Bloomsbury's New Directions in Medieval Studies

New series now accepting book proposals:

New Directions in Medieval Studies
Series Editor(s): Andrew B.R. Elliott, Helen Young
https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/series/new-directions-in-medieval-studies/

Particular concerns involve cataloguing the rich variety of experience of medieval people and exploring cultural transfer across different periods, places and groups. These are expressed in the many scholarly themes highlighted below and, taken together, seek to contribute to the future directions and debates of medieval studies.

KEY THEMES:

• Medieval lives including marginal voices, variation and dissimilitude
• Cultural exchange and interconnectedness across medieval Europe
• The reception and re-use of the Middle Ages in later periods
• Re-evaluating medieval history from a global perspective

We particularly welcome proposals from scholars working in the following areas:

• religious and ethnic minorities
• gender and queer history
• emotional communities
• postcolonial perspectives
• travel, trade and migration
• work that extends reception of the Middle Ages beyond the predominantly British perspectives of published work to date
• digital and new media receptions
• work responding to the idea of an 'ethical turn'

I.B.Tauris New Directions in Medieval Studies seeks to build on I.B.Tauris's independent, globally-oriented emphasis by encouraging scholars to use the series as a springboard for presenting their research in innovative ways. We welcome content presented in such a way as to appeal to both general and academic readerships, opening up paperback potential and extending the reach and longevity of your work.

Titles in the series are peer-reviewed and initially published in hardback with bespoke full-colour cover, and with simultaneous publication as a competitively priced e-book. Your book will benefit from I.B.Tauris's global marketing and will be represented at academic conferences around the world.

CFP 41st Annual Southwest Popular/American Culture Association Conference (10/31/19; Albuquerque 2/19/22/2020)

Call for Papers Now Open with Lots of Potential for Making Medievalisms Matter:

41st Annual Southwest Popular/American Culture Association Conference

Hyatt Regency Hotel and Conference Center Albuquerque, New Mexico February 19-22, 2020.

Proposals for papers and panels are now being accepted for the 41st annual SWPACA conference! One of the nation’s largest interdisciplinary academic conferences, SWPACA offers nearly 70 subject areas, each typically featuring multiple panels.

SWPACA offers monetary awards for the best graduate student papers in a variety of categories, as well as travel assistance to graduate and undergraduate students in the form of fellowships. For more information, visit the Graduate Student Award Page.

Registration and travel information for the conference is available at on the Registration Page.

Submissions of proposals are due October 31, 2019.

In addition, please check out the organization’s peer-reviewed, scholarly journal, Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy, at http://journaldialogue.org.

Full list of subject areas and submission link available at .http://southwestpca.org/conference/call-for-papers/

International Conference on Medievalism 2019 News

The website for the 34th International Conference on Medievalism has been launched. The conference will run from 20-21 September 2019 at Georgia Tech. The theme is Global Medievalisms.

Check it out at https://issm2019.lmc.gatech.edu/.

Pearl-poet: Modern Connections, Adaptations, and Evolutions (9/1/19; Kalamazoo 5/7-10/2020)

The Pearl-poet: Modern Connections, Adaptations, and Evolutions @ ICMS 2020
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2019/07/15/the-pearl-poet-modern-connections-adaptations-and-evolutions-icms-2020

deadline for submissions:
September 1, 2019
full name / name of organization:
Ashley E. Bartelt / International Pearl-poet Society
contact email:
abartelt1@niu.edu

International Pearl-Poet Society

Call for Papers — ICMS 2020

The International Pearl-Poet Society is sponsoring five sessions and one co-sponsored session with the Medieval Association of the Midwest (MAM) at the 55th International Congress on Medieval Studies (May 7-10, 2020) at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI. One session is:



The Pearl-poet: Modern Connections, Adaptations, and Evolutions

As one of the more prominent poets from the fourteenth century, the Pearl-poet continues to captivate audiences with his nuanced and timeless narratives, inspiring centuries of writers and artists. This session will explore the resonances and continued relevance of this prominent poet’s work in modern renderings, films, stage productions, and other media.



We invite abstracts from scholars of all levels. Papers may deal with one or all poems by the Pearl- or Gawain-poet. Paper sessions will consist of either three 20-minute or four 15-minute presentations; all paper sessions will afford at least 30 minutes for discussion.

Please send your abstract (max. 300 words) and the completed Participant Information Form by 1 September 2019 to

Ashley E. Bartelt

Northern Illinois University

Dept. of English, Reavis Hall, Room 215

1425 W. Lincoln Hwy.

DeKalb, IL 60116

abartelt1@niu.edu



The other International Pearl-poet Society sessions for ICMS 2020 include:

• The Final Frontier: Embodied Space in the Works of the Pearl-poet
• Acceptance and Resistance: Emotional Tension in the Pearl-poet
• In aventure þer mervayles meven: The Mystical Tradition in the Pearl-poet and Analogues
• Form and Structure in MS Cotton Nero A.x. (A Roundtable)
• Ain’t Misbehaving: Medieval English Women Who Do Good Work by Nefarious Means (co-sponsored with MAM)

For more information, see their individual CFPs on the University of Pennsylvania CFP site.

Call for Creative Works: Medievalist as Auctor (9/1/19; Kalamazoo 2020)

ICMS 2020: Medievalist as Auctor
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2019/07/20/icms-2020-medievalist-as-auctor

deadline for submissions:
September 1, 2019
full name / name of organization:
Erin K. Wagner
contact email:
wagnerek@delhi.edu

Whether we consider the high fantasy of Lewis and Tolkien or the contemporary rise in historical fiction set during the Middle Ages, it must be acknowledged that medievalists (and scholars more generally) have long been linked with creative writing. In an era of academia where the traditional university job is far from assured and where representations of the Middle Ages are co-opted by white nationalists, we must acknowledge the wider benefits and contributions of the humanities, while promoting a diverse picture of the Middle Ages. It is more important than ever that the scholastic community embrace its creative side.

This roundtable is seeking submissions of creative work to be read aloud and discussed. All creative writing (fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction) is welcome and work need not be on medieval topics though will hopefully contribute to a larger discussion about medievalism and/or the academy’s relationship with creative writing.

Please submit a brief synopsis of your work (250-500 words) and a CV as pdfs  by September 1, 2019 to wagnerek@delhi.edu.


Last updated July 29, 2019

CFP Performing Medieval Drama in the 21st Century (A Panel Discussion) (9/6/19; Kalamazoo 2020)

Performing Medieval Drama in the 21st Century (A Panel Discussion)
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2019/07/19/performing-medieval-drama-in-the-21st-century-a-panel-discussion

deadline for submissions:
September 6, 2019
full name / name of organization:
Kyle A. Thomas, Missouri State University
contact email:
kyleathomas17@gmail.com


Session Title: Performing Medieval Drama in the 21st Century (A Panel Discussion) at the International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University (2020)

Organizer: Kyle A. Thomas (Missouri State University)

Sponsered by the Medieval and Renaissance Drama Society (MRDS)

In her seminal book, Ritual Imports: Performing Medieval Drama in America, Claire Sponslor examined the role of European medieval drama in history of North America, making the case that drama was more than the importation of plays. Rather, Sponsler examined the practices and traditions of performance that carved out a space in which the practices of the Old World came into contact and communication with those of the New. Following Sponslor’s lead and her broad definition of drama—which includes plays, religious practices and ceremonies, fairs, pageantry, rites and rituals—this panel discussion seeks out papers and presentations that explore performance(s) of medieval drama in the 21st century. In particular, this panel will aim to facilitate conversation around performances that take from medieval source material but invite performers and audiences into a point or space of contact with the medieval world through effective and affective twenty-first-century practices. The organizers are especially interested in the papers/presentations that might include photos or videos of performance.

Possible approaches/questions might include, but are not limited to:

• current and affective methodologies for performing medieval drama that explore dramaturgy, acting/casting, design/tech, textual analysis, etc.;
• utilization and navigation of twenty-first-century spaces;
• the incorporation of technology, including social media mobile platforms and apps, etc.;
• ways in which potentially problematic characters, themes, ideas (e.g. anti-Semitism, gender roles) are handled in performance;
• how performance facilitates manifests the role of the medieval document/text and/or the work of research and the researcher for current audiences.

Please send abstracts and PIF forms to kathomas@missouristate.edu (if sent before August 10th, please also cc: kyleathomas17@gmail.com) by September 6th, 2019. Also, please mention in your abstract if you intend to include pictures or video of performance in your presentation. Depending on the number or submissions and the content of the proposals, the organizers will make and decision regarding the specific format of the discussion (i.e. length of papers/presentations and the possibility of a panel Q&A or respondant).


Last updated July 19, 2019

CFP Monstrous Woman and the Norms of Civility (Roundtable) (9/15/19; Kalamazoo 5/7-10/2020)

This seems of interest:

ICMS 2020: The Monstrous Woman and the Norms of Civility (Roundtable)
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2019/07/25/icms-2020-the-monstrous-woman-and-the-norms-of-civility-roundtable

deadline for submissions:
September 15, 2019
full name / name of organization:
Ann M. Martinez
contact email:
amart108@kent.edu


55thICMS, Kalamazoo, May 7-10, 2020.

Co-sponsors: BABEL Working Group and the Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship

Organizer: Ann M. Martinez

 Monstrosity is a shifting concept. What is deemed monstrous for one generation might not be so for the next. Similarly, the societal norms that shape/restrict behavior labeled as acceptable/unacceptable for women are also in flux. What, then, are the points of intersection between the monstrous and the female—when/how does a woman become monstrous? How do the norms of civility produce the monstrous woman, both in the past and the present? The current historical/cultural moment, with an impetus toward redefining/limiting women’s behavior, requires that we consider these questions. This roundtable invites papers that examine medieval representations of monstrous women in any form. While conducive toward feminist criticism, cultural studies, and monster studies, the roundtable is open to papers using diverse methodologies, as well as those not applying a theoretical framework.

 Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words to session organizer Ann M. Martinez (amart108@kent.edu) by September 15. Please include your name, title, and affiliation on the abstract itself, along with a completed Participant Information Form (available on the Congress website). In accordance with ICMS regulations, abstracts not accepted for the session will be forwarded to Congress administrators for consideration in general sessions.


Last updated July 29, 2019

CFP Nineteenth-/Twentieth-/Twenty-First-Century Medievalisms (9/15/19; Kalamazoo 2020)

(This seems fairly broad in scope, but, if I read it correctly, the organizers are limiting the discussion to fiction as opposed to other media.)

Nineteenth-/Twentieth-/Twenty-First-Century Medievalisms
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2019/07/24/nineteenth-twentieth-twenty-first-century-medievalisms

deadline for submissions:
September 15, 2019
full name / name of organization:
Daniel C. Najork; Robert Sirabian
contact email:
Daniel.Najork@asu.edu

For this session, we seek proposals exploring the factors shaping nineteenth- and twentieth-/twenty-first-century literature (in its broad sense) about the Middle Ages as well as the differences in approaches to the Middle Ages in each century. What historical, social, and intellectual views shaped nineteenth-century approaches to the Middle Ages? In what ways were these views limited or biased based on what the Victorians knew and believed and did not know, particularly when compared to advances in historical, psychological, and political knowledge in the next centuries? Conversely, what shaped twentieth-/twenty-first-century views of the Middle Ages? To what degree did writers react to and against the nineteenth century as well as utilize new knowledge available to them? At issue here is the debated distinction between medieval studies and medievalism. Medievalism, Pam Clements argues, “is in one sense the study of necessarily inauthentic ‘medieval’ matter [because of historical distance], filtered through a variety of eras, cultures, zeitgeists” (“Authenticity,” Medievalism: Key Critical Terms 20).

A paper, for example, focusing on a nineteenth-century literary work might examine how nineteenth-century thinking and knowledge shaped as well as limited that work when considering what was known and available in the twentieth-/twenty-first century. Papers might also address how scholars of the twentieth-/twenty-first centuries have confronted the lasting consequences of nineteenth-century medievalism.

Please send a 500-word abstract and the Participant Information Form (https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/submissions) to Robert.Sirabian@uwsp.edu and Daniel.Najork@asu.edu by September 15th.

Last updated July 29, 2019

CFP Politically-Varied Medievalisms of Separatist/Statehood/Independence Movements (9/15/19; Kalamazoo 2020)

The Politically-Varied Medievalisms of Separatist/Statehood/Independence Movements at ICMS Kalamazoo 2020
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2019/07/29/the-politically-varied-medievalisms-of-separatiststatehoodindependence-movements-at

deadline for submissions:
September 15, 2019
full name / name of organization:
International Society for the Study of Medievalism
contact email:
medievalismconferences@gmail.com

The right-wing medievalisms of Brexit and other Eurosceptic movements have been well-studied in the past few years. But not all separatist/independence/autonomy/statehood movements use medievalism in the same ways. This session seeks papers that examine the medievalisms of other such movements, including those (Scottish independence, Basque nationalism) that identify with more leftist politics, as well as those that engage with a range of political ideologies. How are appeals to the historical or fictional Middle Ages used by such movements or those who oppose them?

Preference will be given to papers that address the complexity of the relationship between medievalism and modern or contemporary politics, and to those proposals received by Sept 1.


Last updated July 29, 2019

CFP Legacies of Tolkien's Whiteness in Contemporary Medievalisms (9/15/19; Kalamazoo 2020)

Legacies of Tolkien's Whiteness in Contemporary Medievalisms
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2019/07/29/legacies-of-tolkiens-whiteness-in-contemporary-medievalisms

deadline for submissions:
September 15, 2019
full name / name of organization:
Tales after Tolkien Society
contact email:
talesaftertolkien@gmail.com


A roundtable session at the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University (www.wmich.edu/medievalcongress) examining the continuing effects of Tolkien's depictions of race in medievalist works; Rachel Cooper will preside.

Much criticism directs itself towards racial studies and postcolonial readings of the works of JRR Tolkien, arguing whether his works should be regarded as racist and what attitudes contemporary readers would be well served to adopt in response to them. Much attention in popular media has directed itself towards the use of medieval and medievalist works such as Tolkien's by white supremacist groups to offer themselves pseudo-intellectual and pseudo-historical support for their execrable agendas. The session looks for ways in which contemporary medievalist work (hopefully) unintentionally supports such efforts and what can be done to oppose them as things deserving all opposition.

Short proposals are welcome; please send to talesaftertolkien@gmail.com on or before 15 September 2019. Proposals from graduate students, those outside traditional academe, and traditionally underrepresented groups are especially welcome.

Last updated July 29, 2019

CFP Reimagining “The Middle Ages” (9/15/19; Kalamazoo 2020)

Kalamazoo ICMS 2020: Reimagining “The Middle Ages”
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2019/08/07/kalamazoo-icms-2020-reimagining-%E2%80%9Cthe-middle-ages%E2%80%9D

deadline for submissions:
September 15, 2019
full name / name of organization:
Medieval Association of the Pacific
contact email:
miranda_wilcox@byu.edu


“The Middle Ages” are created and maintained by those who imagine them today, lending urgency to the project of narrating a global medieval that resists the field’s racist and nationalist myths. Given a need for new imaginaries:

• What prospects of medievalism arise when medieval sources are freed from their nineteenth-century creation myths?
• How do medieval depictions of cross-cultural encounter provoke new imaginaries?
• How might medievalists ethically incorporate premodern Indigenous and Pacific Rim cultural artifacts to imagine beyond, rather than replicate, settler-colonial and imperialist mode(l)s?
• What can medieval sources offer, imaginatively encountered in the public sphere or classroom, to new audiences?

We invite 15- to 20-minute papers employing a broad range of methodologies for the discursive goal of critically reimagining a global medieval studies. We use “global medieval” not only as geopolitical designation but also to indicate inclusive praxis that involves telling the Middle Ages (and considering how they’ve been told) and amplifying marginalized voices, sources, and medievalisms. Such praxis may include professional reflection and critical theorizing about the roles and responsibilities in reimagining and recreating “the medieval” and the challenges and opportunities of counter-narrating.

In keeping with MAP's organizational focus as an academic society whose membership, affiliated institutions, and mission statement embraces our position on the Pacific Rim, we aim to foreground the voices of medievalists of colour and Indigenous medievalists, and of scholars who work at the intersection of Indigenous and Pacific Rim cultures and medieval studies.

Please email abstracts of approximately 300 words with the Participant Information Form (available at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/submissions) to Miranda Wilcox (miranda_wilcox@byu.edu) by September 15th, 2019.


Last updated August 7, 2019

CFP Past Forward: New Ways of Looking at Old Things Conference (10/4/19; Bloomington 3/6-7/2020)

Of potential interest, I think:

Past Forward: New Ways of Looking at Old Things
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2019/08/17/past-forward-new-ways-of-looking-at-old-things

deadline for submissions:
October 4, 2019
full name / name of organization:
The Medieval Studies Institute, Indiana University Bloomington
contact email:
iumestsymposium@gmail.com


CFP: Past Forward: New Ways of Looking at Old Things

MEST Symposium, Indiana University Bloomington

March 6-7, 2020



Keynote: Dr. Michelle Warren (Dartmouth College)

Proposals for 20-minute papers should be submitted to iumestsymposium@gmail.com by October 4, 2019.



The digital age is presenting us with new technologies for data mining, data management, and forensic analysis of material culture, while interdisciplinary methodologies and modern theories help us imagine new ways of posing questions about the past and enable us to set new boundaries for framing “the bigger picture.” Together, contemporary theories and modern technologies promise new perspectives on the past.


This symposium invites papers that consider new ways of seeing old things. We are interested in asking: How might applying new, potentially anachronistic, theory to medieval art and literature strengthen or challenge our understanding of the past? What do digital surrogates/avatars/reproductions do for/with/to medieval objects? How can (or should) we use Digital Humanities in the classroom and in our research? What can we learn from medieval technologies as we continue to develop and refine our own?



How do modern theories and technologies help us better understand the Middle Ages while drawing it into our present?


Last updated August 19, 2019

CFP Journal of the Wooden O (submissions by 10/18/19)

CFP - Journal of the Wooden O
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2019/08/10/cfp-journal-of-the-wooden-o

deadline for submissions:
October 18, 2019
full name / name of organization:
Dr. Stephanie Chamberlain/Journal of the Wooden O
contact email:
woodeno@suu.edu

The Journal of the Wooden O is a peer-reviewed academic publication focusing on Shakespeare studies. It is published annually by Southern Utah University Press in cooperation with the SUU Center for Shakespeare Studies and the Utah Shakespeare Festival.

The editors invite papers on any topic related to Shakespeare, including Shakespearean texts, Shakespeare in performance, the adaptation of Shakespeare works (film, fiction, and visual and performing arts), Elizabethan and Jacobean culture and history, and Shakespeare’s contemporaries.

Articles published in the Journal of the Wooden Oare indexed in the MLA International Bibliography, World Shakespeare Bibliography and appear full-text in EBSCO Academic Search Premiere.

Selected papers from the annual Wooden O Symposium are also considered for publication.

SUBMISSIONS:Manuscripts should follow the Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition. Manuscript submissions should generally be between 3000-7000 words in length. The deadline for submission is October 18, 2019. Authors should include all of the following information on a separate page with their submission:

Author’s name
Manuscript title
Mailing address
Email address
Daytime phone number
Submit electronic copy to: woodeno@suu.edu  (Only .doc, .docx or .rtf files will be accepted.)

For more information, contact:

Journal of the Wooden O                                                                                                                 

c/o Southern Utah University Press                                                                                                 

351 W. University Blvd.                                                                                                                   

Cedar City, UT 84720   

435.586.1955

woodeno@suu.edu


Last updated August 12, 2019

CFP Adaptation Before Cinema: Literary and Visual Convergence from Antiquity through the 19th Century (8/31/19)

Adaptation Before Cinema: Literary and Visual Convergence from Antiquity through the 19th Century
deadline for submissions:
August 31, 2019
full name / name of organization:
Lissette Lopez Szwydky / University of Arkansas
contact email:
lissette@uark.edu

Adaptation Before Cinema:

Literary and Visual Convergence from Antiquity through the 19th Century



Adaptation scholars regularly acknowledge that the practice of adapting and retelling stories is as old as storytelling itself. Yet the field of adaptation studies is dominated by scholars considering contemporary media forms, mainly film. Research in what, we argue, Colin MacCabe mis-labels the “pre-history” of adaptation evidences the fact that pre-cinematic forms and practices of adaptation offer the field productive insights about the act, product, production, and reception of adaptation as a transhistorical cultural phenomenon. Yet those explorations often take place outside the boundaries of adaptation studies. Such literary and cultural studies commonly run parallel to the theoretical and material concerns of adaptation studies, but the fields rarely intersect and the discourses rarely cross-pollinate.

This collection of essays will construct historical bridges between these discourses by foregrounding and providing a platform for innovative approaches to any aspect of adaptation, appropriation, or transmedia storytelling from Antiquity through the invention of cinema in the late nineteenth century. All forms and media prior to the advent of cinema are welcome. In keeping with current trends in adaptation studies that seek to move beyond the traditional 1:1 source/adaptation format, we are particularly interested in article-length essays that investigate any combination of thematic trends, material contexts, commercial practices, theoretical models, and transhistorical, cross-cultural, or comparative approaches, as well as essays that encompass a range of genres and pre-cinematic media, which may include (but are not limited to) theater, novelizations, painting and illustration, toys and games, or other forms of literary production and visual culture. Essays should demonstrate working knowledge of contemporary adaptation studies. The goal of this collection is to expand the primary scholarly audience of film and media scholars to literary scholars and cultural critics working across a range of historical periods, genres, forms, and media—and vice versa. We are especially interested in essays on the following topics:

• Mythology as adaptation, transmediation, and/or world-building.
• Multicultural folklore, oral traditions, fairy tales, and their variations.
• Transcultural or cross-cultural adaptation.
• Forms of adaptation in specific historical periods (i.e. medieval literature and culture; early modern drama, etc).
• Chaucer, Milton, Shakespeare, or other canonical authors as adapted and/or adaptors/adapters.
• Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century adaptations of earlier works across forms and media.
• The rise of consumer and commercial culture.
• Early forms of fandom and celebrity approached through adaptation studies.
• Adaptation and art history, illustration studies, or print culture.
• Adaptation in major aesthetic movements such as Romanticism or genres.

Send inquiries to Lissette Lopez Szwydky (lissette@uark.edu) and Glenn Jellenik (gjellenik@uca.edu). 500-word abstracts due by August 31, 2019 via email with the subject line “Adaptation Before Cinema CFP submission.”

Tentative schedule:

August 31, 2019: Abstracts due.

October 1, 2020: Authors contacted for inclusion in volume

May 31, 2020: First drafts full essays


Last updated August 6, 2019

CFP Saving the Day for Medievalists: Accessing Medieval-Themed Comics in the Twenty-first Century (Roundtable) (9/15/19; Kalamazoo 5/7-10/2020)

Saving the Day for Medievalists: Accessing Medieval-Themed Comics in the Twenty-first Century (Roundtable)
Sponsored by the Medieval Comics Project, an outreach effort of the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture
55th International Congress on Medieval Studies
Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan
7-10 May 2020

Proposals due by 15 September 2019

Most medievalists have come to accept popular manifestations of the Middle Ages and are willing to talk about fiction, film, and television programs in their classrooms, and some are even writing about these items in their scholarship; however, few have as readily embraced the material produced in the comics medium. This fault is not due to a lack of interest. As our sessions over the past two decades attest, many medievalists are curious about how the comics have adapted medieval figures, events, and stories, but a much smaller group knows how to access this corpus and use it profitably for research and teaching.

Thus, the goal of this session, sponsored by The Medieval Comics Project, is to attempt to rectify this neglect by to presenting some overviews, by an assortment of medieval-comics scholars, of how the comics have appropriated some of the most well-known material from the Middle Ages (such as Beowulf, the Crusades, Dante’s Commedia, the Matter of Britain, Norse mythology, and the Robin Hood legend) to provide insight into what has been done so far in terms of comics and comics scholarship with regards to these topics and what kind of work might be done in the future.
Suggestions for topics and resources can be accessed at both The Medieval Comics Project site (https://medieval-comics-project.blogspot.com/) and its sibling The Arthur of the Comics Project site (https://arthur-of-the-comics-project.blogspot.com/). Additional material on the comics medium appears at our Saving the Day: Accessing Comics in the Twentieth-first Century site (https://accessing-comics-in-the-21st-century.blogspot.com/).

Presentations will be limited to 10 or 15 minutes depending on final panel size.

Interested individuals should submit, no later than 15 September 2019, (1) paper proposal or abstract of approximately 500 words, (2) a 250 to 500-word academic biographical narrative, and (3) a completed Participant Information Form (accessible at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/submissions) to the organizers at Comics.Get.Medieval@gmail.com using “Saving the Day for Medievalists” as their subject heading.

In planning your proposal, please be aware of the policies of the Congress (available at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/policies-guidelines/policies), which limits each participant to one formal paper but allows for one to serve “as an active participant (paper presenter, panelist, discussant, workshop leader, demonstration participant, poster presenter, presider or respondent) in a maximum of three sessions”.

Further information about the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture and its outreach efforts can be accessed at our Making Medievalisms Matter site (https://medievalinpopularculture.blogspot.com/).

CFP Outlaws, Boundaries and Borders (9/20/19; Leeds 2020)

From the Robin Hood list:

The IARHS are seeking papers for up to two sessions at the Leeds IMC in July next year.  The overall theme for this Congress is ‘Borders’, and our sessions will be entitled ‘Outlaws, Boundaries and Borders’.

Outlaws traverse, transcend and transgress borders of many kinds: geographical, societal, political and ideological.  Their stories have been continually popular since the Middle Ages, crossing boundaries between the literary and the oral (spoken and sung), word and image, verbal and physical performance.  Some, such as the tales of Robin Hood, have had international, multilingual appeal and influence.  Outlaw tales have appeared in a wide variety of media, never more so than in modern times, with the advent of film, gaming and other forms of digital technology. As the general Congress call for papers puts it:

‘Borders are associated with power and the formation of states, definitions of self and other, violence and military engagement, belonging and becoming, material and symbolic construction, relational and perspectival production of space, mapping and discourse, experience and theory, to negotiation and performance. Borders occur in frescoes, textiles, clothing, ceramics or coins, with practical, symbolic or aesthetic functions. Borders are also subject to evolution and significant change over time not just between the medieval and modern, but also within the medieval period.’

Themes given include:

• Political and military borders
• Living in border zones
• Medieval and Modern perceptions, descriptions, and conceptualizations of borders
• Delimiting borders, border markers
• Border maintenance
• Encountering and experiencing borders
• Bordering practices
• Borderscapes in the longue durée
• Symbolic borders
• Belonging and exclusion
• Mapping borders and border zones
• Border institutions
• Materiality of borders
• Border and power
• Migration
• Medieval imagery of borders
• Transnationalism
• Political, social, cultural, religious performance of borders
• Village and parish boundaries
• Boundaries between town and countryside and within towns
• Practices of delimitation
• Blurring boundaries such as human/animal, animate/inanimate, gender, age, status, religion
• Self and other, boundaries of the self
• Fluidity and fixity of borders
• Borders in manuscripts
• Material and visual borders
• Processual and performative turns and medieval borders
• Disciplinary boundaries
• Paratexts as borders
• Borders of the body
• Transcending and reaffirming boundaries between life and death
• Borders, boundaries, frontiers

 

If you would like to offer a paper for a session on ‘Outlaws, Boundaries and Borders’, please send your proposal, including the paper’s title and an abstract of 100-200 words, together with your preferred contact address and email, to Dr Lesley Coote (L.A.Coote@hull.ac.uk) by September 20th 2019 (at the very latest).  Although we especially welcome papers on medieval outlaws, papers may focus on any historical period from the medieval to the modern, and on any national culture.

Make Medievalisms Matter: Kalamazoo 2020

I am re-posting this from the King Arthur Forever site. I apologize if you receive the notice twice.

A much belated notice that our sponsored session on professionalism and Medievalism Studies was rejected by the organizers of the 2020 International Congress on Medieval Studies. The session was designed following many conversations at this year's conference with medieval(ism)ists that felt out of place in the field of Medieval Studies and were seeking support and mentoring.

The full proposal follows:

Proposed session #1 title: Can We Be More Than the Middle Ages? The Place of Medievalism Studies within Medieval Studies (Roundtable)

      Proposed session #1 format: Roundtable

      Importance #1: Medievalisms are the lifeblood of our field. They create interest in the Middle Ages and keep its legacies alive despite our distances from the era in time and space, but does our fascination with this material come at a cost, one few are willing to pay? Can medievalists, of all levels, successfully integrate popular representations of the medieval into their research and careers, or must Medievalism Studies remain an outlier, a guilty pleasure rather than an appropriate option to  further the field? Through this roundtable, we seek to explore the answers to these and similar questions.

      Method #1: The academic study of medievalism has been viewed as a legitimate avenue of inquiry for just over forty years, and scholarship on medieval-themed art, comics, drama, fiction, film, games, and television programming has grown considerably over time. However, the phenomenal success of Medievalism Studies can be more a curse than a blessing. Medieval Studies and its more traditional sub-disciplines are not always as welcoming of this material as they appear, and we wonder whether the pursuit of medievalisms is a worthwhile endeavor or something capable of causing stigma or even harm to fall upon the researcher.

      Keywords #1: Medievalism, Inclusion

The official response is that our session "was rejected because its content was duplicated by other medievalism proposals that were more strongly conceptualized. The Committee believes that the subject the Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain proposed can be addressed by papers submitted to other sessions."

We remain convinced that our session proposal was unique and necessary, and, with the aid our sibling  group, the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture,  will seek to place it elsewhere in the hopes of initiating this much needed conversation and produce some answers for those that see themselves as affected.

Please contact us at medievalinpopularculture@gmail.com for suggestions or comments.

Michael Torregrossa
Founder, Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain
Founder, Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture