Suffering and Hope: an interdisciplinary conference on the ideas underlying the medical specialty of palliative care

The University of St. Thomas Center for Thomistic Studies will celebrate its 25th anniversary with a conference that will bring together experts from a number of fields – philosophy, theology, medicine, nursing, law, literature and art – to put forward a positive view of suffering in the divine scheme, of the importance of affirming life, of regarding dying as a natural process, and of seeking neither to hasten nor to postpone death.

• KEYNOTE SPEAKERS INCLUDE:
  Dr. Eduardo Bruera, M.D., Head of Palliative Care Unit at M.D. Anderson, Texas Medical Center, Houston, TX
• Teresa S. Collett , Professor of Law, University of St. Thomas, School of Law, St. Paul, MN
• Dr. Maureen L. Condic, Associate Professor, Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, University of Utah, School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT
• Dr. Patrick Lee, Professor of Philosophy, Franciscan University of Steubenville, Steubenville, OH
• Dr. Janet Smith, Fr. Michael J. McGivney Chair of Life Issues, Sacred Heart Major Seminary, Detroit, MI

CALL FOR PAPERS:
The Center for Thomistic Studies invites papers for “Suffering and Hope: an interdisciplinary conference on the ideas underlying the medical specialty of palliative care.”

Papers are invited from philosophers, theologians, medical and nursing practitioners, lawyers, experts in counseling, psychology and the social sciences, and all other areas of study which relate to this increasingly important medical specialty.

Papers should in general be suitable for a cross-disciplinary audience, though the presentation of some more specialist academic papers is also encouraged. For the purposes of oral presentation, papers should not exceed about 20 minutes of reading (about 2000 words). The Center aims to make the full contents of the Conference available on CD, with the consent of the author, and without prejudice to author’s copyright. It is also hoped to produce a paperback selection of the papers which have most interdisciplinary importance, again without prejudice. 

A title and abstract should be submitted before September 1st 2005. Full papers should be submitted before October 15th 2005 to:

Christopher Martin
Center for Thomistic Studies 
University of St Thomas
3800 Montrose Boulevard
Houston, Texas, 77006 U.S.A.

or by e-mail to martincf@stthom.edu.

Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages: article-writing opportunities

The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages (ODMA), which will be a resource of first resort on the general model of The Oxford Classical Dictionary (3rd ed., 1996) for all key aspects of European history, society, religion, and culture, c. 500 to c. 1500, is currently being compiled.

The ODMA will consist of 1,300,000 words in four volumes with approximately 7,000 entries, 60 maps, and 550 illustrations. It has an international advisory board of five, an editorial board of twenty-six, and projected contributors of nearly 800. The complete, edited text is due to be delivered in early 2006 with publication, we hope, in late 2006 or early 2007.

If you work on England, France, Italy, Islam, or Ecclesiastical History and would like to contribute to this important project, please send an updated cv and a list of entries you would like to contribute as an email attachment c/o Robert E. Bjork, the General Editor, to jennifer.michaud@asu.edu with “ODMA” in the subject line. Contributors writing 4,000 words or 25 entries or more will receive a free copy of the ODMA, and all contributors will receive author status with Oxford University Press, a 50% discount off one copy of the ODMA, and $50 per 1,000 words contributed.

Please write to Prof. Bjork for a list of headwords available.

Hortulus: An On-Line Graduate Journal of Medieval Studies

Hortulus, is an interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed, Web-based journal of medieval studies, founded and published annually by an international board of graduate students. It described itself thus:

Hortulus is a refereed journal devoted to the literatures and cultures of the medieval world. Electronically published once a year, its mission is to present a forum in which graduate students from around the globe may share their ideas.

In preparation of our second issue, we invite the submission of academic articles on the topic of Hybridity. The idea of hybridity is necessarily complex. Recent discussions have tended to address it in terms of identity and identity formation. However, it may be extended to consider many other areas. Topics may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Nationality and nationalism
• Culture, cultural motifs and cultural practices
• Religion and religious syncretism
• Language(s)
• The body
• Literary hybrid genres
• Identity
• Conversion
• Borrowed histories
• Gender play
• Translation

The journal also incorporates lighter fare such as interviews, opinion pieces, reviews and essays on diverse aspects of medievalia under the aegis of a section entitled Hortus Amoenus. We are particularly interested in reviews of historical novels and medieval-themed films, as well as reports on archaeological digs and museum exhibitions, but we are happy to receive any and all contributions relevant to medieval studies. Potential Hortus Amoenus authors should contact hortusamoenus@hortulus.net with a 250-word summary of their contribution before submitting a complete article.

For submission guidelines and more information, please read the Submission Guidelines and the Style Guide. Contributions should be sent electronically to: submit@hortulus.net. The deadline for submission is October 15, 2005.

All students currently pursuing graduate work in medieval studies or allied disciplines are eligible to submit papers and lighter contributions, as are alumni/ae of master?s and doctoral programs within one year of their graduation. Those who hold doctoral degrees are eligible only if not currently employed as professors.

"The Body in Medieval Culture," Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto

“The Body in Medieval Culture,” Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto, 10-11 March 2006. The last fifteen years have produced both some of the best and some of the worst critical approaches to medieval understandings of the body. These range from anachronistic projections of modern constructions of gender and sexuality onto medieval texts to more nuanced studies that take into account both medieval and modern frameworks in assessing the representation, function, and cultural import of the body. This conference, “The Body in Medieval Culture,” will focus on the ways in which conceptions of the body rooted in theological and medical discourses are manifested in the cultural production of the Middle Ages.

Invited plenary speakers include Peter Biller, Dyan Elliott, and Nicholas Watson.

We invite submissions by scholars working in a range of disciplines, including (but not limited to) history, literature, philosophy, religion, history of science, and art history. To facilitate the exchange of ideas across disciplinary boundaries, sessions will be organized in five strands:

1. devotional or theological discourse
2. medical (especially humoural) discourse
3. rhetorical and literary discourse
4. discourses of gender and sexuality
5. civic and political discourse

Please send 250-word abstracts, together with a one-page C.V., to the co-organizers (Suzanne Conklin Akbari and Jill Ross) at bodyconf@chass.utoronto.ca. Abstracts should be received by 20 September 2005.

Jacques Maritain Center at University of Notre Dame

This web site is obvious to those of us here in North America. The Jacques Maritain Center at the University of Notre Dame is a storehouse of interesting links, including those that point to the Summer Thomistic Institutes that Ralph McInerny has sponsored over the years (with on-line and downloadable copies of fine papers), a recorded interview with Maritain from the 1940’s (MP3 files), and many, many other links (to dissertations directed by McInerny, River Forest [i.e., Dominicans in Chicago] archives, and more).

thomasinternational.org (a web site devoted to Aquinas)

It’s amazing what you’ll find when you hunt around websites that Ralph McInerny of Notre Dame has a role in. In looking through the website for the Jacques Maritain Center at Notre Dame, I discovered that there is an international web site on Thomas’s legal theory, which describes itself as follows:

Thomas International aims at reigniting the classical tradition of philosophy and theology – which is the cultural root of Western civilization – by promoting international scholarship focused especially (though not exclusively) on the thought of Thomas Aquinas. This commitment is not of merely historical interest, but is meant to promote engagement between classical thought and modern and contemporary thought, in all branches of human knowledge, in order to confront the perennial questions of the human heart and to seek solutions to the problems facing our society.

Thomas International is especially committed to promoting a new International University with the main campus in the United States, which will subsequently become the new center for its broad cultural enterprise.

Thomas International fulfills its mission through the joint activity of various Research Institutes, and through scientific collaboration with other universities and educational institutions.

There are also many links, especially to sites in Italy, that touch upon Aquinas.

Fabulous on-line list of medievalia

I just found a great on-line resource of medieval links (to journals, libraries, other websites, etc.). You’ll find it at:

http://www.ulb.ac.be/philo/urhm

which is run by the people at the Free University of Brussels (l’Université Libre de Bruxelles). It’s wonderful. The site also points to a consortium of other medievalist sites, and a portal for medievalists that is as thorough as I have yet seen.

Scotus Commission call for papers for 7th Centenary

This is a bit of a stretch for a Thomistic web site, but:

The Commissio internationalis scotistica is compiling a series of original scholarly articles on the Blessed John Duns Scotus and on the various aspects of the Scotism. The volume is intended to be an early contribution to the 7th centenary of Scotus’ death and also a homage to the memory of father César Saco, who unexpectedly died last February, after being a member of the Commissio scotistica for forty years.

Scholars who wish to participate, are kindly requested to send the proposed title of their article together with their address. On September 2005, we will give further details to those who have adhered to this initiative.

Contact address:

Martín Carbajo Núñez, ofm
Pontificia Università Antonianum
Via Merulana 124 b
00185 Roma (Italia)

E-mail: cnmartin@ofm.org / antonianumfacteol@ofm.org

Society for Medieval Logic and Metaphysics

I found this link a while back (as an offshoot from Gyula Klima’s fine personal web site), and simply forgot to post it:

The Society for Medieval Logic and Metaphysics (S.M.L.M.) is a network of scholars founded with the aim of fostering collaboration and research based on the recognition that:

• recovering the profound metaphysical insights of medieval thinkers for our own philosophical thought is highly desirable, and, despite the vast conceptual changes in the intervening period, is still possible;
• but this recovery is only possible if we carefully reflect on the logical framework in which those insights were articulated, given the paradigmatic differences between medieval and modern logical theories.

The Society’s web site is designed to serve the purpose of keeping each other up-to-date on our current projects, sharing recent results, discussing scholarly questions, and organizing meetings.

Medieval Tradition of Natural Law at Kalamazoo

Harvey Brown, in the Deptartment of Political Science at the University of Western Ontario, in London, Ontario (Canada) is calling for papers for the sessions devoted to the Medieval Tradition of Natural Law at the medievalists’ conference in Kalamazoo, Michigan for next spring (May 4-7, 2006). There will be two sessions:

1. Natural Law and Virtue
2. Natural Law as Ethics in Governance

Please send proposals to Harvey Brown by September 16, 2005 at: hbrown2@uwo.ca.

Proceedings from Dutch-Flemish SITA conference on Aquinas (from Sept. 2004)

The Dutch-Flemish section of the SITA (http://users.skynet.be/thomisme), presided over by Leo J. Elders svd, organized its first conference on September 25, 2004 at the former Abbey of Rolduc (the Netherlands). The topic of the conference was “The actuality of Saint Thomas Aquinas.”

The proceedings of this conference, together with other essays, are now published in the series ‘Doctor Humanitatis.’

This first publication contains 13 essays, written in Dutch, English and German. The president of the International SITA, Abelardo Lobato op, opens the volume with an article on themes of the ‘quaestiones quodlibetales’. The president of the Dutch-Flesmish section, Leo Elders svd, investigates the presence of Plato in the writings of Aquinas. Bonifacio Honings ocd (Rome) shows how the Catechism of the Catholic Church is deeply indebted to Aquinas moral theology. Romanus Cessario op writes about the influence of Aquinas on Mel Gibson’s ‘The Passion of the Christ’. The Dutch scholar Jozef Wissink, member of the ‘Thomas Instituut’ in Utrecht, articulates the highly interesting links between the mental state of dementia patients and Aquinas’ theory of knowledge, Victor Ravensloot argues for the validity of hylemorphism, David Berger talks about the actuality of the Tertia Pars of the Summa.

Next, the volume reprints an influential article by the late Dutch Dominican, Johannes van der Ploeg, who died in 2004, on the role of Scripture in Thomistic theology. The doctrine of God is the topic of the essay by Harm Goris, member of the well-known ‘Thomas Instituut’ in Utrecht. The Polish Thomist, Tadeusz Guz, compares the anthropology of Aquinas and Hegel. Jörgen Vijgen, Vice-President of the Dutch-Flemish section, investigates the role of philosophical reasoning in Aquinas’ articulation of the dogma of the resurrection of the body. The volume closes with a critical review of the recent French volume by the so-called ‘School of Toulouse’ on the actuality of Saint-Thomas.

De actualiteit van Sint-Thomas van Aquino, ed. J. Vijgen (Boekenplan, Hoofddorp, 2005), pp. 215 [ISBN 907179491-1] (Doctor Humanitatis I), can be ordered through the publisher’s website: http://www.boekenplan.nl.

The University of Toronto Colloquium in Mediaeval Philosophy 2005

The University of Toronto Colloquium in Mediaeval Philosophy for 2005 will take place from September 23-24, 2005, at the University of St Michael’s College. The colloquium is sponsored by the Department of Philosophy, Department of Classics, and Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto; University of St. Michael’s College; Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies. Its organizers are: Deborah Black, Peter King, Martin Pickave. All sessions will be held in Alumni Hall, Room 400 (St. Michael’s College, 121 St. Joseph Street). The sessions are free and open to the public.

Friday, 23 September:

4:30 - 6:30 opening remarks

SESSION I: Chair, Jennifer Ashworth (University of Waterloo)

• Scott MacDonald (Cornell University): “Aquinas on Prudence: From Personal Virtue to Natural Law”
• Thomas Williams (University of Southern Florida), commentary

6:30 reception

Saturday, 24 September:

10:00 - 12:00

SESSION II: Chair, Robert Pasnau (University of Colorado, Boulder)

• Richard Cross (Oxford University): “Scotus on Substance and Identity”
• Timothy Noone (Catholic University of America), commentary

lunch break

2:30 - 4:30

SESSION III: Chair, Jack Zupko (Emory University)

• Claude Panaccio (Universite de Quebec a Montreal): “Ockham on Conceptual Similitudes”
• Gyula Klima (Fordham University), commentary

7:00 Conference Dinner (reservation required)

If you plan to attend please let us know: medieval.philosophy@utoronto.ca. Accomodations: The Quality Hotel Midtown (to be rebranded as the Holiday Inn Midtown) in Toronto, located next to the St. George campus, is offering rooms at a reduced rate for the conference if you reserve before August 23rd: call (416)-968-0010, and use the Group ID #102835 or the Group name “Toronto Colloquium in Mediaeval Philosophy”.