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ISAS 2007: London

 

Professor Jane Roberts of the Institute for English Studies, University of London, hosted the Thirteenth Biennial Meeting of the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists at the IES, Senate House, London. Some 43 speakers presented their work in 14 sessions, including several project reports and two plenary speakers. Many of the papers dealt with the conference theme of "Anglo-Saxon Traces: Her mon mæg giet gesion heora swæð," as did the keynote lectures: Anton Scharer on "Objects of Royal Representation (in England and on the Continent)" and Julia Crick on "Script and the Sense of the Past in pre-Conquest England." Reports were given on the following projects: The Old English Newsletter Online: Present State and Future Plans (Roy M. Liuzza), The Lexis of Cloth and Clothing in Britain c. 700-1450: origins, identification, contexts and change (Gale R. Owen-Crocker, Louise Sylvester and Stuart Rutten), "Leornungcræft:" Manuscripts and Texts used for Instruction in Anglo-Saxon England (Patrizia Lendinara, Loredana Teresi, Concetta Giliberto and Filippa Alcamesi), Early English Laws (Bruce O'Brien), The Alfredian Boethius Project (Susan Irvine and Rohini Jayatilaka) and PASE: The Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England (Stephen Baxter). Stuart Lee gave a presentation on the work of the Lynne Grundy Trust. A mid-week excursion to Sutton Hoo, guided by Lesley Webster, James Graham-Campbell and Angela Evans, allowed participants to see some of the most powerful Anglo-Saxon traces. Receptions were hosted the IES and the Institute for Historical Research, the British Library and, at Lambeth Palace, participants enjoyed a reception and an exhibition of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts curated by Professor Roberts, Michelle Brown and David Ganz. The conference dinner was a held at King's College London, with a reception sponsored by the Centre for Late Antique and Medieval Studies and the Departments of English and History, King's College London. Professor Roberts and her fellow-organizers were duly honored, and the after-dinner speech delivered by David Johnson, "Mucking about in the Marshes: Alfred in Dialogue," followed the traces of Anglo-Saxons and Anglo-Saxonists with a report on a 'newly discovered' Visio Alfredi, a text that addresses Alfred's advisers, 'with past events being revealed in the future and future events finding their uncanny counterparts in the past.'

The Advisory Board met several times to select new officers and a new Executive Director to take over when David Johnson's term of office ends on 31 December 2007, to implement the election procedures for the Advisory Board elections, and to consider the business of the society. Margaret Clunies-Ross, Alger N. Doane, Michael Lapidge, Richard Pfaff and Leslie Webster were accorded honorary memberships. Stacy Klein was selected as the new Executive Director. The ballot for new Advisory Board members will be distributed by mail and e-mail to all members of the society. One bid to organize the Biennial Conference in 2011 was presented to the Board, and the venue for the 2011 conference will be Wisconsin-Madison. The theme for the conference will be "Anglo-Saxon England and the Visual Imagination."

Effective January 1, 2008, the officers of ISAS are:

  • President: William Schipper, Memorial University
  • First Vice-President: John Niles, University of Wisconsin-Madison
  • Second Vice-President: Mary Swan, University of Leeds
  • Executive Director: Stacy Klein, Rutgers 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, Oxford University, Ed. Anglo-Saxon England
  • Antonette diPaolo Healey, University of Toronto, Ed. Dictionary of Old English
  • Roy Liuzza, University of Tennessee, Ed. Old English Newsletter

* Term expires December 31, 2007. Newly elected members TBA

The Advisory Board established procedures for the publication of themed volumes arising substantially from ISAS meetings. The first, edited by Matti Kilpio, will be based on the 2001 meeting at the University of Helsinki; the second, edited by Nicholas Howe and Catherine Karkov, is based on the 2003 meeting at Arizona State University and was published in 2006. The third, to be edited by Hans Sauer and Joanna Story, will be based on the 2005 meeting at the University of Munich. The fourth, to be edited by Jane Roberts and Lesley Webster, will be based on the 2007 meeting in London. The Executive Committee will oversee and monitor the production of the volumes.

Elaine Treharne, Chair of the Publication Prizes Committee, reported on the Advisory Board's recommendation for the publication prizes, 2005-2007. The prizes were awarded at the General Meeting:

  • the prize for best article was won by Joyce Hill for 'Authority and Intertextuality in the Works of Ælfric', Proceedings of the British Academy, 131 (2005), 157-81 [The Sir Israel Gollancz Memorial Lecture for 2004]
  • the prize for best first book was shared by Martin Foys, Virtually Anglo-Saxon (University Press of Florida, 2007) and Daniel Anlezark, Water and fire: The myth of the Flood in Anglo-Saxon England (Manchester UP, 2006).
  • the prize for best scholarly edition or translation was won by Scott DeGregorio, translation, Bede In Ezram (Liverpool UP, 2005).

Members can submit items published in the calendar years 2007-2009, in any language, for consideration to the Executive Director. Tom Hall will chair the Committee for 2009.

 

ISAS 2009

The 2009 ISAS meeting will be held at Memorial University, Newfoundland, July 27-August 1, 2009, hosted by William Schipper. The conference theme is "The Maritime World of the Anglo-Saxons."

Call for papers

The deadline for submission of abstracts is 15 September 2008, with late submissions accepted until 15 October, 2008. Abstracts (maximum length 500 words), on the special theme or a general topics, should be submitted electronically at http://link.library.utoronto.ca/isas/conference/ (Please contact William Schipper at schipper@mun.ca if electronic submission poses a problem.) You must be a member of ISAS to submit an abstract. For details on how to become a member, see http://www.isas.us, or contact Stacy S. Klein, Executive Director of ISAS, at ssklein@rci.rutgers.edu.

Conference Location and Excursions

The conference will be held at Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Newfoundland. The mid-conference excursions will consist of visits to the seventeenth-century English settlements at Ferryland and Cupids, with bird, whale and iceberg excursions as part of the trip. The post-conference excursion will be to the Viking-Age Icelandic and Greenland outpost of L'Anse-aux-Meadows, on the Great Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland, with extra trips to the medieval Basque whaling site at Red Bay, Labrador, and the eighteenth-century English fishing village of Trinity. In addition we are planning a stop at Gros Morne National Park, which boasts the only fresh-water fjord in the world. Because accommodation is limited for the post-conference excursion, we will be asking for an expression of interest be made no later than March 31, 2008, and that a deposit be made no later than May 1, 2008. The trip will likely last three days with two overnight stays.

 

ISAS 2011

The 2011 ISAS meeting will be held at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The conference theme is "Anglo-Saxon England and the Visual Imagination." For preliminary information, contact:

Prof. John D. Niles

Department of English

University of Wisconsin-Madison

7187 Helen C. White Hall

600 N. Park Street

Madison, WI 53706 USA

e-mail: jdniles@wisc.edu

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

Prof. Stacy S. Klein

Executive Director, ISAS

Dept. of English

Rutgers University

510 George Street

New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1167 USA

e-mail: ssklein@rci.rutgers.edu

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

Photos from the 2007 meeting in London (courtesy of Sarah Higley and others):

Matti Kilpiö, Patrick Conner, Sharon Rowley

John Niles, Patrizia Lendinara, Claudia di Sciacca

Mary Clayton, Don Scragg

Carole Neumann de Vegvar, the Franks Casket

Hal Momma, Debbie Banham

Marilina Cesario, Gale Owen-Crocker

R.M. Liuzza (pontificating), Robin Norris (feigning interest)

Stuart Lee, Dan O'Donnell