User:Michael Chidester
| Michael Chidester | |||||||||
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| Occupation | MediaWiki developer Technical writer Independent researcher |
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| Nationality | American | ||||||||
| Education | B.A. Philosophy | ||||||||
| Alma mater | Brigham Young University | ||||||||
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Michael Chidester has been studying historical European martial arts since 2001. He was a member of the Association for Renaissance Martial Arts until 2006, where he achieved the rank of general Free Scholar and acted as the ARMA Provo Study Group Leader. Michael co-founded the True Edge Academy of Swordsmanship in 2009, and until 2011 was a senior instructor and senior researcher at its Provo, Utah branch. He has lectured on historical martial arts literature at Fechtschule America in Houston, the Iron Gate Exhibition of Historical Martial Arts in Boston, the Symposium on Historical Arts and Swordsmanship at the Massachusetts Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies, and Life, the Universe, and Everything: the Marion K. “Doc” Smith Symposium at Brigham Young University.
In 2010, Michael received a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Brigham Young University, with a minor degree in Military Science and additional coursework in Italian and Spanish. He developed a degree of fluency in the latter while living abroad in Mexico between 2002 and 2004. He is a member of the Western Martial Arts Coalition and a Lifetime Member of the Historical European Martial Arts Alliance; after serving as its principal designer and editor for two years, in 2012 Michael was appointed Director of the Wiktenauer Project by the HEMA Alliance governing council.
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Research
Composites
While he designed much of the infrastructure of Wiktenauer, Michael's primary area of research is mapping out the connections between the various books and manuscripts in the corpus of historical European martial arts literature. Based on this research, he has put together a number of composite documents that lay out the versions of each treatise side-by-side, both for ease of reference and as the first step toward creating critical editions of these treatises. Michael's composites can be found on the following pages:
Transcription
Michael has also begun participating in the work of transcribing fencing manuals. He has transcribed the following works:
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Translation
Michael's translation work can be found in the following articles:
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Contact
For questions about the Wiktenauer or his research, or to inquire about donating content to the wiki, Michael can be contacted either via email or on his talk page.
