The UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (CMRS) invites applications from graduate students and post-doctoral scholars to attend the Dante and the Visual Arts Summer Symposium. The symposium, organized by CMRS and the journal Dante e l’Arte in conjunction with the J. Paul Getty Museum, will take place August 22–24, 2016 in Los Angeles with sessions at UCLA and at the Getty Center. The symposium is part of the larger research project Envisioning the Word: Dante and the Visual Arts 1300-1500 which is an ongoing collaboration between the UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies and the Institut d’Estudis Medievals at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. The project’s goal is to demonstrate and document how Dante’s imagery, particularly that associated with the Divine Comedy, draws upon the visual traditions of Dante’s own time and gives them a new form. It also examines the way that Dante’s Comedy influenced the visual arts of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and the culture of early modern print.
The Dante and the Visual Arts Summer Symposium will consist of a day at the Getty Museum focusing on manuscripts and printed books of the fourteenth through the sixteenth centuries, concentrating on the long visual tradition associated with Dante and his milieu. Participants will also learn how books and manuscripts were made, illuminated, and illustrated. The symposium will then move to UCLA for two days of presentations and discussions focusing on the most important editions of Dante’s Comedy analyzing such factors as the relationship between text and image, the hermeneutic importance of the image, and the criteria by which a particular description in the text has been selected to be represented visually. An exhibit of early books and manuscripts will be on display in UCLA Library Special Collections in conjunction with the symposium.
ELIGIBILITY: Applicants must be graduate students or post-doctoral scholars who are doing research or specializing in some aspect of Dante studies. An ability to speak and to understand spoken Italian is preferred, but not required. Please note that applicants who are not US citizens will be responsible for obtaining the appropriate visa if required. If selected for the award, the UCLA-CMRS staff will assist with this process.
AWARD: A total of 12 applicants will be selected to attend the symposium. Six of these applicants will be chosen from the southern California region. An additional six from outside the greater Los Angeles area will be selected to receive funding in the form of roundtrip, economy class travel to/from Los Angeles (i.e., airfare and ground transportation) and 5 nights lodging.
APPLICATION PROCEDURE: There is no application form. An application consists of these items:
– A cover letter with the following information: Name, mailing address, email address, telephone number, affiliation and status (school you attend or graduated from; highest academic degree and date awarded), and citizenship status. Please address the cover letter to Professor Massimo Ciavolella.
– A short description (500 words) of your academic or research interests and an explanation of how the Dante and the Visual Arts Summer Symposium will help you achieve your academic goals. Please describe your fluency with the Italian language.
– Curriculum vitae.
– Transcript(s) from all colleges or universities attended
– Two letters of recommendation from faculty or scholars familiar with your academic work.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: Submit application items 1-4 as a PDF email attachment to cmrs@humnet.ucla.edu. Use the subject line “Dante Application.” Letters of recommendation should be submitted by the recommender to the same email address. All applications and letters will receive an email confirmation of receipt.
DEADLINE: April 15, 2016
If you need more information about the symposium or the application process, please contact Karen Burgess (UCLA-CMRS Assistant Director) atkburgess@ucla.edu
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