Campus Days at SLU Madrid

I met with Dr. García-Serrano early this morning to get his thoughts on the completed sections of my propectus. He's a scholar of the medieval Dominicans, so I was really eager to hear what he thought. When I arrived at his office he had it all printed out full of little notes and suggestions. Right away I saw on the top of the paper though that he had written, "Amy – This is a great prospectus and it sounds very exciting" so before we even got into discussing it, I breathed a sigh of relief knowing already that he'd liked it. He told me that it is really interesting and exciting, and said that if he were to do grad school over again, he'd want to do this too! That felt like such a great assurance that I am on the right track, knowing that this specialist was so on board. I've appreciated the enthusiasm and excitement that both he and Damian have expressed about my prospectus so far.  It was also very cool that he suggested I outline my chapters exactly as I had planned to in my mind – more positive confirmation that it's going well!

We talked about a lot of interesting problems – questioning whether it's possible that Marti could really have been such an accomplished polyglot, whether it's worth considering that he or his father may have been a converso, this tension of questioning religious ancestry in the historiography of medieval Spain, the differences between the Mediterranean milieu and the Northern European world, how Marti's career represents an encounter of these worlds and how his experiences in multicultural Iberia set him apart from French Dominican contemporaries,  wondering why it is that Marti has been ignored by biographers, whether he's exceptional or a product of his time, the problems and benefits of using early modern sources… He told me this is my time to brainstorm all kinds of theories - I can always abandon them as I go through the research, but keeping my mind open all kinds of answers to these complicated questions is important at this stage.

 It was a lot of fun to talk with another professor besides Dr. Smith who really GETS what I'm working on and the exciting issues and problems that I'm facing! Very validating, and made me excited to attend the conference that will hopefully fill in some context for me. I hope to meet with him again soon, (maybe Tuesday?) to get more of his thoughts on what direction to go next with research. Good to make use of his office hours while it's still so easy to just drop by.

After meeting I sat in on his class to get a sense of how it's run, how he lectures, etc. I was also curious to see how the challenges of this international campus are handled. It was neat that he could call on the very European experiences of the students when discussing the history of Europe, and other than needing to explain some American phrases, like "a Catch-22" and such, it was run like a normal class. So that was fun and interesting. Made me realize how much I've missed being in the classroom working with undergrads. I'm really looking forward to guest lecturing in that class on the dark ages in a few weeks. I also hope I can secure an adjunct position, because I know I'd be really good at that and would really enjoy teaching my own class.

So it was a busy and way fun morning, and after class I went to the library to start incorporating some of the changes Dr. García-Serrano had recommended for my prospectus. I think it's looking even better.

Yesterday on campus was nice too! I ran into Alyssa and we grabbed a cup of tea between her classes. She told me the issue of "In Madrid" was out with her article on the Rastro and one of my pictures! I grabbed a copy and read it outside in the sun. It was really entertaining! I hope to get back to the Rastro, now that I know what it is and what to expect, to do a bit of fun shopping one of these Sundays.  I also got to pick up my package with my little blue book on Marti. YAY! In the afternoon yesterday I worked on my guest lecture a bit on campus, which was quite fun. Here's a few pictures from yesterday:

YAY my book arrived!

Reading an English newspaper about Madrid outside in the sun

Alyssa's article on the Rastro and my picture

Early evening sunset from campus

Enjoying the view

SPRING IS COMING! 

The afternoon today was uneventful. Had a great lunch at Ferro's complete with a ridiculously delicious dessert, stopped at home to drop stuff off, pick stuff up, and relax a bit, and then went to spend the evening at the Biblioteca Nacional, where I copied a few sources. Not all that exciting, but not a bad night! Here's a few more lovely photos of the BNE from today to enjoy:

Hola Queen Isabella!

Relics of research days long past

Finished up the night with dinner here with my host family, which was also delicious, and a super hot shower. Now I'm just waiting to chat with Casey before bed. Buenas Noches! 

Who doesn't love a beautiful old book?

So yesterday was a lot of tracking down books, requesting them, waiting for them, and copying the articles or pages I needed. Today was a lot of the same. It was a bit boring. But I can't get my hands on these books in the states, so I've gotta collect them while I can.

Lots of fichas rosas

Research clutter - nabbed a few more dissertation sources!

But then at the end of the day yesterday, I requested a book that really excited me. It was one I'd seen bits of it online before. It's not impossible to find in the States, but I wasn't able to get ahold of via ILL in the past since it is old and fragile, and mostly online. But not old and fragile enough to not be in the BNE's general collection of books you can just request and have at your desk in 15 minutes. SO I DID, because why not? 

I very much enjoyed leafing through Celestino Schiaparelli's 1871 Vocabulista in arabico. It's a printed edition of a thirteenth century Arabic-Latin dictionary which has been attributed to Marti. The manuscript is in Florence and has been published twice. The later was in 1989 I got to see both editions in one day :-)

Very much enjoying this beautiful 140+ year old book! 

I'm certain the binding is relatively new, but that aside, the original portions of the book were all in WAY better shape than the entire 20-something-years-old book I also had on my desk (the other edition of the Vocabulista). 1871, but it looks like it was printed yesterday on bright clean paper. It is definitely a tribute to the value of acid-free paper and quality printing. Plus it smelled amazing.  

Here are some of the beautiful details:

Lovely frontispiece with images from the MS

Intricate printing for section headings. 

I just love the texture of pages that were actually pressed when printed. Here's the raised texture of the text from the previous page. Feels neat.

Complete with a perfectly medieval explicit on the last page. This entertained me greatly. 

Seeing this beautiful book at the end of the day was the perfect way to get me excited about my research. I've been doing a lot of hunting and copying relatively rare secondary sources, which will be SO helpful for my dissertation, but I also need to make time to see some beautiful manuscripts or lovely early modern books! Because those will really excite me, much in the way this pretty old(ish) book did. 

Window Shopping in Madrid

After a long day staring at books and my computer screen at the SLU Madrid campus library, I got home yesterday and decided to just take a walk, as long as there was a little bit of daylight left. It was a good choice because all that reading was giving me a headache and a walk was the perfect cure. Plus I love walking around Madrid, even if it's just up and down the few streets right near my home stay. Nowhere wildly special, but there's still so much to see! And because this city never sleeps, even in the evening there's lots of people out and about. 

I'm addicted to iphone panoramas - here's one on my walk home from school.

I absolutely love window shopping in Madrid. I think that's why it's so nice just to take a walk - dar un paseo - around this lively, pretty city. Tons of tiny charming shops. 

As I've mentioned on facebook, there's lots of flower shops. There's so many that I kind of wonder how they stay in business. Who is buying all these flowers? I don't really know, but I love seeing them around.

Also, lots of fruit stands too, which I should stop at more often. I've been eating tons of oranges here in Spain. They're huge and very juicy. I didn't even really like oranges before I got here. 

It's also typical to see little shops labeled "heladeria" (ice cream shop) or "pasteleria" (bakery) or often both. Lots of little shops for sweets. It's funny to me because Spanish desserts in restaurants and such are not very sweet at all. Refreshing, but not rich. And here are all these little bakeries full of sweet rich things. What gives? Maybe that's the plan to keep all these tiny bakeries in business.

Pretty Spanish treats

God I love gelato.

I love these Palmera cookies (the heart shaped ones), and this that marbled one was calling my name, but they're like the size of my head, so I think they really too much for one person. I'll get one with a friend sometime.

But besides these common, charming little tiendas, there are plenty of cute clothing boutiques, TONS of zapaterias (shoe stores). These stores are really fun to window shop as you walk by. I really gotta buy a pair of shoes here before I leave. My host family said that Spain makes the best shoes. I think the Manolo would agree. ;-) In culture, interests, fashion, and coffee, Spain reminds me very much of what I know about Italy. 

But then there are unique stores that are really neat. Like, the other day I came across one known as "el Rastrillo" - The Little Rastro. It was a second hand or antique shop just jam packed with interesting odds and ends. Definitely entertaining to walk by. 

My favorite find though was this Ceramics shop!!! It was closed, so I'll have to stop by someday when it's open. I do NOT need any more pottery - my apartment is already PACKED. But I'd love to see the lovely wares, and maybe gather some ideas for some of my own pottery projects.

Family owned store - says they make everything they sell. I love all the painted tiles especially.

These blonde and brunette potters reminded me of me and Salicia! Miss her! Can't wait to get back to making beautiful things at pottery class together!

Just a sampling of the charming and practical pieces for the Spanish home.

But the best part of the walk was just how pretty the sky looked over the streets at dusk. 

Plus I got to see this gorgeous church again. There are so many pretty churches in Spain.

I was tempted by another pretty scarf, but didn't actually buy anything last night. However, I've found that window shopping on an evening walk is the perfect remedy to a long Saturday in the library!

  

Block Plan Attitude

So recently, I've been mostly collecting sources on Marti, just getting my hands on as many as I can, as quickly as I can. I've located nearly everything on my initial 10 pg bibliography, which is a pretty exciting accomplishment. Most of it I could easily find at SLU or through Mobius, so I just highlighted those as "ignore for now," downloaded the ones I could easily get online (I've got a great big folder full of pdfs now!), requested a bunch of weird stuff through ILL (we'll see if they can find any of this stuff to send me), and have been focused on finding the ones I can't get at home. A lot of these not-in-the-USA texts are right here at the BNE, which is very lucky for me.

 Another day at the BNE

Recently I've been getting off at the Colon station, rather than the Serrano station - they're about equidistant to the library but this one provides a better view upon approach I think. :-)

 I'm glad that I finally feel very comfortable requesting books that I need to see through their crazy colored card system. It's easier to get and use books here than it used to seem, and they arrive for pickup SO much faster than I expect, so it's pretty nice. While it may seem like a bit of a pain, there are a few benefits to having to be AT the library to use books -
(1) I'm forced to change out of pajamas and leave the house (which is not always the case at home, causing my hermetic behavior in recent months),
(2) I don't have to haul books home or back and forth from the library, meaning my luggage can remain stored out of sight,
(3) having work time relegated to the library and relaxing time at home separated so physically helps keep me from feeling guilty about not working when I'm relaxing - brainstorming aside, I just can't be working while I'm relaxing if all the books are kept here!
Anyway, while it seemed annoying at first not to have borrowing privileges  it's actually been nice in these respects.

 

I've mostly got these request cards, or "fichas" figured out. I'm still confused by the forms used to reserve books for viewing the next day. But seeing that red light that means "your book is here!" come on at my desk is still super exciting to me. 

Woohoo! Research!

Also, I've finally figured out all the rules for photocopying and learned how to make copies, which are thankfully relatively inexpensive! I got a copy card and the librarian manning the copy room was super nice and showed me how the machines worked. (Everybody's so helpful and friendly at the BNE!) I'm officially a zealous convert to the longer European paper size. It is SO much easier to copy both pages of a book at once when you have that extra bit of length. You've won me over, A4.

YAY! Research I can take home with me!!!

Now that February is at an end, I'm switching gears. I spent the first few weeks here working on aspects of my prospectus and collecting Marti research for my dissertation, and I'm sure I'll come back to that again soon, but now I need to turn my attention to my conference paper for awhile. I'm slated to give a talk entitled "The Friars and the Three Faiths" on some aspect of medieval mendicant missionary history. The intimidating problem is that Robin Vose and Tom Burman, two scholars that have very much impacted my understanding of this history through their numerous erudite publications on missionizing matters, will be at this conference. I'm very concerned that anything I would have to say, as such a young scholar, will sound lame to them. I feel like so many of my "AHA!" moments and connections in this field would be "Duh, *Yawn..." moments for them. Because their works have been so informative in my coursework and research, I also have to be careful that I'm not just repeating concepts they've stated, because they'll be right there, thinking "yeah, I know, I said that already." It's all very intimidating, honestly.

So what can I possibly say that will be news to them? Maybe nothing, but if I just sit around worrying about it and not working, I'll never know for sure. So I read, and think, and brainstorm on paper, trying to find a conceptual niche. Damian wants me to present something broad, so it's unlikely that I'll be debuting some new discovery in the sources come April. But I'm hoping I can present at least a different way to think about this. Polemic can be so polarizing for professors, so it's unsurprising that there's a lot of radically different, religiously charged opinions on the issue. Spanish religious historiography is a crazy mess in many ways. There's always a need for examining/explaining the related issues more clearly or in a different light. I must remember it's only a 20 minute presentation, too. So I can't throw myself into research that would better lend itself to a book than to a talk.

So anyway, I'm reading and turning over different ideas in my mind right now. If nothing comes of it, I can always chat with Damian or meet with Dr. Garcia-Serrano here at SLU Madrid for some guidance. I am still a student after all.

I was talking about this with Casey and said "plus you only have one 'class,' much like the block schedule." I was so glad he put it that way, because I loved the idea of thinking about it it that way. I'm just focused on the paper right now, so it's SO MUCH like doing a block at Cornell - one course at a time! And if I learned anything at Cornell on the block plan, it's that I CAN DO ANYTHING IN 18 DAYS. That's exactly the attitude I need this month here. Let's do this OCCAT style. I've missed the block plan so much while juggling things in grad school and it makes me so happy to think of my time in Madrid as a return to that work style. :-)

Researching Recap (and a hilarious picture of Ramon Marti)

So this is now my third week here. Week one felt like a lot of adjustments, week two went much more smoothly and work finally began, week three makes me feel like I'm actually starting to get some stuff done. So I thought I'd take a moment to blog about work stuff for a little bit.

Recently I've been spending a lot of time at the Biblioteca Nacional.

It's a fabulous place to head to each day. When I arrive on the steps, greeted by Alfonso el Sabio and St. Isidore of Seville, I feel ready to read some Spanish.

I always find the weird wooden tunnel hallway to be oddly unfancy transition between the gorgeous entry, the formal information area, and the Sala de Lectura. 

I get in, show them that my plastic bag contains only licit items, get a seat assignment, retrieve the book I'd put on reserve from box 81, and settle down for an afternoon of library work. 

But first, I always stop to look around. Its nice to take a moment to appreciate what a beautiful space it is.

I love seeing the reactions of other scholars coming into the reading room of the National Library. The other day I saw a man snap a few pictures on his iphone, and a very old man get up from his work, stop in the middle of the room, and just look up and all around. It's nice to catch people in a moment of appreciation. I feel like a bit of a creep intruding on their private moment of enjoying the view. But it's also nice to think that it will always be lovely to work in such a space, and even old people aren't jaded about it. 

It's of course gorgeous flooded with light during the day, but I like it when it gets dark at night, too, because the skylight reflects all the desk lights and laptops below. 

Each day, I like to check out which famous Spanish author name I'm sitting under. Recently I've been assigned desks under St. Ramon de Penyafort, Averroes, Seneca, and St. Teresa of Avila! It always feels like good research luck to have their names watching over me.  

Because reading in Spanish is slow going for me, especially while taking notes and such, it took me a few visits to read through this little blue biography of Ramon Marti. But it was a really useful book to have. I'd never been able to get ahold of it at home (there are 5 copies of it in the US, but they're all on the east coast and ILL was never very cooperative in getting it shipped to the midwest), and there is one copy available through Amazon but it's like a hundred dollars, I was so thrilled to be able to sit and read it for free at my leisure here.

We're not supposed to take photos of the books, but I broke the rules, because I absolutely needed to show you this hilarious drawing of Ramon Marti. We have no idea what he looked like (there's one illuminated image of a friar in one of his manuscripts, which might be the only image of Marti) but I am going to picture him this way from now on because it makes me giggle. I think it's the teeth that make is so creepy looking? Or the horribly shaggy short beard? I especially enjoy the star emanating from his forehead. If you have an opinion or humorous thought about this, please do share. 

And actually, exciting story, the other day when I was googling the author of this biography hagiography (Marti is not a saint, but the author seems to think he ought to be), the I saw the text up as for sale on abe books! Since the only other copy I'd seen online was going for such a ridiculous price, I didn't think much of it. But as it turns out, since this book was published on a little Dominican press in Spain, it wasn't expensive to buy here - it was for sale for just a couple euros from a Madrid bookseller! HUZZAH! I couldn't believe it. I dropped what I was doing and snatched it up the only copy for sale right away. This was a perilous process because the internet at the BNE is very unreliable and I was afraid the transaction wouldn't go through. It would have cost a small fortune to ship it home to the USA, but for $2 I could have it shipped to the SLU Campus in Madrid. It'll be waiting for me there sometime next week! I'm over the moon about this purchase, which only cost me about the price of a Spanish lunch all said and done, because I've enjoyed looking through it at the BNE so much. Call it souvenir number 2 from this trip! 

The first of course, being this colorful scarf that matched sweater and my "lector" sticker badge so brilliantly:

Just a few pics of days spent working at the BNE

The nice thing about working there, is that the day breaks up into lots of useable hours. I usually arrive around noon, work for a bit, have lunch, and then after lunch there's the whole rest of the day! I have been staying until after 8pm. A typical work day ends at 5 or so, but without dinner at that time, there's really no reason to call it quitting time. So I usually just stay until I should head home for Spanish dinner, around 9pm. And plenty of other people do too, so my days have lot of potential for good work.

Evening work at the BNE. 

I've also been doing a bit of work at the SLU Campus. It's a good place to be when I want to be doing more internet searching because the wifi there is solid and fast. The librarian there is quite helpful and sweet, although I can tell she's anxious for the library situation with the new building to be fixed.

On the SLU Madrid campus

The library is a very quiet sunny little room - perfect if I'm going to be spending hours working on end. The day this photo was taken, research was really really frustrating and intimidating, and the nice, sunny, peaceful atmosphere was the only thing keeping me working through it. 

A rare moment of peace and privacy in one of the usually very busy study rooms! Apparently Friday afternoon is a great time to get work done on the SLU Campus because all the students are busy planning their adventurous weekends!

Students often study outside, but even though it's sunny, the weather's only in the 50s, so idk how they do it. It's a nice place to sit and check my email, but not to work!

So in addition to reading through some sources at the BNE, I've been slowly compiling a big research bibliography for all the references to sources on Marti that I come across. And I retooled the problem statement to my prospectus in light of the sources I've found. I think it's in a good place now, and I've sent that, along with the bibliography, to Damian for some feedback, so we'll have to see what he says. No word yet, but hopefully he'll say it's looking good so far. I am hoping to get some feedback from Dr. Garcia-Serrano too when I meet with him on Tuesday. I'm currently combing through that bibliography, marking which sources I already have, or are easily accessible from SLU through ILL or Mobius, and focusing my energy solely on tracking down those harder to locate sources while I'm here.  

Although I'm mostly here to do research, this trip also offers me the opportunity to do some teaching abroad. Dr. Garcia-Serrano is going to let me guest lecture in one of his classes, YAY, and so last week I went into the faculty office to look through the textbook, syllabus, and primary source materials for his class. I like the themes emphasized and the amount of time set aside to cover the middle ages. He's been very relaxed about it, letting me pick whichever week I'd like! 

Hm. Which week should I pick? So many good topics... 

There was too little Islam for my tastes. 

I decided to choose the Early Middle Ages week - I have a soft spot for the dark ages. Plus, I'm hoping to add a little bit of the history of early Islam into that narrative for the students. It'd be a shame to hear the crusades lectures with no background of Islam. But, if the professor wants to keep it focused solely on Christian European culture, that'd be fine too, there's plenty of fun to be had there. :-) I can't wait to add "guest lecturer" to my CV. I love teaching so so much.

The dean of the school also suggested that I could give a talk to the students and/or faculty about my dissertation topic. I definitely love the idea, and any chance to talk about Dominicans, but I think I need to see where I'm at with research, guest lecturing, and the conference to organize and prepare for, before I commit to that as well. 

Some days I feel like all of this would just be easier to do at home from the SLU Campus in the US, and I worry about whether I can pull all of these things off while I'm here with how long it seems to take to learn how to do  and where to find the things I need. I'm hoping working at the Complutensian University library come the start of March (the librarian here cautions me that right now the campus and library will be crazy with exams) will be a bit easier - being a proper academic institution. Plus Patrick recommended a good open stacks library nearby - being able to see and touch books will be a refreshing change of pace as I prepare this paper, so I think I'll pay that place a visit very soon!