CFP Time and the Outlaw (Hybrid) (9/26/2025; Leeds IMC 2026)

Sharing on behalf of the International Association for Robin Hood Studies.


Leeds International Medieval Congress 2026

6th-9th July 2026, University of Leeds, UK

Call for Papers



The theme of Leeds International Medieval Congress will be ‘Temporalities’

On the official ‘Call for Papers’ webpage, this is described as follows:

‘Diverse notions of the passage of time affected medieval people’s political decisions, economic exchanges, and production of objects and artefacts. Medieval people manipulated time to reflect their gender roles, narrative strategies, views on human ageing, shifts in ethnic or social groups, or changes in public and private spaces.

Modern concepts of medieval time are bound up with our own understanding and (ab)use of medieval temporalities. Whether we construct images of a ‘Dark Age’, or imagine a romantic time of chivalry and knighthood, these projections into the past reflect our own temporal outlooks and how today we organise ‘medieval time’ in a variety of ways that address modern diverse political or cultural agendas, which lie at the heart of our debate on medievalism.’



IARHS session proposal is ‘Time and the Outlaw’


Outlaw stories are like time travellers: they exist in their own time and seemingly outside time. Some of their elements remain fixed and unchanging whilst others are a product of negotiation between the tellers and their audiences, according to the needs of their present situations and ideological perspectives. They exist in a variety of media and in many different genres.

This session, therefore, examines outlaws and their stories through time: what they have been, what they are now, and what they may become. How have they been presented and how has that presentation changed, how might they be presented in the future – and why? Are outlaw stories simply ephemeral wish fulfilment, or do they really matter? What was their function in the past, what is it now, and what might it be in the future?

Outlaw heroes are not necessarily ‘different’ from other people – they frequently begin their stories living unremarkable lives in an everyday world – but their qualities are super-charged by their natural empathy and ability reacting to adverse circumstances created by (‘evil’) others. Their subsequent actions become the subject of myth, legend and popular culture. They speak truth to and about power in every age.

Medieval commentators regarded stories (such as those of Robin Hood) as either mindless diversions that did neither harm nor good, or as carriers of important socio-cultural messages that could be either supportive or subversive of hegemonic practices and beliefs. The outlaw’s relevance in and through time, to whom and why, is still a major subject of academic study and of interest to wider audiences.



We invite proposals for 20-minute papers on this topic. Some suitable Congress suggestions are: Medieval perceptions of time, temporality, and their modern interpretations; People in time; Time as an agent of change; Temporality in political, economic, and socio-cultural relations; Time, memory, and commemoration; Time, nature, and the environment; Medieval temporalities in film, media, digital technology, and Artificial Intelligence; Artistic representations of time and temporality; Medieval temporalities in literature, music, performing arts, and folklore; Medievalism and medieval temporalities; The future of the Middle Ages.

This is a limited list, but proposals on any aspect of time and outlaws/outlaw stories, in any or many media, medieval, post-medieval, modern or future are welcomed.

The session/s will be hybrid, so distance need not be a limitation.



To submit before the Congress deadline, proposals need to be made by midnight on Friday 26th September. There will be a waiting list in operation after that weekend.

Please send your proposal to the session organiser, Dr Lesley Coote, at coote081@gmail.com

Proposals need to be accompanied by a working title, speaker name and designation, and a contact address.

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

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

CFP Tolkien’s Medievalism in Ruins II: Relics and Ruins in Re/Visions of Tolkien’s Larger Legendarium at NeMLA 2024 (9/30/2023; NeMLA 3/7-10/2024)

Posted on behalf of our advisory board members who have organized this session. Please support their work if you can.

Tolkien’s Medievalism in Ruins II: Relics and Ruins in Re/Visions of Tolkien’s Larger Legendarium at NeMLA 2024

deadline for submissions:
September 30, 2023

full name / name of organization:
Carl Sell and Nick Katsiadas / Slippery Rock University and University of Pittsburgh

contact email:
nicholas.katsiadas@sru.edu

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2023/06/14/tolkien%E2%80%99s-medievalism-in-ruins-ii-relics-and-ruins-in-revisions-of-tolkien%E2%80%99s-larger

With the success of two panel sessions at the 2023 NeMLA Convention, we are happy to propose a “sequel” session on the theme of “Tolkien’s Medievalism in Ruins” in 2024. For all that may be said about the 2023 panels, one thing is certain: The panelists highlighted the important roles of relics and ruins within Tolkien’s essay “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics,” The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings. While we certainly covered much ground, there is a great deal left to explore, especially within The History of Middle-earth series, The Silmarillion, and the texts that Christopher Tolkien edited and published after his father’s death (The Children of Húrin, Beren and Lúthien, The Fall of Gondolin, The Fall of Númenor). We are concerned with including presentations about the larger legendarium, and we are equally concerned with opening this sequel session to the surplus of adaptations from Tolkien’s works, including: Peter Jackson’s adaptations, Rankin & Bass adaptations, Ralph Bakshi's adaptation, Amazon's The Rings of Power, video game adaptations, graphic representations, and revisions.

We are pleased once again to welcome proposals from a variety of theoretical approaches for the 2024 NeMLA Convention in Boston. Topics and texts about Tolkien’s legendarium may include, but are certainly not limited to, the following:

• Ruins or relics and trauma
• Ruins or relics and war
• Ruins or relics and nostalgia
• Ruins or relics and melancholy
• Ruins or relics and loss
• Ruins or relics and memory
• Ruins or relics and travel
• Ruins or relics and Medievalism
• Ruins or relics and Arthuriana
• Ruins or relics and Classicism
• Ruins or relics and Romanticism
• Ruins or relics in the First, Second, or Third ages of Middle-earth
• Ruins or relics in The History of Middle-earth series
• Relics and the Silmarils
• Relics and the Arkenstone
• Relics and the Dragon-helm of Dor-lómin
• Relics and Bard’s Black Arrow
• Ruins or relics in adaptations of Tolkien
• Ruins and Tolkien's critical works
• Ruins of Golden Ages
• Ruins or relics in Middle-earth and their Literary History
• Ruins or relics of Abandoned cities, locations, and peoples

We seek 250 – 300 word abstracts for presentations across periods and nations that address topics related to relics or ruins in Tolkien’s Middle-earth. Panelists should use the NeMLA conference website to submit abstracts, and abstracts should clearly delineate the presentation’s argument in relation to this theme. Once abstracts have been collected and accepted, the organizers will then confer and send acceptance letters. We ask that abstract submissions follow MLA format.

Those with inquiries may email Nick Katsiadas at Nicholas.katsiadas@sru.edu and Carl Sell at cscarlsell@gmail.com.



Last updated June 20, 2023

CFP Music Medievalism in Popular Culture (virtual) (9/1/2023; ICMS 5/9-11/2024)

MUSIC MEDIEVALISM IN POPULAR CULTURE at ICMS in Kalamazoo (May 9–11, 2024)

Sponsoring Organization: Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture
Organizer: Anna Czarnowus





Jonathan Le Cocq (forthcoming, 2024) defines music medievalism as either the influence of the medieval on later music, or the impact on medieval music (real or imagined) on any later cultural practice. In popular culture, we can find both the music that has been influenced by the actual medieval one and music influenced by some folk music imagined as medieval. Medievalist music such as pagan folk music (Troyer in: Meyer and Yri, 2020) can be used in various media and there are various genres of it. Some music videos can be an example of the cultural practice that is influenced by the imaginary medieval music. Medievalist video games also contain “medievalized” music. Please consider such topics and similar ones:

• medievalist music as background
• medievalist music and similar videos
• medievalist music/folk music as medievalist

Please send your abstract to: annaczarnowus@tlen.pl by September 1, 2023, but an official proposal can only be made and accepted through (https://icms.confex.com/icms/2024/cfp.cgi).

CFP Modern Meets Medieval: Scholars and the Public, Then and Now (4/15/2023; Midwest MLA)

Modern Meets Medieval: Scholars and the Public, Then and Now

deadline for submissions:
April 15, 2023

full name / name of organization:
Midwest Modern Language Association

contact email:
katheen.burt@mga.edu

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2023/01/23/modern-meets-medieval-scholars-and-the-public-then-and-now 

MMLA 2023 Permanent Session: Old and Middle English Language and Literature

“Modern Meets Medieval: Scholars and the Public, Then and Now"

The General Call opens with an analogy between now-times and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, invoking an approach that is both medieval and modern by looking at how the arts, the academy, and general society should, can, and do interact. In that spirit, the general question for this panel is “what is the value of studying medieval history, culture, art, and/or literature in today’s world?”

Possibilities include but are not limited to considering political and social issues/questions in medieval texts and how they inform our knowledge of the past, present, and future; medievalisms and how to discuss them in the public sphere (esp. concerning appropriation by racist/misogynist/etc groups); how to deal with original texts and contexts now considered socially or otherwise unacceptable; and academic and/or governing structures medieval and modern, what they are and how they might relate or be related.

Please send abstracts of approximately 350 words, along with a cv or brief biographical statement, to Dr. Kathleen Burt at katheen.burt@mga.edu by no later than April 15, 2023.




Last updated January 26, 2023

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

Kalamazoo 2019 Updates

A much belated posting.

The program for this year's International Congress on Medieval Studies, to be held at Western Michigan University from 9-12 May, is now available at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/events.

Our three sponsored sessions on Norse mythology in popular culture comprise a virtual mini-conference and run on Saturday, 11 May, from 10 AM to 5 PM. There will be a business meeting held during the lunch break, with all welcome to attend.

I'll post full panel details closer to the conference.

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

SATURDAY, MAY 11

10:00 AM

368 SCHNEIDER 1280

More than Marvel: Representations of Norse Mythology in Contemporary Popular Culture I: New Perspectives

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

Organizer: Michael A. Torregrossa, Independent Scholar

Presider: June-Ann Greeley, Sacred Heart Univ.

Adapting the Norse Myths: Risks, Challenges, and Creative Choices

Erik A. Evensen, Univ. of Wisconsin–Stout

Erik A. Evensen, MFA, is an associate professor of design in the School of Art and Design at the University of Wisconsin–Stout. He is a designer, illustrator, and graphic novelist whose creative work often reinterprets topics from history, mythology, and folklore. He is the author/illustrator of the graphic novels Gods of Asgard and The Beast of Wolfe’s Bay, the game artist for Marrying Mr. Darcy: The Pride and Prejudice Card Game, and has illustrated for the Ghostbusters and Back to the Future comic book series from IDW Publishing. Gods of Asgard won a Xeric Award in 2007, and has since been featured at the Field Museum of Natural History, the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum, and the Wexner Center for the Arts, and has been adopted as a textbook at Gustavus Adolphus College, James Madison University, and Marshall University. It has been cited in a wide variety of academic writing, including master’s theses, doctoral dissertations, books, and journal articles. Other mythological works include the 2013 graphic novel The Beast of Wolfe’s Bay, a modernized retelling of Beowulf, and Angrvadil, an illustrated novel retelling of the Saga of Fridtjov the Bold. Erik holds an MFA in Visual Communication Design from Ohio State University, and studied fine art at the University of New Hampshire and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Asgardians in the East: Norse Gods in Japanese Popular Culture

Ilse Schweitzer VanDonkelaar, Michigan State Univ.; Sarah Kelley Brish, Independent Scholar

Ilse Schweitzer VanDonkelaar received her PhD in English from Western Michigan University and is an assistant professor in the department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures at Michigan State University. Her research focuses on representations of the natural world and of death in Old English and Old Norse literatures. She is also an acquisitions editor for Medieval Institute Publications, managing series in New Queer Medievalisms and Monsters, Prodigies, and Demons.

Sarah Kelley Brish received her MA in Medieval Studies from Western Michigan University. In 2011, she presented a paper at NTNU in Trondheim, Norway, on the appropriations of Norse culture in World of Warcraft, so being able to view this particular topic through the lens of another culture is very intriguing. Sarah currently works as a freelance editor.

Hidden Bodies, Masculine Minds: Shield-Maidens in Video Games, Norse Myth, and Legend

Shirley McPhaul, Univ. de Puerto Rico–Recinto de Río Piedras

Shirley McPhaul holds two Master Degrees, one in Viking and Medieval Norse Studies from the University of Iceland, and a second one in Comparative Literature from the University of Puerto Rico. For her thesis in both degrees, she chose to direct her research towards reception, Popular Culture and Video Game Design, focusing in Fictional World Building for one project and gender theory for the second. She is currently teaching Medieval Literature and Popular Culture at the University of Puerto Rico, and Video Game Conceptualization at Atlantic University College. Her current research is geared towards interactive narratives in interactive media, such as Video Games, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality.

“I did that once. They made a saga about it”: Metafiction and Storytelling in Neil Gaiman’s Adaptations and Retellings of Norse Mythology

Fanny Geuzaine, Univ. catholique de Louvain

A graduate in English and French literatures as well as in mathematics and musicology, Fanny Geuzaine is currently pursuing her doctoral research as a F.R.S.-FNRS Research Fellow in the English Literature department of the Université catholique de Louvain (Belgium). Her research focuses on metafiction, storytelling and transmediality in the short works of fiction and non-fiction of Neil Gaiman. Her recent publications tackle the question of transmediality and novelization processes in Dave Eggers’s rewriting and adaptation for the screen of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Thing Are (L’Harmattan), as well as the impact of context and co-text on metafictional issues in Neil Gaiman’s short stories (Journal of the Short Story in English). Her first monography, The Tripartite Nature of Speculative Fiction. The Shock of the Strange through the Figure of the Creature, will be released in Autumn. She is particularly interested in the way popular culture reinvests tales, myths and literary traditions, and she simply loves a chilling ending to a good story – but she won’t tell anyone if you don’t.

12:00 PM

Schneider 1280

Association for the Advancement of Schneider 1280 Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture

Business Meeting: All are welcome to attend.

01:30 PM

421 SCHNEIDER 1280

More than Marvel: Representations of Norse Mythology in Contemporary Popular Culture II: Character Spotlights

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

Organizer: Michael A. Torregrossa, Independent Scholar

Presider: Scott Manning, Independent Scholar

Reshaping the Scandinavian Saga through Hybridity: Thorgal, an Anti-Mythological Hero

Maxime Thiry, Univ. catholique de Louvain

A graduate in Roman and French literatures, Maxime Thiry is currently pursuing his doctoral research as a Teaching Assistant in the French & Roman Languages &Literatures department of the Université catholique de Louvain (Belgium). His research focuses on intermediality in Belgian cotemporary literature and how it offers an original angle to the mutations of representations following the Iconic Turn. This question leads him to analyze both similarities and differences in works (from narrative works to cinematographic and television products) that grapple with postmodernist and pop paradigms, from their production to their reception. His recent publications tackle the question of iconicity in novels from the Belgian writers Jean-Philippe Toussaint and Guy Vaes, and the TV show American Horror Story.  

The Misunderstood Wolf: Fenrir as Antihero in Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology and Televassi’s Fenrir’s Saga

Travis Kane, Univ. of Houston

Travis Kane is a recent graduate of the University of Houston. He is the recipient of the Gentile Scholarship in literary criticism, and the PURS research award. He presented his paper “From Demon to Disabled: Interpreting Grendel’s Monstrosity in Beowulf, John Gardner’s Grendel, and Robert Zemeckis’s Beowulf” at the Southeastern Medieval Association (SEMA) conference on November 2017. His research interests include Medieval Norse, Anglo Saxon, and Celtic literature, Germanic and Celtic mythology, Medievalism, Translation, Adaptation, and Fantasy literature.

Translating Trickster: Reading Loki for the Twenty-First Century

Megan Fontenot, Michigan State Univ.

Megan N. Fontenot holds a dual BA in English and Humanities from Milligan College and an MA in English Literature from Michigan State University. Her work has been published in the journals Mythlore and Fafnir, with an article forthcoming in Tolkien Studies: An Annual Scholarly Review. Megan is also a regular blogger for Tor.com and is currently working on a series exploring the textual histories and developments of various Tolkien characters. She will be pursuing a PhD in English Lit, with a focus in nineteenth century British literature and Tolkien Studies, at the University of Georgia this fall.

Give Them Hel(a): The Norse Goddess of Death as the Great Mother in Myth and Film

June-Ann Greeley, Sacred Heart Univ.

[need bio]

03:30 PM

473 SCHNEIDER 1280

More than Marvel: Representations of Norse Mythology in Contemporary Popular Culture III: Channeling the Myths

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

Organizer: Michael A. Torregrossa, Independent Scholar

Presider: Jolanta N. Komornicka, St. Jerome’s Univ., Univ. of Waterloo

Medieval Motifs in DreamWorks Dragons

Sandra Hartl, Otto-Friedrich-Univ. Bamberg

Sandra Hartl, M.A. studied English literature and Classics at the universities of Bamberg (Germany) and Galway (Ireland). She is doing a PhD and has presented several papers on J.R.R. Tolkien’s classical mythological motifs.

Reinterpretation of Norse mythology in Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia

Geneviève Pigeon, Univ. du Québec–Montréal

[need bio]

“Her temper was still the same”: Women Resisting Colonialism in Modern Viking Narratives

Margaret Sheble, Purdue Univ.

Winner of the Thomas Ohlgren Award for Best Graduate Student Essay in Medieval and Renaissance Studies

Margaret Sheble is a PhD candidate at Purdue University studying English Literature where she also received her MA. Additionally, she holds an MA in Arthurian Literature from Bangor University, Wales and an Honors BA in Art History from Norther Arizona University. Currently she works as an instructor on record for ENG 106 Introductory Composition at Purdue University and has generated curriculum for the equivalent online course. Other courses include ENGL 286 The Movies with a focus on superhero films and ENGL 238 Intro to Fiction. Margaret is also a graduate assistant for the Center for Intercultural Learning, Mentorship, Assessment and Research. Other positions held have included museum development, archival research assistant, and editorial assistant. In the Fall 2019 she will be the graduate assistant for the journal Arthuriana and is currently working on an Arthurian games database for The Camelot Project. Her dissertation research is on suicide in the Arthurian tradition and how the suicides that occur or are attempted within the Arthurian texts reflect the wider concerns of ideal heteronormativity, gender roles, and one’s faithfulness to the Arthurian community. Her talk “Her temper was the same: Women Resisting Colonialism in Modern Viking Narratives” will appear in New Feminist Voices in the Heroic Age this summer.

 “I was born a god. And so were you”: Mythic Norse Superheroes in God of War (2018) and Marvel Comics

Andrew Barton, Texas State Univ.–San Marcos

Andrew Barton is a lecturer at Texas State University, where he teaches freshman composition courses. Upon graduating from Texas A&M University with degrees in Psychology and English, he worked for several years in the nonprofit world, serving as a district executive for an organization with a youth-serving focus. Eventually, Andrew desired to return to literature and academia, and enrolled at Texas State University. During his studies, he became interested in fantasy and children’s literature. While a graduate student, Andrew worked as a Teaching Assistant, covering classes in American and British literature, and was awarded multiple scholarships for his academic achievements. He received a Master’s degree in Literature in 2018, and wrote his thesis on medievalist literature in popular culture as it relates to adventure and spatiality. He is especially interested in medievalist and popular literature such as comics and film, and particularly how those interact in digital media such as video games. He has presented multiple papers at conferences, with topics including heterotopia, the Other, the Harry Potter series, The Lord of the Rings, Beowulf, liminality, and Dr. Strange. He is currently working on a project involving the medieval influences of Ready Player One, and assisting in a videocast project on Diversifying the Western Canon for use in sophomore literature classes. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife, their dog, and their hedgehog.

Sponsored Sessions at NEPCA 2018

Full schedule at https://nepca.blog/2018-conference/.



40th Annual Conference of the Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association

Worcester State University (Worcester, Massachusetts)

19-20 October 2018



Friday, 19 October at 2-3:15

Session 8: Women Warriors and Popular Culture: Representations across Time and Space I (S-232)

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

Chair: Scott Manning (American Military University)



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

Scott Manning (American Military University)

Scott Manning serves on the board for the Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association and the advisory board for the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture. He regularly writes book reviews for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Scott is currently a history graduate student at American Military University, focusing on cinematic medievalism including portrayals of trebuchets and Joan of Arc in battle. His undergraduate degree is in military history.


Stranger Weeping: Considering Margery Kempe through Eleven in Stranger Things

Anna McGill (Louisiana State University)

Anna McGill is a PhD candidate in English at Louisiana State University, focusing on medieval studies, with particular interests in Arthuriana, medieval women, and medieval portrayals and perceptions of magic. She received her undergraduate degrees in English and psychology from East Tennessee State University, a short drive up into the mountains from her hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee.


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

Chelsea Gibson (Binghamton University)

Chelsea Gibson is a PhD candidate at Binghamton University, where she also serves as the Managing Editor of the Journal of Women’s History. Her dissertation examines the interplay between female Russian revolutionaries and American reform efforts in the decades before 1917.




Friday, 19 October at 3:30-4:45

Session 16: Women Warriors and Popular Culture: Representations across Time and Space II (S-232)

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

Chair: Cheryl Hunter (UMASS Lowell and SNHU)


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

Peter Cullen Bryan (Penn State University)

Peter Cullen Bryan is a PhD candidate in American Studies at Penn State University. His areas of study include transnational American Studies, International Communications, and 21st Century American culture, with a focus in comic art and digital communities. His master’s thesis considers the impact of early cartoonist Windsor McCay upon the creation of comics as a genre, and his dissertation work focuses on the cultural impact of Donald Duck comics in Germany, emphasizing Erika Fuchs’s translations and digital fan communities that arose in response. With regards to his current project, he considers Gail Simone a personal hero, just as Red Sonja was for her so many years ago.


Correcting Wonder Woman: The Power of Patty Jenkins

Erin Lafond (Boston College)

An avid enthusiast of Hollywood superhero movie, Erin Lafond is a master’s candidate in English at Boston College, where she studies pop culture and Victorian novels with a focus on feminism. She received her BA in English from Southern New Hampshire University. During her time at SNHU, she received an award for “Outstanding Achievement in Research” for her senior thesis “Writing a Novel: Research and Execution.”

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)

CFP Charm (for Medieval/Renaissance Area of MAPACA) (6/30/2018)

Posted on behalf of the organizers.


MAPACA (The Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association)

29th Annual Conference

Lord Baltimore Hotel

Baltimore, MD

November 8-10, 2018


CFP: Special Panel, Medieval/Renaissance Area


“Charm”


This year MAPACA will host its conference in Baltimore, which is known as "Charm City." In honor of this city's designation, the Medieval/Renaissance area is issuing a call for papers for a special panel revolving around the theme of "charm." From charmed objects and cities to charmed (and charming) people, charms pervade the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. This panel will investigate how modern works continue to deploy "charm" and the ways in which their use of this concept connects to the medieval and/or Renaissance eras. Please submit proposals for this special panel to www.mapaca.net, indicating in the body of your abstract that you would like for your presentation to be considered part of the special panel.

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.

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.

Kalamazoo Reminder

Here again is the listing of our sponsored sessions for this year's International Congress on Medieval Studies beginning next week at Kalamazoo:

53rd International Congress on Medieval Studies

Western Michigan University

10- 13 May 2018

Saturday, 5/12, at 12:00 noon

SCHNEIDER 1160 Business Meeting

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

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

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

Geneviève Pigeon, Univ. du Québec–Montréal

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

Matthew Vernon, Univ. of California–Davis

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

Michael A. Torregrossa

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

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.

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

Rex Barnes, Columbia Univ.

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

Elliot Mason, Concordia Univ. Montréal

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

The Monstrous Mongols in Medieval Eurasia and Modern Day Film

Colleen C. Ho, Univ. of Maryland