4.12.2005
legal history
I just finished up a two-day seminar on legal history in London. It was run by the Warburg Institute, which part of the University of London's School of Advanced Study. The Warburg Institute, according to its website, "exists principally to further the study of the classical tradition, that is of those elements of European thought, literature, art and institutions which derive fron the ancient world."
So anyway, they just hosted a seminar entitled Legal Sources and the Historian, which is part of a larger teaching curriculum aimed at training historians of all stripes how to use legal sources as historical documents and not just as curiosities and oddities. It was amazing.
First of all, I should mention that I've never been to a seminar such as this before. A lot of grad students will look at me with some degree of disbelief. Seriously, I've never attended any sort of symposium or even dealt with one in Oxford. I've never been given the opportunity to eat with, talk with, and hang out with people who are interested in what I do but not in my department or university. I met people from UC Santa Barbara, New York City, and a whole bunch of other schools, including many in the UK. Sure, there were three people from the Oxford Ancient History program, and one of the guys I sing with from Queen's, but it was just so interesting to hear the opinions of people from all over.
One guy was there because he is researching drunkenness laws in the middle ages. Another is an economic historian who tracks commercial patterns in Republican Rome. Wacky.
The speakers were excellent, and I got a lot out of it. Unfortunately, it was funded by the AHRB, the Arts and Humanities Research Board here in the UK, who stated that the program, or program funds, were available only for doctoral students. So I had to email the director of the symposium and ask if I could attend, which he said was fine, but I couldn't receive housing or travel costs. Still, it was highly worth it.
Rowing camp also started today, but I had to miss it for this. And so I will row tomorrow morning. Ick. Thursday and Friday, I will be at Salisbury Cathedral, singing evensong and then back on Saturday to finish rowing camp.
Photographs will be posted soon of my time in Oxford, but it's difficult for me to fit the Paris pictures and other things at resolutions or sizes that I'd like to, but I'll try. Check back tomorrow for some different photo albums on my Oxford website.
So anyway, they just hosted a seminar entitled Legal Sources and the Historian, which is part of a larger teaching curriculum aimed at training historians of all stripes how to use legal sources as historical documents and not just as curiosities and oddities. It was amazing.
First of all, I should mention that I've never been to a seminar such as this before. A lot of grad students will look at me with some degree of disbelief. Seriously, I've never attended any sort of symposium or even dealt with one in Oxford. I've never been given the opportunity to eat with, talk with, and hang out with people who are interested in what I do but not in my department or university. I met people from UC Santa Barbara, New York City, and a whole bunch of other schools, including many in the UK. Sure, there were three people from the Oxford Ancient History program, and one of the guys I sing with from Queen's, but it was just so interesting to hear the opinions of people from all over.
One guy was there because he is researching drunkenness laws in the middle ages. Another is an economic historian who tracks commercial patterns in Republican Rome. Wacky.
The speakers were excellent, and I got a lot out of it. Unfortunately, it was funded by the AHRB, the Arts and Humanities Research Board here in the UK, who stated that the program, or program funds, were available only for doctoral students. So I had to email the director of the symposium and ask if I could attend, which he said was fine, but I couldn't receive housing or travel costs. Still, it was highly worth it.
Rowing camp also started today, but I had to miss it for this. And so I will row tomorrow morning. Ick. Thursday and Friday, I will be at Salisbury Cathedral, singing evensong and then back on Saturday to finish rowing camp.
Photographs will be posted soon of my time in Oxford, but it's difficult for me to fit the Paris pictures and other things at resolutions or sizes that I'd like to, but I'll try. Check back tomorrow for some different photo albums on my Oxford website.
