Saturday, August 29, 2009

Spotlight on Research


Passing on information concerning two searchable databases:

  1. Electronic Thorndike-Kibre (eTK) - an expanded and updated digital version of Lynn Thorndike and Pearl Kibre, A Catalogue of Incipits of Mediaeval Scientific Writings in Latin (TK) (Cambridge, MA: Mediaeval Academy, 1963) with two supplements, has been produced with the permission of the copyright holder, Medieval Academy of America. While TK consolidates all manuscript information for a text into a single entry, eTK divides entries from the book into 33,000 records, each for a manuscript witness to a text.
  2. Electronic Voigts-Kurtz (eVK2) - an expanded and revised version of Linda Ehrsam Voigts and Patricia Deery Kurtz, Scientific and Medical Writings in Old and Middle English: An Electronic Reference (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2000). The second edition of the CD provides more than 10,000 records for the earliest technical and learned writings in English.

The digital records in both databases are organized in multiple searchable fields and allow searching of incipit words and word strings and searching by manuscript, library, author, title, subject, translator, date, and bibliography.

Both tools are now freely available via a link from the website of the Medieval Academy of America (see the link "Science and Medicine Databases at UMKC”). The Academy homepage also contains a slide show of images from Brunschwig's De arte distillandi (Strassburg, 1512).

Monday, August 24, 2009

2010 Medica Graduate Student Award


In keeping with the Society’s overarching mission to encourage research on medicine and healing in the Middle Ages, Medica’s Graduate Student Award provides a stipend of $250 to honor a graduate student presenting an outstanding paper at a Medica-sponsored conference session.

The Society’s sessions encourage research from a broad spectrum of disciplines, such as history of medicine, art history, literary studies, gender studies, cultural studies, and religious studies.

Details for each year’s eligible conference sessions, topics, and deadlines are posted as CFPs on Medica’s blog. CFP Deadlines for 2010 Medica-Sponsored Sessions are noted in the post below.

Application Procedures and Deadline
Complete applications are due December 1, 2009 [receipt deadline]. To be eligible for the award, an applicant must have a paper accepted by a Medica-sponsored conference session and be a student member of Medica (see http://www.umm.maine.edu/medica/members.html).

Applicants must submit the following:
  1. a one-page abstract of the paper to be presented at a Medica-sponsored session
  2. a complete copy of the paper to be presented, which may not exceed 10 pages, double-spaced (12 pt. font)
  3. a one-page curriculum vitae, including current employment status
  4. one letter of reference (dissertation writers must have a letter from their supervisor).
Award decisions will be based on the excellence of the submitted conference abstract and paper as judged by Medica’s Graduate Student Award Committee. Winners will be notified by e-mail no later than January 30, 2010.

For more information, address inquiries to Linda Migl Keyser at keyserl@georgetown.edu. Please send application materials to Dr. Keyser via e-mail at keyserl@georgetown.edu, or mail application materials to: Linda Migl Keyser, Ph.D., President; Medica; 1690 N. 21st St., #2; Arlington, VA 22209 USA.