Al-Idrisi's world map, oriented with the south at the top, ca. 1553 C.E./960 H, Bodleian Library, MS Pococke 375 (courtesy of Assistant Professor Bilal Ibrahim).
Late Antique-Medieval-Early Modern Faculty Working Group (LAMEM)
LAMEM Fall 2022 Colloquia
The Late Antique-Medieval-Early Modern Faculty Working Group at Brooklyn College presents their fall 2022 colloquia:
- Wednesday, September 7: Free Choice and Reason: On Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy
- Thursday, October 13: Despotics: Elite Slavery, Domination, and Classical Literature as Archive of Slavery
- Wednesday, October 26: Poetry, Piety, and the Islamic Self in the Medieval Persian World
- Thursday, November 10: On the Nature of Grace and the Grace of Nature: Mystical and Philosophical Theology in the German Dominican School
- Wednesday, December 7: So Tender and Round: Race and Sensation in Medieval Religious Allegory
Events will be held on Zoom and in-person. Students and faculty are welcome.
Why 2021 Hess Scholar-in-Residence Lisa Lowe Ph.D. Thinks Studying Premodernity is Important. Watch the full video: Before 1492: Comparative Premodern Colonialisms (Hess 2021-22).
From a LAMEM event recorded on Friday, September 17, 2021, where six professors (Profs. Arlig, Ball, Mancia, Meyer, Sowers, and Steel) discuss why the study of the premodern is important for students today.
Contact Information
If you are a student or scholar interested in attending LAMEM events, or if you are a faculty member, professor, or graduate student interested in presenting, please contact:
Lauren Mancia, Professor, Department of History
Email: laurenmancia@brooklyn.cuny.edu
Phone: 718.951.5000 x2810
Though it has no formal interdisciplinary program for the study of the late antique, medieval, and early modern world, Brooklyn College's School of Humanities and Social Sciences has a stellar collection of faculty studying the world before 1700 from many different angles. Thus, in spring 2014, several faculty members founded the Late-Antique-Medieval-Early-Modern faculty working group (LAMEM). Since then, LAMEM has met monthly each semester in the Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall) at Brooklyn College. So far, between spring 2014 and fall 2018, 43 papers have been given by 23 different faculty members from eight different departments around the School of Humanities and Social Sciences (History, English, Art History, Judaic Studies, Modern Languages and Literatures, Islamic Studies, Classics, and Philosophy).
LAMEM meetings give faculty members and graduate students a space to share their scholarship-in-progress with a welcoming audience of fellow faculty, alumni, undergraduates and graduate students from around Brooklyn College. Because of LAMEM, HSS faculty members and advanced graduate students have a space to share their scholarly work during the semester, as well as a chance to discuss pedagogical issues that arise when teaching courses on premodern literature, culture, religion, history, art, language, and thought. The connectedness fostered through LAMEM has even encouraged team-teaching and scholarly collaboration between LAMEM-affiliated faculty; and the feedback given to LAMEM presenters has aided their presentations in becoming conference paper, published articles, or books. LAMEM has also recently begun to invite scholars visiting Brooklyn College, CUNY, or the New York-area to participate and present in our colloquia.
For Brooklyn College students, LAMEM has served as a model on what true interdisciplinary scholarly collaboration in the humanities can look like. Meetings are open to students of any major or minor interested in listening to faculty members and advanced students share their works-in-progress, and to contribute to the collegial, expert discussion that follows the research presentation. Often, students taking premodern courses drop in during their semesters, since LAMEM presentations often further enrich a premodern course's curriculum; sometimes, students like the atmosphere so much that they attend LAMEM meetings regularly (or even end up going to graduate school to study medieval history!). By student demand, LAMEM has begun to publish a list of LAMEM-related courses being taught by LAMEM faculty at Brooklyn College, so students can delve deeper into topics that spark their interest in LAMEM colloquia.
For more information on the kinds of talks LAMEM has held in the past, the faculty members affiliated with the LAMEM working group, or the courses you can take at Brooklyn College in this area, see the sidebar of our homepage.
