SIMS is pleased to announce the following Visiting Research Fellows for the 2023–2024 academic year:
Dr. Peera Panarut, Universität Hamburg (February 2024)
Thai Royal Court Manuscripts in Philadelphia
The University of Pennsylvania houses more than fifty manuscripts from Thailand and Laos. This project will focus on three of these manuscripts that share features typical of 19th-century royal court manuscripts. The Siamese (Thai) royal court produced various kinds of manuscripts and archival records. The manuscripts represent three different genres of Thai royal court manuscripts, in which dynamics related to writing materials, texts, paratexts, and styles of handwritings offer a rich source for studying the writing culture and book history of the Siamese royal court. Building upon my project carried out at the Universität Hamburg “Royal Scribes and Written Artefacts: Writing Culture of Thai Royal Court through the Archives of the Royal Scribes,” I will focus on the royal scribes’ practices of record-keeping and record-making in the 19th-century Siamese royal court, one of the essential parts of the history of Thailand’s traditional archives.
Dr. Hélène Jawhara Piñer, Universities of Tours and Bordeaux-Montaigne ( April 7 to May 7, 2024)
From Persecution to Plate: Uncovering the Culinary Practices of Sephardic Jews through Inquisition Trials
I plan to conduct a unique research project focused on using trial records as evidence to explore the culinary practices of Sephardic Jews during the Inquisition period. By examining manuscripts in the Penn Libraries, I aim to revisit the past and re-think the present, inviting the public to learn about Jewish food habits during this time in both theory and practice. To do so, Chef Michael Solomonov —recipient of five James Beard Awards, owner of such as Zahav, Laserwolf, Abe Fisher, K’Far in Philadelphia— will join me in this task.
My project aims to understand the significance of the official expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492 and its impact on the food and culinary practices of the people of Jewish origin, including those known as the conversos (forced converts to Christianity, and their descendants). Through the examination of Inquisition trial documents from the 15th and 16th centuries, I hope to shed light on how information about cooking was transmitted and how recipes and culinary practices were adapted and transposed into other contexts and territories while reflecting Jewish customs. Understanding the religious and cultural significance of food is essential for a comprehensive understanding of Sephardic Jewish history and identity. The Inquisition trials unintentionally recorded these practices, allowing us to study and reconstruct the dietary habits of Early-modern Hispanic Jews, while also casting light on the role of food in influencing patterns of persecution. Through my project, I aim to contribute to the field of Jewish culinary history and offer a deeper understanding of the role of food in shaping cultural identity. My research will demonstrate how food has played a crucial role in the formation and preservation of Jewish identity in Spain and Mexico. To achieve this goal, I have gathered a variety of sources and will be examining rare books at Penn. By taking a holistic approach that considers lifestyle, consumption, and culinary practices, I believe we can gain a more comprehensive understanding of the culture of medieval Sephardic Jews.
Dr. Suzette van Haaren, postdoctoral researcher at the Ruhr University Bochum ( April 8 to May 3, 2024)
Modelling the Middle Ages: VisColl as a Digital Tool for Manuscript Research
For the duration of the SIMS fellowship, I seek to present a meta-analysis of VisColl, particularly its implementation software VCEditor, as a digital tool for studying medieval manuscripts. The research is embedded in an investigation of VCEditor in my postdoctoral project on the use of digital methods and techniques for representing, producing, and studying medieval history and heritage. Technological innovations undeniably change how manuscript research is conducted, and, consequently, cause a major shift in the way that we understand and interact with medieval manuscripts. The VisColl Data Model, now implemented through VCEditor, aids manuscript scholars in describing and visualizing the physical collation of medieval manuscripts. The project, led by Dot Porter (Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies) and Alberto Campagnolo (University of Udine), in collaboration with multiple partners, has become a benchmark for digital tools in manuscript studies. Though practical possibilities and limitations of digital tools like VCEditor are often discussed, there is little reflection on what our reliance on digital methods means for the study and our understanding of these ancient objects. The translation of medieval material into data nodes and quantifiable models not only creates entirely new digital objects, but also establishes a wholly different material engagement between scholar and research object. Understanding exactly how and why VCEditor is used as a digital tool allows us to reflect on where manuscript studies stand today in a broader sense, and to gain a better grasp of what lies ahead for medievalist scholarship.
The Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies 