CFP Fostering Interpretive Communities in the Classroom and Research through Adaptation Studies (Roundtable) (Virtual) (9/30/2026; NeMLA 3/6-9-2027)

Fostering Interpretive Communities in the Classroom and Research through Adaptation Studies (Roundtable) (Virtual)

Co-organizers Michael A. Torregrossa and Carl B. Sell

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

Call for Papers - Please Submit Proposals by 30 September 2026

58th Annual Convention of Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)

Salve Regina University (Newport, RI)/Online.

Hybrid event: 6-9 March 2027


This session’s modality is Virtual Only, meaning all presentations will be delivered via Zoom regardless of whether the presenters are in-person.

Rationale

Explorations of adaptations offer many ways to investigate the conference theme of Empowering Communities. Adaptations, especially contemporary ones, create opportunities for inclusion that may not have been present in the source. This forges a new space for receivers of the text to connect to its narrative. Highlighting how and why these new works appeal to and have an effect on us can help our students (and ourselves) relate to older material and see the ways that a story can find new relevance.

Topics might include adaptations that recast, reset, and/or restage a text; adaptations that rewrite and/or reboot a text; adaptations that expand texts (such as prequels, midquels, or sequels); and adaptations that present ways to remedy problematic texts and authors.

We welcome investigations of adaptations across all media, as well as adaptation within transmedia franchises/universes.

Submission Instructions

All proposals must be submitted into the CFPList system at https://cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/22514 by 30 September 2026. You will be prompted to create an account with NeMLA (if you do not already have one) and, then, to complete sections on Title, Abstract, Brief Bio, Media Needs, and Modality. This session’s modality is Virtual Only, meaning all presentations will be delivered via Zoom regardless of whether the presenters are in-person.

Notification on the status of your submission will be made by 16 October 2026. If accepted, NeMLA asks you to confirm your participation with the session chairs by accepting their invitation and by registering for the event. The deadline for Registration/Membership is 9 December 2026. For the 2027 Convention, registration will be the same for in-person and remote attendance. (See NeMLA’s Membership and Registration page, at https://www.nemla.org/about/members.html, for full details.)


Be advised of the following policies for the Convention: All participants must be members of NeMLA for the year of the conference. Participants may present on up to two sessions of any type. Registrants at NeMLA may not present the same abstract/paper on two different sessions. (See NeMLA’s Presenter Policies page, at https://www.nemla.org/convention/policies.html, for further details. Information on Session Types can be found at https://www.nemla.org/convention/sessions.html.)


NeMLA offers limited funding for travel to graduate students and to contingent faculty, adjunct instructors, independent scholars, and two-year college faculty. Details can be found at NeMLA’s Travel Awards page at https://www.nemla.org/awards/travel.html.


Thank you for your interest in our session. Please address questions and/or concerns to the organizers at MedievalinPopularCulture@gmail.com.


For more information on the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture, please visit our blog, Mass Mediævalisms: The Middle Ages of Popular Culture, at https://MedievalinPopularCulture.blogspot.com/.

Uncharted Medievalisms at NeMLA

Here's the information on our other sponsored session at NeMLA this weekend. My thanks to my co-organizer, Carl Sell, for the idea.



Northeast Modern Language Association 57th Annual Convention

Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh Downtown (Pittsburgh, PA)/Zoom
3.7 Uncharted Medievalisms: Medieval Borrowings in Games

Organized by Michael A. Torregrossa, Bristol Community College, and Carl B. Sell, University of Pittsburgh

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




Thursday, Mar 5: Track 3 (01:15-02:30 EST)


Chair: Carl Sell, University of Pittsburgh

Chair: Michael Torregrossa, Bristol Community College

Location: Birmingham (Media Equipped)

Comparative Literature & Cultural Studies and Media Studies




"Losing to Win: Failure, Loss, and Legacy in Middle-Earth: Shadow of War"

Seth Lee, Slippery Rock University



Dr. J. Seth Lee earned his PhD in English literature from the University of Kentucky. He is a scholar of the literature of exiles and a digital humanist. He has published on Early Modern exile in SEL: Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 and Reformation. Lee’s monograph, The Discourse of Exile in Early Modern English Literature, is available as part of the Routledge Research in Early Modern History Series. It examines questions about the formation of subjectivity and nationalism in the minds of exiles and the development of exile from a “nation” in its modern sense. Additionally, he researches and writes on interdisciplinary approaches to literary studies informed by digital technology. He published most recently in Medieval Perspectives on how eye-tracking cameras revealed insights into student engagement with medieval illuminated manuscripts. He teaches literature and writing at Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania.




"The Evolution of Medieval Virtue in the Ultima Series"

Amir Saffar, Kent State University



Amir Saffar is currently doing his PhD in English Literature with his dissertation being based on pulp literature. Amir also enjoys bridging the gap between different disciplines, in order to create more dynamic discussions. This is born from his prior work in Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering and Biology.




"Immersive Simulation of Medieval Play Spaces: Modeling the York Cycle in Unity3D"

Dennis Jerz, Seton Hill University



Dennis G. Jerz, Associate Professor of English at Seton Hill University, has scholarly interests that include critical code studies, digital archeology and ecocritical game studies (all connected to the study of the foundational text adventure game "Colossal Cave Adventure." He posts about his Unity3D projects at jerz.setonhill.edu/blog/tag/unity3d/ (on what has been described as the first blog devoted to English studies, established in 1999).

Twainian Regeneration Sessions at NeMLA 2026

 We've got some sessions running this weekend at NeMLA. Here are the details on today's panels.

Northeast Modern Language Association 57th Annual Convention

Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh Downtown (Pittsburgh, PA)/Zoom

15.18 Twainian Regeneration: Adaptations of the Works, Life, and Legacy of Mark Twain (Part 1) - Twain and Time Travel

Organized by Michael A. Torregrossa, Bristol Community College, and Carl B. Sell, University of Pittsburgh

Sponsored by the Mark Twain Circle of America

Saturday, Mar 7: Track 15 (01:00-02:30 EST)

Disney's "Connecticut Yankees" (remote) - WITHDRAWN

Cindy Mediavilla, University of California, Los Angeles

A Michigan Loudmouth in a Primitive Screwhead's Court: Sam Raimi's Army of Darkness and Twain's Connecticut Yankee (in person)

Carl Sell, University of Pittsburgh

Dr. Carl B. Sell (he/him/his) is the Associate Director for McNair and Undergraduate Research Programs and is a Part-Time Instructor of English Literature at the University of Pittsburgh. His research explores appropriations of Arthurian legend narratives, characters, and themes in popular culture as an extension of the medieval adaptive tradition. He serves as a member of the advisory boards for The Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture and the Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain, and he is the author of journal articles and book chapters on Arthurian topics and DC’s Aquaman.

Resisting Closure: Continuations of Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (remote)

Michael Torregrossa, Bristol Community College

Michael A. Torregrossa (he/him/his) is a graduate of the Medieval Studies program at the University of Connecticut (Storrs) and works as an adjunct instructor of writing and literature courses in both Rhode Island and Massachusetts. His research focuses on popular culture’s adaptation, appropriation, and transformation of literary classics, including the Arthurian legends, Beowulf, Dracula, Frankenstein, Robin Hood stories, and Winnie-the-Pooh, and the larger corpus of writers H. P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, William Shakespeare, and H. G Wells. In addition to these pursuits, Michael is the founder of The Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain (2000-) and The Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture (2004-). He also serves as editor for these organizations' various blogs and as moderator of their discussion lists and leads the development of their conference activities. Besides this work, Michael is active in the Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association (a.k.a. NEPCA) and organizes sessions for their annual conference in the fall. Since 2019, Michael has been NEPCA’s Monsters and the Monstrous Area Chair, but he previously served as its Fantastic (Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror) Area Chair, a position he held from 2009-2018.

Twain Explains Another Century in Kupperman’s Mark Twain’s Autobiography 1910 – 2010 (in person)

Wesley McMasters, Carson-Newman College

Dr. Wesley Scott McMasters is Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing at Carson-Newman University in Jefferson City, Tennessee.

16.18 Twainian Regeneration: Adaptations of the Works, Life, and Legacy of Mark Twain (Part 2) - Tom & Huck

Organized by Michael A. Torregrossa, Bristol Community College, and Carl B. Sell, University of Pittsburgh

Sponsored by the Mark Twain Circle of America

Saturday, Mar 7: Track 16 (02:45-04:15 EST)

Racial Adaptations: The Changing Historical Contexts of the Huckleberry Finn on Film (in-person)

Reynolds Scott-Childress, SUNY New Paltz

Reynolds Scott-Childress teaches cultural history of the United States with a focus on categories and practices of race and culture.

“We can just black them”: Giving Jim a Voice (in-person)

Robert Myers, Lock Haven University

Robert Myers is a Professor of English at Lock Haven  University.  He has published books and articles on late-19th and early 20th-century American literature.  Myers’s most recent book, Reconciling Nature: Literary Negotiations of the Natural, 1876-1945 (SUNY Press, 2019), has a chapter on Huckleberry Finn.

“Tom . . . or wait, Jack Sawyer: Stephen King and Peter Straub Regenerate Mark Twain" (remote)

Abigail Sloan, Blue Ridge Community College

Abby Sloan serves as Associate Professor of English at Blue Ridge Community College, where she has taught since 2007 and advises the college's Phi Theta Kappa chapter.  Her research interests range from Shakespeare to Stephen King.

Big Jim and the White Boy as a Palimpsestic Reimagining of Twain’s Huckleberry Finn (remote)

Seema Sharma, Jai Hind College

Dr Seema Sharma is Professor of English Literature at Jai Hind College, University of Mumbai. She obtained her BA, MA and MPhil degrees from University of Delhi and PhD degree from SNDT University, Mumbai. She was a Fulbright Postdoctoral Scholar at Stanford University (2015-16), where she was engaged in a research project on Mark Twain and India. During her tenure in the U.S., she delivered talks at several universities and public platforms, and published papers in leading scholarly journals.

Final Call for Papers Reminder: Kalamazoo, Leeds, and NeMLA 2026

We are sponsoring a number of sessions for 2026. All are hybrid or remote. Please consider submitting a proposal and/or sharing with your network.

Thanks,

Michael

They are:

NeMLA 2026 (Pittsburgh/Online)

CFP Twainian Regeneration: Adaptations of the Works, Life, and Legacy of Mark Twain (NeMLA Session 21918) (Hybrid) (9/30/2025; Pittsburgh 3/5-8/2026). Sponsored by the Mark Twain Circle of America. Details at https://medievalinpopularculture.blogspot.com/2025/08/cfp-twainian-regeneration-adaptations.html. (PDF version at https://www.academia.edu/143541544/2025_CFP_Twainian_Regeneration_Adaptations_of_the_Works_Life_and_Legacy_of_Mark_Twain_NeMLA_Session_21918_Hybrid_9_30_2025_Pittsburgh_3_5_8_2026_.) 

CFP Uncharted Medievalisms: Medieval Borrowings in Games (NeMLA Session 21633) (Hybrid) (9/30/2025; Pittsburgh 3/5-8/2026). Details at https://medievalinpopularculture.blogspot.com/2025/08/cfp-uncharted-medievalisms-medieval.html. (PDF version at https://www.academia.edu/143541634/2025_CFP_Uncharted_Medievalisms_Medieval_Borrowings_in_Games_NeMLA_Session_21633_Hybrid_9_30_2025_Pittsburgh_3_5_8_2026_.) 

International Congress on Medieval Studies 2026 (Kalamazoo/Online)

CFP Magics, Marvels, Metamorphoses, and Monsters: Horrors of the Medieval Past, Present, and Future (Virtual) (9/15/2025; ICMS Kalamazoo/Online 5/14-16/2026). Co-sponsored by Monsters & the Monstrous Area of the Northeast Popular Culture Association, Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture, International Society for the Study of Medievalism. Details at https://popularpreternaturaliana.blogspot.com/2025/08/cfp-magics-marvels-metamorphoses-and.html. (PDF version at https://www.academia.edu/143540648/2025_CFP_Magics_Marvels_Metamorphoses_and_Monsters_Horrors_of_the_Medieval_Past_Present_and_Future_Virtual_9_15_2025_ICMS_Kalamazoo_Online_5_14_16_2026_.) 

CFP Medieval Classics (Re)Illustrated: A Medieval Comics Project Team-up (Hybrid) (9/15/2025; ICMS Kalamazoo/Online 5/14-16/2026). Co-sponsored by Medieval Comics Project, International Arthurian Society/North American Branch, International Society for the Study of Medievalism. Details at https://medieval-comics-project.blogspot.com/2025/07/cfp-medieval-classics-reillustrated.html. (PDF version at https://www.academia.edu/143540696/2025_CFP_Medieval_Classics_Re_Illustrated_A_Medieval_Comics_Project_Team_up_Hybrid_9_15_2025_ICMS_Kalamazoo_Online_5_14_16_2026_.) 

CFP Remembering the Middle Ages: Memories of the Medieval Across Time and Space (Roundtable) (Hybrid) (9/15/2025; ICMS Kalamazoo/Online 5/14-16/2026). Co-sponsored by Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture, International Arthurian Society-North American Branch, International Association for Robin Hood Studies. Details at https://medievalinpopularculture.blogspot.com/2025/07/cfp-remembering-middle-ages-memories-of.html. (PDF version at https://www.academia.edu/143540764/2025_CFP_Remembering_the_Middle_Ages_Memories_of_the_Medieval_Across_Time_and_Space_Roundtable_Hybrid_9_15_2025_ICMS_Kalamazoo_Online_5_14_16_2026_.) 

CFP (Re)Visiting the Reel/Un-Reel Middle Ages: Pathways to Furthering Research on Medievalisms on Screen (Roundtable) (Virtual) (9/15/2025; ICMS Kalamazoo/Online 5/14-16/2026). Details at https://medievalstudiesonscreen.blogspot.com/2025/09/cfp-revisiting-reelun-reel-middle-ages.html. Co-sponsored by Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture, International Arthurian Society-North American Branch, International Society for the Study of Medievalism. (PDF version at https://www.academia.edu/143834155/2025_CFP_Re_Visiting_the_Reel_Un_Reel_Middle_Ages_Pathways_to_Furthering_Research_on_Medievalisms_on_Screen_Roundtable_Virtual_9_15_2025_ICMS_Kalamazoo_Online_5_14_16_2026_.) 

International Medieval Congress 2026 (Leeds/Online)

CFP Medieval Temporalities and Comics (Hybrid) (9/20/2025; Leeds IMC 7/6-9/2026). Details at https://medieval-comics-project.blogspot.com/2025/08/cfp-medieval-temporalities-and-comics.html. (PDF version as https://www.academia.edu/143540880/2025_CFP_Medieval_Temporalities_and_Comics_Hybrid_9_20_2025_Leeds_IMC_7_6_9_2026_.) 

CFP Beyond Commemoration: Interrogating Modern Statues of Medieval Figures (Panel) (Hybrid) (9/30/2025; NeMLA)

Beyond Commemoration: Interrogating Modern Statues of Medieval Figures (Panel)

Submit proposals at https://cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/21759

Primary Area / Secondary Area
Cultural Studies and Media Studies / Interdisciplinary Humanities

Modality
Hybrid: The session will be held in-person but a few remote presentations may be included.

Chair(s)
Afrodesia McCannon (New York University)

Abstract

This paper session examines how medieval individuals are memorialized and reinterpreted through contemporary statuary across the globe. Moving beyond simple historical commemoration, these modern depictions serve as potent symbols, reflecting and shaping modern identities, national narratives, and artistic expressions. This session seeks to explore the multifaceted significance of these statues and the diverse contexts in which they are erected and understood.
I invite papers that critically examine the motivations, ideologies, processes, and impacts of creating and displaying statues of medieval figures in the modern world. Potential topics include, but are not limited to: the role of these statues in constructing or reinforcing nationalisms and regional identities; the ways in which medieval figures are adapted or reimagined to serve contemporary political agendas; the intersection of medievalism and modern artistic practices in sculptural representations; the impact of these statues on public memory and historical understanding; and the controversies or debates surrounding their creation, placement, and interpretation.
I particularly encourage submissions that explore a geographically diverse range of examples, including statues representing European, Islamic, East Asian, African, and other medieval traditions. By bringing together sculpture from various cultural contexts, this session aims to foster a comparative understanding of how the medieval past is invoked and visualized in the present, and to interrogate the broader significance of these tangible links to the premodern era.

Description

This session explores how contemporary statues of medieval figures across the globe reinterpret the past to shape modern identities, political narratives, and artistic expression. The session invites critical engagement with the global uses of medievalism in public sculpture today.

CFP Uncharted Medievalisms: Medieval Borrowings in Games (NeMLA Session 21633) (Hybrid) (9/30/2025; Pittsburgh 3/5-8/2026)

Uncharted Medievalisms: Medieval Borrowings in Games (NeMLA Session 21633)

deadline for submissions:

September 30, 2025


full name / name of organization:

57th Northeast Modern Language Association Conference


contact email:

cscarlsell@gmail.com


source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/06/27/uncharted-medievalisms-medieval-borrowings-in-games-nemla-session-21633

Games have long used medievalist or medieval-adjacent settings to engage with audiences. Scholars have noted the various connections to be made between popular perceptions of the medieval in games and historical and textual realities of the medieval world. While games may not always make it a priority to accurately portray medieval (or pseudo-medieval) life, there are still important parallels and intertextual references that games use to harken back to the medieval world—whatever version of that that reality they choose to use as a basis, at least. Just like games construct a faux reality for their players, so too have the popular conceptions of the medieval world been carefully constructed through literature and popular culture. Games, as a result, often use borrowed or shared narrative references and storylines to shape this perception and the connection between these texts. For example, in Larian’s incredibly popular game Baldur’s Gate 3, players enter the Underdark and are presented with a sword in a stone that only the correct rolls or actions can release. The blade itself, Phalar Aluve, is a magic weapon from which certain classes and races can achieve great benefits, and this only serves to link it in imagination with the famous sword of King Arthur. This session seeks to explore these constructs and medieval allusions in popular gaming worlds, showcasing their importance to the culturally constructed medieval world and their connections to medieval texts that have shaped our understanding of the past. Possible textual topics include Warhammer, World of Warcraft, Dungeons & Dragons, Baldur’s Gate 3, Assassin’s Creed, Pendragon, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Mount & Blade, Final Fantasy, and other medievalist games. Abstracts that explore explicit connections between games and medieval texts/narratives will be given preference, but all explorations of gaming and the medieval world are welcome.



Hybrid Session.


Please use the NeMLA Abstract Submission Portal at https://cfplist.com/nemla/Home/CFP and submit to session 21633


NeMLA's deadline is September 30, 2026.

CFP Twainian Regeneration: Adaptations of the Works, Life, and Legacy of Mark Twain (NeMLA Session 21918) (Hybrid) (9/30/2025; Pittsburgh 3/5-8/2026)

Twainian Regeneration: Adaptations of the Works, Life, and Legacy of Mark Twain (NeMLA Session 21918)

deadline for submissions:

September 30, 2025


full name / name of organization:

57th Northeast Modern Language Association Conference


contact email:

cscarlsell@gmail.com


source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/06/27/twainian-regeneration-adaptations-of-the-works-life-and-legacy-of-mark-twain-nemla

This session is sponsored by the Mark Twain Circle of America.



American author Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1935-1910) achieved lasting fame as Mark Twain, an identity that served as both his pen name and the persona he cultivated for the public. Twain’s writings and his distinctive character have dispersed across time and space, and the resulting Twainian tradition incorporates these elements in many ways.


Importantly, his works and iconography have long been the focus of adaptation. This process begins with the illustrations commissioned for the initial publication of his texts, Twain’s own attempts to rework and expand his stories, and contemporary caricatures of his person, and it continues with retellings of Twain’s stories, linked texts (such as prequels, midquels, and sequels) connected to his work, recastings and restagings of his tales, and new adventures for Twain himself. These adaptations, appropriations, and transformations of Twain appear in diverse forms and formats including anime series, artworks, cartoons, comics, films, games, historical fiction texts, home video releases, graphic novels, illustrations, memorials, musical theater productions, mysteries, performances, plays, radio broadcasts, science fiction works, sculptures, song lyrics, stamps, television programming, theme park attractions, and tourist sites.


Each adaptation regenerates aspects of Twain for new audiences revealing fresh insights into the reception of his works, life, and legacy. They also highlight both the timelessness of Twain as well as his timeliness for the present of each new text that his writings and his person have inspired.


Resource Guide: https://tinyurl.com/TwainianRegenerationRG.


Hybrid Session.


Please use the NeMLA submission portal at https://cfplist.com/nemla/Home/CFP and look for session 21918.


NeMLA's submission deadline is September 30, 2025.

NeMLA Sponsored Sessions March 2025

We are organizing the following sessions for the 56th Annual Convention of the Northeast Modern Language Association to be held in Philadelphia, 6-9 March. The full schedule is available online and registration is required to attend. 

Thursday, Mar 6 - Track 4 (02:15-04:15 PM)

4.12 Saving the Day for Medieval Studies: Using Comics for Teaching the Middle Ages (Roundtable)
Chair: Michael Torregrossa, Bristol Community College
Chair: Karen Casebier, University of Tennessee-Chattanooga
Location: 402 (Media Equipped)
Pedagogy & Professional & Cultural Studies and Media Studies

"The Medieval Comics Project: Ongoing Efforts to Expand the Field of Medieval Comics Scholarship" Michael Torregrossa, Bristol Community College

"From Borders to Panels: Integrating Comic Books into Medieval Studies Pedagogy" Rachael Warmington, Seton Hall University

"Reshaping Literary Canon: Graphic Novels as the Future of Classics" Derek Castle, University of New Hampshire

"Marvel 1602 and its Connection to the Scientific Enlightenment" Madison Cothern, University of Memphis

Sunday, Mar 9 - Track 22 (08:15-10:15 AM)

22.20 (Re)Animating the Middle Ages: Adapting the Medieval in Animated Media (Seminar)
Chair: Michael Torregrossa, Bristol Community College
Chair: Karen Casebier, University of Tennessee-Chattanooga
Location: 410 (Media Equipped)
Cultural Studies and Media Studies & Interdisciplinary Humanities

"Animating Marie de France : Emile Mercier’s Bisclavret (2011)" Karen Casebier, University of Tennessee-Chattanooga

"Possibilities and Pitfalls in Arthurian Animation: An Exploration of the Darkstalkers Series (1995)" Michael Torregrossa, Bristol Community College

"The Black Knight: Women “Passing” as Knights in Children’s Entertainment" Megan Arnott, Lakehead University

"Cartoon Saloon's Wild Women: Monstrous Genders in Irish Animated Medievalism" Colin Wheeler, Kennesaw State University

"A Modern Look at Late Medieval Religion and Literacy in Obsidian Entertainment’s Pentiment" Olivia Mathers, Lehigh University

"Heresy and Crusades: How Modern Fascists Appropriated the Medieval Aesthetics of Warhammer 40k" William Weiss, Independent Scholar

UPDATE CFP (Re)Animating the Middle Ages: Adapting the Medieval in Animated Media (10/15/2024; NeMLA Philadelphia 3/6-9/2025)

UPDATED DEADLINE

(Re)Animating the Middle Ages: Adapting the Medieval in Animated Media

Co-organizers Michael A. Torregrossa, Karen Casey Casebier, and Carl B. Sell

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

Call for Papers - Please Submit Proposals by 15 October 2024

56th Annual Convention of Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)

Philadelphia Marriott Downtown (Philadelphia, PA)

On-site event: 6-9 March 2025

Rationale

Our conception of the Middle Ages is usually formed by the versions of the medieval past we experienced as children, and, because they are considered suitable for young viewers, animated depictions of this world often represent our earliest exposure to the events, personages, and stories of this era. Consequently, the animated creations of the Walt Disney Company have played a huge part in shaping our collective image of the Middle Ages, but the corpus of medieval-themed animation is truly vast. It has been expanded greatly by the output of many other content producers across the globe through anime, cartoons, films, games, streaming videos, and theatrical shorts. (See our list of representative texts–at https://tinyurl.com/ReAnimatingtheMiddleAgesCFP–for examples.)

Despite animation's important role in shaping how we perceive and receive the medieval past, the field of Medieval Animation Studies remains limited, especially compared to the fluorescence of Medieval Film Studies and Medieval Television Studies over the past four decades. In this panel, we seek in particular to build upon the pioneering work of medieval-animation scholar Michael N. Salda and provide additional insights into the ways medieval-themed animation has impacted our contemporary world. Presenters might explore anime, cartoons, films, games, shorts, and videos produced through traditional ink-and-paint, stop-motion, claymation, or computer-generated imagery. Selections should represent and/or engage with some aspect of the medieval, such as artifacts, characters, settings, themes, etc. These might be central to the narrative, tangential, or appearing solely as cameos. (For ideas and support, we have created a list of representative texts and a resource guide devoted to studies of medieval-themed animation. It can be accessed at https://tinyurl.com/ReAnimatingtheMiddleAgesCFP.) 

Submission Instructions

In this panel, we seek in particular to build upon the pioneering work of medieval-animation scholar Michael N. Salda and provide additional insights into the ways medieval-themed animation has impacted our contemporary world. Presenters might explore anime, cartoons, films, games, shorts, and videos produced through traditional ink-and-paint, stop-motion, claymation, or computer-generated imagery. Selections should represent and/or engage with some aspect of the medieval, such as artifacts, characters, settings, themes, etc., presented as central to the narrative, tangential, or appearing solely as cameos.  

For ideas and support, please see our list of representative texts and resource guide devoted to studies of medieval-themed animation at https://tinyurl.com/ReAnimatingtheMiddleAgesCFP. 

All proposals must be submitted into the CFPList system at https://cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/21105 by 15 October 2024. You will be prompted to create an account with NeMLA (if you do not already have one) and, then, to complete sections on Title, Abstract, and Media Needs. 

Notification on the status of your submission will be made by 16 October 2024. If accepted, NeMLA asks you to confirm your participation with the session chairs by accepting their invitations and by registering for the event. The deadline for Registration/Membership is 9 December 2024.

Be advised of the following policies of the Convention: All participants must be members of NeMLA for the year of the conference. Participants may present on up to two sessions of different types (panels/seminars are considered of the same type). Submitters to the CFP site cannot upload the same abstract twice.(See the NeMLA Presenter Policies page, at https://www.nemla.org/convention/policies.html, for further details,)

NeMLA offers limited funding for travel to graduate students and to contingent faculty, adjunct instructors, independent scholars, and two-year college faculty. Details can be found at the NeMLA Travel Awards page at https://www.nemla.org/awards/travel.html.  

Thank you for your interest in our session. Please address questions and/or concerns to the organizers at MedievalinPopularCulture@gmail.com. 

For more information on the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture, please visit our website at https://MedievalinPopularCulture.blogspot.com/.  

CFP (Re)Animating the Middle Ages: Adapting the Medieval in Animated Media (9/30/2024; NeMLA Philadelphia 3/6-9/2025)

(Re)Animating the Middle Ages: Adapting the Medieval in Animated Media

Co-organizers Michael A. Torregrossa, Karen Casey Casebier, and Carl B. Sell

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

Call for Papers - Please Submit Proposals by 30 September 2024

56th Annual Convention of Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)

Philadelphia Marriott Downtown (Philadelphia, PA)

On-site event: 6-9 March 2025

Rationale

Our conception of the Middle Ages is usually formed by the versions of the medieval past we experienced as children, and, because they are considered suitable for young viewers, animated depictions of this world often represent our earliest exposure to the events, personages, and stories of this era. Consequently, the animated creations of the Walt Disney Company have played a huge part in shaping our collective image of the Middle Ages, but the corpus of medieval-themed animation is truly vast. It has been expanded greatly by the output of many other content producers across the globe through anime, cartoons, films, games, streaming videos, and theatrical shorts. (See our list of representative texts–at https://tinyurl.com/ReAnimatingtheMiddleAgesCFP–for examples.)

Despite animation's important role in shaping how we perceive and receive the medieval past, the field of Medieval Animation Studies remains limited, especially compared to the fluorescence of Medieval Film Studies and Medieval Television Studies over the past four decades. In this panel, we seek in particular to build upon the pioneering work of medieval-animation scholar Michael N. Salda and provide additional insights into the ways medieval-themed animation has impacted our contemporary world. Presenters might explore anime, cartoons, films, games, shorts, and videos produced through traditional ink-and-paint, stop-motion, claymation, or computer-generated imagery. Selections should represent and/or engage with some aspect of the medieval, such as artifacts, characters, settings, themes, etc. These might be central to the narrative, tangential, or appearing solely as cameos. (For ideas and support, we have created a list of representative texts and a resource guide devoted to studies of medieval-themed animation. It can be accessed at https://tinyurl.com/ReAnimatingtheMiddleAgesCFP.) 

Submission Instructions

In this panel, we seek in particular to build upon the pioneering work of medieval-animation scholar Michael N. Salda and provide additional insights into the ways medieval-themed animation has impacted our contemporary world. Presenters might explore anime, cartoons, films, games, shorts, and videos produced through traditional ink-and-paint, stop-motion, claymation, or computer-generated imagery. Selections should represent and/or engage with some aspect of the medieval, such as artifacts, characters, settings, themes, etc., presented as central to the narrative, tangential, or appearing solely as cameos.  

For ideas and support, please see our list of representative texts and resource guide devoted to studies of medieval-themed animation at https://tinyurl.com/ReAnimatingtheMiddleAgesCFP. 

All proposals must be submitted into the CFPList system at https://cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/21105 by 30 September 2024. You will be prompted to create an account with NeMLA (if you do not already have one) and, then, to complete sections on Title, Abstract, and Media Needs. 

Notification on the status of your submission will be made by 16 October 2024. If accepted, NeMLA asks you to confirm your participation with the session chairs by accepting their invitations and by registering for the event. The deadline for Registration/Membership is 9 December 2024.

Be advised of the following policies of the Convention: All participants must be members of NeMLA for the year of the conference. Participants may present on up to two sessions of different types (panels/seminars are considered of the same type). Submitters to the CFP site cannot upload the same abstract twice.(See the NeMLA Presenter Policies page, at https://www.nemla.org/convention/policies.html, for further details,)

NeMLA offers limited funding for travel to graduate students and to contingent faculty, adjunct instructors, independent scholars, and two-year college faculty. Details can be found at the NeMLA Travel Awards page at https://www.nemla.org/awards/travel.html.  

Thank you for your interest in our session. Please address questions and/or concerns to the organizers at MedievalinPopularCulture@gmail.com. 

For more information on the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture, please visit our website at https://MedievalinPopularCulture.blogspot.com/.  

CFP Classics x Medieval for NeMLA 2025

Classics x Medieval: Exploring the Past in the Present through Literature, Art, and Popular Culture (Panel)

Submit Abstract

Primary Area / Secondary Area
Comparative Literature / Classics
Chair(s)


Jared Simard (New York University)

Afrodesia McCannon (New York University)
Abstract


Both antiquity and the Middle Ages have been manipulated in the present in creative and destructive ways. The past has been weaponized often with racialization as its barb, but also used to posit alternative, culturally diverse worlds as spaces of creative, generative play. How might the uses of these periods be compared? How can we de-silo the disciplines to enrich the study of their manipulations and expressions in the present? Can we think of “classicism” or “medievalism” as a methodology that can be extended to any period or does each period have its own -ism? The panel hopes to bring classicists and medievalists together (and those who study both) to produce an interdisciplinary discussion about how different pasts intersect with the present.

In our panel, we explore the interplay between the ancient and medieval worlds and their reverberation in contemporary culture. We are especially interested in global and interdisciplinary perspectives on this topic and invite a broad range of topics in literature, art, and popular culture that employ a variety of critical perspectives. We hope to create a space for academics of all levels to enter into conversation with one another and dialogue with scholars from equally interdisciplinary fields. Papers that explore decentering or challenging Eurocentric interpretations of history or that seek to uncover alternative narratives and marginalized voices are especially welcome.

Description
Antiquity and the Middle Ages have been manipulated and at times weaponized in their many reception histories down to the present. This panel invites scholars of all levels, Classicists and Medievalists alike, to explore together how different pasts intersect in the present.

Medieval in Popular Culture at NeMLA 2024

Medievalisms Today: Aspects of the Medieval Past in the 21st-century World 

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

Organizers: Michael A. Torregrossa, June-Ann Greeley, and Rachael Warmington

55th NeMLA Convention

Boston, MA

7-10 March 2024

Friday

Mar 8 Track 6

08:15-09:45

6.13 Medievalisms Today: Aspects of the Medieval Past in the Twenty-first-century World (Part 1)

Chair: Michael Torregrossa, Bristol Community College

Location: Conference Room (Media Equipped)

Cultural Studies and Media Studies & Global Anglophone

"King Mansa Musa's Mines: Finding a Lost Medieval Africa" Angela Weisl, Seton Hall University

"The Convergence of Eras and Cultures: The Global Arthurian Ethos in Contemporary Comic Series" Rachael Warmington, Seton Hall University

"AfroComics: African Medievalism and the Comic Book Form" Afrodesia McCannon, New York University

Friday

Mar 8 Track 7

10:00-11:30

7.13 Medievalisms Today: Aspects of the Medieval Past in the Twenty-first-century World (Part 2)

Chair: Rachael Warmington, Seton Hall University

Location: Conference Room (Media Equipped)

Cultural Studies and Media Studies & Global Anglophone

"Crusader Kings III: Medievalism Thriving Within the Corners of Video Games" Mosammat Sultana, St. John’s University

"Between Life and Death: Traversing Disease and Mortality in The Black Parade" Shataparni Bhattacharya, Indiana University-Bloomington

"Is Chivalry Dead? Medievalism in Modern Dating and the Male Identity Crisis" Kiernan Sullivan, Binghamton University, SUNY

"Reviving Iranian Medieval Philosophy: A Path to Liberation From Contemporary Oppression in Iran" Faegheh Hajhosseini, University at Buffalo, SUNY