With apologies for cross-posting…

INTRODUCTION

Based at the Department of French, Hispanic and Italian Studies of UBC, we are a research cluster in pre-1800—Medieval, Renaissance, and Early Modern—Romance languages and literatures; now in our fifth year; and meeting approximately every three weeks.

• earlyromance.com

WHAT’S UP THIS MONTH

• Early Music Vancouver: some concerts in early 2014

• 21 January 2014
5:00 p.m.,  Green College Coach House
Benjamin Bagby: “Hildegard von Bingen and the German Mystical Tradition in Medieval Music”
—Green College Society Series: Interdisciplinarity in Action

• 22 January 2014
8:00 p.m. (pre-concert chat 7:15 p.m.), Holy Rosary Cathedral
Sequentia: Mystical Voices of Mediæval Germany: Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179): Celestial Hierarchy
—Early Music Vancouver (world première)

• 23 January 2014
5:30 p.m., Fletcher Challenge Theatre, Harbour Centre
Emily O’Brien: “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”
—SFU Department of History public lecture series: Heroes & Villains: Rethinking Good and Evil in History

• 24 January 2014
3:00 p.m., Buchanan Tower 826
Raúl Alvarez-Moreno: “Contextualizing the Spanish Imperial Project in Relation to the Orient: The Legatio babylonica (1501) by Peter Martyr d’Anghiera, an Annotated Trilingual Edition Based on the 1516 Version of the Text”
—UBC Early Romance Studies

• 29 January 2014
5:00 p.m., Green College Coach House
Louisa Mackenzie: “Don’t Panic: The Unknowability of Early Modern Nature”
—Oecologies Speaker Series

• 1 February 2014
Deadline for submissions: 42nd UBC Medieval Workshop
“Medieval and Renaissance Oecologies”

Sneak preview of what’s happening in the rest of this term:

• 4 February 2014
11:45 a.m., Frederic Wood Theatre room 112
Chantal Phan: “Text and Music in the Liturgical Drama of Medieval France”
—UBC Theatre & Film Program Research Seminar

• 26 February 2014
5:00 p.m., Green College Coach House
Lisa Shapiro: “Different Models of the Natural World?”
—Oecologies Speaker Series

• week of 24-28 March 2014
(further particulars t.b.c.)
at least one visiting speaker
—UBC FHIS / Early Romance Studies

• 28 March 2014
(further particulars t.b.c.)
Kim Beauchesne
—UBC Early Romance Studies

More coming soon: we have spaces in the calendar for talks through the academic year…

Although the current forecast is for classic Pacific Northwest Temperate Rainforest weather for the next few weeks, Vancouver becomes very lovely in the spring, abounding with cherry blossom. This place is actually very beautiful even when the weather is not what many people would consider “its best”: in shades of aquarelle subtle greys, with ever-shifting symphonic cloud narratives, and the occasional burst of sunlight: surely richer and more lyrical than bland boring blue skies every day. There is a reason for people admiring sunrises and sunsets in sunnier climes further down the coast: the only time the skies change.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder; and life is only ever improved by opening oneself up to new experiences and to the aesthetics, amongst other values, of alien cultures.

Come visit (probably-not-sunny-but-still-) Beautiful British Columbia.