James Palmer has recently returned from being the Lindsay Young Distinguished Visiting Senior Scholar at the MARCO Institute, University of Tennessee Knoxville. The visit built on Palmer’s ongoing research with Prof Jay Rubenstein on medieval ideas of apocalypse, and paved the way for future collaborations between SAIMS and MARCO.
Palmer had a busy time in Knoxville. His visit coincided with the lively 13th Annual Marco Symposium, on ‘Rome: Beyond the Discourse of Renewal’. He led a discussion at a research lunch at the Humanities Center on nineteenth-century views of the Middle Ages, and led a graduate seminar on ideas of otherness for UT Knoxville students. To conclude his visit, he gave a lecture entitled ‘Climates of Crisis: Apocalypse and Nature in the Early Medieval World’.
The visit to UT Knoxville gave Palmer a chance to work on his new book on early medieval hagiography in the John C. Hodges Library and to discuss future plans with Prof Rubenstein, MARCO director Prof Thomas Burman, late antique historian Prof Tina Shepardson, and fellow Carolingianist Prof Matthew Gillis, amongst others. It is hoped that this is just the beginning of a productive relationship between SAIMS and MARCO staff.
In addition to the time spent in Knoxville, Palmer also presented at the Medieval Academy of America annual meeting in Boston, where he caught up with long-time collaborator Prof Matt Gabriele of Virginia Tech. He was also invited to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill by Prof Brett Whalen, where he led another graduate seminar and gave his ‘Climates of Crisis’ lecture.