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Posts from the ‘BABELmisc’ Category

22
Feb

The James J. Paxson Memorial Travel Grant for Scholars of Limited Funds

The BABEL Working Group and postmedieval: a journal of medieval cultural studies, with an initial gift from Mead Bowen, announce the creation of the James J. Paxson Memorial Travel Grant for Scholars of Limited Funds, specifically established to aid scholars to travel to the International Congress on Medieval Studies, held each May at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan.In brief, for those scholars who have had a paper accepted by the Congress, but for whom travel to the Congress presents a financial hardship (due, especially, to lack of institutional and other support), we have established this grant in memory of Jim Paxson, and, more pointedly, for persons presenting on topics that would have been dear to Jim, whom many of you will know was an important person for the support and development of theoretical medieval studies through his role as an associate editor for so many years at Exemplaria: A Journal of Theory in Medieval and Renaissance Studies. Please see below for the full description of the Travel Grant, and note that the deadline [which looms quickly] for applications is MARCH 15, with a decision to be made by APRIL 15.

The James J. Paxson Memorial Travel Grant
for Scholars of Limited Funds
This grant honors the late Prof. Paxson, an energetic and creative scholar who was particularly devoted to exploring medieval allegory, Piers Plowman, the relations between literature and science, medieval drama, and the works of Chaucer. He produced the important monograph The Poetics of Personification (Cambridge, 1994) and authored an extensive body of articles on a variety of literary and other subjects, and also helped to steer and edit the journal Exemplaria: A Journal of Theory in Medieval and Renaissance Studies(vital to the development of theoretical medieval studies) through its formative and later yearsHis enthusiasm for research was surpassed only by his commitment to his students. He mentored countless men and women at the University of Toronto, the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and the University of Florida, and he regularly encouraged them to present their findings at academic conferences. Yet he often lacked the funding necessary to present his own work at the conferences he urged his students to attend, and it disheartens us to think that, had he been able to do so, we might have learned something more of the work he was conducting before his passing, and more of us might have received the gift of his encyclopedic knowledge, boundless enthusiasm, and love for teaching. Prof. Paxson was also warmly supportive of the BABEL Working Group at a time when they needed such encouragement, and he was known for his helpful encouragement of those just starting out in the field. Through the James J. Paxson Memorial Travel Grant, we hope to extend the encouragement he freely gave and the funding he deserved to scholars who wish to honor his legacy of kindness, erudition, and commitment to both expanding our knowledge of the medieval world and also embracing new ideas. Read more »
3
Jul

BABEL poem

“Babel” by Rae Armantrout

“Let us go down
and confuse their language
so we may distinguish
the people
from our thoughts.”

*

Could it be true
that the baby is afraid
his wish
to gobble us up
has been realized
already?

*

Hard to say
since we’ve thrown our voice
into the future
and the past.

(from Versed, winner of the 2010 Pultizer Prize; reprinted here with permission of the author)

3
Jul

BABEL trebuchet

launched BABEL pumpkin, which, we are pleased to say, flew in the opposite direction of where it was intended to fly–somehow, this just seems right

3
Jul

BABEL & Tiny Shriner Adoration Society Paraphernalia

 

 


3
Jul

The BABEL You-Tube video

The BABEL YouTube Video: Keepon and Spoon, “I Turn My Camera On”

3
Jul

The BABEL Theme Song

An Imaginary Mash-Up Between Gnarls Barkley, “Crazy”, and Oasis, “Champagne Supernova”

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