Wednesday, July 31, 2019


Call for Papers: New Approaches to Post-Roman Europe

The Heroic Age turns 20! In the age of the Internet, that is practically ancient! For our twentieth anniversary issue, HA is returning to its roots, more or less. That first issue focused on the Age of Arthur. For Issue 20, we invite submissions that examine post-Roman Northwestern Europe. We intend to put out an issue that is cross- and inter-disciplinary approaching the period from multiple perspectives. Topics might include, but are not limited to:
·       The successor kingdoms in Gaul
·       Impact on non-Roman areas
·       Impact on sub-Roman Britain
·       Adventus Saxonum?
·       The Church in post-Roman Europe
·       “Paganism” in post-Roman Europe
·       Languages and Linguistics of Late Latin and/or non-Roman languages
·       Hagiography
·       Irish and Ireland in the period
·       Eco-critical approaches to post-Roman Britain
·       Reactions and Examinations of Susan Oosthuizen’s Emergence of the English
·       Texts and Authors
In addition to Issue 20, this call also includes The Heroic Age’s session for the 2020 International Congress on Medieval Studies.

If submitting an abstract for ICMS session, send to larry.swain@bemidjistate.edu by Sept. 15. If submitting for the Issue, point your browser to http://www.heroicage.org/authors.php and follow instructions and links there.

 I am pleased to announce the following Call for Papers for session "The
> Lost Latin Historiography of Late Antiquity" at Leeds International
> Medieval Congress, 6-9 July 2020. The deadline for submissions is September
> 15th 2019.
>
> Yours faithfully,
> Aleksander Paradziński
>
> *Call for Papers: “The Lost Latin Historiography of Late Antiquity”*
>
> *at the Leeds International Medieval Congress, 6-9 July 2020*
>
> *Sponsor:* National Science Centre Poland project “The Missing Link. The
> Lost Latin Historiography of the Later Roman Empire (3rd - 5th century)”
>
> *Organizers:* Paweł Janiszewski and Aleksander Paradziński
>
> “The Missing Link. The Lost Latin Historiography of the Later Roman Empire
> (3rd-5th century)” project, funded by the National Science Centre Poland,
> aims to collect and study cases of lost or fragmentarily preserved history
> works composed in Latin in the Later Roman Empire and their authors. In
> line with this goal we invite scholars at all career stages to submit
> proposals for twenty-minute papers relating to the subject of “The Lost
> Latin Historiography of Late Antiquity”.
>
> Suggested topics for papers include, but are not limited to:
>
>    -
>
>    Identity and biographies of authors of lost history works
>    -
>
>    Transmission of fragments
>    -
>
>    Regional idiosyncrasies of history writing in the Roman Empire
>    -
>
>    Audiences and networks of authors – composing history as a social
>    activity
>    -
>
>    Defining history – categories and limits of historical genres in Late
>    Antiquity
>    -
>
>    History writing in the post-Roman West – continuity or a break?
>    -
>
>    History of the scholarship on the lost and fragmentarily preserved
>    Latin historiography
>
> Please send paper proposals in English of no more than 300 words to
> Aleksander Paradziński (*a.k.paradzinski@uw.edu.pl
> <a.k.paradzinski@uw.edu.pl>*) by 15 September 2019. Please note that
> conveners are, regrettably, unable to cover the congress registration fee
> and travel expenses.

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

The program committee for Musicology at Kalamazoo (Anna Kathryn Grau, Luisa Nardini, Gillian Gower) invites abstracts for the 53rd International Congress on Medieval Studies, May 7-10, 2020. The topics approved by the Congress include:
·       Chant and Liturgy
·       Musical Craft, Composition, and Improvisation
·       Musical Medievalism
·       Music Theory & Practice
·       Musical Intertextuality/Intratextuality
·       Musical Margins and Migrations
·       Roundtable: Medieval Music and Inclusive Pedagogy
Full session descriptions can be found at https://musicologykzoo.wixsite.com/home. We hope these topics can foster dialogue between musicologists and scholars in other areas, so we encourage specialists in fields other than Music to submit proposals. Musicology at Kalamazoo strives to foster an environment that is supportive of medievalists of color and other marginalized groups. Papers tackling themes of diversity, inclusion, pedagogy, class, race, disability, gender, and sexual orientation will also be particularly welcome at our sessions.

Please keep in mind that we intend these session titles mostly as "hooks," rather than limitations, on which a multitude of proposals can be placed, so send us your best work. Proposals for papers should include an abstract of around 300 words; please do not include your name in the file containing the abstract. Proposals should be submitted by 15 September 2019. You'll also need to complete and submit the “Participant Information Form” from the conference website  (https://www.wmich.edu/medievalcongress/submissions).  Please send submissions to musicology.kzoo@gmail.com, with the subject line: KZOO 2020.
If you have any questions, please contact the committee at musicology.kzoo@gmail.com. We look forward to seeing you in Kalamazoo next May.
Sincerely,
The Musicology at Kalamazoo Program Committee

Monday, July 29, 2019

*Call for Papers: “The Lost Latin Historiography of Late Antiquity”*

*at the Leeds International Medieval Congress, 6-9 July 2020*

*Sponsor:* National Science Centre Poland project “The Missing Link. The
Lost Latin Historiography of the Later Roman Empire (3rd - 5th century)”

*Organizers:* Paweł Janiszewski and Aleksander Paradziński

“The Missing Link. The Lost Latin Historiography of the Later Roman Empire
(3rd-5th century)” project, funded by the National Science Centre Poland,
aims to collect and study cases of lost or fragmentarily preserved history
works composed in Latin in the Later Roman Empire and their authors. In
line with this goal we invite scholars at all career stages to submit
proposals for twenty-minute papers relating to the subject of “The Lost
Latin Historiography of Late Antiquity”.

Suggested topics for papers include, but are not limited to:

   -

   Identity and biographies of authors of lost history works
   -

   Transmission of fragments
   -

   Regional idiosyncrasies of history writing in the Roman Empire
   -

   Audiences and networks of authors – composing history as a social
   activity
   -

   Defining history – categories and limits of historical genres in Late
   Antiquity
   -

   History writing in the post-Roman West – continuity or a break?
   -

   History of the scholarship on the lost and fragmentarily preserved Latin
   historiography

Please send paper proposals in English of no more than 300 words to
Aleksander Paradziński (*a.k.paradzinski@uw.edu.pl
<a.k.paradzinski@uw.edu.pl>*) by 15 September 2019. Please note that
conveners are, regrettably, unable to cover the congress registration fee
and travel expenses.

Friday, July 26, 2019

Fourth International Symposium of Mens et Mensa: Society for the Study of Food in the Middle Ages
> “At the Medieval Table: Cooking, Cultures and Customs”
> Rutgers University, The State University of New Jersey
> New Brunswick, NJ October 18, 2019
>
> Proposals for papers or sessions may address any aspects of culinary and eating customs, culinary texts and artefacts, or artistic representations of food, cooking or eating in the Middle Ages.
> Papers are limited to 20 minutes reading/presentation time. Proposals for sessions or workshops must include e-mail addresses; paper abstracts; and short c.v. of presenters and organizers.
> Deadline: August 12, 2019
>
> INSTRUCTIONS FOR PROPOSALS
>
> To be considered, interested participants must provide by August 12, 2019:
> - an abstract of 150 words
> - a one-page c.v. indicating full name; institutional affiliation (if any); email address; postal address; telephone number
> Please send paper abstract and c.v. as email attachments to Ana Pairet at apairet@french.rutgers.edu.
> Please note that:
> - Sessions will take place in the Academic Building, 15 Seminary Place, New Brunswick, N.J.
> - All authors of proposals must be paid members of Mens et Mensa (USD $20 per year):
http://www.mensetmensa.org/membership.html
>
>
>
> Ana Pairet
> Associate Professor of French
> Rutgers University
> 15 Seminary Place
> New Brunswick NJ 08904
>
>
>
>

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

LAW AND LEGAL CULTURE IN ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND I-II
These sessions form part of the on-going reevaluation of the present state of the study of Anglo-Saxon law which began with the celebration of the centenary of Felix Liebermann's Gesetze der Angelsachsen.

Recognizing the extent to which our understanding of early law has changed over the last century, the
purpose of these sessions is to bring together scholars from a variety of disciplines to discuss new ways of understanding pre-Conquest legal culture. We invite papers that examine the many ways in which law was made, understood, practiced, promulgated, and transcribed in the Anglo-Saxon world. 

We are eager to receive submissions representing a variety of perspectives, methodologies, and disciplines. Possible topics include (but are not limited to): royal legislation, legal manuscripts, law in/and literature, legal procedure, charters and diplomatics, writs and wills, dispute resolution, theories of law and justice, perceptions of early law in later periods, law in/and art. We welcome traditional philological and historicist approaches, as well as those informed by modern critical theory. The last few years have witnessed the most extensive reconsideration of Old English law since Liebermann himself, and this session offers an important opportunity to discuss the progress and publicize the research taking place in this field.

ANGLO-SAXON KINGSHIP IN THE ELEVENTH CENTURY: ARCHBISHOP WULFSTAN AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES
This session is intended to re-evaluate Archbishop Wulfstan of York’s conception of the institution and ideology of kingship. Wulfstan is of perennial interest to scholars both as one of Anglo-Saxon England’s most influential political thinkers and as the author of a wide range of homilies, law-codes, political tracts, and canon law compilations. This session will focus particularly on Wulfstan’s views of kingship and royal authority. The timing of this session is especially apt as it coincides with the millenary of his legal masterpiece I-II Cnut and anticipates the commemorative events surrounding the millenary of his death in 2023.

We are eager to receive submissions representing a variety of perspectives, methodologies, and disciplines. Speakers are invited to explore, not only Wulfstan’s political writings, but also his relationship with the kings he served, his received knowledge of both cross-channel and insular traditions of political thought, and the extent to which his work echoes or differs from that of his contemporaries. It is hoped that the session will serve as an opportunity to consider how Wulfstan’s writings contribute to our understanding of royal authority, the relationship between Church and crown, and the complexities of English identity in an age of upheaval.

Andrew Rabin
Professor and Vice Chair
Department of English
University of Louisville
Louisville, KY 40292

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

CFP: "Medicine and Medical Practice in the Arthurian World"
International Arthurian Society-North American Branch-sponsored session
ICMS “Kalamazoo” 2020
The Arthurian legend is renowned for scenes of tournaments, jousts, and great battles; instances of poisoning; and rescues of damsels and battling of various monsters. All such episodes feature the damaging of one or more human bodies. When that occurs, what are the medicines and medical practices employed, who wields them, and how effective are they? While recent studies have examined the wounds, bleeding, and deaths of Arthurian figures, this session seeks to open a conversation on the medicines and medical practices used to intercede and provide relief and healing. Questions and approaches might include: is there a gendered component to healing practices in the Arthurian legend? Is there an ethics system, or are there competing ethical systems, at play in the use of medicines and medical practices in Arthurian texts? How do medicines and medical practices in Arthurian texts compare to their real-world counterparts? Are there contradictory representations of medicines and medical practices present in Arthurian texts and, if so, how should we understand those contradictions? Is there a relationship between a damsel’s purity and/or a knight’s worshipfulness and how effective medicine or medical practices are in their hands as practitioners or on their bodies as patients? Do medicine and/or medical practices ever depend upon in whole or part an intervention by God or some other supernatural figure and, if so, how should we understand the intersection or science and religion in those moments? Is there an epistemology of medicines locatable in Arthurian texts? Is there some pattern discernible in when medicines and medical practices do and do not work? How are medicine and medical practices portrayed in Arthurian films and television shows?
Session format: 15-20-minute papers
Please send your 300-word abstract and completed PIF form to David Johnson, djohnson@fsu.edu, and Melissa Ridley Elmes, MElmes@lindenwood.edu, by September 15.
CFP: "Medicine and Medical Practice in the Arthurian World"
International Arthurian Society-North American Branch-sponsored session
ICMS “Kalamazoo” 2020
The Arthurian legend is renowned for scenes of tournaments, jousts, and great battles; instances of poisoning; and rescues of damsels and battling of various monsters. All such episodes feature the damaging of one or more human bodies. When that occurs, what are the medicines and medical practices employed, who wields them, and how effective are they? While recent studies have examined the wounds, bleeding, and deaths of Arthurian figures, this session seeks to open a conversation on the medicines and medical practices used to intercede and provide relief and healing. Questions and approaches might include: is there a gendered component to healing practices in the Arthurian legend? Is there an ethics system, or are there competing ethical systems, at play in the use of medicines and medical practices in Arthurian texts? How do medicines and medical practices in Arthurian texts compare to their real-world counterparts? Are there contradictory representations of medicines and medical practices present in Arthurian texts and, if so, how should we understand those contradictions? Is there a relationship between a damsel’s purity and/or a knight’s worshipfulness and how effective medicine or medical practices are in their hands as practitioners or on their bodies as patients? Do medicine and/or medical practices ever depend upon in whole or part an intervention by God or some other supernatural figure and, if so, how should we understand the intersection of science and religion in those moments? Is there an epistemology of medicines locatable in Arthurian texts? Is there some pattern discernible in when medicines and medical practices do and do not work? How are medicine and medical practices portrayed in Arthurian films and television shows?
Session format: 15-20-minute papers
Please send your 300-word abstract and completed PIF form to David Johnson, djohnson@fsu.edu, and Melissa Ridley Elmes, MElmes@lindenwood.edu, by September 15.

MEARCSTAPA KZOO 2020 CFPs

Xenophobia and Border Walls: Monstrous Foreigners and Polities
Kalamazoo 2020
Co-sponsors: MEARCSTAPA and Société Rencesvals, American-Canadian Branch
Organizers: Asa Simon Mittman and Ana Grinberg

Who is that knight, threatening “our” town walls? Why are they roaming outside, besieging “our” castle? What shall we do with all these [Jewish], [Muslim], [Saracen], [Genoese], [pilgrim] people coming to this area, “robbing us of our jobs” and taking up our lands? As Jeffrey Cohen writes, “all the familiar stereotypes about foreigners, medieval and modern, find their place here: they make too much noise, they smell bad, they eat repulsive foods, their excess is disgusting” (emphasis added). Our current political environment makes these ideas more pressing, as xenophobia runs rampant and walls are (re)built.

Medieval and early modern representations of foreigners as a threat are not that different from our own. With this in mind, MEARCSTAPA and Société Rencesvals invite papers delving into pre- and early modern representations of contacts between cultures, races, religions, and even species from diverse disciplines and methodological approaches. Of particular interest are constructions of monstrosity in chivalric epic and romances.

Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words together with a completed Participant Information Form to session organizers Ana Grinberg (grinberg@auburn.edu) or Asa Simon Mittman (asmittman@csuchico.edu) by September 15. Please include your name, title, and affiliation on the abstract itself. All abstracts not accepted for the session will be forwarded to Congress administrators for consideration in general sessions, as per Congress regulations.

Keywords: Foreigners, othering, stereotypes, xenophobia, political climate

____________

Taking Shape: Sculpting Monsters
Kalamazoo 2020
Sponsor: MEARCSTAPA
Organizers: Mary Leech and Asa Simon Mittman

For centuries, the actions of monsters were more important that what the monsters looked like. Some monsters were given more specific descriptions than others, yet monstrosity was often based on Otherness, such as deformity, threatening animals, gender, or foreigners. As time goes on, many monsters take on more precise shapes based on the exaggerated physical conceptions of difference. By exploring how monsters take on specific shapes, this panel will analyze the ways in which specific fears (and desires) can create specific physical features.

The panel will be most effective with a range of methodologies and fields. While literary descriptions are often the base of how monsters are perceived, folkloric traditions that predate writing influence literary traditions. Works of history contain aspects of monstrosity, either literally or in how certain groups are described. Artistic renderings of monsters can also highlight the variety of interpretations of monstrosity. How and why monsters are formed, both as a concept and as a physical threat, has relevance across fields and eras. The panel should appeal to many areas of scholarship, particularly those that explore how gender, sexuality, and physical disabilities are presented as fearsome and monstrous.

Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words together with a completed Participant Information Form to session organizers Mary Leech (leechme@uc.edu) or Asa Simon Mittman (asmittman@csuchico.edu) by September 15. Please include your name, title, and affiliation on the abstract itself. All abstracts not accepted for the session will be forwarded to Congress administrators for consideration in general sessions, as per Congress regulations.

Keywords: Monster, gender, disability, Other, folklore

____________

Adorable Monsters in Medieval Culture (Roundtable)
Kalamazoo 2020
Sponsor: MEARCSTAPA
Organizers: Mary Leech, Tina Boyer and Asa Simon Mittman

Medieval Monstrosity is usually conceived as something that is physically dangerous or repulsive, often both. What happens when the monster is not physically dangerous, or is attractive? For example, when the loathly lady becomes beautiful, is she no longer dangerous? Is the threat she represented gone? Manuscript marginalia has many images of rabbits, dogs, goats, and adorable hybrid monsters engaging in violent behavior. What do images of domestic animals and otherwise delightful creatures possibly have to say about monstrosity in humans? By exploring monstrosity with attractive exteriors, this discussion will seek to analyze the hidden nature of monstrosity.

The panel will be most effective with a range of methodologies and fields. While literary descriptions are often the base of how monsters are perceived, folkloric traditions that predate writing influence literary traditions. Works of history contain aspects of monstrosity, either literally or in how certain groups are described. Artistic renderings of monsters can also highlight the variety of interpretations of monstrosity. Ideally, this panel will have participants from several different fields. The wider the range of participants, the more interesting the discussion will be for potential audience members. 

Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words together with a completed Participant Information Form to session organizers Tina Boyer (boyertm@wfu.edu), Mary Leech (leechme@uc.edu), or Asa Simon Mittman (asmittman@csuchico.edu) by September 15. Please include your name, title, and affiliation on the abstract itself. All abstracts not accepted for the session will be forwarded to Congress administrators for consideration in general sessions, as per Congress regulations.

Keywords: cuteness, monsters, animals, gender, manuscript. 




Thursday, July 18, 2019


The Citizen in Late Antiquity
University of Utrecht, 25th November 2019
The Postgraduate and Early Career Late Antiquity Network

‘Citizen’ in Late Antiquity was an emotive and complex term. In the
classical world, the term not only signified the distribution of rights
and duties of members of city and empire, but perhaps much more
importantly reflected the intricate processes of inclusion and exclusion
that shaped Greco-Roman culture in a myriad of ways. Conventional
historiography, which tended to focus on legal citizenship almost
exclusively, once characterized citizenship as defunct by the onset of
Late Antiquity: it has argued that the mass enfranchisement of the edict
of Caracalla and the gradual transformation - or collapse - of the
classical city, turned the ‘citizen’ into an anachronism, with its
social, cultural and political significance returning only at the onset
of the Renaissance. Recent scholarship however has started to contest
this view by positing that neither the collapse of the Roman Empire in
the west nor the transformation of the classical city brought an end to
the concept of the citizen.

Next to other forms of self-identification, such as gender, class and
ethnicity, people in late Roman and post-Roman polities continued to
imagine and conduct themselves as citizens and these categories could
themselves be understood in terms of legal and social citizenship. The
citizen was also omnipresent in religious discourses, most significantly
in late antique Christianity where the followers of Christ could either
be perceived as citizens par excellence (viz. of the civitas Dei) or as
intrinsic strangers and outsiders, namely to the civitas of the
transitory world. Furthermore, citizens, of whatever kind, were also
represented in material and visual culture, they took part, as citizens,
in economic and artistic life and they appear most frequently in a vast
number of textual sources and genres. An understanding of the full
spectrum of ‘citizenship’ and ‘the citizen’ in Late Antiquity thus
requires the use of a wide range of sources and approaches, and the
fresh insights of a new generation of scholars.

This workshop, The Citizen in Late Antiquity, aims at providing an
informal, constructive environment for post-graduate and early career
researchers to present their work, meet others working in the field, and
discuss current trends and issues. The Late Antiquity Network provides a
single platform for those working on a broad range of geographical and
disciplinary areas within the period of Late Antiquity, and participants
are thus encouraged to interpret ‘citizen’ in a broad sense, thinking
about how the theme intersects with their own research. Papers will be
of twenty minutes, with ten minutes allocated for discussion.
Facilitating this will be an address by our visiting speaker, Professor
Engin Isin of Queen Mary University London, an acclaimed and prolific
theorist on the subject of citizenship. The workshop is generously
supported and hosted by the Dutch NWO VICI research project “Citizenship
Discourses in the Early Middle Ages” and the Utrecht Centre for Medieval
Studies (UCMS) at Utrecht University. Some suggested topics for
discussion are:

- Different types of citizens
- Citizens and material culture and imagery
- Citizens and non-citizens, and interactions between different kinds of
citizenship
- The spatial dimensions of citizenship
- Citizens, universalism and cosmopolitanism
- Criteria for becoming or ceasing to be a citizen
- Alternatives to citizenship discourse
- Citizens and the city
- Citizens and religion
- Poverty and citizenship
- Citizens in different literary genres
- Citizens and lawmaking

Abstracts of no more than 400 words with a brief biography to be sent to
the conveners Thomas Langley (trl36@cam.ac.uk) and Kay Boers
(K.Boers@uu.nl) by Friday 26th July. Please include your affiliation
(independent scholars welcome) and current academic status (or the year
your PhD was awarded). If interested in the opportunity to run the
seminar next year, please detail any relevant previous experience
alongside the biography when you submit the abstract. Successful
applicants will be notified by Monday 19th August.


The RELICS research group invites paper proposals for the 2020 International Medieval Congress in Leeds, more specifically for a panel on literary dialogues in medieval traditions across the globe. In connection with the thematic strand of IMC 2020, “Borders”, the central point of interest in this panel will be how dialogues across linguistic, religious, and cultural borders offer space for different and possibly conflicting voices. Its goal will be to explore medieval literary dialogues as places of linguistic, cultural, and religious encounters. The focus is both on works that take the form of dialogues and on dialogues that are part of larger writings. At the same time, this panel aims to bridge modern institutionalized boundaries by giving preference to contributions that investigate the possible interconnections, similarities, and differences between medieval dialogue literature in different languages, including, but not limited to Latin, Hebrew, the European vernaculars, Greek, Arabic, Syriac, etc. 

Abstracts (in any major academic language and no longer than 150 words) should be sent to relics@ugent.be before September 1, 2019. Notifications about acceptance will be sent out by September 15 at the latest. Both junior and senior scholars are welcome to submit an abstract. Contributors may later be invited to submit their paper to a special thematic issue of the international double-blind peer reviewed and open access journal JOLCEL (Journal of Latin Cosmopolitanism and European Literatures).

The panel will be organised by RELICS, but the participants are responsible for their own registration costs. For further queries, please contact one of the organisers of the panel, Dinah.wouters@ugent.be or Klazina.staat@ugent.be

CALL FOR PAPERS
“Reassessing the Matter of the Greenwood”
Sponsored Session of the International Association for Robin Hood Studies (IARHS)
International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 7-10, 2020
Historian Maurice Keen’s study The Outlaws of Medieval Legend, first published in 1961, remains a significant contribution to outlaw studies. After noticing a number of shared themes, motifs, and styles in medieval outlaw narratives, Keen argued for a new fourth “matter” to join those of Britain, France, and Troy: the greenwood. It is time for a reassessment of his contribution. What are the significant characteristics of a text needed to classify it as a greenwood matter? Can medieval outlaw works exist as hybrid matters? How can we account for matters of the greenwood outside of medieval Western Europe? The papers in this session will examine verse and prose literary texts from the Middle Ages, and scholars are encouraged to think critically about genre and generic markers, the transmission of texts into various literary, cultural, and historical environments, and how shared textual characteristics formulate traditions.
Please send 250-word abstracts and a completed Participant Information Form (PIF) by September 15, 2019, to Alex Kaufman: alkaufman@bsu.edu.

Wednesday, July 10, 2019

The Ibero-Medieval Association of North America (IMANA)is delighted to
release the Call for Papers for the following panels at the International
Congress on Medieval Studies (ICMS) at Western Michigan University (7-10
May 2020).

IMANA-sponsored panels always invite graduate student submissions, as well
as scholars at all levels of experience and from the breadth of disciplines
that touch on medieval Iberia, literary, historical, and beyond.

Please join our conversation at the ICMS by submitting a proposal for a
paper, attending any of our panels during the Congress, and joining us for
the IMANA Banquet!


PANELS

-1-
Race and Its Historiography in Medieval Iberian Studies (panel discussion)

Organizer: Isidro Rivera (ijrivera@ku.edu)

The present political and cultural moment is intensely focused on issues of
race, diversity, and inclusion. This panel seeks to address the lack of
engagement with race and diversity in Medieval Iberian Studies, and
therefore connect our field with other areas of medieval studies. The panel
discussion will open between the panelists and the audience a discussion
about the ways in which topics such as racial(ized) and ethnic minorities,
the whitening of Iberia, the Middle Ages, and disciplinary marginalization
have shaped Hispano-Medieval Studies.

Keywords: race; medieval Iberia; historiography

-2-
The Canon Walks into a Bar: Humor in Medieval Iberian Literature (session
of papers)

Organizer: Paul Larson (Paul_Larson@baylor.edu)

Making learning fun (and funny) is hardly new: it has a deep history, often
expressed as docere delectando or delectare et docere.  How do "serious"
canonical works of the Iberian Middle Ages delight while they teach? How
can a text be serious and funny all at the same time? This panel shifts
attention to the hybridity of canonical texts in deploying low humor, often
scabrous, for high purposes. This panel seeks papers on texts in any
Iberian language(s) and their use of humor, to put them into dialogue
across Iberian textual and scholarly traditions.

Keywords: humor; Iberian literature; the canon

-3-
Iberomedieval Studies: Taking Stock, Moving Forward (roundtable)
Organizer: Linde M. Brocato (linde.brocato@miami.edu)

The relevance of medieval studies in general to the present has become both
more evident and at the same fraught, and Iberomedieval studies must assess
how the discipline works within this shifting context.  This is happening
as the organization of IMANA itself is shifting to take on greater
collective governance and responsibility, which also merits broader
consideration within the context of the social and disciplinary shifts in
medieval studies.  This roundtable will consist of a conversation among
practitioners across all domains, generations, and positions of
Iberomedieval studies, to take stock of how the field is structured, how we
constitute our community through conversations, work, and organizations
like IMANA, and how we can move into the future integral to the larger
academic and intellectual work of our time.

Keywords: the disciplines; Iberomedieval studies; academia

-4-
Literature, Language, and Identity during the House of Aviz (session of
papers)

Organizers: Ross Karlan (rmk65@georgetown.edu) and Michael Ferreira (
mjf62@georgetown.edu)

This panel offers an interdisciplinary approach to the diversity and
different identities on the Iberian Peninsula at a time when the Trastámara
Dynasty often takes center stage. Focusing on the House of Aviz
(1385-1580), this panel will highlight lusophone and related materials at a
time of great change surrounding the Portuguese crown, including imperial
expansion, diverse ethnic contact, and the attempt to form a unique
Portuguese identity in relation to other parts of Iberia. Given the broad
scope of the crown's sphere of influence, texts may touch on geographic
diversity both within the Iberian Peninsula and beyond, including Africa,
India, China, and the Americas.

Keywords: Medieval Portugal; book history; identity; Aviz

-5-
Questioning Mysticism (session of papers)
Co-Sponsor: ASPHS, Jes Boon (jboon@unc.edu)
Organizer: Erik Alder (erik_alder@byu.edu); Amy Austin (amaustin@uta.edu)

Mysticism and the mystic continue to constitute one of the most commonly
discussed subjects at the ICMS during recent years. Despite this, entire
sessions specifically dedicated to mysticism itself are few and far
between. Accordingly, this session invites papers that seek to mine the
depths and significations of mysticism, particularly in light of recent
theoretical models: to what extent does the body and the eye inform the
mystic? To what extent does mysticism defy and subdue the body? To what
extent can mysticism serve as a backdoor for power and resistance, inasmuch
as it allows the individual to work both within and outside of accepted
structures of power? How does mysticism subvert or conform to existing
epistemologies and ontologies? As sponsored by IMANA, this session will
take special interest in Spanish mysticism, but will of course be
interested in contributions across disciplines.

Keywords: mysticism; embodiment; epistemology; ontology


Draft IMANA Mission Statement
The Iberomedieval Association of North America is an international
community of those who study the Iberian Middle Ages, conceived broadly,
and including all of the disciplines concerned with areas of study
characterized by languages, literatures, religions, cultures, societies,
and politics in medieval Iberia.  As such, we work as a community in
intensely and uniquely interdisciplinary and interstitial ways, dealing
with the rich and fascinating artifacts and dynamics of medieval Iberia, a
zone of intense cultural, intellectual, and religious contact.
Iberomedieval Studies is therefore uniquely positioned – and poised – to
also turn the legacy of racist and antisemitic violence and oppression into
a transformative understanding of those dynamics.  As a community, we value
and foster rigor, respect, inclusion, diversity, and support for all
scholars at all levels of endeavor.

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Wednesday, July 3, 2019

Papers sought on any aspect of
teaching medieval literature in translation
for a panel at the 22nd biennial
New College Conference
on Medieval and Renaissance Studies
March 12-14, 2020,
in Sarasota, FL.

Should this panel be accepted by the conference organizers,
the session will be sponsored by TEAMS, the Teaching Association for
Medieval Studies,
and essays will be considered for publication in the
Once and Future Classroom, TEAMS' on-line, peer-reviewed journal in
article format.
See https://once-and-future-classroom.org/cfp/
for a detailed list of suggested essay topics.

Please send abstracts to Deborah Sinnreich-Levi,
dsinnrei@stevens.edudsinnrei@stevens.edu
> by August 30, 2019.

https://teams-medieval.org/
http://www.newcollegeconference.org/


Prof. Deborah M. Sinnreich-Levi
Stevens Institute of Technology
Email:  dsinnrei@stevens.edudsinnrei@stevens.edu>
Office Hrs:  T W TH 8-9:15 and by appt. in M327
Tel:  201.216.5403  Fax:  201.216.8245
*http://www.stevens.edu/cal/faculty-profile?id=912