Executive Director’s Update 4

Dear SNAP Members,

Once a semester I update the membership on SNAP news.  Members are also always welcomed to share announcements of publications, conferences, talks, etc. via the SNAP Google Group listserv as well.

Welcome: It is a pleasure to welcome the new members who have joined since Fall 2012.  We are excited that you are bringing your interests and expertise to our community.

SNAP-Medieval Encounters special issue: SNAP’s first collaborative publication has just come out in Medieval Encountersvol. 19, no. 1-2 (2013).  Spanning the Strait: Studies in Unity in the Western Mediterranean features articles by David Coleman, Hussein Fancy, Adam Gaiser, Marya Green-Mercado, Linda Jones, and Sarah Pearce (all members).  The special issue was guest-edited by the SNAP Executive Board and it also contains an introduction we co-wrote.  We would like to thank Cynthia Robinson, Editor ofMedieval Encountersand a founding member of SNAP, for her support.  For the issue, see:http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/15700674

SNAP symposium in Los Angeles: We are in the planning stages of SNAP’s second symposium to take place on Friday, May 2, 2014 with the location to be determined, subject to approval and funding.  If all goes ahead, please be on the lookout for a call for papers in October 2013.  Andrew Devereux (Executive Committee) will be lead organizer of the symposium, and all current members, prospective members, and the general public are welcome to attend.  The SNAP symposium will be organized in conjunction with, and followed by, the spring meeting of the Mediterranean Seminar/University of California MRP, run by Brian Catlos and Sharon Kinoshita (also SNAP members). The UC-MRP workshop will take place on Saturday, May 3, 2014.

SNAP-Journal of North African Studies special issue: Guest editors Adam Gaiser and Miriam Ali-de-Unzaga (members) continue to make progress toward SNAP’s second collaborative publication.  We look forward to this as a contribution to SNAP scholarship.

SNAP website resources: A new page on our public website features institutes, associations, journals, etc. whose mission may be of interest to members.  Please visit “Resources” atwww.aucegypt.edu/huss/snap/. We seek to keep this list updated.  Please send Camilo Gómez-Rivas (Executive Committee) additional links you may think relevant.

SNAP-Ashgate Publishing Company: We have established a partnership with Ashgate that provides a discount off purchases made directly with Ashgate.  Please visithttp://www.ashgate.com/snap.  When making purchases, please use the discount code included in the SNAP Welcome message you received when you became a member.

The Aghlabids & their Neighbors: Art & Material Culture in Ninth-Century North Africa workshop: Mariam Rosser-Owen and Glaire Anderson (members) are organizing an interdisciplinary workshop to take place at UNC-Chapel Hill on May 23-24, 2014.  Information including a call for proposals is posted on the SNAP website projects page:http://bit.ly/10W6opT.  This workshop is organized in cooperation with SNAP.

We’d also like to draw your attention to two new book series of particular interest to SNAP members:

Mediterranean Studies book series: Brian Catlos and Sharon Kinoshita (members) co-edit a new book series with Palgrave Macmillan focused on the Mediterranean, from pre-history to the present.  They seek to publish “works that engage with and challenge established historical paradigms, meta-narratives, chronologies, and disciplinary boundaries,” and which “incorporate comparative, revisionist and inter-disciplinary perspectives.”  More information is available here: http://bit.ly/16CdeIu

Iberian Encounter and Exchange, 475-1755 book series: Erin Rowe (member) and Michael Ryan have launched a new book series with Pennsylvania State University Press.  The series will focus on Iberia “as a nexus for the circulation of ideas, people, objects and technology around the pre-modern western Mediterranean, Atlantic, and eventually the Pacific.”  Further information will be available on the SNAP website’s “News” page.

Congratulations to all members on their exciting work!  SNAP is a collaborative network of scholars.  I encourage members to make use of our Google Group listserv and the public website’s Roster page to seek each other out to form panels at conferences, organize their own meetings, publish joint works, co-teach courses, etc.  And I encourage all members to share their interests and activities via the listserv.

Best wishes,

Gen