CFP Medievalism and Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Historical Fiction (9/15/21; Kalamazoo 2022)

Posted on behalf of the organizers (from the ISSM list):

Session Title: Medievalism and Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Historical Fiction (Session ID: 2862)

ISSM-sponsored session at ICMS 2022

The “flavor” of many creative medievalisms shifts radically from genre to genre, yet these changes have largely been considered within the home genre and mode of the text in question – for example, a historical romance novel might be explored within the contexts of historical fiction or the romance novel genre, but not as a subset of medievalism. This panel seeks to upend those norms by considering medievalism as the broad umbrella category and exploring texts that play with genre, or texts working within a specific genre, for example the forthcoming film Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (2021). 

We invite proposals that explore the influence of the genres of science fiction, fantasy, and historical fiction upon medievalism, whether the field overall or in specific works (of any medium or mode). For example, how might romances like Sir Gawain and the Green Knight change meaning in a new genre, such as science fiction or fantasy? Proposals might consider specific texts, or ask broader questions including: how do speculative genres influence, restrict, or expand the potential of medievalism, or change the types of stories told? Where does genre cross over with medievalism?

Submissions of 250-300 WORDS should be made via the ICMS Confex system https://icms.confex.com/icms/2022am/cfp.cgi no later than Wednesday 15 September 2021.  If you have questions, please contact vjohnso6@montevallo.edu.

CFP Balancing Acts: Finding Time for Work and Scholarship (Roundtable) (9/30/21; NeMLA 3/10-13/2022)

CFP Balancing Acts: Finding Time for Work and Scholarship (Roundtable)

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

For the 53rd Annual Convention of the Northeast Modern Language Association

To convene at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront, Baltimore, Maryland, from 10-13 March 2022

Proposals due by 30 September 2021

In connection with the conference theme of “Care”, this roundtable seeks to create a conversation about how we specialists of literature and languages might find a balance between our careers as teachers/workers with our lives as scholars/researchers. We face similar obstacles to achieving success. Can we work together to create a solution? 

Call for Papers

Like many, we specialists of literature and languages often stretch ourselves incredibly thin: as teachers/workers and as scholars/researchers. Many of us work multiple jobs as adjuncts, have temporary or precarious contracts, or teach overloaded schedules; others labor outside the academy. When, then, is there time for our own research, for conferencing, for writing, for publishing? 

This roundtable seeks to present a real-time discussion of these problems within English and language studies and hopes to try and find active answers to these questions. Rather than a presentation of papers, this is conceived as a traditional speaking roundtable: the presenters will have a few remarks prepared, but, ideally, this will serve as an academic conversation to jumpstart a larger, more necessary discussion amongst professionals about how and why finding a balance between working and scholarship is necessary, particularly in our fields. 

While this roundtable may appeal more to early-career academics, we encourage tenured and tenure-track faculty to participate in the conversation: Their contributions will only add to the greater picture of the emerging viewpoints of the field and can lead to some concrete solutions and suggestions for scholars to help find the balance that is necessary to be successful, both in one’s work and in one’s own research goals and agenda.

Guiding Questions:

• How can you balance an overloaded course schedule with a research requirement?
• How can you remain active in research and teach full-time/overtime?
• How can adjuncts/temporary faculty find time to do anything other than find a job?
• What do you do when your job isn’t in your field, and you can’t find time to do research or write?
• Are there organizations that can help with these issues?
• What do you do if you don’t have departmental support?
• How do you find the time to write and do research?
• How do you balance being a professional with your personal life? 
• How do you balance teaching, research, and service with personal health?

Submissions should be made directly into NeMLA’s conference management program at https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/19225. Potential presenters will need to create an account with NeMLA to submit a proposal (including a presentation title, brief abstract--not more than 250 words--of some talking points addressing our major questions, academic bio, and AV needs)and to become members of NeMLA should their proposal be accepted for the session. Notice of acceptance will be made after 1 October 2021. Please go to the website nemla.org for details about session types and presenter guidelines.

Please address any other questions to the session organizers at medievalinpopularculture@gmail.com. We also welcome suggestions for resources (in print or online) that might be of value to the panel and its audience. 

CFP Saving the Day: Advice on Publishing in Popular Culture Research (Roundtable) (9/30/21; NeMLA 3/10-13/2022)

 CFP Saving the Day: Advice on Publishing in Popular Culture Research (Roundtable)

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

For the 53rd Annual Convention of the Northeast Modern Language Association

To convene at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront, Baltimore, Maryland, from 10-13 March 2022

Proposals due by 30 September 2021

Finding where to submit our research is an issue for many, especially for those working on popular texts, like anime, comics, games, and genre fiction. Too often, the scholarship “dies”. It remains part of our CV or lesson plan but fails to reach the wider audience it deserves. This roundtable seeks published scholars to present on approaches to finding the right “fit” for work in popular culture and to relate their experiences with the processes of publication all in the hopes of encouraging others to get their work out into the world. 

Call for Papers

Many scholars working with popular culture have had their work feel largely out of place when looking at calls for papers or submitting to journals and edited collections. For example, papers on medievalist games tend to get rejected from strict medieval journals, and staunch comics studies collections focus on the medium and presentation of image rather than the adapted narrative of Frankenstein. Where, then, do we turn to publish our research? And, can anyone help us to do so?

This roundtable seeks published scholars to share their experiences within Popular Culture Studies. How have you achieved success in finding the right “fit” for your work in publications? Can you relate your experiences with the process of acceptance, peer review, revision, and final publication? Our goal is to help new and emerging scholars working with popular culture texts to more easily navigate the various CFPs and submission processes and to learn how and why their work may or may not fit for certain publications or publishers.

We welcome and, indeed, encourage submissions that span the genres of popular culture studies (including anime/manga, fantasy, games, horror, Internet video and memes, medievalisms, and science fiction) and that might highlight perspectives from various specialties (including classics, ecocriticism, feminism, LGBTQ+, romanticism, etc.). The more widespread the discussion, the more we can begin to expand the conversation about approaches to finding publication opportunities and the processes therein, both for new scholars and for those shifting into popular culture from another field. We also hope to begin to create a larger understanding of how and why many popular culturalists remain unpublished or remain relatively unknown outside of a few groups. 

Submissions should be made directly into NeMLA’s conference management program at https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/19224. Potential presenters will need to create an account with NeMLA to submit a proposal (including a presentation title, brief abstract of 250 words detailing your experiences with and approaches to publication in popular culture, academic bio, and media needs) and to become members of NeMLA should their proposal be accepted for the session. Notice of acceptance will be made after 1 October 2021. Please go to the website nemla.org for details about session types and presenter guidelines.

Please address any other questions to the session organizers at medievalinpopularculture@gmail.com. We also welcome suggestions for resources (in print or online) that might be of value to the panel and its audience. 

MAPACA 2021 Medieval & Renaissance Area Sessions

The Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association has released the schedule for its 2021 virtual conference. Create an account to view the full program and register to attend.

Here are the session details for the Medieval & Renaissance Area. We have organized three of the five panels.

Schedule by area: Medieval & Renaissance

• Medievalisms on Screen (Wednesday, November 10, 9:30 am to 10:45 am (Camelot))
• Co-Sponsored Panel: Discourse of Medievalism and Representation on Screen (Wednesday, November 10, 3:15 pm to 4:30 pm (Camelot))
• Recalling the Middle Ages: Nostalgia, Relics, Ruins in Medievalisms (Thursday, November 11, 9:30 am to 10:45 am (Camelot))
• Magic in Medievalism: White Wizards, Wicked Witches & Racialized Sorcerers (Friday, November 12, 9:30 am to 10:45 am (Camelot))
• Medeievalisms in Neomedievalisms in Shakespeare, Video Games, the Classroom, and Culture (Friday, November 12, 1:45 pm to 3:00 pm (Camelot))

Hope you can attend.

CFP "Can These Bones Come to Life?" II: The Afterlife of the Knights Templar (A Panel Discussion) (9/1/21; Kalamazoo 5/9-14/2022)

 Posted from the ISSM listerv:

"Can These Bones Come to Life?" II: The Afterlife of the Knights Templar
(A Panel Discussion)

@ Western Michigan University’s International Medieval Congress (The Conference Formerly Known as “Kalamazoo”)

In keeping with our theme of “reenactment and recreations,” we are seeking a panel of four to six scholars on the afterlife, signification, and uses of the Knights Templar and Templar imagery. Medievalisms modern, premodern, and postmodern—sixteenth-century Portuguese court propaganda to Freemasons to Charlottesville to mosque graffiti to reenactors and the SCA—are welcome, as are depictions and representations both positive and negative. Participants are further invited to submit papers to our ongoing volume of proceedings.

Please contact Ken Mondschein at ken -at- kenmondschein dot com

Update (Un)Fair(ly) Unknown: New and Neglected Arthurian Television Programming (Mythcon 51)

My thanks to everyone at Mythcon 51 for attending our sponsored session this weekend. Here again are the details of the panel.

(Un)Fair(ly) Unknown: New and Neglected Arthurian Television Programming 

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

The Arthurian tradition abounds with Fair Unknowns, characters whose identity and true worth are revealed only slowly over the course of an adventure. In this session, we’d like to adopt the motif to look at new and neglected television series that make interesting use of the legend and deserve more recognition by scholars.

Panel Chair: Carl B. Sell, Lock Haven University

Paper 1: “Generation X in King Arthur’s Court: Arthurian Television of the 1970s and 1980s”

Michael A. Torregrossa, Independent Scholar

Michael A. Torregrossa is a graduate of the Medieval Studies program at the University of Connecticut (Storrs) and works as an adjunct instructor in English in both Rhode Island and Massachusetts. His research focuses on popular culture’s adaptation and appropriation of literary classics, including the Arthurian legend, Beowulf, Dracula, and Frankenstein.  In addition, Michael is the founder of The Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain and The Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture; he also serves as editor for these organizations' various blogs and moderator of their discussion lists. Besides these activities, Michael is also active in the Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association and organizes sessions for their annual conference in the fall. Michael is currently Monsters and the Monstrous Area Chair for NEPCA, but he previously served as its Fantastic (Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror) Area Chair, a position he held from 2009-2018.

Paper 2: “Knights, Swords, Roundtables, and Quests:  Contemporary Adaptations and Appropriations of Arthurian Legend”

Rachael Warmington, Seton Hall University

Rachael Warmington is an instructor at Seton Hall University. She earned her B.A. in English from Montclair State University, M.A. in English from Seton Hall University, her MFA at CUNY City College and is a doctoral candidate at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Rachael is also the editor-in-chief of the academic journal, Watchung Review.  Her research focuses on themes of Arthurian Legend in medieval texts and in contemporary literature, film and television adaptations, and appropriations and how these themes create the space that challenges oppression in its various forms but have also been used to perpetuate racism, sexism, and religious intolerance.

Paper 3: ""Medievalism in the Kingdom: Chivalry and Arthurian Kingship in The Walking Dead"

Richard Fahey, University of Notre Dame 

Richard Fahey recently graduated from University of Notre Dame with a PhD in English (2020) and currently works as Blog Manager & Contributor at the Medieval Institute’s "Medieval Studies Research Blog," and Managing Book Review Editor for "Religion & Literature" at Notre Dame. Richard specializes in Old English, Middle English, Latin, Old Norse-Icelandic, and Old Saxon literature, and his research interests include medieval wonders, monsters, magic, riddles, heroism, syncretism, allegory, intellectual history, medievalism, and public humanities. Richard is currently transforming his recent dissertation into a monograph, titled "Psychomachic Monstrosity in Beowulf,” and editing a collection of essays on the subject of “White Wizard Male Privilege.”