The Medieval Academy Blog

Sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture

Organized by Michael A. Torregrossa, June-Ann Greeley, and Rachael Warmington

Call for Papers – Please Submit Proposals by 30 September 2023
55th Annual Convention of Northeast Modern Language Association
Sheraton Boston Hotel (Boston, MA)
On-site event: 7-10 March 2024

Session Rationale

Medievalisms Today: Aspects of the Medieval Past in the 21st-century World (Panel)

A frequent conception of the medieval period is that it was a barbaric, fanatical, and unenlightened era, yet, despite these (actual or perceived) faults, there remains an appeal to the era in modern culture. As Umberto Eco wrote a number of decades ago, “it seems people like the Middle Ages,” and this statement continues to ring true today in 2023. Regardless of the centuries (and often geography) that separate them from this time, creators worldwide are still engaged with adapting, adopting, appropriating, and/or transforming elements of the medieval past. The resulting works (referred to as medievalisms) appear in a startling array of media and have been employed (both positively and negatively) for a variety of purposes, including in materials with commercial, educational, entertainment, and propagandist motives.

Recently, medievalists have begun to widen the scope of their analysis of these works, and they have strived to explore the reception of the medieval on a wider scale than the expected sites of medieval re-creation (such as Europe, Canada, and the United States) to highlight the production and dissemination of medievalisms (as recent studies phrase it) as global, international, and/or world phenomena. Medievalists have also looked more deeply at how the creators of these new works impact the local culture around them.

These studies have made a promising start toward widening the scope of medievalism, but much work remains to be done to more fully catalog and assess these materials, especially as their numbers keep increasing.

Our intent in this session is to shine the spotlight onto new and recent works of medievalism from across the planet that haven’t yet received much (if any) attention and explore how and (perhaps) why creators still find the Middle Ages so interesting and (despite their distance from the period) relevant in the twenty-first century to their own experiences, places, and times.

Presentations might highlight and engage with examples of the medieval in comics, drama, fiction, film, games, manga, memes, music, politics, streaming video, television programming, and/or translations. Other approaches are also welcome.

Please see Helen Young and Kavita Mundan Finn’s online bibliography from Global Medievalism: An Introduction (available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/abs/global-medievalism/E555F6DCC12217351536A00E22E862E5) for ideas and support.

Submission Information

All proposals must be submitted into the CFPList system at https://cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/20591 by 30 September 2023. You will be prompted to create an account with NeMLA (if you do not already have one) and, then, to complete sections on Title, Abstract, and Media Needs.

Notification on the fate of your submission will be made prior to 16 October 2023. If favorable, please confirm your participation with the chairs by accepting their invitations and by registering for the event. The deadline for Registration/Membership is 9 December 2023.

Be advised of the following policies of the Convention: All participants must be members of NeMLA for the year of the conference. Participants may present on up to two sessions of different types (panels/seminars are considered of the same type). Submitters to the CFP site cannot upload the same abstract twice.(See the NeMLA Presenter Policies page, at https://www.buffalo.edu/nemla/convention/policies.html, for further details,)

Thank you for your interest in our session. Please address questions and/or concerns to the organizers at MedievalinPopularCulture@gmail.com.

For more information on the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture, please visit our website at https://MedievalinPopularCulture.blogspot.com/.

The Experience of Local Officialdom in Europe and the Mediterranean, c.1000-1500: Between Order and Disorder

Local officeholders and petty officials were integral components of medieval political life across Europe and the Mediterranean, central to the configuration and experience of power but whose presence and absence could also signify crisis and confusion. Modern scholarship and medieval sources alike have acknowledged that local officers could just as easily be sources of disorder as order, generators of crisis as well as crisis managers. This strand builds on such insights to consider local officers in relation to order and disorder within their immediate local and broader sociopolitical contexts. Our approach is broad, encompassing a variety of officers—civic, royal, ecclesiastical, seigneurial, etc.—as well as challenges to the notion of ‘officialdom’. It proposes a social and experiential history which highlights the roles, profiles, and possibilities of a range of officers in their individual as well as institutional and social contexts, by considering how they supported or challenged models of political and social order prevalent in their communities or promulgated by their superiors.

Proposals of around 250 words including a brief biography, full contact information, academic affiliation, and an indication of whether you would be participating virtually or in-person should be sent to Charlie Steinman at ces2273@columbia.edu and Nathan Meades at nm263@st-andrews.ac.uk by Friday 8th September 2023.

Proposals might like to consider but are not limited to:

– Questions of justice, jurisdiction, authority
– Formulations and conceptions of office and officialdom, both theoretical and practical
– Prosopographical and biographical studies of local officers
– Accountability, both financial and in the sense of holding officers to account
– Relations between officers and local communities, including reactions, resistance and dissent
– Officers in explicit crisis situations (political, economic, social)
– Notions of corruption, morality and the ethics of officeholding
– Officers as mediators or brokers between ‘centre’ and ‘periphery’

The Painted Page: Medieval Manuscripts Through a Comparative Lens
(chair: Dr. Ann Shafer, Providence College, Rhode Island)

This virtual session examines premodern illuminated books from the sacred traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam within a larger context of visual influences from other media across space and time. Often individually studied in a vacuum with very specific aims, these books have nevertheless belonged to fluid and far-reaching communities of makers and readers whose physical and spiritual needs have varied over time and space. This session asks simple comparative questions. For example, how old is the practice of illuminating text, and what can ancient stone carvings – from Guatemala to Assyria – tell us about the role of imagery in the Medieval book? What do ink makers in Japan have to teach us about the devotional aspect of European scribal practices through time? How can contemporary artists in the Middle East show us subtle social and political relationships between the texts and the communities that produced them? Possible research questions in this space of free inquiry are endless and might dovetail with issues of materials and techniques of production, communal practices of learning and exchange, and the ontological nature of the sacred word. With the aim of bringing together scholars from different fields, we hope to gain new perspectives on familiar texts and broaden the scope of manuscript studies.

Papers that compare across cultures are especially welcome.

To submit a 250-word CFP before the August 31st deadline:

https://caa.confex.com/caa/2024/webprogrampreliminary/meeting.html

Re-Creating Camelot? Community-Building in Arthurian Studies (A Roundtable) (virtual)

Sponsored by Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain and International Arthurian Society, North American Branch (IAS/NAB)

Organizers: Michael A. Torregrossa and Joseph M. Sullivan

Call for Papers – Please Submit Proposals by 15 September 2023
59th International Congress on Medieval Studies
Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, Michigan)
Hybrid event: Thursday, 9 May, through Saturday, 11 May, 2024

See the shared Google Doc for the full call with a list of suggested resources on the topic: https://tinyurl.com/Re-Creating-Camelot-ICMS-2024.

Panel Objective

Re-Creating Camelot? Community-Building in Arthurian Studies (A Roundtable) (virtual)

Building off our sponsored session idea on Creating Camelot(s): The Idea of Community in Arthurian Texts, we’d like, also, this year at Kalamazoo to highlight in a roundtable format the ways that Arthurian enthusiasts and scholars have come together over the ages outside of fiction and strived to establish aspects of Camelot as reality in our/their world.

Questions to guide our conversations include:

• How have the Arthurian legends influenced and inspired the formation of groups seeking to continue the work of the fellowship of the Round Table and/or help us to promote the Matter of Britain?
• How—both in positive and negative ways—has the Matter of Britain been adapted, appropriated, compressed, expanded, and/or transformed by these new communities?
• Ultimately, how have these communities succeeded in reviving the legends? In what ways could they do/have done better?

Presentations could focus on historic events and/or groups as well as current academic activities, organizations, and publications.

Some possible examples:

• Brands/companies (King Arthur Flour)
• Classroom activities
• Collection development (Bangor, Newberry Library, Rochester)
• Fandoms (Merlin tv series)
• Fanfiction communities (Merlin tv series)
• Gaming/roleplaying communities
• Labor organizations
• Online communities (ArthurNet)
• Organizations (International Arthurian Society, IAS regional branches, MLA’s Arthurian Discussion Group, PCA’s Arthurian Legends Area)
• Outreach pursuits (conferences, symposia)
• Propaganda (medieval and/or post-medieval)
• Scholarly endeavors (Arthurian Literature, Arthuriana, Avalon to Camelot, book series, The Camelot Project, collections, special editions, special issues, sub-fields of Arthurian Studies)
• Wiki/Wikia building
• Youth groups

Please see the shared Google Doc for the full call with a list of suggested resources for examples of previous scholarship on our theme: https://tinyurl.com/Re-Creating-Camelot-ICMS-2024.

Submission Information

All proposals must be submitted into the Confex system at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/call by 15 September 2023. You will be prompted to complete sections on Title and Presentation Information, People, Abstract, and Short Description.

Be advised of the following policies of the Congress: “You are invited to make one paper proposal to one session of papers. This may be to one of the Sponsored or Special Sessions of Papers, which are organized by colleagues around the world, OR to the General Sessions of Papers, which are organized by the Program Committee in Kalamazoo. You may propose an unlimited number of roundtable contributions. However, you will not be scheduled as an active participant (as a paper presenter, roundtable discussant, presider, respondent, workshop leader, or performer) in more than three sessions.”

Thank you for your interest in our session. Please address questions and/or concerns to the organizers at KingArthurForever2000@gmail.com.

For more information on the  Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain, please visit our website at https://KingArthurForever.blogspot.com/.

For more information on the International Arthurian Society, North American Branch (IAS/NAB), please visit our website at https://www.international-arthurian-society-nab.org/ and consider becoming a member of our organization.

The Medieval Academy of America’s Committee on Centers and Regional Associations (CARA) welcomes proposals for three sponsored sessions at next year’s ICMS, which will take place from 9-11 May 2024 on the campus of Western Michigan University. Proposals should be submitted through the ICMS’s Confex portal (https://icms.confex.com/icms/2024/cfp.cgi) no later than 15 September 2023. If you have any questions, please contact CARA’s Director of Conference Programs, Prof. Kisha Tracy (ktracy3@fitchburgstate.edu).

What’s in a Name? Advantages and Challenges of the “Medieval” Today (Session)

The word “medieval” has a variety of meanings and implications across academic and popular discourse. Does describing your work as “medieval” help or hinder you in appealing to students, engaging with colleagues, or gaining institutional support for your work? What are the implications of interpreting non-European communities as “medieval” (as “global medieval studies” implies)? If terms like “medieval” and “medieval studies” are problematic, then what alternatives might there be–and what shortcomings might they present? This session invites scholars engaging with these questions to explore how we define ourselves and our field, and discuss the value as well as the difficulties posed by terms like “medieval” today.

Building and Growing Medieval Studies: Creating Communities of Passion Beyond the Classroom (Roundtable)

During the COVID pandemic, Medieval Studies outreach and engagement became more difficult. Those challenges, however, also encouraged new efforts to inspire passion for the Middle Ages among a broader community, spearheaded by academic associations and institutes, student organizations, K-12 teachers, libraries, and museums. This roundtable invites contributors to share outreach initiatives that have worked as well as ones that didn’t connect and their advice for others who want to create interest in and excitement about medieval objects, stories, and subjects in their own communities.

Co-sponsored with the Teaching Association for Medieval Studies (TEAMS)
So, What Are You Gonna Do with That? Prospects and Possibilities for the Graduate Medievalist (Roundtable)

As the academic job market tightens and the definition of “academia” itself evolves, those pursuing and holding graduate degrees in medieval fields increasingly ask “what will I do with this?” We invite roundtable contributors to share their stories of graduate work on the Middle Ages, perspectives on how that graduate training continues to shape them, the career paths to which it has led, and how they continue defining themselves as “medievalists,” highlighting the diversity and importance of all medievalists and the critical need for collegiality and inclusion to sustain Medieval Studies as a thriving field in the coming decades.

Texas Medieval Association
33rd Annual Conference
Southern Methodist University
Dallas, Texas

The thirty-third state meeting of the Texas Medieval Association will take place at Southern Methodist University on Saturday, September 23, 2023 from 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Those wishing to present a paper or participate in a “Roundup” for this conference should submit a summary of no longer than 100 words by September 4, 2023 to TEMA President  Bonnie Wheeler (bwheeler@smu.edu) or TEMA Secretary/Treasurer Don Kagay (donkagay@gmail.com).

Major Strand for 2023: FAME AND INFAMY in the Middle Ages
Keynote Speaker, Irina Dumitrescu, University of Bonn
“Medieval Divas: The Medieval Prehistory of Celebrity”

WE ARE BACK. This is an entirely in-person conference. Please remember that no paper can be offered unless the author is present. When you submit your topic, please note whether you require any electronic aids.

Perhaps the most distinctive part of TEMA’s history has been its continuous focus on the medieval interplay of the American Southwest and medieval Europe. We urge you to present on some related comparative topic.

Panel Structure

Roundups vs. Sessions

This conference at will feature two distinct types of panels. See conference website: www.texasmedieval.net

The Roundup, named in honor of our Texas heritage, functions like a workshop where presenters, led by a chair, examine the state of a particular question in specific areas of medieval studies [New views of medieval Spain; new work in gender or race studies; new thinking about celebrity in the Middle Ages, etc.] . Roundup Presenters should prepare a succinct thesis, spoken in no more than 5 minutes. These will be grouped to promote maximum interchange. These panels will give participants a chance to collaborate in a manner not typically associated with conference papers. Presenters must each submit abstracts to TEMA.

The sessions will be traditional conference panels. Presenters should prepare formal papers of about 15 minutes duration for the panel. We are happy to have self-selected organizers gather 3 presenters for a special session (alert us first). Do not exceed your allotted 15-minue slot. Conference chairs will be outfitted with lassoes to rein you in. Nolite vexare Texam.

We will have two rounds of Roundups and two rounds of sessions, thus ensuring that those wishing to pursue either type of conference activity have sufficient opportunity to do so.

FEES:  We are holding costs to a bare minimum. All our sessions will be held in Dallas Hall, SMU. All attendees must be members of TEMA ($10 per year). Otherwise, students and Independent Scholars who are presenters receive free coverage for conference, break treats, and lunch. Dinner separate. Faculty presenters will be charged $20 TEMA membership, break treats, and lunch. Dinner separate.

We are heavily subsidizing dinner/drinks costs but everyone must pay a small minimum. Dinner costs at the terrific SI TAPAS restaurant (2207 Allen St, Dallas 75204) for food and drinks are $20 per student, $25 per faculty. SI TAPAS provides fully vegetarian meals for those who specify. All fees including dinner costs must be submitted with your registration. The conference hotel, the BEEMAN HOTEL (6070 N US 75, North Central Expressway 100), is across Central Expressway, a short walk to campus. They are holding rooms for us—King and Queen-Queen rooms—but you must book by September 4 to take advantage of the favorable group rate ($149/night). Book here.