Two further sessions not printed in the Program should be of considerable interest to the membership. One is an academic session on Medieval Islamic Historiography: Narrative Structures and Rhetorical Strategies. It is scheduled for Sunday, December 28, at 2:30 p.m. in the Horner Room of the Hyatt Regency, West Tower.
Chaired by Norman Itzkowitz of Princeton University, the session will include papers by Jacob Lassner, Wayne State University on “Apologetics, Historiography, and Historical Interpretation”; R. Stephen Humphreys, University of Wisconsin-Madison: “The Structures of Early Islamic Historical Writing”; Rudi Paul Lindner, University of Michigan: “Creating Early Ottoman Historiography”; comment will be by Andrew S. Ehrenkreutz, University of Michigan.
The purpose of this panel is to explore the tendentiousness of medieval Islamic historiography and to suggest that the analysis of narrative structures and rhetorical strategies can make difficult medieval texts more accessible to contemporary scholars.
The National Endowment for the Humanities is holding an information session at the meeting on Sunday, December 28, from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. Representatives from NEH will speak on Endowment programs and answer questions. It will be held in Stetson Suite E in the West Tower of the Hyatt Regency. All those wishing more information about Endowment programs are cordially invited to attend.
As all authors know, glitches can and do occur in the technical production of a publication. This has happened to this year’s program, specifically, session 2, Gender and Power in Renaissance Italy, scheduled for the first morning, December 28. In the final stages of production the press inadvertently guillotined the name of the commentator, Professor Judith Brown of Stanford University.
The panel explores three ways in which concepts of gender served to chart and direct the flow of power in Renaissance Florence and Venice. Papers are being given by Sharon T. Strocchia, University of South Carolina (“The Limits of Grief: Mourning Laws and Sexual Politics in Renaissance Florence”), Dennis Romano, University of Mississippi (“Gender, Space and Power: Men’s and Women’s Patronage Systems in Early Renaissance Venice”), and Michael J. Rocke, SUNY-Binghamton (“He keeps him like a woman: Male Homosexuality and Gender in Late Medieval Florence”). Stanley Chojnacki, Michigan State University, will serve as chair, and Judith Brown will provide the commentary.
Professor Brown has written several articles on the history of Tuscan women; her most recent book is a biography of Benedetta Carlini, a lesbian nun who rose to a position of prominence in the city of Pescia.
In addition, the year 1986 marks the Fortieth Anniversary of the Fulbright Program. Since the end of the Second World War, the Fulbright Program has promoted exchanges between the United States and 124 countries, and has sponsored over 152,000 Fulbright scholarships and fellowships.
One of the forms of celebration for this milestone was the awarding of Distinguished Lecture grants to prominent foreign scholars.
For history, Professor David Beers Quinn, emeritus of the University of Liverpool was designated Distinguished Fellow, Fulbright Fortieth Anniversary Year. Professor Quinn is one of the outstanding scholars in the world in the field of British and New World sixteenth-century history.
Professor Quinn will present an ad dress on Monday, December 29 at 2:30 p.m., during the session called “The Life and Work of David Beers Quinn.” The session will be held in Grand Ballroom B, East Tower, Hyatt Regency hotel.
