Mass Mediævalisms: The Middle Ages of Popular Culture

Welcome to home page of the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture, a community of scholars and enthusiasts organized to promote and foster research and discussion of representations of the medieval in post-medieval popular culture and mass media. Encompassing material produced from the close of the Middle Ages to today, these medievalisms can be categorized as survivals, revivals, or re-creations of the medieval in post-medieval eras.

Saturday, May 10, 2025

CFP Fantasy & the Fantastic Area / Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Narratives (5/15/2025; PAMLA San Francisco 11/20-23/2025)

Sharing on behalf of Kristin Noone, Fantasy & the Fantastic Area Chair for the Pacific Ancient & Modern Language Association (PAMLA)

PAMLA Conference: Nov 20-23, 2025; Location: the InterContinental Hotel, San Francisco

Abstract / Proposal Deadline: May 15 (it'll stay open through the 16th for any late ones)

PAMLA general website: https://www.pamla.org/pamla2025/

Full CFP with all areas (my specific areas linked below): https://pamla.ballastacademic.com/Home/CFP

Standing Session: Fantasy and the Fantastic

Area Chair: Kristin Noone, Irvine Valley College (kristinlnoone@gmail.com)

Fantasy and the supernatural, broadly defined, shape many of the most popular contemporary narratives and universes—from Lord of the Rings to Game of Thrones, from World of Warcraft to The Witcher, from classical and medieval tales of monsters and dragons to the worlds of N.K. Jemisin, Terry Pratchett, Tracy Deonn, Nnedi Okorafor, and Ursula K. Le Guin. As a genre, fantasy engages with questions of rhetoric, identity, and power in multiple ways, across multiple media, subgenres, and cultural traditions; the enchantment of fantastic and supernatural narratives has cast a persistent and global spell. We welcome proposals both related to the conference theme, "Palimpsests: Memory and Oblivion," and those not related.

Direct submission portal: https://pamla.ballastacademic.com/Home/S/19602

Special Session: Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Narratives (co-sponsored by the International Association for Robin Hood Studies)

Session Chair: Kristin Noone, Irvine Valley College (kristinlnoone@gmail.com)

Robin Hood and other outlaw figures exist as polymorphous, shifting, persistent presences across space and time, inhabiting storyworlds that respond to and reflect the needs of the society in which the outlaw emerges. The Robin Hood tradition is a rich and varied one, appearing across many forms of media and numerous adaptations; outlaw heroes—or anti-heroes, protagonists, or even antagonists—can be found in cultures from the medieval to the present, spanning the globe.

For this special allied session, the International Association for Robin Hood Studies invites papers and presentations which explore the myriad faces and evolutions and representations of the outlaw, from the medieval to the modern, in various cultural traditions and media. This year’s overall PAMLA conference theme is “Palimpsests: Memory and Oblivion,” and particular attention will be given to proposals which incorporate these concepts, but we are certainly open to all outlaw-related proposals regardless of theme—in keeping with the greenwood community spirit!

Direct submission portal: https://pamla.ballastacademic.com/Home/S/19616