Call for Papers

Call for Papers: European Association of Biblical Studies/Society of Biblical Literature, meeting in Tartu, Estonia, July 25-29, 1010

The Bible in the Iberian World: Fundamentals of a Religious Melting Pot

That the Iberian Peninsula represents a fundamental hub between Christianity, Judaism and Islam is common knowledge. However, theologians and historians have been studying these phenomena as isolated events and not as part of a much larger Iberian world characteristic, one that should be understood in terms of the broader Western thought.
This sessions’ goal, though experimental, is to provide a space of discussion for those of us who work with biblical themes in the context of the Iberian world, including not only the peninsular space, but also its colonial spaces, e.g., American, African and Asian places where Portuguese and Spaniards played an influential role starting in the Early Modern period. Moreover, the subjects to discuss are not limited nor to a particular time frame nor to a specific chronological period for this first phase.
Our initial objectives are to underline the importance of the Iberian world as a space of communication, or not, between the different religions of the Bible, of biblical interpretation, and how the Iberian world was prone to be influenced by the Bible.
Call for Papers: For this year’s session, we would like to gather scholars with different backgrounds in order to enlighten the Iberian world’s biblical understanding and experience. Therefore, it is our goal to join in this session papers that deal not only with the interpretation of the sacred texts within the Iberian space, but also with how these peoples have lived their religiosity not just in the Iberian Peninsula but also in the colonies.

Program Unit Chairs:
Maria Ana T. Valdez (Yale University)
Ricardo Muñoz Solla (Salamanca University)

http://www.sbl-site.org/meetings/Congresses_CallForPaperDetails.aspx?MeetingId=16&VolunteerUnitId=513

Hello from the underground!

My dear friends,


My apologies for this silence. I've been awful and I do apologize for that.
I have passed my exams with a summa cum laude, and I am currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at Yale, Department of Religious Studies.

I will post more detailed info in the coming weeks. I am running now to get things ready for this year's EABS meeting at Lincoln. Yes, this year, not having to organize I have the time to present some of my previous research results. I hope everything will work out just fine, but I have to tell you that I am overworked and not at all excited about the idea of flying once again...

I will keep you posted,


Ana

Ph.D. Defense

Caros Professores, Colegas e Amigos,


Escrevo-vos porque gostaria que soubessem que defendo a minha tese de doutoramento em História no próximo dia 16 de Dezembro, pelas 10 h na sala de doutoramentos da Reitoria da Universidade de Lisboa.
Queria, sobretudo, agradecer a todos pelo muito que me ensinaram, incentivaram e ouviram, especialmente, durante os últimos anos em que a ponte aérea entre Portugal e os EUA fizeram com que a minha vida mudasse radicalmente. A muitos de vós devo conversas essenciais que levaram à conclusão do meu trabalho, dicas, novas perspectivas, recomendações de leituras, mas essencialmente o apoio que todos me deram durante estes anos loucos de trabalho.
No fim, a tese acabou por ter o título Historical Interpretations of “Fifth Empire”: Dynamics of Periodization from Daniel to António Vieira, S.J., e foi, como sabem, orientada pelos Professores Doutores José Augusto Ramos (FLUL) e John J. Collins (Yale).
No dia 16, a tese será arguida pelo Prof. Doutor José Pedro Paiva (FLUC), pelo Prof. Doutor John J. Collins (Yale), pelo Prof. Doutor José Carlos Carvalho (UCP-P), pelo Prof. Doutor Arnaldo Espírito Santo, pelo Prof. Doutor Luís Filipe Barreto e pela Prof. Doutora Isabel Almeida.

Espero poder rever alguns de vós no dia 16.
A todos, um muito obrigada por me terem acompanhado nas mais variadas formas ao longo deste percurso.
Com os meus cumprimentos,


Maria Ana Valdez


Dear Professors, Colleagues, and Friends,

I am writing to let you know that I will be defending my PhD dissertation on December 16th, at 10 am, at “Sala de Doutoramentos” of the University of Lisbon.
I would like, at this moment, to thank you all for everything you have taught me, for your support and, especially, for the time you have spent listening to me and discussing ideas and thoughts, especially during the last four years during which I have lived between Portugal and the US. To many of you I owe fundamental words that led to concluding the dissertation, tips, new perspectives, readings, but above all, the support you have given me during the last four years.
The dissertation is entitled: Historial Interpretations of “Fifth Empire”: Dynamics of Periodization from Daniel to António Vieira, S.J. and was supervised by Professors José Augusto Ramos (Lisbon University) and John J. Collins (Yale University).
It will be argued by Prof. Doctor José Pedro Paiva (Coimbra), Prof. Doctor John J. Collins (Yale), Prof. Doctor José Carlos Carvalho (Portuguese Catholic University), Prof. Doctor Arnaldo Espírito Santo (Univ. of Lisbon), Prof. Doctor Luis Filipe Barreto (Univ. of Lisbon), and Prof. Doctor Isabel Almeida (Univ. of Lisbon).

Once again, I would like to express my gratitude for all your help during this process and my hope that our ways will cross again in the future.
Yours sincerely,


Maria Ana Valdez

Defense Scheduled...

Yes... it looks like i am growing older and I can barely feel my knees... My PhD defense is scheduled for December 16, 2008 at 10 am at the Reitoria of the University of Lisbon.

have a look: http://www.ul.pt/portal/page?_pageid=173,835673&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL


Ana...

Finally the program is out

Yes... finally, the Catholic University of Lisbon as released the program of one of this year's most important conferences about António Vieira. As it is becoming usual, I will present there another paper...

Here is the program: http://www.anovieirino.com/modules/icontent/index.php?page=10

For those of you who do not speak Portuguese, just hit where it says: "Consulte aqui o Programa (PDF)" to have access to it.

Book

I have just submitted the texts from the proceedings of the EABS this summer in Lisbon for publication. This is my first edited book and i am quite excited about it. Besides it will be out before the end of 2008, which is an achievement!

I will post here more information such as title, table of contents, etc., as it becomes available.

Antonio Vieira, Baroque Portugal and Colonial Brazil

yet another conference about António Vieira, this time at Brown University.

c o n f e r e n c e
"Antonio Vieira, Baroque Portugal and Colonial Brazil"November 7 and 8Friday and Saturday Locations: November 7 [The John Carter Brown Library]November 8 [Smith-Buonano Auditorium, RM 106]

here is the link for the complete program: http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Portuguese_Brazilian_Studies/documents/VieiraConferenceProgram.PDF

it is submitted

Dear All,


I have finally submitted the dissertation on September 4th. Now that i am back to New Haven, I am, while recovering, trying to put together 3 conferences, a postdoctoral project and researching for a dictionary.
Meanwhile, i am trying to hang in there while i do not know officially when the dissertation's defense will be set, though i know it will be around the second week of December.

all is well when it ends well, right?

:) :)

IT'S PRINTING!!!!

Finally... it is printing... this huge monster is about to be done!

yuuuuuuuupppppppiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeee

Antonio Vieira & the Futures of luzo-afro-brazilian studies - International Colloquium

Have a look at their website, the program is quite interesting: http://homepage.mac.com/gmreis/vieira/program.html

there are days...

two weeks ago i realised that someone had stolen my bike from the inside of my building... no, it was not from the front of the library or from any other open space...

today, i got a new one and when i trying it for the first time, i realised that the chain was loose... lucky me that i know how to use my hands and solved the issue...

now, tell me, what's going on between bikes and me? who cursed me?

where's my snow?

i was promised plenty of snow... and now i wonder where it is. well, i know... it is me coming from a country with no snow i have no clue of what it is. i am sure that is the reason why i cannot see it...

yes, i am frustrated because i truly enjoy the silence that comes with snow... i really enjoy the white flurries falling peacefully on my head.

please snow, hurry up.....

back...

I'm back to Yale wishing that i wouldn't have this much work to do. besides, it is raining and i hate it. it simply makes me blue, and that added to the jet lag is one of those bombastic combinations.

i was so tired that i did not answer any of my friends season greetings. i hope they will apologize me and understand, though it was not a decent thing to do.

I'm afraid i have ahead of me several months of hard work and will be most of the time impossible to post updates of what i am doing. however, i do also know by experience that i like to post when i cannot find the right words to finish a paragraph... it is quite useful to regain my inspiration, so i have no clue of how often i will be writing here. please make me do it!

happy new year to you all!

Finally, feeback from the trip to Brazil

As you all know I was a little afraid about what was going to happen in Brazil. I have to say that everything went much better that I had ever dreamed it would be possible.


My first task was to teach in a seminar on Religion and Literature. I was asked to introduce students to my doctoral research. Well… I obviously sent them some readings, which they have never read: after all it was about apocalyptics… Why should they bore to do it, right? After all, as they said: “this is not our beach!”
Well, I’ve managed to survive what could have been chaos… I asked them straight to give keywords that could define “apocalypse”. It was great because they really interacted. It was possible for me to overcome all the problems of the video system due to that interaction. I’m having this problem all the time… it seems that someone jinxed my pwp presentations (it had already happened in Vienna)… I think that by the end they had a pretty good idea about how it was possible to relate apocalyptics, literature and history. But the good thing was the fact that their professor emphasized my abilities to speak and my “pedagogical” skills!

Second task, the conference paper: I was going to speak about António Vieira and the revival of apocalyptic and millennial hope during the 17th century. It was extremely good because without my knowledge, my roundtable partner ended up also speaking about him. It resulted in more than one hour of Q&A with the audience. Just great!

The best of it, in professional terms, was the fact of getting an invitation to go back next year. Besides, I got the opportunity to truly influence someone else’s work and the results were great… I went pack and comeback for the students’ presentations just to hear to the audience comments. It was great… made me feel that I could influence someone… just great! I hope to continue doing that in the future since I just loved it.

Personally it was also great: I met great people and had the opportunity to exchange ideas and thoughts about my work and other persons’ work, and I think I’ve made some friendships…

Global balance: it was worth the 24h trip to get there and the 16h trip to get back!

Oh… and I am publishing with them an article!

sometimes even i get lucky!

Look at the AHA bulletin post:

Drawing Winners Selected
Thanks to all who participated in the survey on the 2009 annual meeting. Two survey participants have been randomly drawn to receive free registration for the 2008 annual meeting in Washington, D.C. Congratulations to the winners: Carla Lesh of State University of New York, Albany and Ana Valdez of Yale University and Lisbon University.

Snow is coming into town...

finally... it snows... we can already notice the white cover and the silence.
the snow and the peace of mind of having finally sent out all the applications are definitely going to help me relax. at least, i hope so.

enjoy the snow!!!

back

yes, i am back to the cold... i have to say that the experience in Brazil was truly surprising. quite good, in fact.
i'll update after recovering from the trip. i will even post some of the very few pictures i took in São Paulo.

snow?

is there snow in the horizon? it would be so good... i love the peace and tranquility that comes with it... can i dream about it?

Brazil or not Brazil?

I am getting ready to hit the road down to Brazil next week. The conference text and presentation, and the lecture's material are now ready.

I wish I could say the same about finding travel tips for São Paulo... I am glad I am a native speaker, otherwise it would be nerve breaking!

Has anyone visited the city in the past?

Well, let's hope that at least the weather is good, though the forecast says rain! Summer... my dear, sweet summer... so far away and, at the same time, so close!

Connecticut's Fall

Hope you will enjoy the colors as much as I did. It is simply superb...