Graduate Conference in Medieval Studies at Princeton University

Graduate Conference in Medieval Studies at Princeton
University

Law and Legal Culture in the Middle Ages

4 April 2009

Call for Papers
The Program in Medieval Studies at Princeton
University invites graduate students to submit paper
proposals for its sixteenth annual graduate
conference.

We are pleased to announce this year's keynote
speaker, Robin Stacey, Professor of History at the
University of Washington. Opening with an address by
Professor Stacey that investigates the intersection of
law and literature through the example of
thirteenth-century Welsh law books, the conference
invites students to discuss the social and cultural
aspects of law in the Middle Ages.

In an effort to better understand how people conceived
of and used codes of behavior and judicial recourse in
their communities, this conference explores ways that
law was identified, upheld, challenged, idealized, and
reinvented in a period of great legal diversity and
innovation.

In keeping with the Program's aim to promote
interdisciplinary exchange among medievalists, we
encourage proposals from a variety of chronologies,
geographies, and disciplines. Topics could include,
but are of course not limited to:

ƒ{ƒ{ƒnƒndispute resolutions
ƒ{ƒ{ƒnthe intersection of law and literature
ƒ{ƒ{ƒnmodes of proof and legal technologies
ƒ{ƒ{ƒnreligious prescription
ƒ{ƒ{ƒncustom and codification
ƒ{ƒ{ƒnmanorial courts, by-laws, and rural society
ƒ{ƒ{ƒnlaw and gender
ƒ{ƒ{ƒnthe profits of justice
ƒ{ƒ{ƒnlegislative idealism
ƒ{ƒ{ƒnlegal commentary and criticism

In order to support participation of speakers from
outside the northeastern United States, we are
offering a limited number of modest subsidies to help
offset the cost of travel to Princeton. Financial
assistance may not be available for every participant;
funding priority goes to those who have the furthest
to travel. Every speaker will have the option of
staying with a resident graduate student as an
alternative to paying for a hotel room.

Papers should take no more than twenty minutes to
deliver.

Please submit a 250-word abstract of your project by
16 January 2009 to Jamie Kreiner
(jkreiner@princeton.edu) or Mary Campbell
(mmcampbe@princeton.edu).