Modern Theoretical Approaches to Medieval Translation

This chapter explores some of the ways in which modern literary theory opens insights into medieval European translations. Rather than drawing a distinction between theoretical approaches that apply to medieval studies and those that do not, I will explore a few examples that might in turn inspire readers to their own insights. It is my hope that over time readers of this Companion to Medieval Translation will posit many more modern theoretical approaches to medieval translation than can be suggested here. We might even imagine that some of the particularities of medieval European theories of translation could themselves be codified as approaches to texts from other times and places. It is the nature of theory, after all, to exceed its context. Connections grow by analogy across times, places, and cultures. In keeping with this volume’s focus, my comments are primarily addressed to Latinate and Germanic languages, although some aspects may apply to other language groups (and Arabic should certainly be included among the medieval European languages)

Overcoming Obesity: Provider Reminders and Education in Pediatrics

The prevalence of pediatric overweight and obesity is rising globally (Di Cesare et al., 2019) and results in lifelong chronic health problems and an estimated annual healthcare cost of $14.1 billion (Trasande & Chatterjee, 2009). The purpose of this evidence-based practice project was to address overweight and obesity in patients between the ages of five and 12 years through the provision of provider reminders, education, and guidelines. Primary outcomes included frequency of diagnosis, frequency of patient referrals, return to see times, and frequency of patient nutrition and activity education while secondary outcomes included patient weight, body mass index (BMI), and zBMI. A review of literature was conducted, and a multimodal, nonpharmacologic approach was determined to be most effective. Over a 12-week period, pediatric patients who met specified BMI percentile criteria were flagged by nurses who supplied provider reminders. A provider education session was also conducted. Statistical analysis was performed utilizing a two-group comparison design. Pre-intervention data (n = 111) was collected on frequency of diagnosis, frequency of patient referrals, and frequency of patient nutrition and activity education and was compared to intervention data (n = 391) using a chi-square test for independence to determine if the intervention made a statistically significant impact. A statistically significant increase in number of diagnosis was found (X2 (1) = 8.636, p = .003) while the results for the frequency of nutrition and activity counseling (X2 (1) = 1.587, p = .208), return to see times (t (500) = 1.263, p = .207), and frequency of referrals (X2 (1) = 2.296, p = .317) were not significant. To examine secondary outcomes, a paired t-test comparing the weight, BMI, and zBMI of repeat patients (n = 27) was performed. While patient weight increased significantly (t = -3.620, df = 26, p = .001), this was expected as height also increased. No significant difference in BMI (t = -.792, df = 26, p = .436) or zBMI (t = .166, df = 26, p = .869) was found. Future longitudinal research should aim to examine if an increase in diagnosis contributes to decreased patient weight, BMI, and zBMI

Remix the Manuscript: A Chronicle of Digital Experiments (2015-2020)

Remix the Manuscript is a digital humanities research project centered around a single medieval manuscript, the Dartmouth Brut Chronicle (Rauner Codex MS 003183). This ongoing experiment with digital tools uses this one example to explore one broad question: How are the digital tools available today determining what we will know 100 years from now about things that happened 1000 years ago

Photographic Representation: Negotiating Sites of Memory in Eduardo Rovner’s ¿Una foto...?

Eduardo Rovner’s ¿Una foto…? (Argentina, 1977) tells the superficially benign tale of a husband and wife who try to make their baby smile for a photograph. The play (dedicated, incidentally, to those who refused to smile) employs family as a metaphor for a nation forced into appearances of well-being through whatever means necessary, with the photograph serving as proof of that well-being. This study focuses on the photograph in ¿Una foto…? as a “site of memory” and argues that the photo that the characters attempt to take of their baby, the most innocent and vulnerable character on the stage, stands in for the outward appearances of a stable and content nation, whatever the cost of creating that appearance. Although the photograph represents familial stability and happiness, the process, as a “site of memory” played out on stage, reveals a more sinister truth behind the arrival at the final product

Digital Use and Internet Access in Fayetteville, Arkansas

A report on data gathered from a spring 2019 survey by the UA Center for Communication Research. The data will provide the City of Fayetteville with a baseline picture regarding residents’ current levels of internet access, their daily activities online, the importance of the internet to them, and the barriers they see to enhanced online access. Future study will consider the homework gap in homes with K-12 students as well as general internet access issues for residential multi-tenant environments. Data from this survey will inform the City of Fayetteville\u27s Digital Equity Plan

Situating Digital Archives

This essay is the introduction to an essay collection about the Middle English Prose Brut manuscript purchased by Dartmouth College in 2006. I consider how the competing pressures of access and preservation condition scholarship in medieval studies. I suggest several analogies between the digital humanities in general, digital philology in medieval studies, and the historical practices of medieval writers: hacking, dark archive, and prosthesis

The Value of ERP Curriculum Integration: Perspectives from the Research

In the current economic conditions, many institutions face dwindling budgets and an increased focus on proving the value of the education provided. The effort and costs required to integrate Enterprise Resource Planning systems into course curricula are a significant investment of resources for any university. This paper examines the expense of Enterprise Resource Planning integrated curricula (ERP-ICs) and the documented benefits. Evidence is still needed to place a quantitative value on many of the benefits provided to students completing an ERP-IC and to the college and university making that investment. A review of research literature regarding Enterprise Resource Planning based curricula is summarized in relation to costs and benefits. Benefits documented with quantified research are specifically examined. Finally a discussion of important benefits and costs that have yet to be quantified is given. In this age, universities are examining the cost-benefits of each investment and research on ERP-ICs lacks the data to make this case. Additional research is suggested to enrich this field of research beyond the current case studies and curriculum models

Zombies in the Library Stacks

This chapter examines the stacks as a zombie category that retains the power to shape understanding despite being outmoded. We analyze three ways of thinking about the stacks that sustain digital humanities: first, the physical library stacks that are part of the information architecture that arranges scholarship; second, the technology stack of globalized computing that distributes scholarship; and finally, the social stack of human relationships that make everything possible. Each stack reveals something different about the digital humanities and the patterns of labor embedded within it. Drawing on the sociological lessons of the zombie category, we aim to disaggregate the stacks as discursive assemblages, thereby exposing the mechanisms through which infrastructure effaces its own social labor while also rendering social labor a visible component of infrastructure

Re-Imagining Digital Things: Sustainable Data in Medieval Manuscript Studies

The Middle English prose Brut chronicle survives in nearly two hundred manuscripts. This corpus has been the subject of extensive study for more than a hundred years. The most recent research, however, has turned out to be the most fragile. In 2017, the multiyear digital humanities project “Imaging History: Perspectives on Late Medieval Vernacular Historiography” disappeared from the live Internet, only a decade after its publication. We describe the website’s lifecycle as well as our progress so far in creating a new dataset for the Brut corpus, “Re-Imagining History,” part of the ongoing project “Remix the Manuscript: A Chronicle of Digital Experiments.” Because the dataset is relatively small, we are using it to explore ongoing challenges in manuscript studies related to discoverability, interoperability, and sustainability. Our research questions address the interface between digital data and manuscripts themselves. How do catalogue and database structures impact research outcomes? How can we ethically represent the relative authority of disparate sources? How can we enable users to discover things they don’t already know? How do we plan for longevity and growth? We combine social, technical, and historical factors in order to account for “digital things” as complex networks of relationships. By laying bare the data design process, this essay deepens the dialogue between medieval studies and critical infrastructure studies