Name: Rutger Kramer
Location: Berlin
So here it is, a page devoted to me and my musings on the middle ages, music, movies and more. Travelogue, blog, and whatever else I feel like sharing with the world (the part that is interested anyway): this page is devoted to ME, Rutger, your friendly, non-threatening neighbourhood medievalist. Among other things, and in no particular order, I like loud music, movies, taking pictures in unnatural light (at night), the occasional beer, limericks, good food, opinionating, and the Middle Ages (especially the first half). About all these things, and more, I may occasionally write some sort of update on the actual site. On this page, you can read more about me and my endeavours as a historian.
Actually, I hate calling myself a “historian”. For some reason, it sounds like something you only use for other people, not for yourself. That, and it makes it seem like I am more than the humble PhD-student I actually am. But still, it sounds fine, and it is in fact what I want to be when I grow up. If I grow up.
For a variety of reasons, I am currently stuck in the Middle Ages – more specifically, the ninth century (roughly speaking), the age of Charlemagne and his heir, Louis the Pious. Actually, my current research project is about Louis the Pious, but more about that later.
This page is intended to give a condensed and somewhat comprehensive overview of my professional and relevant experience as a medievalist, although, seeing as this is a personal website, I could not resist giving it a narrative twist here and there. But fear not, a more formal version can be found HERE.
Now, on to the credentials!!
PORTFOLIO:
It’s not really much of anything (yet?), but you might stumble accross these things I wrote.
- ‘In divinis spripturis legitur: monastieke idealen en het gebruik van de Bijbel in de Gesta Sanctorum Rotonensium‘, in: Millennium, (2008) , 24-44.
- ‘Review: Gesine Jordan,“Nichts als Nahrung und Kleidung”: Laien und Kleriker als Wohngaeste bei den Moenchen von St. Gallen und Redon (8. und 9. Jahrhundert), Berlin (Akademie Verlag) 2007′, in: Francia: Forschungen zur westeuropaeischen Geschichte Online.
CONFERENCES, etc.
12 September 2009: Presentation at the birthday conference for prof. Rosamond McKitterick – The Cloister in the Rye: Saint-Seine and the Early Years of Benedict of Aniane. I’m hoping to eventually rework this paper into an article (possibly getting rid of the pun in the title in the process), but for the time being, here it is.
14 July 2009: Presentation at the Leeds IMC - Stuck in the Middle? Benedict of Aniane and Louis the Pious in Monastic Sources. This may be seen as a broad summary of my progress until then (not as much as I had hoped, but interesting nonetheless), and can be read here.
2008 – current: participant in the seminars organised twice a year by the Hludowicus-project, which also funds my PhD-research. Much like the T&I-sessions, the aim of these conferences is to share work-in-progress with the other participants in the project, rather than present definitive conclusions.
Some samples from these sessions:
- Berlin 2009: Subject to change - a contextual close reading of the Vita Benedicti Anianensis
- Utrecht 2009: Around Aniane – initial remarks on the other monasteries supposedly in the network around Benedict of Aniane.
- Vienna 2009: The Decisions of the Councils of Aachen – similar to the paper held in Frankfurt one week later (albeit slightly longer).
2005 – current: Regular participant in the Text & Identities - programme, a cooperative effort between the Universities of Vienna, Utrecht, Cambridge, Leeds, etc., aimed at giving aspring PhD-students a platform to present their research and interact with each other and with a number of experienced researchers. A (possibly outdated) project description is online at the Groningen University website.
Papers from these conferences that I feel comfortable sharing:
- Prague 2007: In Divinis Scripturis Legitur – essentially a summary of my MPhil-thesis finished in that same year.
- Frankfurt 2009: The Decisions of the Council of Aachen – some general remarks on the representation of Louis the Pious in the prologue to the acta of the Council of Aachen in 816.
WORK EXPERIENCE:
May 2008 – current: Wissenschafliche Mitarbeiter at the Freie Universitaet, Berlin, Germany. Currently working on a PhD-thesis, safely within the folds of the Hludowicus-project, under profs. Stefan Esders (FU Berlin) and Philippe Depreux (Universite de Limoges). My original project proposal can be found here, although tradition has it that the actual research tends to diverge from its initial course quite often – and my work is no exception. If all goes well, I will have finished my thesis in April 2011.
September 2007 – April 2008: Junior Lecturer at the Department of Medieval History of the Utrecht University, in Utrecht, the Netherlands – teaching first-year students the basic tenets of our fine trade, and introducing them to medieval history (some of them probably still hate me for it).
2004-2007: Student assistant at the same Department of the same University: teaching, making copies, helping to organise study trips, making coffee, troubleshooting in general.
2005-2006: Two stints as assistant at the Humanities Library of Utrecht University, helping to implement a new cataloguing system in the collections of Medieval History and Late Latin. (NPS: Nieuw Plaatsings Systeem – New Placement System)(really!).
EDUCATION:
2005-2007: Research MA Medieval Studies at Utrecht University. My thesis, ‘In divinis scripturis legitur‘: Monastic Ideals and the Use of the Bible in the Gesta Sanctorum Rotonensium, about Carolingian Brittany (more or less), can be downloaded HERE.
2002-2005: BA in History at Utrecht University. Back then, my thesis was about Anglo-Saxon England, and it is called (in Dutch): Een koninklijk beeld: Alfred the Grote en de creatie van de Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (A Royal Image: Alfred the Great and the Creation of the Anglo-Saxon chronicle. For those interested, it can be downloaded HERE.
1998-2002: Translator’s Academy at the Hogeschool Maastricht, specializing in English and French translations, and picking up some editing skills along the way. Didn’t really write anything of lasting value, though…
Prior to 1998 I was in high school, grammar school, Gymnasium, or whatever it is called in your local culture. This one, to be exact. Great school! There’s a reunion in 2010, so maybe I’ll meet you there?
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