing ISAS officers were presented to those in attendance.

The Advisory Board met several times to select new officers, implement the new election procedures for the Advisory Board elections, and consider the business of the society. Nicholas Brooks, Joyce Hill, Kevin Kiernan, and Joseph B. Trahern, Jr. were accorded honorary memberships. Mary Swan was elected to a four-year term as Second Vice-President, replacing Elaine Treharne in that office. Following the guidelines of the ISAS Constitution, the membership had been solicited prior to the conference for nominations to the Advisory Board. The Board then produced six further nominations, two for each soon-to-be vacant seat. The ballot was subsequently distributed by mail and e-mail to all members of the society. Effective January 1, 2006, the officers of ISAS are:

President: Jane Roberts, University of London
First Vice-President: William Schipper, Memorial University
Second Vice-President: Mary Swan, University of Leeds
Executive Director: David F. Johnson, Florida State University

Advisory Board:

Mary Blockley, University of Texas at Austin
Rolf H. Bremmer, Jr., University of Leiden
Thomas N. Hall, University of Illinois at Chicago
John Hines, Cardiff University
Susan Irvine, University College, London
éamonn Ó Carragain, National University of Ireland
Jo Story, University of Leicester
Leslie Webster, The British Museum
Barbara Yorke, King Alfred's College
Malcolm Godden, University of Oxford, Ed. Anglo-Saxon England
Antonette diPaolo Healey, University of Toronto, Ed. Dictionary of Old English
Roy Liuzza, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Ed. Old English Newsletter

Advisory Board members whose terms ended December 31, 2006 are Nicholas Howe and Leena Kahlas-Tarkka.

ISAS 2007

The 2007 ISAS meeting will be held at the University of London, 30 July–4 August, hosted by the School of Advanced Studies, The conference theme is "Anglo-Saxon Traces: Her mon mæg giet gesion hiora swæð." In London there are many reminders of Anglo-Saxon England, in our streets, libraries, and museums. The conference will center on remembering and celebrating England's Anglo-Saxon past. Above all we aim to focus on the Anglo-Saxon understanding of the physical environment as reflected in its settlements, buildings and artefacts, its books and manuscripts, luxury and everyday objects. We are proposing strands which will address wealth and status; sense of place; buildings (their uses and their relationship to the material remains of the pre-Anglo-Saxon past); rural and urban settlement, and trade; writing and manuscripts; liturgy and worship. With these themes in mind, we look for a fully interdisciplinary conference with a strong evidential focus, and we particularly hope for contributions with this approach from literary and linguistic specialists, historians, art historians, numismatists, archaeologists, and liturgists, seeking to examine common (and not so common) ground.

Call for papers

The deadline is 15 October 2006, with late submissions accepted until 31 October. Abstracts (500 words in length), should be submitted electronically at http://link.library.utoronto.ca/isas/conference/. (Please contact Jane Roberts at jane.roberts@kcl.ac.uk if electronic submission poses a problem.) You must be a member to submit an abstract; for details on how to become a member, see below.

ISAS 2009

One bid to organize the Biennial Conference in 2009 was presented to the Board in Munich, and the venue for the 2009 conference will be Memorial University, Newfoundland. The theme for the conference will be, provisionally, "Navigating New Worlds: Anglo-Saxon England and the Atlantic." For preliminary information, contact Professor William Schipper, Department of English, Memorial University, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada, A1E 1K1, e-mail schipper@mun.can.

Publications and Awards

The Advisory Board established procedures for the publication of themed volumes arising substantially from ISAS conferences. The first, edited by Matti Kilpio, will be based on the 2001 conference at the University of Helsinki; the second, to be edited by Nicholas Howe and Catherine Karkov, will be based on the 2003 conference at Arizona State University. The third, to be edited by Hans Sauer and Joanna Story will be based on the 2005 conference at the University of Munich. The ISAS Executive Committee will oversee and monitor the production of the volumes.

Jonathan Wilcox, Chair of the Publications Prize Committee, reported on the Advisory Board's recommendation for the publication prizes, 2003-2005. The prizes were awarded at the General Meeting:

the prize for best article was won by Stacy Klein for "Reading Queenship in Cynewulf's Elene," Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 33.1 (Winter 2003): 67-89.
the prize for best first book was shared by Andrew P. Scheil, The Footsteps of Israel: Understanding Jews in Anglo-Saxon England (University of Michigan Press, 2004) and Joanna Story, Carolingian Connections: Anglo-Saxon England and Carolingian Francia, c. 750-870 (Ashgate, 2003).
the prize for best scholarly edition was shared by Rosalind Love, Goscelin of Saint-Bertin: The Hagiography of the Female Saints of Ely (Oxford University Press, 2004) and Martin K. Foys, The Bayeux Tapestry: Digital Edition (Scholarly Digital Editions, 2003).

Members can submit publications for 2005-2007, in any language, for consideration to the Executive Director. Elaine Treharne will chair the Publications Prize Committee for 2007.

ISAS dues are $50 or £30 sterling for a two-year membership ($35 or £20 sterling for students and retired members); to join ISAS, send dues to the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists, along with professional name, title, e-mail, and correct address (no more than six lines) to:

Professor David F. Johnson
Executive Director, ISAS
Dept. of English
Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL 32306
USA
e-mail djohnson@english.fsu.edu

For further details about the Society, visit the ISAS website at http://www.ISAS.us.

Except where noted, photos below appear courtesy of Chad Olm Photography, Glasgow, Scotland, http://chadolmphoto.com.