UO faculty organize conference on “Medieval Technologies”

The Medieval Association of the Pacific (MAP) is an organization of university faculty, students, and independent scholars from around the Pacific Rim, including North America, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. Founded in 1966, MAP has a distinguished record of supporting interdisciplinary medieval studies. Faculty at the University of Oregon have a long history of active membership in MAP.

MAP hosts an annual conference that is open to scholars working on any aspect of the global medieval world. This year’s conference, “Medieval Technologies,” will be held at the University of Oregon and Mount Angel Abbey April 20–23, 2023. Cosponsored by the OHC’s Endowment for Public Outreach in the Arts, Sciences, and Humanities, the conference is organized by Maile Hutterer, History of Art and Architecture; Lori Kruckenberg, Musicology; Katie Jo LaRiviere, former OHC Dissertation Fellow, and associate professor of Literature, Mount Angel Seminary; and Mike Peixoto, an academic program manager at UO who holds a PhD in History from New York University.

Over the four days there will be three plenary talks and 17 concurrent breakout sessions. 

Richard Unger, History (emerit), University of British Columbia will give the first plenary, “Is ‘Medieval Technician an’ Oxymoron?: The Metamorphosis of the Practical Arts or Thinking about Medieval Technologies.” Jennifer Feltman, Art History and Medieval Art, University of Alabama will speak on “Digital Twin Technologies and the Study of Medieval Monuments: Current Challenges, Possible Futures” (co-hosted as a HA&A Sponenburgh lecture). And Brother Jessie, Mount Angel Abbey, will speak on “When the Brewers Were Monks: Benedictine Spirituality and the Technology of Beer in the Middle Ages.” The conference culminates with a mass with the monks at Mount Angel Abbey, an illuminated manuscript viewing, and a reception at Mount Angel’s Benedictine Brewery. 

According to Hutterer, “Hosting conferences such as this gives the University of Oregon positive exposure to the wider academic community. Not only do they present the UO as an academic leader, but they also serve as catalysts for cross-institutional collaboration and mentorship. Attendees of the conference will come from schools large and small throughout the western regions of the U.S. and Canada and from other countries in the Pacific Rim, especially Australia and New Zealand. This year, the MAP conference will take advantage of the exceptional resource of Mount Angel Abbey, which preserves a number of rare medieval manuscripts and medieval craft practices.”