Claudia Wittig (CML) blogs about the Summer school on Crossing the Languages of Medieval Europe: What happens when you invite a group of junior medievalists to stay in a villa in Rome for a week? Yes, the answer might include sightseeing, pizza and red wine. However, if you chose carefully and select PhD candidates with a background in different academic fields, various disciplines and languages, and diverging academic projects, you will get a lot more than this. The summer school “Crossing the Languages of Medieval Europe: Historical, Linguistic and Literary Approaches”, organised by the Centre for Medieval Literature in Odense and York, and the Henri Pirenne Institute for Medieval Studies in Ghent, that took place in the Belgian Academy in Rome from June 3nd to 8th, covered such a broad scope. Situated within the beautiful surroundings of Villa Borghese, it provided an excellent frame for PhD students from all over Europe and two universities in the United States for a whole week of intense and fruitful exchange in what is possibly the most charming place for such an enterprise. From the moment of arrival, when walking through the park of Villa Borghese to Belgian Academy in Via Omero, we were surrounded by the protagonists of world literature, looking gravely from their pedestals on the arriving scholars, who were about to spend a week of discussing the medieval foundations of pan-European cultural live. Lengthy discussions had preceded this summer school for the organizers, who had decided to play the role of “more experienced equals” (as Elizabeth Tyler put it in the opening session). The schedule was as multifaceted as the projects of the attendees and keynote speakers (Panagiotis Agapitos, Robert Bartlett, Karla Mallette, and David Wallace). It saw lectures with plenty of time for discussions, tutor-led seminars (guided by Jeroen Deploige, Christian Høgel, Lars Boje Mortensen, Elizabeth Tyler, and Wim Verbaal) and student-led group work. As the lectures opened up for broader themes and approaches, the tutor-led seminars focused more specifically on single concepts and methods, and often included a close reading of relevant sources. The student-led seminars consisted of groups of five to six PhD students and one of the tutors, who gave us leeway in organizing the structure of our group discussions. This way, we could go deep into our respective projects, discuss source material as well as methodological approaches, but most importantly we were urged to broaden our view on our research. The groups were put together so that similarities in the projects would provide some common ground but differences in sources, time frame, and method would encourage each and every attendee to leave their comfort zones and approach their own topics from new angles. A whole week of discussion is exhausting. The organizers took account of this in inserting an excursion to fantastic historical sites around Rome, which even the more regular visitor of the city might not have seen. The visits to the monastery built on the very spot where St. Benedict is said to have gained his spiritual inspirations (Subiaco), and to the ruins of the once splendid Hadrian’s Villa were a welcome interruption, while remaining within the umbrella concept of multifaceted approaches to the Middle Ages. Personally, I profited particularly from the nonbiased points of view taken by other participants, who came from very different backgrounds. They frequently challenged my ideas, or just asked unexpected questions. The opportunity to explain my approaches to others lead to a better awareness of unspoken assumptions in my work, that need addressing or questioning. The diversity of topics dealt with enabled all of us to regard our work as contributions to a better understanding of cultural exchange in a period that cannot adequately be described from the perspective of national cultural narrative.
Posted on: Mon, 24 Jun 2013 11:59:43 +0000
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