Faculty Honors, Awards and Milestones

CARA Service Award for Chris Kleinhenz

The 2008 Robert L. Kindrick– CARA Award for Outstanding Service to Medieval Studies, presented at the annual meeting of the Medieval Academy in April 2008, went to Christopher Kleinhenz. His award citation pays tribute to his long career of scholarship and service at the UW-Madison and far beyond, highlighting his major contributions to Dante studies, medieval Italian studies more generally, CARA, Medieval Academy Reprints for Teaching, the American Association of Teachers of Italian, and dozens of International Congresses at Kalamazoo. Here is just one sentence from the concluding paragraph: "Professor Kleinhenz's is truly an astonishing record of activity, of commitment to medieval studies and promotion of our common field, and every aspect of his service has been conducted con sprezzatura, with grace and lively engagement." The complete citation, which is well worth reading, can be found in Speculum 83.3 (July 2008), 798-99.

Kleinhenz Honored in Florence

In November 2008 Chris Kleinhenz was awarded the "Fiorino d'oro" (Golden Florin) by the City of Florence and the Italian Dante Society for his contributions to the study of Dante and medieval Italian literature in general. The ceremony took place in the Salone dei Cinquecento in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence.

 

Two NEH Summer Seminars

Members of the Medieval Studies faculty at UW-Madison have received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities to run two of the ten Summer Seminars for College and University Teachers that are scheduled for next summer.

(1) Together with Monica Green (Arizona State University), Walt Schalick will be offering a seminar on "Disease in the Middle Ages" in London from July 5 to August 8, 2009. Based at the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at University College, London, and the Wellcome Library, their seminar will gather scholars from across the disciplines interested in questions of health, disease and disability in medieval Europe. A primary goal will be to explore how the new scientific technologies of identifying pathogens (particularly leprosy and plague) can inform traditional, humanistic methods (historical, literary, art historical, and linguistic) of understanding cultural responses to disease and disability. For further information, see http://medievalseminar2009.asu.edu.

(2) Chris Kleinhenz will be offering the seminar "Dante’s Divine Comedy and the Medieval World: Literature, History, Art" in Italy from June 15 to July 10, 2009. Based at Monash University Centre in Prato, this seminar will take advantage of the remarkable literary, historical and artistic resources present in Prato and nearby Italian cities, including Florence, Lucca, Pisa, Siena, San Gimignano, and Ravenna. The seminar is sponsored by the Medieval Academy of America; additional information can be found on the Academy website.

The Curse of Beowulf Laid to Rest

It was in 1950, shortly before his death, that Frederic Klaeber published the last version (the third edition, with supplements) of his monumental edition of Beowulf. Every so often since then, one or another distinguished Anglo-Saxonist has announced his intention to bring Klaeber’s edition up to date– and then has died, after working on the edition for years. Thus has arisen the legend of “the curse of Beowulf.” In the spring of 2008, however, a team of three co-editors, including UW-Madison Professor Jack Niles, completed Klaeber’s Beowulf: Fourth Edition, published by the University of Toronto Press. This edition promises to set a new scholarly standard for the years ahead. It seems that the 68-year-long curse has finally been put to rest.

Complementing this publication, Niles has brought out Beowulf: An Illustrated Edition. This lavishly illustrated book, published by W. W. Norton in 2007, features over 120 images that evoke the material culture of Migration Age Europe, with each image facing a page of Seamus Heaney’s celebrated translation of the poem.