May Business Meeting

The Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture has scheduled our May 2021 business meeting for Tuesday, 5/18, from 2-3 PM (Eastern Daylight Time). Please complete the Google Form by Tuesday morning to receive the Zoom link.


Thanks,
Michael


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Michael A. Torregrossa, Listserv Moderator/ Blog Editor
*Founder, The Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture

Kalamazoo 2021 Sponsored Sessions

Here's our list of sessions for this year's International Congress on Medieval Studies.

56th International Congress on Medieval Studies

Hosted online by Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan.

 

Business Meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture: TBA.

 

106 Tuesday, May 11, 11:00 a.m. EDT

Saving the Day for Medievalists: Accessing Medieval-Themed Comics in the Twenty-First Century I: Comics and the Classroom (A Roundtable)

Sponsor: Medieval Comics Project; Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture

Organizer: Michael A. Torregrossa, Independent Scholar

Presider: Richard Scott Nokes, Troy Univ.

A roundtable discussion with Dustin M. Frazier Wood, Univ. of Roehampton; Justin Wigard, Michigan State Univ.; Kara L. Maloney, Canisius College; Genevieve Pigeon, Univ. du Québec à Montréal; and Carl B. Sell, Lock Haven Univ.

 

142 Tuesday, May 11, 3:00 p.m. EDT

Saving the Day for Medievalists: Accessing Medieval-Themed Comics in the Twenty-First Century II: Comics Scholarship (A Roundtable)

Sponsor: Medieval Comics Project; Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture

Organizer: Michael A. Torregrossa, Independent Scholar

Presider: Carl B. Sell, Lock Haven Univ.

A roundtable discussion with Richard Scott Nokes, Troy Univ.; Tirumular (Drew) Narayanan, Univ. of Wisconsin–Madison; Karen Casebier, Univ. of Tennessee–Chattanooga; Scott Manning, Independent Scholar; and Michael A. Torregrossa.

CFP Uncharted Medievalisms: Revealing the Medieval in Popular Fiction and Games (Panel) (9/30/2020; NeMLA Philadelphia 3/11-14/2021)

Uncharted Medievalisms: Revealing the Medieval in Popular Fiction and Games (Panel)

52nd Annual Convention of the Northeast Modern Language Association

Marriott Downtown Philadelphia, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from 11-14 March 2021

Paper abstracts are due by 30 September 2020

Session organized by Carl B. Sell and Michael A. Torregrossa and sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture.


As Umberto Eco once observed, “people like the Middle Ages,” and medievalism flourishes across the globe, with medievalist settings and ideologies used in popular, fictional settings that are widely known in their respective communities. However, critical exploration of these medievalisms has been lacking, save for the most common such settings, like Lewis’s Narnia, Le Guin’s Earthsea, Martin’s Westeros, and Tolkien’s Middle-earth. Consequently, this panel proposes to examine the extent to which medievalism is used by other, perhaps less well-trodden settings, including, but not limited to, the worlds of Dungeons & Dragons, Chaosium’s rereleased Pendragon RPG, and Terry Brooks’s Shannara and Terry Goodkind’s The Sword of Truth series; the Old World and 41st Millennium of Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000; the video game realities of Diablo, Elder Scrolls, Final Fantasy, Fire Emblem, and Warcraft; and similar popular shared worlds of other board games, comics, fiction, RPGs, and video games. Critical explorations of the ways that these settings use and add to medievalism(s), including the more famous worlds, are encouraged.


This session is a paper panel in traditional format, which will include 3-4 participants, reading a formal paper of 15-20 minutes (2500-3000 words) as set by the chair, followed by Q&A.

The direct link for this session is https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/18676. Please contact the organizers at MedievalinPopularCulture@gmail.com with any questions or concerns.


Abstract submissions must be made through NeMLA’s official site. Applicants will need to login or create an account at https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/login. Submissions must begin with a paper title of not more than 100 characters (including spaces) and adhering to the following: capitalize titles by MLA formatting rules unless the title is in a language other than English; do not use quotation marks in the session title or abstract title itself but please use only single quotation marks around titles of short stories, poems, and similar short works; italicize the titles of long works mentioned in the paper title; and do not place a period at the end of the title. Submissions should also include an academic biography (usually transferred from your NeMLA profile) and a paper abstract of not more than 300 words; be sure to italicize or use quotation marks around titles according to MLA guidelines.


Please be aware that NeMLA membership is not required to submit abstracts, but it is required to present at the convention. In addition, note that it is permissible to present on (1) a panel (or seminar) and (2) a roundtable or a creative session, but it is not permissible to present on a panel and a seminar (because both are paper-based), on two panels or two roundtables (because both would be the same type). Further information on these and other policies can be accessed at http://www.buffalo.edu/nemla/convention/callforpapers/submit.html.


Chairs will confirm the acceptance of abstracts before 15 October 2020. At that time, applicants must confirm the panel on which they wish to participate. Convention registration/membership for 2020-2021 must be paid by 9 December 2020.

CFP Can We Be More Than the Middle Ages? Medievalism Studies and Medieval Studies (Roundtable) (9/30/2020; NeMLA Philadelphia 3/11-14/2021)

Can We Be More Than the Middle Ages? Medievalism Studies and Medieval Studies (Roundtable)

52nd Annual Convention of the Northeast Modern Language Association

Marriott Downtown Philadelphia, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from 11-14 March 2021

Paper abstracts are due by 30 September 2020

Session organized by Michael A. Torregrossa and Carl B. Sell and sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture.


Academics, in general, have embraced the study of popular culture in recent decades seeing value in both the texts they and their students experience on a daily basis as well as those works that held the attentions of previous generations. Complementing this movement, 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, is the phenomenal success of Medievalism Studies more a curse than a blessing? Are Medieval Studies and its more traditional sub-disciplines as welcoming of this material as they appear? Is the pursuit of medievalisms a worthwhile endeavor or something capable of causing stigma or even harm to fall upon the researcher?

Through this roundtable, we seek to explore the answers to these and similar questions. 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?


This session is a roundtable, in which 3-10 participants give brief, informal presentations (5-10 minutes) and the session is open to conversation and debate between participants and the audience.

The direct link for this session is https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/18580. Please contact the organizers at MedievalinPopularCulture@gmail.com with any questions or concerns.


Abstract submissions must be made through NeMLA’s official site. Applicants will need to login or create an account at https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/login. Submissions must begin with a paper title of not more than 100 characters (including spaces) and adhering to the following: capitalize titles by MLA formatting rules unless the title is in a language other than English; do not use quotation marks in the session title or abstract title itself but please use only single quotation marks around titles of short stories, poems, and similar short works; italicize the titles of long works mentioned in the paper title; and do not place a period at the end of the title. Submissions should also include an academic biography (usually transferred from your NeMLA profile) and a paper abstract of not more than 300 words; be sure to italicize or use quotation marks around titles according to MLA guidelines.


Please be aware that NeMLA membership is not required to submit abstracts, but it is required to present at the convention. In addition, note that it is permissible to present on (1) a panel (or seminar) and (2) a roundtable or a creative session, but it is not permissible to present on a panel and a seminar (because both are paper-based), on two panels or two roundtables (because both would be the same type). Further information on these and other policies can be accessed at http://www.buffalo.edu/nemla/convention/callforpapers/submit.html.


Chairs will confirm the acceptance of abstracts before 15 October 2020. At that time, applicants must confirm the panel on which they wish to participate. Convention registration/membership for 2020-2021 must be paid by 9 December 2020.

Sponsored Sessions for MAPACA 2018

Here are the updated details on our two sponsored sessions for MAPACA's conference this coming November. Registration information is available at https://mapaca.net/conference.


29th Annual Conference of the Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association, Lord Baltimore Hotel, Baltimore, Maryland

Monsters and Medievalism 2018 (Medieval & Renaissance Area / Panel)

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, organized by Michael A. Torregrossa (Independent Scholar)

Saturday, November 10, 10:30 am to 11:45 am (Salon E Calvert Ballroom)

Monsters remain fascinating subjects, and intense discussion in recent years has focused on their representation in medieval texts. However, scholars have largely neglected the post-medieval afterlife of these horrors. Despite this disregard, the monsters found in such medievalisms have merit in our classrooms and research; we need to promote their exploits along with those of the creatures existing within medieval artifacts. This panel will highlight connections between medieval monstrosities and their post-medieval incarnations and successors to showcase both continuity and change in addressing how terrors rooted in the medieval have been portrayed and how their inheritors have been developed.

Session chair: Carl Sell

Presentations

1. The Role of Dragons in Quests: Medieval Romances and Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Samantha Knepper (Independent Scholar)

Abstract:

Since the rise of video games in popular culture people have been exposed to new medievalisms as a way to experience the medieval world. With technology developing quickly and the popularity of the video games that are experiential medievalisms, there is room for more exploration of what compels us to be drawn to the Middle Ages. Video games based on a “medieval” setting often follow the same quest cycle narrative of the medieval romances along with having the same or similar monsters for the hero to interact with and defeat, including dragons. Investigating the role of dragons in the romances along with the role of dragons in video games can reveal the similarities between ourselves and our medieval ancestors and highlight the changes. This paper aims to create a deeper understanding of not only medieval culture but our own culture by examining the similarities and the differences in the uses of dragons in the Medieval Romances and the game Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. This paper argues that that the role dragons has expanded in Skryim, which is a reflection of Skyrim as a game that only appears to have a medieval European setting. Revealing what, as humans, we share with our medieval past, and how our current culture has changed.

Samantha Knepper has an M.A. in History from Norwich University. She is currently an independent scholar and working on several projects, including investigating how medieval warrior cultures dealt with death and the similarities with how warriors deal with death today.



2. The Queer and The Dead: Medieval Revenants and Their Afterlives in In the Flesh

Eli Mason(Concordia University)

Abstract:

Following in the footsteps of Judith Halberstam, Harry Benshoff, and Bernadette Marie Calafell, this paper will combine queer and monster studies in order to explore the ways in which monstrous figures have been used to represent queer marginalities from the Middle Ages to the present day. Central to this discussion will be an examination of how queer people have, in a twentieth and twenty-first-century context, reclaimed “the monstrous” as a means of navigating and expressing queer identity in opposition to heteronormative and cisnormative cultures.

Though instances of this type of reclamation are varied and widespread, encompassing creative efforts as diverse as Lady Gaga’s role as “Mother Monster” to a largely queer fanbase, as well as the emergence and popularity of gay werewolf erotica, this paper proposes to consider the unlikely figure of the zombie, and its development from the medieval Norse tradition of the draugr, to the use of the zombie as a means of articulating queer identities in the BBC television series, In the Flesh (2013-14). Beginning with an examination of how queer bodies were constructed as monstrous in medieval taxonomies such as the Liber Monstrorum, this discussion will go on to compare the liminal status of both categories of embodiment, with particular emphasis on the liminal status of Norse revenants as beings existing at the threshold of life and death. The paper will argue that, through a withholding of the category of “human” from queer bodies such as those presented in the Liber Monstrorum, queer people have historically been denied both personhood, as well as the status of truly “living.” In the 2013-4 television show In the Flesh, the figure of the revenant embodies queer experiences of isolation, dehumanization, and social control. In the context of the series, zombification is a treatable (though not curable) state, which allows its central characters to “pass” as human with the help of medical treatment, and copious makeup. It is only by “passing” that the show’s zombie characters are tolerated by the human characters, despite that the zombies no longer pose a threat to the humans. As the show’s central character is both an ex-zombie and a gay man, In the Flesh draws clear parallels between the experience of being queer, and that of being monstrous. The repression of queer culture, and queer performativity, is symbolized by the characters’ normatizing transformation from revenant to human. Throughout the show’s two seasons, themes of posthumanism and monstrosity are partnered with an extended discussion of queer representation, that allows the narrative to question the nature of whether it is better to embrace, reclaim, and transform the figure of the monster, or to conform to cis and heteronormative standards of presentation.

In the spirit of the panel, this paper aims to showcase the “afterlife” of two embodied experiences constructed as monstrous in the medieval context: the queer, and the revenant. By demonstrating the ways in which the two intersect in a modern narrative context, this paper will highlight how monstrous traditions are being reshaped to express queer realities.

Elliot Mason is a third-year PhD student in Concordia University's Department of Religions and Cultures, working under the supervision of Dr. Lorenzo DiTommaso. He has completed Master’s degrees in Russian language and literature at the University of Waterloo, Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto, and Religious Studies at the Memorial University of Newfoundland. Elliot’s previous research has focused on the biblical sea monster Leviathan, as well as the fallen angel Azazel. As a queer, trans person, he is particularly interested in the ways in which the history of monstrosity intersects with queer marginalities, and especially the re-purposing of historical monsters as queer icons.



3. More Zombies for the Matter of Britain? The Walking Dead in Recent Arthurian Fiction

Michael A Torregrossa (Independent scholar)

Building upon and expanding work begun as part of a presentation at the 2013 MAPACA conference, this paper will highlight further meetings between zombie characters and elements from the Matter of Britain and explicate how these contacts reflect an ongoing sub-tradition of Arthurian horror-themed fiction. The zombies of the Matter of Britain appear in a small but, nonetheless, interesting corpus and, similar to their fellow undead interact with figures associated with Arthur’s court, transform the denizens of Camelot into zombies, like themselves, and engage in quests for Holy Grails. As previously explored, zombies first make contact with the Matter of Britain in the 1940s and do not reemerge in Arthurian texts until the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, decades marked by a steady revival of the zombie figure in mass media. In recent years, the walking dead have interacted with Arthurian figures and artifacts in increasing innovative ways and deserve our attention as being more than simple mash-ups. Some offer new representations of Arthurian fantasy, as depicted in “The Avalon Trap” arc (2012) of Paul Cornell’s Demon Knights comic book series and Rob Williams’s Revolutionary War: Knights of Pendragon comic book (2014), but others attempt to depict horrific events in post-Arthurian eras, as occurs in Mark Atkin’s film Knight of the Dead (2013) and David R. Flores’s Dead Future King e-comic (2012-2015). Unlike Ron Wolfe and Dusty Higgins’s Knights of the Living Dead comic, the other major work of zombie-themed Arthuriana of the 2010s (and the central piece of my earlier investigation), these four texts do not effect radical change of the tradition, yet they still offer insight into how horror tropes can be adapted into an Arthurian context to bring new life to a fifteen-hundred-year-old legend that few seem to connect with today.

Michael A. Torregrossa is a medievalist whose research interests include adaptation, Arthuriana, comics and comic art, medievalism, monsters, and wizards. He is founder of both 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 and outgoing Fantastic Area Chair for the Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association.




The Comics Get Medieval 2018: A Continuing Celebration of Medieval-themed Comics (a Round Table) (Medieval & Renaissance Area / Round table)

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, organized by Michael A. Torregrossa (Independent Scholar)

Saturday, November 10, 2:45 pm to 4:00 pm (Salon E Calvert Ballroom )

This special round-table session is sponsored by The Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture. The session revives the successful Comics Get Medieval series after a multi-year absence and seeks to foster communication between comics scholars, medievalists, medievalismists, and specialists in other aspects of popular culture studies through the study of “medieval comics”: any example of the comics medium (e.g. panel cartoons, comic strips, comics books, comics albums, band dessinée, graphic novels, manga, webcomics, comics to screen/screen to comics, and other related media) that feature medieval themes either in stories set during the Middle Ages or in stories presenting some element of the medieval in anachronistic settings (pre-medieval or post-medieval eras or medieval-inspired secondary worlds).

Round Table Discussions will include:

Session Chair: Scott Manning (American Military University)

1. “Co-Starring Beowulf?: An Alternative Version of Beowulf in Jumbo Comics No. 50 (April 1943)”

Michael A. Torregrossa (Independent Scholar)

The story of Beowulf is one of the greatest legends of English culture and has inspired a wealth of texts that attempt to retell a traditional version of his deeds. However, there are also a number of works—most largely unnoticed by admirers of the hero—that introduce new characters into events from Beowulf’s life and attempt to make the Geat into a secondary figure in his own story. One of the earliest version of this motif appeared in Jumbo Comics No. 50 (April 1943), an American comic published during the Golden Age of the medium. Like other comics produced at the time, the story appears intended to educate readers about Beowulf, but the creators do not follow a Classics Illustrated approach and give readers a straight retelling. Instead, they adapt elements from Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court and bring modern-day figures into the Anglo-Saxon past, where these intruders to the story in effect alter history to create a divergent account of the epic that attempts to place a new hero in the dominant role once held by Beowulf. This presentation offers the first extended discussion of the Beowulfiana of Jumbo Comics No. 50 to offer suggestions on how this forgotten work can be of value in our research and teaching about Beowulf and its afterlife.

Michael A. Torregrossa is a medievalist whose research interests include adaptation, Arthuriana, comics and comic art, medievalism, monsters, and wizards. He is founder of both 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 and outgoing Fantastic Area Chair for the Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association.


2. “ ‘Ka is a Wheel’: The Arthurian Cycle and its Context in Marvel’s Stephen King’s Dark Tower”

Carl Sell (Indiana University of Pennsylvania)

Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series has distinguished itself as a series without an end and without a clear beginning; however, Marvel’s series Stephen King’s Dark Tower, which ran from 2007 to 2017 under the supervision of King himself, serves as a starting point to the adventures of Roland of Gilead, last in the line of Arthur Eld, the great king of All-World. Beginning with The Gunslinger Born, the Arthurian cycle repeats itself anew with Steven Deschain and the Affiliation, In-World’s incarnation of the Round Table and his treacherous advisor Marten Broadcloak, the man who steals Steven’s wife. As Roland’s story unfolds, he is caught up in the ka, the fate, of his long line, the fate of King Arthur Eld himself: death, renewal, betrayal, and the endless quest for the Dark Tower, the Grail-like salvation of All-World. Roland and his ka-tet, Cuthbert Allgood and Alain Johns, the stand-ins for Sir Kay and Sir Bedivere to Roland’s Arthur, are caught up in the Arthurian mythos and its endless cycle—ka, after all, is a wheel—and their journey together complicates the standard Arthurian narrative and blends character roles, motivations, and tropes found within more standard Arthurian adaptations. The story of King Arthur—as Arthur Eld—is ever-present in the world of Stephen King’s Dark Tower and in the gunslingers themselves as the new model of Arthurian chivalry.

Carl Sell is a PhD student at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He studies the Arthurian Legend and modern adaptations of the legend as well as adaptations of Robin Hood. He is interested in all things medieval and Early Modern.


3. “I’m Holding Out For A Hero: The Disparity Between Male Warriors and Valkyries in Norse Mythology and the Depiction of Valkyrie in the 21st Century”

Lindsey Poe (Georgia College and State University)

Norse mythology has many depictions of warriors. The stories we have today are presumably long held Icelandic oral tales that had previously been passed on generation by generation. The eddas, for instance, are old Norse oral myths that were written down in the 13th century by Snori Sturluson. The myths are traditionally pagan, however Snori Sturluson was compiling them while priests were attempting to convert the people of Iceland to Christianity. As such, the works became a blend of both Christian and pagan beliefs. While Icelandic peoples were still worshipping the Norse gods, Snori wove in a watered down version of the Christian message in his written Edda. Throughout these texts, we see descriptions of god-like men such as Thor and Loki as well as characters like Sigurd, who simply represent a traditional warrior male. Interestingly enough, some women like Brunhild are elevated and are portrayed as strong, battle ready individuals. They exist as supernatural beings who wield power over life and death. These warrior women are known as Valkyries. They are not merely women, rather, Valkyries hold a third classification of gender and exist outside of the binary. Through “The Elder Edda,” “The Prose Edda,” and “The Saga of the Volsungs” the characterizations of these two classes of warriors will be broken down and their differences analyzed. In addition, the Valkyries of literature will be compared to the depictions of these women in films and comics, particularly in the Marvel universe.

Lindsey Poe graduated with her bachelor’s degree in English Literature with a minor in Spanish from Georgia College and State University in the Spring of 2017. Following graduation, she applied to and got accepted at her alma mater, where she is currently in her second year of graduate school, working towards a master’s in English.

CFP More than Marvel: Representations of Norse Mythology in Contemporary Popular Culture (9/15/2018; ICoMS Kalamazoo 5/9-12/2019)

I'm pleased to announce the call for our sponsored session for next year's International Congress on Medieval Studies. Do follow our Medieval Comics Project site (https://medieval-comics-project.blogspot.com/) for updates during the year.



More than Marvel: Representations of Norse Mythology in Contemporary Popular Culture
Sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture
54th International Congress on Medieval Studies
Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan
9-12 May 2019
Proposals due by 15 September 2018

Myths and legends from the Middle Ages remain important links to the past, and there has been much interest in recasting this material into post-medieval contexts, forging a bridge between our forebears and our modern selves. Creators of our own time have been especially prolific in reviving these stories for new audiences. The tales told of the gods of the Norsemen are one such medieval legacy to find currency today, and they have appeared in a variety of media, including comics. For example, Marvel Comics’ representation of the Norse god Thor has been an important element of its shared world since his debut in 1962, and, in its incorporation of the character into the Marvel Universe, the publisher has done much in the service of Medieval Studies through its widespread dissemination across the globe of a relatable depiction of the Norse Gods and the intricate mythology associated with them. Marvel’s account of Thor and his compatriots has also featured in an array of media beyond the pages of its long-running comic book series, and the recent release of three feature films centered around the Asgardian as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, one of the world’s most popular and prosperous movie and television franchises, has provided additional texts to further knowledge of the Nine Worlds and its inhabitants. Nonetheless, while Marvel remains the most prominent creator of modern tales of the Norse gods, the company does not hold the exclusive rights to this material. Other writers, comics creators, filmmakers, television producers, and game designers have also appropriated the stories and legends of the gods of Asgard and further individuals within the cosmology of the Nine Worlds for their own purposes, yet their work remain relatively unknown when compared to the phenomenal success and reach of Marvel Comics and Marvel Studios.

It is the intent of this session to shed the spotlight on these other examples of Nordic-inspired medievalisms and to bring them into ongoing conversations and debates about the reception of the medieval in the post-medieval world. We are especially interested in the reach of Marvel’s versions beyond the United States and how other approaches to the material engage with, react to, or ignore Marvel’s work. In addition, we hope to include coverage of texts from non-Western media (like anime and manga) that have embraced the traditions of the Norse gods in innovative ways.

Potential Topics: (a good starting point is the “Norse mythology in popular culture” page on Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norse_mythology_in_popular_culture)

• The Almighty Johnsons
• American Gods
• Day of the Giants (Lester del Rey)
• Fafner in the Azure
• Doctor Who
• Everworld (K. A. Applegate)
• Gods of Asgard (Erik A. Evensen)
• Graphic Myths and Legends series
• Hammer of the Gods (Michael Avon Oeming and Mark Wheatley)
• Hercules: The Legendary Journeys / Xena: Warrior Princess
• The Incredible Hulk Returns
• Last Days of the Justice Society of America
• The Life Eaters (David Brin and Scott Hampton)
• Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard (Rick Riordan)
• The Mask
• The Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok
• Mythquest
• Norse Myths: A Viking Graphic Novel series
• Odyssey of the Amazons (DC Comics)
• Oh! My Goddess!
• Ragnarok (Myung Jin Lee) / Ragnarok Online
• Stargate
• Supernatural
• Valhalla (Peter Madsens)
• Witches of East End

Presentations will be limited to 15 or 20 minutes depending on final panel size.

Interested individuals should submit, no later than 15 September 2018, (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 “More than Marvel” as their subject heading.

In planning your proposal, please be aware of the policies of the Congress (available at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/policies). 

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 The Medieval in Popular Culture (https://medievalinpopularculture.blogspot.com/).
Of especial interest, the Association hosts sites devoted to both medieval-themed films and comics. These can be accessed at Medieval Studies on Screen (http://medievalstudiesonscreen.blogspot.com/) and The Medieval Comics Project (https://medieval-comics-project.blogspot.com/), respectively.

Women Warriors and Popular Culture Info

Here are the complete details for the "Women Warriors and Popular Culture: Representations across Time and Space"sessions. Full conference information can be found at https://nepca.blog/2018-conference/.

2018 Annual Conference of the Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association

Worcester State University (Worcester, Massachusetts)

19-20 October 2018

Friday, 19 October

Session I: 2-3:15

Women Warriors and Popular Culture: Representations across Time and Space I

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

Chair: June-Ann Greeley (Sacred Heart University)

From Eastern Legends to Western Popular Cultural Symbols: Japanese and Chinese Female Warriors

Mayra Bonet (UNC-Chapel Hill)

Joan of Arc’s Cinematic Siege Arsenal in Cecil B. DeMille’s Joan the Woman (1916)

Scott Manning (American Military University)

Stranger Weeping: Considering Margery Kempe through Eleven in Stranger Things

Anna McGill (Louisiana State University)

Red Widows and Nihilist Queens: Russian Women in the American Imagination

Chelsea Gibson (Binghamton University)

Friday, 19 October

Session II: 3:30-4:45

Women Warriors and Popular Culture: Representations across Time and Space II

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

Chair: Cheryl Hunter (UMASS Lowell and SNHU)

Cyborgian Versus Cosmic Skin: The Fires of Joan of Arc in C. L. Moore's “No Woman Born” (1944) and Lidia Yuknavitch's The Book of Joan: A Novel (2017)

Jennifer Jodell (Univ. Minnesota-Twin Cities

The Song of the Valkyries: Warrior Women in Recent Film

Dor Yaccobi (Tel Aviv University)

“If I Am to Die Tonight, Let Me Die a Fighter”: Gail Simone’s Reconstructing of Red Sonja

Peter Cullen Bryan (Penn State University)

Correcting Wonder Woman: The Power of Patty Jenkins

Erin Lafond (Boston College)

Women Warriors Sessions Update

I am pleased to announce that the Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association has accepted our proposed sessions on "Women Warriors and Popular Culture: Representations Across Time and Space" for its 2018 meeting at Worcester State University.

Complete details will be posted soon.

Michael A. Torregrossa
Founder, The Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture

Warrior Women Update

Many thanks to those that submitted proposals or passed along the call for papers for our session on on Women Warriors and Popular Culture: Representations across Time and Space. We received enough proposals to run two full panels.

CFP Women Warriors and Popular Culture: Representations Across Time and Space (6/1/2018; NEPCA 10/19-20/2018)

Women Warriors and Popular Culture: Representations Across Time and Space

Panel Proposed for the Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area

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

2018 Conference of the Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association (NEPCA)

Worcester State University, Worcester, Massachusetts

19-20 October 2018

Proposals due 1 June 2018

Women warriors have been important figures throughout history, but their reception and representation in popular culture is often overlooked. As a means of furthering discussion and debate on these indivuduals, the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture invites paper proposals that explore the histories, mythologies, cultural presentations and workings of women warriors across time and space. We welcome papers that delve into the popular cultural appropriation of notable women warriors, such as Boudicca, Joanna of Flanders Joan of Arc, or Grace O’Malley, as well as papers that address the place and signification of women warriors in the historical and mythic fiction of popular culture (TV, movies, comics, etc.), such as Snow White and the Huntsman, The Vikings, and Wonder Woman. 

Presentations will be limited to 15 or 20 minutes in length depending on final panel size.

Directions for Submission:

Please contact the organizers Michael A. Torregrossa and June-Ann Greeley at medievalinpopularculture@gmail.com, using “Women Warriors and Popular Culture” as your subject line, with any questions in advance of the 1 June 2018 deadline. 

Submissions for the panel will be made by the organizers to NEPCA. We need contact information, academic affiliation (if any), an academic biographical statement (between 50 and 200 words), a paper title (no more than 60 characters), and a paper abstract (no more than 250 words). Please send this to us at medievalinpopularculture@gmail.com, using “Women Warriors and Popular Culture” as your subject line.

Membership in NEPCA is required for participation and annual dues are included in conference registration fees. Further details are available at https://nepca.blog/membership-information/. 

Kalamazoo 2018 Session Bios

Here again is a listing of our sessions for this week's International Congress on Medieval Studies. Biographical statements are included for each participant. A PDF version can be accessed at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1K09OVZRy8a2BDs4R495_U_bLn4n0aVMk/view?usp=sharing.

53rd International Congress on Medieval Studies

Western Michigan University

10- 13 May 2018

Saturday, 5/12, at 1:30 PM

417 SCHNEIDER 1160

Past, Present, Future: Medieval Monsters and Their Afterlives I

Sponsor: Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture

 Organizer: Michael A. Torregrossa, Independent Scholar

Presider: Anna Czarnowus, Univ. of Silesia

Anna Czarnowus is Adjunct Professor at the Faculty of Philology at the University of Silesia, Katowice (Poland). She specializes in Middle English literature and published her doctorate as Inscription on the Body: Monstrous Children in Middle English Literature (Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego, 2009). Her Habilitatzionsschrift was published as the monograph Fantasies of the Other’s Body: Monstrous Children in Middle English Literature (Peter Lang, 2013). She has written on Chaucer and the Chaucerians, Middle English romance, medieval literature from the perspective of postcolonial and gender studies, medievalisms, and litanic poetry. Her recent interests include ecocriticism and the history of emotions.

Giants in the History of England: The Final Frontier and Steven Spielberg’s The BFG

Geneviève Pigeon, Univ. du Québec–Montréal

Geneviève Pigeon studies Medieval Literature and England’s Arthurian founding myth. She currently teaches at Université du Québec's Religous Studies Department and is a member of both the Centre de recherche bretonne et celtique (Université de Bretagne occidentale, France) and the Centre de recherche internationale sur l'imaginaire. Most recently, Geneviève was a guest editor for the newly released number 35 issue of Religiologiques, in which she co-authored an article about the celebration of Halloween in Québec. The journal is free and can be accessed at http://www.religiologiques.uqam.ca/. Her work often focuses on the written representation of landscapes as reservoirs of memory, and she is especially intrigued (as today’s paper illustrates) by their unusual inhabitants. Geneviève believes that these figures—fairies, giants, hermits, magicians, animals and other fascinating creatures—are the most interesting aspects of any story. 

The Monstrous Host: Hospitality and Hostility in Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Buried Giant

Matthew Vernon, Univ. of California–Davis

Matthew Vernon is an assistant professor of English Literature at the University of California, Davis. His current research project studies African-American mobilizations of medieval texts and iconography. He has published on Gerald of Wales and the problems of defining ethnicity as well as on race and nostalgia in the Marvel film Captain America: The First Avenger. 

Merlin the White(washed): The Entertainment Industry’s Evasion of Merlin’s Demonic Heritage

Michael A. Torregrossa

Michael A. Torregrossa is a graduate of the Medieval Studies program at the University of Connecticut (Storrs) and a devoted follower of Merlin’s career on screen. His published work on the subject includes “Merlin Goes to the Movies: The Changing Role of Merlin in Cinema Arthuriana” in Film & History: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Film and Television Studies, “Merlin at the Multiplex: A Filmography of Merlin in Arthurian Film, Television and Videocassette 1920-1998” in the 1999 Film & History CD-ROM Annual, “The Way of the Wizard: Reflections of Merlin on Film” in The Medieval Hero on Screen: Representations from Beowulf to Buffy, and entries on “Television” in the 2001 and 2005 supplements to The Arthurian Encyclopedia.  In addition, Michael is founder of The Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain, The Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture, and The Northeast Alliance for Scholarship on the Fantastic, as well as the outgoing Fantastic (Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror) Area Chair for the Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association, a position he has held since 2009. He welcomes your help in furthering the missions of these various groups. 

A Rapacious Daemon in King Arthur’s Court: Re-designating Merlin as a Demonic Rapist in Arthuriana [note corrected title]

Tirumular Narayanan, California State Univ.–Chico

Tirumular (Drew) Narayanan is a second-year art history graduate student at California State University, Chico. After finishing his B.A. in Medieval Studies at UC Davis, Drew became an adjutant to Dr. Susan Landauer, who was writing Of Dogs and Other People: The Art of Roy De Forest., and he would later become the author of the illustrated chronology in Landauer’s book. Drew’s interest in scholarship heavily revolves around “othered” characters, whether they be demons, impaired persons, or double-chinned Roman emperors, and he is also a promising scholar of medieval-themed comics and, last year, presented at a Kalamazoo session where he discussed Ableism in Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant. In addition, he hopes to be announcing the publication of his paper, Kull: To Be King, within the coming year. In his free time, Drew is a voracious consumer of Arthuriana and enjoys watching re-runs of Scooby Doo with his fiancé Kelsey.

Saturday, 5/12, at 3:30 PM

469 SCHNEIDER 1160

Past, Present, Future: Medieval Monsters and Their Afterlives II

Sponsor: Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture

Organizer: Michael A. Torregrossa, Independent Scholar

Presider: Whitney Dirks-Schuster, Grand Valley State Univ.

Whitney Dirks-Schuster is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Grand Valley State University (MI).  She received her PhD in History at The Ohio State University in 2013.  Whitney specializes in early modern British social and medical history with an emphasis on bodies and unusual anatomies, and she is under contract with Amsterdam University Press for her first book, Monstrous Bodies and Knowledge Transfer in Early Modern England.  The book revolves around an unique legal case, involving the alleged kidnapping of a pair of neonatal conjoined twins born in 1680, which is contextualized in terms of broader cultural beliefs about monstrosity between 1450 and 1800.  She most recently published “ ‘Weighty Celebrity’: Corpulency, Monstrosity, and Freakery in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century England” in Monstrosity, Disability, and the Posthuman in the Medieval and Early Modern World (forthcoming).  Future projects will examine the centuries-long urban legend of a pig-faced woman residing in London and the popular versus medical understandings of intersexuality in early modern England.

Haunting Poltergeists: Historical and Cinematic Representations of Ghosts as Demonic Monsters

Rex Barnes, Columbia Univ.

Rex Barnes is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Religion at Columbia University, where he has taught classes in early and medieval Christian history, as well as premodern magic and witchcraft. He holds a master’s degree in the history and philosophy of religion from Concordia University in Montreal, QC, and a bachelor’s degree in political theory from the same institution. Currently he is working to finish his dissertation, “Haunting Matters: Demonic Infestation in Northern Europe, 1400-1600,” under the direction of Euan Cameron. This interdisciplinary study investigates the twin discourses of social and religious reform in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries from the perspective of demonological literature. 

The Queer and the Dead: Medieval Revenants and Their Afterlives in In the Flesh [via Skype]

Elliot Mason, Concordia Univ. Montréal

Elliot Mason is a second-year PhD student in Concordia University's Department of Religions and Cultures, working under the supervision of Dr. Lorenzo DiTommaso. He has completed Master’s degrees in Russian language and literature at the University of Waterloo, Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto, and Religious Studies at the Memorial University of Newfoundland. Elliot’s previous research has focused on both the biblical sea monster Leviathan and the fallen angel Azazel. As a queer, trans person, he is particularly interested in the ways in which the history of monstrosity intersects with queer marginalities and, especially, the re-purposing of historical monsters as queer icons.

The Witcher’s Anal Eye: Monstrous Technologies of the Medievalized Other in Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Kevin Moberly , Old Dominion Univ.; Brent Addison Moberly, Indiana Univ.–Bloomington

Kevin Moberly is an Associate Professor of Rhetoric, Digital Media, and Game Studies in the English department at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. His research focuses on understanding how digital manifestations of popular culture reflect, contribute to, and transform contemporary cultural, political, and historical discourses. In particular, Kevin is interested in the ways that contemporary computer games encode labor, often blurring already uneasy distinctions between work and play. His work has appeared in a number of peer-reviewed journals and scholarly collections, including Computers and Composition, Eludimos, Kairos, and Works and Days. Kevin has received a number of awards while at ODU, including a Hixon Fellowship from the ODU English department, a university Teaching with Technology Award, and an Entsminger Entrepreneurial Fellowship.

Brent Moberly is a software developer at Indiana University, Bloomington. He holds a Ph.D. in medieval literature from the same institution. His dissertation focused on changing representations of labor in late-medieval England, and his current research interests include Victorian and Edwardian medievalism, contemporary popular medievalism (neo- or otherwise), and labor history and studies.

Kevin and Brent have collaborated on a number of articles on medievalism in contemporary computer games and popular culture, most recently: “Gay Habits Set Straight: Fan Culture and Authoritative Praxis in Ready Player One,” in The Year's Work In Medievalism 31 (2016); “Swords, Sorcery, and Steam: The Industrial Dark Ages in Contemporary Medievalism,” in Studies In Medievalism XXIV: Medievalism on the Margins (2015); “Play,” in Medievalism: Key Critical Terms, ed. Richard Usk and Elizabeth Emery (2014); and “There Is No Word For Work In the Dragon Tongue,” in The Year’s Work in Medievalism 28 (2013). They are currently working to finish a book-length study examining how contemporary medieval-themed computer games function within and against the larger material context of late capitalism. 

The Monstrous Mongols in Medieval Eurasia and Modern Day Film

Colleen C. Ho, Univ. of Maryland

Colleen C. Ho is a Lecturer in the History Department at the University of Maryland, College Park. Recipient of national awards like NEH fellowships and a Fulbright, her current research projects include the portrayal of the Mongols in film and female piety in medieval Europe. Colleen’s teaching interests include world history from Jesus to the plague, race and religion in the Middle Ages, and the Mongol Empire. She confesses that she doesn’t watch Game of Thrones.