The Medieval Workshop at UBC

About the Workshop

Since 1971 the Committee for Medieval Studies has sponsored an annual meeting on a topic chosen by the committee. Normally held in the fall, these meetings bring together scholars from across the world. The founders, Richard Unger and Janos Bak, write:

It all started with the idea of inviting Lynn White whom we had met at a MAP meeting. And then, we thought, we could also have his pupil and our friend, Lee Dresdeck, from Western Washington University at Bellingham here. But once we had two people with such interesting topics, we thought why not have a little conference? In those days the question of “new teaching methods” was much debated, so we decided to spend half the time on a round table discussion of curricula—and call it a workshop. (The “teaching” part did not work out too well and was dropped in all later meetings, but the name “workshop” remained.) From there on it was smooth sailing. The first workshop was a great experience in the elegant drawing-room atmosphere of Woodward Library. So for the next year other friends came to mind who might enjoy coming to the Canadian West and sharing their ideas: Ralph Giesey and other students of medieval kingship. And the year after other medievalists thought of other friends, and other topics…

Without ever realizing it, we had established a tradition. At one point we introduced the keynote speaker system […] Within a few years we became well known in Ottawa as well. The meeting has generally been held in the Fall but there have been exceptions. For special occasions such as the joint meeting with the Medieval Academy of America and the Medieval Association of the Pacific, the 20th Workshop was held in the Spring. In the last decade the range of topics has expanded, as has the number of different medievalists involved in the meeting’s organization. Topics have not been limited to the European Middle Ages, with Workshops being held comparing Asia, Europe and the Middle East in the period. The Committee for Medieval Studies expects to continue expanding and extending the meetings to examine issues and topics of importance to medievalists and to a wider public. The titles [of the workshops] reflect the interests of UBC medievalists, but the list of speakers is by now much longer than that of “old classmates”. There are many colleagues and interested laymen in and around Vancouver in whose calendar the [Fall] UBC Workshop is a stable fixture. Some traditions, however, have been abandoned—alas, there are no more profiteroles, where they used to be de rigueur.

Current Workshop

37th Annual Medieval Workshop at the University of British Columbia,
in Honour of Professor Richard W. Unger :

“Measurable Advantages: Transportation, Trade, and Technology between Ancient Rome and the Modern West”

2–3 April 2008

Previous Medieval Workshops

1971 History of Science and Technology

1972 Kingship and Estates in the Middle Ages

1973 Allegory

1974 The Transmission of Classical Culture

1975 Women in the Middle Ages

1976 Relics and Pilgrimages

1977 Late Medieval Burgundy

1978 The Carolingians

1979 St Basil the Great and Byzantine Culture

1980 Vergil in the Middle Ages

1981 Medieval Drama

1982 The Mozarabs and the Interaction of Muslims, Christians and Jews in Medieval Spain

1983 Late Medieval Urban Institutions

1984 Augustine of Hippo

1985 Frankish Life and Society in Greece and the Levant

1986 The Image of the Rusticus

1987 Dynasty in the Middle Ages

1988 Education in Medieval Jewish Society

1989 The Vikings in England

1990 Mutual Images—Medieval Europe and Pre-modern East Asia

1991 Numbers—Theory and Practice

1992

1993 The University in the Middle Ages

1994 Heresy and Heretics in the Middle Ages

1995 The Classics in the Middle Ages

1996 Islam in Europe

1997 History, Apocalypse and the Secular Imagination: An Interdisciplinary Symposium on Augustine’s City of God

1998 Courtesan and Nun in Europe and Japan: The Function of the Woman Writer between Feudal and Courtly Society

1999 The Book Unbound: Manuscript Studies and Editorial Theory for the 21st Century

2000 The Idea of the Empire in the Middle Ages: History, Fiction and Representation

2001 Women and Early Modernity in Europe and Asia

2002 Promised Lands: The Bible, Christian Missions, and Colonial Histories in Latin Christendom from the Late Roman Empire to the European Settlement of North America

2003 Noble Ideals and Bloody Realities: Warfare in the Middle-Ages, 378-1492

2004 Medieval Authorship: Theory and Practice

2005 Cartography in Antiquity and the Middle Ages: Fresh Perspectives, New Methods

2006 The Performance of the Past: History and Histrionics in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages