Book Manuscript Workshop at the Center for the Humanities

The sound of silence?

Texts, Music, and Silence in Late Medieval England - A Book Manuscript Workshop

By Nicholas Snider, OSU Center for the Humanities Graduate Research Assistant

On Saturday, September 21st, a cross-disciplinary group of scholars gathered in the Center for Humanities as part of a day-long manuscript workshop. Tekla Bude, 2018-19 Center for Humanities Research Fellow and Assistant Professor in the School of Writing, Literature, and Film (SWLF); Rebecca Olsen, SWLF Associate Professor; Tara Williams, Associate Dean of the Honors College; and Chris Nichols, Director of the Center for Humanities were joined by visiting faculty Andrew Albin, Associate Professor of English at Fordham University and Julie Orlemanski, Assistant Professor of English at the University of Chicago. The day’s focus was on Bude’s upcoming monograph on music, silence, and embodiment in late medieval England, which builds on recent conversations about the body and the voice in both literary criticism and musical theory.  

The workshop, which was facilitated by Nichols and hosted by the Center for Humanities and co-sponsored by the Provost’s Office, opened with participants offering Bude some encouragement: The monograph will be a “significant and useful contribution to many fields,” said Albin. Orlemanski called the work: “Intellectually fearless, bold, and original.” The reviewers, having previously read the manuscript and provided significant written feedback, continued the morning workshop session with a discussion of the work’s major arguments and structure. All of the events were recorded and extensive written feedback was provided by all of the participants. In the afternoon, reviewers provided specific feedback on each unique chapter in Bude’s monograph, discussing her research and analysis through the lens of their own expertise. The day concluded with a discussion of Bude’s goals for the book's final preparations to be made prior to sending the manuscript to publishers. It is clear that this sort of workshop is an enormous help to OSU faculty as they prepare books to go to press, and aim to make major impacts in their fields. An added benefit is that these book manuscript workshops showcase OSU excellence to those visiting who report that it was a pleasure, an honor, and a “dynamic intellectual event.”

For more information about this new program, please be in touch with the Center for the Humanities.

 

Photo: Andrew Albin, Associate Professor of English, Fordham University, Tekla Bude, Assistant Professor of English, Oregon State, Julie Orlemanski, Assistant Professor of English, the University of Chicago