Medieval History
Plague and Famine: An Interdisciplinary View
I am organizing a session for the 45th International Congress on Medieval Studies to be held from May 13-16, 2010 at Western Michigan University at Kalamazoo on the relationship between plague and famine.
Famines have long been associated with the two great historic plague pandemics: the plague of Justinian (541-c. 750) and the Black Death (14th century onwards). This session seeks papers that examine the interaction between famines and the plague specifically. Considering the two pandemics together opens new areas of research. The role of cattle epizootics adds an interesting third dimension to the environment of plague and famine that prevailed during both plague pandemics. Cattle epizootics, caused by unknown agents, alter human nutrition for years after the epizootic ends.
I am inviting submissions from historians, biologists, archaeologists, anthropologists and others to explore the interaction between plague and nutrition. Understanding plague dynamics will only come by exploring the complex interaction between plague and its environmental context that includes epizootics of domestic animals and human famines.
Submit your proposal and contact information to Michelle Ziegler at [email protected]
- When Newspapers Were New, Or, How Londoners Got Word Of The Plague
Daniel Defoe's novel about London's 1665 plague can help us understand new media. No, really. The plague was abroad. Londoners knew not where it had come from, only that it was upon Holland. "It was brought, some said from Italy, others...
- Medieval Scholars To Visit Bates College For 'hard Times' Conference
Bates College will host the 38th annual New England Medieval Conference beginning at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 22, in Room G65, Pettengill Hall, 4 Andrews Road (Alumni Walk). The theme is "Medieval Miseries: Responses to Hard Times." Conference topics...
- Hunting For A Mass Killer In Medieval Graveyards
Beneath the Royal Mint Court, diagonally across the street from the Tower of London, lie 1,800 mute witnesses to the foresight of the city fathers in the year 1348. Recognizing that the Black Death then scourging Europe would inevitably reach London,...
- Black Death Study Lets Rats Off The Hook
Rats weren't the carriers of the plague after all. A study by an archaeologist looking at the ravages of the Black Death in London, in late 1348 and 1349, has exonerated the most famous animal villains in history. "The evidence just isn't there...
- Ok, More Medievalism Stuff...
....this one from Douglas Rushkoff, "media ecologist" and author of Life, Inc. In this interview via the Reality Sandwich blog, Rushkoff contrasts the "Dark Ages" with what he sees as our corporate dominated future, and finds the Middle Ages were probably...
Medieval History
Plague and Famine: An Interdisciplinary View
Plague and Famine: An Interdisciplinary View
I am organizing a session for the 45th International Congress on Medieval Studies to be held from May 13-16, 2010 at Western Michigan University at Kalamazoo on the relationship between plague and famine.
Famines have long been associated with the two great historic plague pandemics: the plague of Justinian (541-c. 750) and the Black Death (14th century onwards). This session seeks papers that examine the interaction between famines and the plague specifically. Considering the two pandemics together opens new areas of research. The role of cattle epizootics adds an interesting third dimension to the environment of plague and famine that prevailed during both plague pandemics. Cattle epizootics, caused by unknown agents, alter human nutrition for years after the epizootic ends.
I am inviting submissions from historians, biologists, archaeologists, anthropologists and others to explore the interaction between plague and nutrition. Understanding plague dynamics will only come by exploring the complex interaction between plague and its environmental context that includes epizootics of domestic animals and human famines.
Submit your proposal and contact information to Michelle Ziegler at [email protected]
- When Newspapers Were New, Or, How Londoners Got Word Of The Plague
Daniel Defoe's novel about London's 1665 plague can help us understand new media. No, really. The plague was abroad. Londoners knew not where it had come from, only that it was upon Holland. "It was brought, some said from Italy, others...
- Medieval Scholars To Visit Bates College For 'hard Times' Conference
Bates College will host the 38th annual New England Medieval Conference beginning at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 22, in Room G65, Pettengill Hall, 4 Andrews Road (Alumni Walk). The theme is "Medieval Miseries: Responses to Hard Times." Conference topics...
- Hunting For A Mass Killer In Medieval Graveyards
Beneath the Royal Mint Court, diagonally across the street from the Tower of London, lie 1,800 mute witnesses to the foresight of the city fathers in the year 1348. Recognizing that the Black Death then scourging Europe would inevitably reach London,...
- Black Death Study Lets Rats Off The Hook
Rats weren't the carriers of the plague after all. A study by an archaeologist looking at the ravages of the Black Death in London, in late 1348 and 1349, has exonerated the most famous animal villains in history. "The evidence just isn't there...
- Ok, More Medievalism Stuff...
....this one from Douglas Rushkoff, "media ecologist" and author of Life, Inc. In this interview via the Reality Sandwich blog, Rushkoff contrasts the "Dark Ages" with what he sees as our corporate dominated future, and finds the Middle Ages were probably...