Session Write-Up: Medieval Undead/Undead Medievalisms

2019 Annual Conference of the Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association
Pittsburgh Marriott City Center Hotel, Pittsburgh, PA
7-9 November 2019
https://mapaca.net/conference

Thursday, November 7, 3:15 pm to 4:30 pm (Marquis Ballroom B)
MEDIEVAL & RENAISSANCE / ROUND TABLE / SESSION 1710

Medieval Undead/Undead Medievalisms (A Roundtable)
Sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture for the Medieval & Renaissance Area of the Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association
Organizer: Michael A. Torregrossa, Independent Scholar

Presider: Rachael Kathleen Warmington, Seton Hall University

The Round Table presentations of Peter Dendle, Elliott Mason, Richard Fahey, and Carl B. Sell went spectacularly well on the Thursday, 7 November session of MAPACA. All four presenters and their presider, Rachael Warmington, sparked an interesting conversation between their papers and with the question and answer session. In particular, the papers were at once complimentary and dissimilar enough to keep the presenters as well as the audience active in asking questions, suggesting thematic tie-ins, and working with similar concerns in medievalism and popular culture.

The myriad connections between the undead in contemporary culture and their relationship to medieval presentations of the undead challenged assumptions while exploring the reception of the undead, particularly zombies and their ilk, garnered interest in both the medieval sources as well as popular representations. The presenters themselves remarked upon how important and useful such exploration has become, and they, as well as the audience, seemed eager for more.

Perhaps this will not be the last time such a panel is created, as many felt that such work should be continued again next year at MAPACA.