Graduate Conference in Medieval Studies at Princeton University Ghosts: Ethereal and Material

Graduate Conference in Medieval Studies at Princeton University
Ghosts: Ethereal and Material
10 April 2010
Call for Papers

The Program in Medieval Studies at Princeton University invites
submissions for its seventeenth annual graduate conference. We are
pleased to announce this year's keynote speaker, Nancy Caciola,
Associate Professor of History at the University of California, San
Diego.

This conference invites participants to consider the idea of ghosts
in its broadest sense. We encourage papers not only on ghosts as
'ethereal' beings, but also submissions that play with the metaphor
of ghosts as it relates to things like memory and the material
remains of the medieval past. Thus, one successful proposal might
deal with ghosts as they appear in monastic literature, while others
might make the "ghost" of the Middle Ages in contemporary film or the
'ghostly' ruins of Cistercian monasteries in France their subjects of
inquiry.

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 might include but
are not limited to:

- The Liturgy of the Dead
- Spirit possessions and exorcisms
- Medieval near death experiences and otherworldly journeys
- Ghosts in monastic literature and exempla
- Ghosts in vernacular literature (epic, romance, sagas, etc.)
- Saints' lives and hagiography
- Medieval modes of remembrance
- Ruins in Medieval Europe
- The "ghost" of the Middle Ages today

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 15 February 2010 to
Troy Tice (ttice@princeton.edu) or Andrew Lemons
(alemons@princeton.edu).