Colloquia Schedule and Archive
Spring 2025 Colloquium
Join us at this spring’s LAMEM Colloquium. All students and faculty are welcome.
Events Archive
Fall 2024
View Fall 2024 Schedule
Spring 2024
View Spring 2024 Schedule
Fall 2023
View Fall 2023 Schedule
From Richard de Fournival, “Bestiare d’Amours,” BnF fr. 12148, 14th century manuscript (connected to Prof. Steel’s talk)
Fall 2022
The Late Antique-Medieval-Early Modern Faculty Working Group at Brooklyn College presents the fall 2022 colloquia.
Wednesday, September 7, 5 p.m., in-person, 2405 Boylan Hall
Free Choice and Reason: On Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy
Karl Steel, Brooklyn College (English)
Thursday, October 13, 12:30 p.m., in-person, 2405 Boylan Hall
Despotics: Elite Slavery, Domination, and Classical Literature as Archive of Slavery
Joe Howley, Columbia (Classics)
Wednesday, October 26, 5 p.m., in-person, 411 Library
Poetry, Piety, and the Islamic Self in the Medieval Persian World
Ali Noori, Ph.D. candidate, University of Pennsylvania (Religion)
*Brooklyn College Religion adjunct*/City College alumnus
Thursday, November 10, 5 p.m., Zoom
On the Nature of Grace and the Grace of Nature: Mystical and Philosophical Theology in the German Dominican School
Sam Baudinette, Ph.D. candidate, University of Chicago (Philosophy)
Wednesday, December 7, 5 p.m., Zoom
So Tender and Round: Race and Sensation in Medieval Religious Allegory
Shona Adler, Ph.D. candidate, University of Pennsylvania (English)
Brooklyn College alumna
More Information
Contact Lauren Mancia or Karl Steel for the Zoom links/with questions. All students and faculty are welcome.
Christ Pantocrator mosaic from Hagia Sophia, 12th or 13th century
Spring 2022
The Late Antique-Medieval-Early Modern Faculty Working Group at Brooklyn College presents the spring 2022 colloquia.
Events will be held on Zoom and in-person.
Students and faculty are welcome.
For more information, including Zoom links, contact Lauren Mancia.
Friday, February 18, Noon, Zoom
LAMEM community kick-off!
Come share what you’re working on and float ideas in informal community. The LAMEM community, students, and faculty welcome.
Friday, March 11, Noon, Costas Library, 2405 Boylan Hall
Word Beyond Speech: The Transformation of Logos in the Christos Paschon
Julia Paré, Ph.D. student, Department of Classics, Princeton
and Brooklyn College alumna!
Monday, April 11, 5 p.m., Costas Library, 2405 Boylan Hall
Retelling the History of Medieval Philosophy
Andrew Arlig, Department of Philosophy
Christina Van Dyke, Visiting Professor of Philosophy, Barnard College
Friday, May 6, Noon, Costas Library, 2405 Boylan Hall
Selective Kinship at Saint-Louis de Poissy: The Sculptural Group of Ling Louis IX & His Family
Sarah Celentano, Ph.D. in Art History, Brooklyn College Foundation
More Information
For more information, including Zoom links, contact Lauren Mancia.
“Dionysus Cup” from 540-530 BCE, Exekias, from Staatliche Antikensammlungen in Munich
Fall 2021
The Late Antique-Medieval-Early Modern Faculty Working Group at Brooklyn College presents the fall 2021 colloquia.
All events will be held on Zoom.
Students and faculty are welcome.
Note: Zoom links will be available a week before the LAMEM event.
Friday, September 17, 12:30 p.m.
What is LAMEM? What is “ancient”? What is “medieval”? What is “premodern”? A Roundtable
Professor Lauren Mancia (History)
Professor Andrew Meyer (History)
Professor Jenn Ball (Art)
Professor Andrew Arlig (Philosophy)
Professor Brian Sowers (Classics)
Professor Karl Steel (English)
Thursday, October 7, 5 p.m.
Black Dionysius
Professor Philip Thibodeau (Classics)
Thursday, October 28, 9:30-10:45 a.m.
Before 1492: Comparative Premodern Colonialisms (part of the Hess Scholar in Residence series)
Professor Lisa Lowe (Yale, American Studies)
Professor Lynda Day (Africana Studies)
Professor Jason Frydman (English)
Professor Liv Yarrow (Classics)
Professor Hyunhee Park (History, John Jay)
Thursday, November 18, 4:15 p.m.
South Atlantic Rivalries: Dutch and Portuguese Involvement in the African Slave Trade in the Seventeenth Century
Professor Chris Ebert (History)
Professor Thiago Krause (History, Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
Tuesday, November 30, 9:30 a.m.
The Story of Silence: An LGBTQ Chivalric Tale
Alex Myers (historical fiction writer and transgender advocate)
Thursday, December 2, 5 p.m.
Imperfect God, Perfect Torah: Putting Rabbinic Theology Back in Dialogue with Plato
Professor David Brodsky (Judaic Studies)
More Information
For more information, including Zoom links, contact Professor Lauren Mancia.
A printed edition of Boccaccio’s Decameron (1492).
Spring 2021
The Late Antique-Medieval-Early Modern Faculty Working Group at Brooklyn College presents the spring 2021 colloquia.
All events will be held on Zoom.
Students and faculty are welcome.
Note: Zoom links will be available a week before the LAMEM event.
Tuesday, February 9, 5:30 p.m.
Medieval Scholarship, Cultural Identity and Jewish Disaffiliation: Erich Auerbach Reading Dante in National Socialist Germany
Professor Marty Elsky (English)
Wednesday, February 24, 5:30 p.m.
On Waiting in The Decameron and Medieval Literature
Prof. David Brodsky (Judaic Studies) and Friends
Prof. Nicola Masciandaro (English)
Thursday, March 25, 5 p.m.
On Gender in the Middle Ages
Sara McDougall (John Jay/GC/History)
Janine Peterson (Marist/History)
Andrew Romig (NYU/History)
Wednesday, April 14, 5 p.m.
On Ecology, Animals, and Eschatology
Professor Andrew Arlig (Philosophy)
Professor Karl Steel (English)
Wednesday, May 5, 5 p.m.
You Can’t Hurry Love: Medieval Christian Devotion
Professor Christina Van Dyke (Philosophy/Calvin College)
Professor Lauren Mancia (History)
More Information
For more information, including Zoom links, contact Professor Lauren Mancia.
From Joseph ben Gorion’s The Most Wonderful and Deplorable History of the Latter Times of the Jews (1662)
Fall 2020
The Late Antique-Medieval-Early Modern Faculty Working Group at Brooklyn College presents the fall 2020 colloquia.
All events will be held on Zoom.
Students and faculty are welcome.
Note: Zoom links will be available a week before the LAMEM event.
Tuesday, September 22, 12:30–2 p.m.
Thinking Within the Lines: Some Medieval Islamic Views on Permissible and Heretical Interpretations of Scripture
Andrew Arlig, Department of Philosophy, Brooklyn College
Thursday, October 8, 3:40–4:55 p.m.
Shimmering Contraries: Medieval Grammar and the Rise of Race and Racism
Cord Whitaker, Department of English, Wellesley College
Thursday, October 29, 5 p.m.
Research Perspectives in Late Latin Poetry
Brian Sowers, Department of Classics, Brooklyn College
Monday, November 9, 5 p.m.
Bodies Besieged: Early Modern Plague Literature and the Destruction of Jerusalem
Vanita Neelakanta, Department of English, Rider University
Monday, November 23, 5:30 p.m.
Monks Learning to be Priests: Bodies, Texts, and Educational Boundaries in the 12th Century
Jay Diehl, Department of History, Long Island University
More Information
For more information, including Zoom links, contact Professor Lauren Mancia.
The formal enclosure of an anchoress in her cell by a bishop from a 15th century pontifical
Spring 2020
The Late Antique-Medieval-Early Modern Faculty Working Group at Brooklyn College presents the spring 2020 colloquia.
Students and faculty are welcome.
Thursday February 27, 5 p.m.
Heresy & Inquisition in the Writings of Julian of Norwich
Laurence Bond, ’17, Ph.D. student, Johns Hopkins University
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
Tuesday, March 3, 5 p.m.
The Queen of Sheba’s Hairy Legs in Early Medieval Jewish Texts
Jillian Stinchcomb, Ph.D. candidate, University of Pennsylvania
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
Monday, March 16, 5 p.m.
Unholy Ghosts: Catholic Specters in English Protestant Retellings of Jerusalem’s Destruction
Vanita Neelakanta, Department of English, Rider University
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
Monday, April 6, 5 p.m.
Monks Learning to Be Priests: Bodies, Texts, and Educational Boundaries in the 12th Century
Jay Diehl, Department of History, Long Island University
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
Thursday, April 30, 5 p.m.
God Has Made Us His Caliphs: Our Obligations to Created Things According to Some Medieval Islamic Thinkers
Andrew Arlig, Department of Philosophy, Brooklyn College
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
More Information
For more information, e-mail Professor Lauren Mancia.
Catacomb of Priscilla, Rome
Fall 2019
The Late Antique-Medieval-Early Modern Faculty Working Group at Brooklyn College presents the fall 2019 colloquia.
Students and faculty are welcome.
Monday, September 16, 5:30 p.m.
The Faces of Cao Gui: Fact and Meaning in the Historiography of the Warring States and Former Han
Andrew Meyer, Department of History, Brooklyn College
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
Tuesday, October 29, 5 p.m.
Christianizing Euripides or Euripidizing Christianity: The Christus Patiens
Katherine Hsu and Brian Sowers, Department of Classics, Brooklyn College
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
Monday, November 4, 5 p.m.
Utter Joy: The Politics of Religious Affect from Reformation to Revolutionary England
Stephen Spencer, Department of English, CUNY Graduate Center
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
Tuesday, December 3, 12:30 p.m.
World War I, the New World Order, and the Invention of Renaissance Literature
Martin Elsky, Department of English, Brooklyn College
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
More Information
For more information, e-mail Assistant Professor Lauren Mancia.
Egyptian mourning the death of his cattle. From the Golden Haggadah, Spain (Barcelona?) c. 1320. London, BL Additional MS 27210 fol. 12v, detail
Spring 2019
The Late Antique-Medieval-Early Modern Faculty Working Group at Brooklyn College presents their spring 2019 colloquia.
Thursday, February 21, 12:30 p.m.
A Typical Patron of Extraordinary Means: Isabella Feltria della Rovere and the Society of Jesus
Maria Conelli, Department of Art and Dean of the School of Visual, Media and Performing Arts at Brooklyn College
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
Thursday, April 4, 5 p.m.
Zipporah’s Pout: Temporality and the Emotional Life of (Jewish) Image
Marc Epstein, Vassar College
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
Thursday, April 11, 5:30 p.m.
The Medieval/Early Modern Divide Along the Franco-Spanish Border: On Religious Conversion and the Paper Economy
Francesca Trivellato, Institute for Advanced Study
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
Tuesday, May 7, 5 p.m.
Mothers of Bastards in Medieval France: Problems With Paternity
Sara McDougall, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
More Information
Detail from: Master of the Saint Bartholomew Altarpiece, The Descent from the Cross, oil on panel, about 1500 (detail of the Virgin), Musée du Louvre, accession no. INV 1445.
Fall 2018
The Late Antique-Medieval-Early Modern Faculty Working Group at Brooklyn College presents their fall 2018 colloquia.
Tuesday, October 16
Enlightenment Now?
A psychologist and an historian discuss Steven Pinker on human nature and emotion.
5–6:30 p.m.
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
- Hanah Chapman, Department of Psychology
- Lauren Mancia, Department of History
Thursday, November 1
Translating Tragic Emotion in Early Modern England: Greek to English, Female to Male
12:30–2 p.m.
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
- Tanya Pollard, Department of English
Tuesday, November 13
The Weeping Wound: Asceticism and Transformation in the Age of Tears
5–6:30 p.m.
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
- Christopher Richards, Ph.D. Candidate, Institute of Fine Arts, NYU
Tuesday, December 11
The Materiality of Emotion in Inscribed Jewish Prayers
5–6:30 p.m.
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
- Karen Stern, Department of History
More Information
Medieval law students in a late medieval manuscript (Coimbra, Biblioteca da Universidade 722, fol. 2r)
Spring 2018
The Late Antique-Medieval-Early Modern Faculty Working Group at Brooklyn College presents their spring 2018 colloquia.
All are welcome.
Tuesday, February 27
Encyclopedism in Late Antiquity
- Lecturer Brian Sowers, Department of Classics
5 p.m.
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
Thursday, March 15
Roundtable on Law in Late Antique and Medieval Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Traditions
- Associate Professor David Brodsky (Judaic Studies)
- Assistant Professor Bilal Ibrahim (History)
- Assistant Professor Lauren Mancia (History)
12:30 p.m.
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
Thursday, April 12
Intellectual and Religious Life in 14th-century Norwich
- Laurence Bond ’17
5:30 p.m.
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
Thursday, May 3
Everything You Wanted to Know About Mystical Union (But Were Too Confused to Ask)
- Professor Christina Van Dyke, Department of Philosophy, Calvin College
5:30 p.m.
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
More Information
Fall 2017
The Late Antique-Medieval-Early Modern Faculty Working Group at Brooklyn College presents their fall 2017 colloquia.
All are welcome.
Tuesday, September 12
Abraham van Dyck and His Black Accusers, From the Night Broadway Burned
- Associate Professor Benjamin Carp, Department of History
5:30 p.m.
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
Monday, October 23
The Convent in the City: The Case Study of St. Catherine of Avignon
- Professor Christine Axen, Department of History, Plymouth State University
5:30 p.m.
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
Wednesday, November 8
Biblical Exegesis and Med-Ren Literature: Typological Criticism, Cultural Appropriation, and the Second World War
- Professor Marty Elsky, Department of English
5 p.m.
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
Wednesday, November 15
Medieval Pets
- Associate Professor Karl Steel, Department of English
5:30 p.m.
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
More Information
Rubbings from a 15th-17th–century stele from Kaifeng.
Spring 2017
The Late Antique-Medieval-Early Modern Faculty Working Group at Brooklyn College presents their spring 2017 colloquia.
All are welcome.
Tuesday, February 21
Judaism in the Late Antique-Medieval-Early Modern World Mini-Series III: Judaism, Confucianism, and Modernity in Ming China: The Kaifeng Synagogue Inscription of 1489
- Professor Andrew Meyer, Department of History
5:30 p.m.
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
Thursday, March 23
Judaism in the Late Antique-Medieval-Early Modern World Mini-Series IV: Tropical Jews: Early Modern Jewry in the Atlantic World
- Professor John Dixon, Department of History, College of Staten Island
- Associate Professor Christopher Ebert, Department of History—Respondent
5:30 p.m.
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
Tuesday, April 4
The Making of a Black Panther: Plato’s Influence on Huey P. Newton
- Assistant Professor Brian Sowers, Department of Classics
5:30 p.m.
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
Tuesday, April 27
Judaism in the Late Antique-Medieval-Early Modern World Mini-Series V: “In Three Places the Halakhah Overrides the Bible”: What Must Give When Bible, Received Tradition, and System of Interpretation Conflict
- Associate Professor David Brodsky, Department of Judaic Studies
12:30 p.m.
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
Wednesday, May 3
Petrarch’s Manuscripts in the Digital Era
- Alessandro Zammataro, CUNY Graduate Center
5:30 p.m.
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
More Information
Ancient cave graffito, photograph courtesy of Prof. Karen Stern
Fall 2016
The Late Antique-Medieval-Early Modern Faculty Working Group at Brooklyn College presents their fall 2016 colloquia.
All are welcome.
Tuesday, September 20
Mystical Chaucer
- Professor Nicola Masciandaro, Department of English
5:30 p.m.
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
Tuesday, October 25
Judaism in the Late Antique-Medieval-Early Modern World Mini-Series I: Making the Middle Ages Real Through Fiction
- Adam Gidwitz, New York Times Bestselling Children’s Book Author
5:30 p.m.
Woody Tanger Auditorium (Library)
Wednesday, October 26
Feral and Isolated Children—From Herodotus to Hesse: Heroes, Thinkers, and Friends of Wolves
- Associate Professor Karl Steel, Department of English
5:30 p.m.
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
Tuesday, November 15
Making It Personal: Writing, Drawing, and Claiming Space in Ancient Synagoges and Cemeteries
- Associate Professor Karen Stern, Department of History
12:30 p.m.
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
More Information
Islamic armillary sphere from a 16th-century Ottoman manuscript.
Spring 2016
The Late Antique-Medieval-Early Modern Faculty Working Group at Brooklyn College presents their spring 2016 colloquia.
All are welcome.
Tuesday, February 16
Fix’d Almost Among Strangers: Charleston’s Quaker Merchants and the Pursuits of Cosmopolitanism
- Associate Professor Ben Carp, Department of History
5:30 p.m.
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
Tuesday, March 15
The London Six: Stationers and Censorship During the Interregnum
- Aida Gureghian, New York University
12:30 p.m.
Woody Tanger Auditorium, Library
Tuesday, April 12
Mystic Sciences of the Exact
- Assistant Professor Bilal Ibrahim, Department of History
5:30 p.m.
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
Wednesday, May 11
Locke on the Diachronic Identity of Persons and Substances
- Professor Jessica Gordon-Roth, Department of Philosophy, Lehman College (CUNY) and CUNY Graduate Center
- Associate Professor Andrew Arlig, Department of Philosophy—Respondent
6 p.m.
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
More Information
A 14th-century image of a medieval oyster from The Hague, KA 16.
Fall 2015
The Late Antique-Medieval-Early Modern Faculty Working Group at Brooklyn College presents their fall 2015 colloquia.
All are welcome.
Wednesday, September 30
Medieval Oysters!
- Associate Professor Karl Steel, English—Medieval Oysters: Bare Life, Posthuman Ethics, and the Problem of Agency
- Associate Professor Andrew Arlig, Philosophy—Commentary
5:30 p.m.
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
Thursday, October 2
Theorizing “Race” in Early Modern Spain
- Associate Professor William Childers, Modern Languages and Literatures—The Past as Mirror to the Present and the Bugbear of Anachronism: Theorizing ‘Race’ in Early Modern Spain
5:30 p.m.
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
Thursday, November 19
Dante in the Interwar Period
- Professor Marty Elsky, English—Who Owned Dante?: Literary Appropriation and the Consolation of Philology in the Aftermath of War
12:30 p.m.
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
Wednesday, December 2
Zoroastrians!
- Associate Professor David Brodsky, Judaic Studies—Resistance and Appropriation: The Zoroastrian Context of the Book of Tobit
5:30 p.m.
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
More Information
A 14th-century image of Geometry teaching her students, from British Library ms. Burney 275 f. 293r.
Spring 2015
The Late Antique-Medieval-Early Modern Faculty Working Group at Brooklyn College presents their spring 2015 colloquia.
All are welcome.
Tuesday, February 3
Monastics on Monasticism, East and West
- Associate Professor Jennifer Ball, Art—Monastics on Monasticism and the Angelikos Bios
- Assistant Professor Lauren Mancia, History—John of Fécamp, Monastic Discipline, and Abbatial Empathy
12:30–2 p.m.
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
Wednesday, March 18
Early Modern Mysticism
- Professor Sharon Flatto, Judaic Studies—Enlightened Jewish Mystics at the End of the Early Modern Era?: Visionaries on the Danube, Spree, and Moldau
5:15 p.m.
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
Wednesday, April 22
Early Modern Geography
- Associate Professor Christopher Ebert, History—Geographic Representations of Portuguese and Brazilian Cities in the Early Modern Period
- Associate Professor William Childers, Modern Languages and Literatures—Commentary
5:30 p.m.
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
Tuesday, May 5
Late Antique Historiography
- Associate Professor David Brodsky, Judaic Studies—The Midrashic Mode of Historiography: Situating Talmudic Narratives in their Methodological Contexts
5:30 p.m.
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
Wednesday, May 20
Getting Medieval at Brooklyn College
Come help LAMEM-affiliated faculty discuss why a historical consciousness of the culture, ideas, and events
of the period before modernity is urgent for our understanding of the now at this lunchtime roundtable discussion during the Annual Faculty Day Conference.
12:45–2:15 p.m.
More Information
An early modern copy of Erasmus’ Moriae Encomium, illustrated by Hans Holbein.
Fall 2014
The Late Antique-Medieval-Early Modern Faculty Working Group at Brooklyn College presents their fall 2014 colloquia.
All are welcome.
Thursday, September 18
Transitioning Antiquities
- Assistant Professor Brian Sowers, Classics—Magical Mass or Mass Magic: Narratives of Power in the Late Antique Cult of Saints Justina and Cyprian
- Professor Andrew Meyer, History—Feng Xuan Buys Humaneness and Rightness, Gongyi Xiu Expels His Wife: Economic Exemplars in the Warring States and Han
12:30–2 p.m.
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
Thursday, September 30
Classifying the Middle Ages
- Associate Professor Karl Steel, English—Bad Heritage: Vikings in the Americas
- Associate Professor Andrew Arlig, Philosophy—You Have So Much Potential!: On the Many Ways to Possess Potential Parts
5:15 p.m.
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
Tuesday, November 18
Early Modern Visionaries
- Professor Sharon Flatto, Judaic Studies—Enlightened Jewish Mystics at the End of the Early Modern Era?: Visionaries on the Danube, Spree, and Moldau
- Associate Professor Justin Steinberg, Philosophy—Spinoza and the Taming of Fortune
12:30–2 p.m.
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)
More Information
14th-century image Henricus de Alemannia with his students (by Laurentius de Voltolina).
Spring 2014
The Late Antique-Medieval-Early Modern Faculty Working Group at Brooklyn College presents their spring 2014 colloquia.
All are welcome.
Thursday, May 1, Inaugural Colloquia
- Assistant Professor Lauren Mancia, History—”Reading John of Fécamp in the Eleventh-Century Monastery”
- Assistant Professor Bilal Ibrahim, History—”Categories of Knowledge From Ancient to Medieval Islamic Thought: The Rational, the Scientific, and the Mystical.”
- Associate Professor Andrew Arlig, Chair, Philosophy—Commentary
5 p.m.
Costas Library (2405 Boylan Hall)