MOVE

This autumn, MOVE continues last spring’s focus on Archives and the Archival Turn—with a particular concern for the networks that made artefacts move across time and space and the structures that decide their current whereabouts.

The first seminar takes place digitally via Zoom (link will be distributed to MOVE members by email): 

Tuesday 24 August, 11:30–13:00

Michael Press (Postdoctoral fellow at the University of Agder) will present a paper on Antiquities on the Move in Late Ottoman Palestine

Abstract: The end of the Ottoman period marks the time in which the antiquities trade becomes formalized in Palestine. In this presentation we will look at how the trade worked and how objects circulated in and beyond Palestine’s borders, using a few key examples such as the Ustinow Collection. The presentation will highlight the collaborative nature of the trade, involving networks of collectors, dealers, and associated figures.

Program:

11:30: Welcome and introduction

11:40: Michael Press, Antiquities on the Move in Late Ottoman Palestine

12:10: Short break

12:20: Discussion

13:00: End of meeting

The second meeting takes place

Wednesday 3 November, 15:00–16:00, at Room 405 (MF)

This is a social get together at MF for all members of MOVE. Expect cake and coffee! We also want to discuss the future of MOVE. Where do we go from here?

The final MOVE-event this semester takes place

Friday 10 December, 8:30–15:00

The event is an in-person excursion to the depot of the Museum of Cultural History at Økern. The excursion was supposed to take place in April 2021, but was postponed due to the pandemic. At Økern, we will see, among other things, items from the Ustinov collection. 

More information TBA. 

The 2021 MOVE spring seminars will be dedicated to the topic Archives and the Archival Turn. The first seminar, Archival Gaps, takes place via Zoom,

Wednesday 10 February (12:15-13:45)

Join here: https://mf-no.zoom.us/j/65788576617?pwd=TGRzREVoRjJncEY2bWpyWjdXZVRHdz09

The topic of this seminar is Archival Gaps. Absence of data is a fact of life for researchers, and absences are particularly prominent in the study of people and groups whose voices were historically excluded or ignored. The archival turn offers us new possibilities for engaging productively with these gaps and following their traces into the past.  This seminar will focus on these gaps and how various fields have grappled with their challenge.

Blossom Stefaniw (MF/CAS) will talk about theories and methods for working with archival gaps. She will survey some of the approaches that are available in other fields and discuss how to use them in studies of religion. Currently, theories of archival gaps are coming out of academic fields such as Fan Fiction Studies, Cultural Studies, Post-Colonial Studies and Feminist and Queer Studies. Why have disciplines specializing in the study of religion so far not produced their own approaches to archives and archival gaps? 

Esther Brownsmith (MF/CAS) will talk about absence and presence in the archive. She will introduce some of the main vocabulary (“Archival Turn,” “traces,” “fault lines,” etc.). Brownsmith will then apply these concepts to one case study, the Book of Esther, and explore how its texts and archive interact with gender.  With its playful attitude toward textual documentation, the book offers a nuanced depiction of how archival activity can be appropriated and even subverted — but what “ghosts” still haunt this reimagined archive? 

The seminar is in collaboration with the CAS-project Books Known Only by Title: Exploring the Gendered Structures of the First Millennium Imagined Library (2020/2021).

Program

12:15: Welcome 

12:20: Blossom Stefaniw, Methods for Working with Archival Gaps

12:40: Short break

12:50: Esther Brownsmith, Absence and Presence in the Archive

13:10: Short break

13:20: Discussion and bibliography production

13:45: End of the seminar

Welcome to MOVE seminar Thursday 10 December, 12:15 – 15:00!

The December MOVE seminar will focus on religious tropes, myths and symbols that move across regions and continents and that are re-appropriated for political purposes at another time and place. How do we understand the diffusion, circulation and spread of such tropes? How do tropes, myths and symbols that spread over large distances change? (How) do travelling tropes shed their history as their go, and how do they become meaningful in new contexts? How do media and mediation matter? How do we grasp agency, reciprocity, cross-polination and counter-flows?  

Based on short presentations of diverse case studies, the seminar aims to develop and refine theoretical grasps on tropes that travel.

The seminar is digital event, taking place in Zoom:

https://mf-no.zoom.us/j/66725033138?pwd=UFFTZytCeDhVRDd1YmdqVldPLzQ2dz09

Program

12:15  Welcome from Liv Ingeborg & Kristin

12:30   Panel 1

Moumita Sen: “Virulent, Vibrant, Viral: The Aesthetics and Politics of Anti-Muslim Memes”

Iselin Frydenlund: “‘Love Jihad’: A Traveling Trope in Global Islamophobia?”

Eviane Leidig: “Tropes of Love Jihad Flowing between India and the West” (preliminary title)

Discussion (25 min)

13:25-13:45 Break

13:45   Panel 2

Sami al-Daghistani: “Political Re-articulations of Jihād and Sharī’a in the Middle East and South Asia”

Kristin B. Aavitsland: “Jerusalem Tropes as Political Legitimation Strategies in Medieval and Early Modern Scandinavia”

Kristin Joachimsen: “Complex Imaginations of Cyrus in Current US Politics: Tributing Trump, Mocking the Present Islamic Regime of Iran”

Discussion (25 min)

14:45 Bibliography building

15:00 End of seminar

After the Annual Seminar in September (thanks to everyone attending!), our MOVE bibliography has been updated with new entries, including some of the powerpoint presentations given at the seminar. Check out the Literature page. Material that is not universally available on the web can be downloaded from the password protected Downloads page (send us an email if you have forgotten the MOVE password).

The next MOVE event will take place at MF 10 December in the form of a hybrid (irl+online) seminar on Traveling Tropes. Save the date! Program and information will follow shortly.

Kristin & Liv Ingeborg

ANNUAL MOVE SEMINAR 2020: 10 September on Zoom

A substantial part of the materials that serve as sources of historical and humanities research are cultural artefacts—manuscripts, artworks, and archaeological objects—that have been moved from their original find sites. These artefacts may have been removed from archaeological sites, or from the communities that once produced and owned them. Many of them have crossed national borders, changed owners several times, served as commodities on the legal or illegal antiquities markets and ended up in collections—private or public—far away from their geographical and cultural place of origin. Where do our sources come from? How did they reach their current owners? Why does attention to provenance matter? How and why does the movement of archaeological and cultural heritage artefacts challenge researchers?

The 2020 annual MOVE seminar will explore a spectrum of challenges related to researching relocated cultural artefacts. The seminar will map the international conventions and national laws that control export and import of archaeological and heritage artefacts and the professional policies that regulate research on them. Based on presentations by invited speakers and building on the research experience of MOVE-members, the seminar will engage the ethical and legal challenges of researching objects that move.

The seminar is organized by MOVE Research Group at MF CASR. It is funded by MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society and by the RCN-project The Lying Pen of Scribes: Manuscript Forgeries, Digital Imaging, and Critical Provenance Research.

The first part of the seminar (8:50-13:10) is an internal event for members of the MOVE research group, researchers associated with the Lying Pen of Scribes-project, and specially invited guests (password has been sent you on email). Join the ZOOM event here:

https://mf-no.zoom.us/j/62952794862?pwd=U3RNZ2s1WDdZQXIyVnFucHVwdS9udz09

The second part of the seminar (18:00-19:00) is a public online lecture, given by Rick Bonnie, archaeologist at the University of Helsinki, Finland. The lecture is free to join and open to all who want to attend. Sign up for the webinar here:

https://mf-no.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_IYGHo5LCSPOJy6TD8dQdGg

Full program:

PART I

8:50 Join the digital event, welcome and virtual coffee

9:00 Introduction

Liv Ingeborg Lied (MF) and Christian Bull (MF)

9:10 Keynote 1

Adam Lindhagen (Riksantikvaren/The Directorate for Cultural Heritage in Norway). “Illicit Trade in Cultural Artefacts—A Legal–Archaeological Perspective” (30 min)

Discussion (20 min)

10:00 Coffee break

10:30 Manuscripts–panel

Chair: Hugo Lundhaug (University of Oslo)

Årstein Justnes (University of Agder) “More Profound than Goat Lost and Found: The Provenance of the Dead Sea Scrolls” (10 min)

Brent Nongbri (MF) “Working with the Bodmer Collection: Results and Reservations” (10 min)

Liv Ingeborg Lied (MF) “Textual Scholarship, Ethics, and Someone Else’s Manuscripts” (10 min)

Discussion (30 min)

11:30 Lunch break

12:30 Archaeology–panel

Chair: Stefka Eriksen (Norsk institutt for kulturminneforskning)

Nils H. Korsvoll (University of Agder) “Philology Today: Standing on the Shoulders of Giants or on Giant Feet of Clay?” (10 min)

Mary Jane Cuyler (MF and DeCHriM) “A Truly Unlucky Excavation: Studying and Publishing Ceramics from Santa Maria in Aracoeli, Rome” (10 min)

Discussion (20 min)

13:10 End of the seminar

PART II

18:00 Keynote 2

https://mf-no.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_IYGHo5LCSPOJy6TD8dQdGg

Chairs: Årstein Justnes and Liv Ingeborg Lied

Rick Bonnie (University of Helsinki) “Capacity Building Processes and Policy Implementation on Unprovenanced Cultural Objects in Finland” (30 min)

Discussion (20 min)

18:50 End of the event

We are very sorry for the inconvenience, but due to the coronavirus crisis, we have decided to postpone our seminar at 21 April to September. We’ll come back with an exact date and more precise information. We hope that you are all well and healthy,

Kristin & Liv Ingeborg

Just a quick note to inform you that our reading list has been updated (see the Literature page here at the blog) after our truly stimulating seminar on infrastructure. Thank you all for participating and contributing with insights and reading suggestions!

Kristin & Liv Ingeborg

Researching Archaeological and Heritage Artefacts: Legal and Ethical Dimensions

Venue: MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society, Auditorium 1

A substantial part of the materials that serves as sources of historical and humanities research are cultural artefacts—manuscripts, artworks, and archaeological objects—that have been moved from their original find sites. These artefacts may have been removed from archaeological sites, or from the communities that once produced and owned them. Many of these artefacts have crossed national borders, changed owners several times, served as commodities on the legal or illegal antiquities markets and ended up in collections—private or public—far away from their geographical and cultural place of origin. Where do our sources come from? How did they reach their current owners? Why does attention to provenance matter? How and why does the movement of archaeological and cultural heritage artefacts challenge researchers?

The 2020 annual MOVE-seminar will explore a spectrum of challenges related to researching relocated cultural artefacts. The seminar will map the international conventions and national laws that control export and import of archaeological and heritage artefacts and the professional policies that regulate research on them. Based on presentations by invited speakers and building on the research experience of MOVE-members, the seminar will engage the ethical and legal challenges of researching artefacts that move.

8:30 Welcome and coffee

9:00 Introduction

Liv Ingeborg Lied (MF) and Christian Bull (MF)

9:15 Keynote 1

Adam Lindhagen (Riksantikvaren/The Directorate for Cultural Heritage in Norway). “Illicit Trade in Cultural Artefacts—A Legal–Archaeological Perspective” (30 min)

Discussion (15 min)

10:00 Coffee and refreshments

10:20 Manuscripts–panel

Chair: Hugo Lundhaug (University of Oslo)

Årstein Justnes (University of Agder) “More Profound than Goat Lost and Found: The Provenance of the Dead Sea Scrolls” (10 min)

Brent Nongbri (MF) “Working with the Bodmer Collection: Results and Reservations” (10 min)

Liv Ingeborg Lied (MF) “Textual Scholarship, Ethics, and Someone Else’s Manuscripts” (10 min)

Discussion (40 min)

11:30 Lunch in the cantina/ MF CASR brown bag lunch seminar

13:00 Keynote 2

Rick Bonnie (University of Helsinki) “Capacity Building Processes and Policy Implementation on Unprovenanced Cultural Objects in Finland” (30 min)

Response: Matthew P. Monger (MF) (10 min)

Discussion (20 min)

14.00 Coffee

14:20 Archaeology–panel

Chair: Stefka Eriksen (Norsk institutt for kulturminneforskning)

Wally Cirafesi (MF) “Colonial Entanglements of Ottoman Palestine and the History of the Ustinov Collection” (10 min)

Nils H. Korsvoll (University of Agder) “Philology Today: Standing on the Shoulders of Giants or on Giant Feet of Clay?” (10 min)

Mary Jane Cuyler (MF and DeCHriM) “A Truly Unlucky Excavation: Studying and Publishing Ceramics from Santa Maria in Aracoeli, Rome” (10 min)

Discussion (40 min)

15:30 Roundtable Discussion (with coffee and refreshments)

Chairs: Christian Bull and Liv Ingeborg Lied

16:30 End of Workshop

The workshop is organized by MOVE Research Group at MF CASR. The workshop is funded by MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society and by the RCN-project The Lying Pen of Scribes: Manuscript Forgeries, Digital Imaging, and Critical Provenance Research.