We are pleased to announce an extraordinary series of lectures made possible by the generous support of the Nord Foundation at Case Western Reserve University. The lectures will take place within the framework of Professor Elina Gertsman’s graduate seminar on medieval Jewish art and will be held on Zoom.
Scent and Sense: Olfaction and Memory in Medieval Material Culture (sponsored by the International Center of Medieval Art)
Although we are used to thinking that the sense of sight reigned supreme in the Middle Ages, medieval scholars of all stripes were quite obsessively preoccupied with questions of olfaction. This session will explore the multivalent relationships between objects, smells, and memory, especially as they existed in the later Middle Ages.
Abstracts, one page in length, should be sent to Elina Gertsman (exg152@case.edu) by 10.15, 2020
Recently, The New Yorker published a highly problematic piece by Lawrence Wright, “How Pandemics Wreak Havoc and Open Minds.” Medievalists around the country responded to the article in a series of open letters. Click “Learn more” for one such open letter sent to the magazine by Prof. Elina Gertsman and her colleague at California State University, Prof. Asa Simon Mittman.
