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2004 NEH Summer Institute on Anglo-Saxon England

 

Paul Szarmach, Western Michigan University

The National Endowment for the Humanities supported a Summer Institute for College Teachers on "Anglo-Saxon England," 5 July – 13 August 2004, at the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic and at Trinity College, Cambridge. Paul E. Szarmach directed the institute through the Richard Rawlinson Center for Anglo-Saxon Studies and Manuscript Research, the Medieval Institute, Western Michigan University. Dr. Emily Thornbury (now of Churchill College) was assistant to the Institute.

The institute featured discussion sessions on the major disciplines of Anglo-Saxon Studies, mainly manuscript study, vernacular literature, Anglo-Latin literature, history, art and architecture, and collateral areas of study. Institute faculty were: Catherine Karkov, Simon D. Keynes, Rosalind Love, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Judith Quinn, Teresa Webber, and Szarmach. Guest presenters were Mark Blackburn, Michelle P. Brown, Christopher de Hamel, and Sam Newton. Special features of the program included site visits to Ely, Maldon, and Sutton Hoo, but participants also formed their own groups to visit Crowland and medieval London, among other places. The group welcomed Lyn Blackmore (Museum of London Archaeological Services) who gave an update on the excavations at the burial of the "Prittlewell Prince" with slides of the latest finds there. Love, Ní Mhaonaigh, and Quinn gave papers at the Leeds International Medieval Congress that explored the connections between their fields of expertise (Anglo-Latin, Celtic, and Norse, respectively) and Anglo-Saxon Studies. Among the social highlights were opening and closing receptions hosted by ASNAC and the 500th birthday celebration for Archbishop Matthew Parker on his day, August 6.

The twenty-five participants, with their affiliations at the time of the institute, were:

  • Mark L. Amdahl (Montgomery County Community College)
  • Helen T. Bennett (Eastern Kentucky Univ.)
  • Lisa Darien (Hartwick College)
  • Glenn Davis (St. Cloud State Univ.)
  • Christina Fitzgerald (Univ. of Toledo)
  • Martin Foys (Hood College)
  • Janet Gilligan (Wayne State College)
  • Dawn Hayes (Montclair State Univ.)
  • Edward Haymes (Cleveland State Univ.)
  • Eileen Joy (Southern Illinois Univ.-Edwardsville)
  • Salwa Khoddam (Oklahoma City Univ.)
  • Mark LaCelle-Peterson (Houghton College)
  • Kay Marsh (Texas Women's Univ.)
  • Marcia Marzec (Univ. of St. Francis)
  • James R. Mathieu (Univ. of Pennsylvania Museum)
  • James McNelis (Wilmington College)
  • Robin Norris (Southeastern Louisiana Univ.)
  • Tison Pugh (Univ. of Central Florida)
  • Mary Ellen Rowe (Central Missouri State Univ.)
  • Ronald Stottlemeyer (Carroll College)
  • Janet Thormann (College of Marin)
  • Anne Van Arsdall (Independent Scholar)
  • Frans Van Liere (Calvin College)
  • Samantha Zacher (Vassar College)

At the 40th International Congress of Medieval Studies at Western Michigan Univ., twelve members of the Institute will participate in two roundtables on "New Pedagogical Approaches to Anglo-Saxon England." They are: Darien, Stottlemyer, LaCelle-Peterson, Davis, and Amdahl; Marzec, Fitzgerald, Pugh, Norris, and Rowe. The sessions have been organized by Davis, with van Liere and Mathieu presiding.

The photos below were taken by James McNelis, Martin Foys, Glenn Davis, and others.

Working in the Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

Reading "The Battle of Maldon" at Maldon

Lindisfarne Priory

Ely Cathedral

Sam Newton as a warrior, Mound 1, Sutton Hoo

Birthday party for Archbishop Matthew Parker (not pictured)

Edward Haymes and Ronald Stottlemeyer

Robin Norris and Samantha Zacher