Past Events
April 2022:
MRSC Program Development Day
This one-day MRSC event, on April 8th, 2022, included public presentations by Olivia
Holmes, Director, Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies, Binghamton University,
SUNY, and Marjorie Rubright, Director, Arthur F. Kinney Center for Interdisciplinary
Renaissance Studies, University of Massachusetts Amherst. Our distinguished guests
engaged in Q&A with the MRSC affiliated faculty and students about the future directions
of the MRSC and and met as consultants with the MRSC Working Group to advise on how
to expand our activities and our outreach. This event was sponsored by the TTU Humanities
Center Working Group Grant.
Thursday, April 14th, 2022 at 2:00 pm CT
TTU's Medieval & Renaissance Studies Center sponsored a virtual lecture
Dr. Alexander Samson (University College London) who spoke on
“Racialising the comedia.” The lecture was part of the MRST 5301 class taught by Dr
Julie Nelson Couch.
October 2021:
The TEMA Conference was held October 15th - 16th
TTU presenters included:
11:00-12:30 Race, Religion, and “Otherness”
Julie Nelson Couch, “Travel makes Race: Medieval Pilgrimage as a Racializing Mode”
Katharine Scherff, “Other From What? The Problem with ‘Other' in Medieval Studies”
1:30-3:00 In Commemoration of the 800th Anniversary of the Birth of Alfonso El Sabio
(II)
Connie L. Scarborough, “The Cooperation/Conflict between Medical Treatment and Miraculous
Cure in the Cantigas de Santa María”
Alfonso X (1221-1284): In Commemoration of the 800th Anniversary of the Birth of El
Sabio
Organizer: Connie Scarborough (Texas Tech, TX)
SESSION II:
1. The Cooperation/Conflict between Medical Treatment and Miraculous Cure in
the Cantigas de Santa Maria
Connie L. Scarborough (Texas Tech University)
connie.scarborough@ttu.edu
As would be expected in a collection of Marian miracles, Alfonso X's Cantigas de Santa Maria contain numerous cures of illness and of reversal of physical and mental impairment. The Wise King, however, does not discourage seeking qualified medical attention for ailment or disability. In fact, during the many instances of his own illnesses and recoveries recounted in the collection, Alfonso seeks medical help, although his eventual return to health is inevitably attributed to the Virgin Mary. The most famous of the miracles in which the King is sick is no. 209. In this cantiga, the king is so ill that his retinue fears for his life. His doctors prescribe various remedies, such as applying hot cloths, but he is only cured when the book of the Cantigas itself is placed on his chest. This is, however, only one of a number of cantigas that allude to sufferers seeking medical attention before turning to the Virgin for help. We find doctors consulted in Cantigas 77, 117, 177, and 179. Even though the medical treatments in these accounts prove to be ineffectual, there is no mention that the ill or disabled individual is not justified in consulting medical authorities. Alfonso's poems do not reveal anti-medical bias or a disparagement of doctors as was common in other medieval works.
2021
October 1, 2021: TTU Medieval & Renaissance Student Symposium View Program Contact
Jessie.Rogers@ttu.edu.
September 15, 2021: MRSC Virtual Lunch-Time Lecture: Tison Pugh (Pegasus Professor
of English, University of Central Florida), “Queer Medievalism in the U.S. South."
This event was hosted by Dr Julie Nelson Couch (English) and sponsored by the English
Department, the MRSC, and the TTU Humanities Center. The lecture was not recorded.
April 24, 2021: MRSC Virtual Spring Symposium
Keynote Lecture: Professor Geraldine Heng (UT Austin), “Teaching the Literatures
and Cultures of the Global Middle Ages” (Prof. Heng lecture flyer link).
2019
April 11-13, 2019: South Central Renaissance Conference (SCRC) 2019 at Texas Tech, hosted by Dr. Brian Steele (School of Art, TCVPA Associate Dean)
2018
August 18, 2018 - March 3, 2019: Exhibition on Pre-Modern Bibles from the Dead Sea
Scrolls to the Complutensian Polyglot Bible, Janis Elliott (School of Art) and John Howe (History), curators. Sponsored by the
Museum of Texas Tech University, the Helen Jones Foundation, Humanities Texas, and
Civic Lubbock.
October 25-27, 2018: 28th Annual Texas Medieval Association Conference (TEMA), hosted by Texas Tech University. Plenary Speakers: Timothy Graham (UNM) and George Greenia, (William & Mary)
October 25, 2018: Pre-Modern Bible Symposium, 2:00-6:00pm, Museum of Texas Tech University.
Speakers: Frans Van Liere and Katherine Van Liere (Calvin College)