Call for Papers: **Gender and Medieval Studies Conference

Apologies for my tardiness, I've been swamped and so postings are behind and hopefully not too late. Much more to come:

*Call for Papers: **Gender and Medieval Studies Conference, Birmingham, 7-10
th January, 2010*

* *

The Annual Gender and Medieval Studies Conference will be hosted in January
2010, by the Centre for the Study of Middle Ages (CeSMA) at the University
of Birmingham. The programme organisers welcome c.250 word proposals for 20
minute papers on the following topic by *30th September, 2009*:

* *

*Gender and the Family*



Family is arguably the fundamental and universal unit of gendered
experience. Gender identities and embodied understandings of the world are
acquired through socialization into family configurations of
relatedness. This
conference will examine the functions and representations of the medieval
family in a range of contexts, addressing the ways in which the family could
be used to reinforce or challenge wider forms of association and provide a
rich metaphorical language for use in the articulation and legitimization of
wider social institutions and hierarchies. It will examine the ways in which
gender roles inform the definition of the medieval family and affect its
internal economy, emotional dynamics, and links to other institutions and
social networks.



We invite papers on a range of themes, which may cover: defining the family;
the changing meanings of relatedness within the family in the medieval
period, including motherhood, fatherhood, sisterhood, and brotherhood, and
the wider family; roles of family members – for example, in socializing the
young; the link between family and patriarchy, including the family’s uneven
distribution of gender roles and opportunities among sons and daughters;
images of the Holy Family and their implications for gendered behaviour in
medieval society; the queer family and the motherhood of Christ; royal
families and the interaction of gender and power; the monastic community as
family and the (cross-gendered) mapping of family roles onto ecclesiastical
ones; female saints and the dysfunctional family; biblical depictions of the
family and their interpretation by medieval cultures; the meanings of family
in minority medieval communities, including Jewish and Islamic society.



We hope to welcome scholars and perspectives from a range of disciplines,
including history, literature, art history and archaeology, and to promote a
productive and interdisciplinary discussion of this area. It is anticipated
that proceedings will be published after the conference.





Simon Yarrow and Philippa Semper

gender.family.2010@googlemail.com