Notes from the President

This Year at Kalamazoo . . .

Dear Members and Friends,

Medica made a strong showing at the 2010 Medieval Congress at Western Michigan. A fine crowd of attendees gathered to hear the four papers presented in this year's Medica session "Regimens of Health: Housebooks and Everyday Medicine" (see picture, left to right): Iona McCleery (Univ. of Leeds) "Preserving the Health of Body, State and Soul: Recipes and Regimen in the Commonplace Book of King Duarte of Portugal (1433-38)," Sarah Matthews (Univ. of Iowa) "Bloodletting in Monastic Customaries," Donna Trembinski (St. Francis Xavier Univ.) "Household Cures for Common Pain," and Efraim Lev (Univ. of Haifa) "Mediators between Theoretical and Practical Medieval Medical Knowledge: Notebooks in the Cairo Genizah and their Importance." An enthusiastic discussion with members of the audience followed.

After the session, we held Medica's annual business meeting. Highlights of our discussion follow.

Announcements and Updates:

* Of special note, at the 2011 Medieval Congress at Kalamazoo Medica will co-sponsor 5-6 sessions with AVISTA, Hill Museum and Manuscript Library, and Societas Magica. The theme of the sessions is "The Scared and the Secular in Medieval Healing." The sessions will focus on papers addressing sites, images, objects, and texts to explore the multivalent practices and meanings of medieval healing. Keep an eye out for the upcoming CFPs as this promises to be a very special Congress! I'll keep you apprised of developments.

*In addition, we discussed sponsoring a session on Food, Nutrition, and Health at next year's Leeds Medieval Congress. The theme for the 2011 conference is "Rich . . . Poor." Details will follow.

*Also on the agenda, members discussed the open position of Vice President of Medica. Members are requested to start thinking of possible nominations -- yourself or a colleague. Nominations should be sent to the Chair of the Nominating Committee, Gerard NeCastro (necastro@maine.edu).

*In the meantime, William H. York, aka "Harry," the session organizer for "Housebooks and Everyday Medicine," has graciously agreed to step in as Interim Vice President. Thank you, Harry!

*A final gentle reminder to members. It's that time of year again. Membership for Medica runs from Kalamazoo to Kalamazoo. Annual dues is $20 for full-time professionals and $10 for students and retired, part-time, or unemployed faculty and researchers. Please make out checks to Medica and mail to our Treasurer and Secretary, Gerard NeCastro, Department of English, 9 O’Brien Avenue, University of Maine at Machias, Machias, ME 04654. For more information contact Gerard at necastro@maine.edu.

Thanks to all who made this yet another successful Medieval Congress for Medica. And for those traveling across the pond this summer, remember that Medica is sponsoring the session "Healing Journeys: Travels for Body and Soul in Medieval Culture" at the Leeds Medieval Congress, 12-15 July 2010.

Cheers,
Linda Migl Keyser

Kalamazoo 2010: Medical Themes

The following is a brief list of papers with medical themes that will be presented at the Medieval Congress at Kalamazoo this year. This is a cursory list meant to assist those interested in hearing papers presenting current research in medieval medicine; I apologize for any papers overlooked.

And don't forget, Medica's session, #34 "Regimens of Health: Housebooks and Everyday Medicine" will be held at 10:00 a.m. Thursday, May 13. Following this session, our annual business meeting will be held at noon. Members and friends welcome. See posting below for details.

Papers on Medieval Medicine:

Thursday 10:00 a.m.

#19 Platinum Latin I: "Medical Imagery and the Rhetorical Psogos in Claudian’s Invectives," Cillian O'Hogan, Univ. of Toronto

Thursday 3:30 p.m.

#138 Globalizing the Middle Ages?: "Researching the Indian Contribution to Medieval Cooking and Medicine," Rachel Wexelbaum, St. Cloud State Univ.

Friday 1:30 p.m.

#277 Poison and Medicine in the Fourteenth Century:

"Defining Poison ca. 1300-1600," Frederick Gibbs, George Mason Univ.

"Poison and Medicine in the Western World before the Appearance of the Treatises about Poisons (End of the Thirteenth Century)," Franck Collard, Univ. de Paris X-Nanterre

"Poison, Medicine, and the Medieval Apothecary," Marie A . Kelleher (no affiliation noted in program)

#293 Religious Practices: "Medical Theory and the Christianization of Sleep in Late Antiquity," Leslie Dossey, Loyola Univ. Chicago

Friday 3:30 p.m.

#321 Science and Religion in the Fourteenth Century: "Swooning in Fourteenth-Century Medical and Religious Texts," Daniel Thomas Moore, Independent Scholar

#358 Early Medieval Europe I: "Christian and Pagan 'Temple Medicine': Incubation Cults in Late Antiquity," Amy Norgard, Univ. of Illinois-Urbana-Champagne

#360 Books, Readers, and Religions in the Middle Ages III: "Bodily Paynes: Middle English Devotional Literature and Late Medieval Medicine," Anna Dysert, McGill Univ.