The Medieval Academy Blog

The MAA Committee on Centers and Regional Associations (CARA) invites paper proposals for its 2022 ICMS/Kalamazoo panels on the theme “Insularity and Regionality in the Global Middle Ages.” Insularity and regionality both draw attention to cultural difference or utopian possibilities, as well as facilitate the nostalgic affect that transforms a kingdom like England into a “sceptered isle,” fantasies that can be used to exclude other communities or reinforce endogenous practices. At the heart of the idea of these terms is an exploration of the nature and extent of our relationship as individuals to society at large, and of cultures to one another. By focusing on the ways that terms such as insularity and regionality function, CARA hopes to celebrate its mission to bring together regional centers and associations to fulfill our common goal of carrying the study of the Middle Ages into the future. Please submit proposals (paper title and 300-word abstract) by 15 September 2021 through the ICMS submission portal at https://icms.confex.com/icms/2022am/cfp.cgi. If you have any questions, please contact session organizers Nahir I. Otaño Gracia ( nahir[at]unm.edu) or Sara Torres (sara.torres[at]converse.edu).

Call for Papers for ICMS Kalamazoo 2022:

“Religious Communities across Time & Space” Roundtable
This roundtable, inspired by the theme of the 2022 Marco Symposium, offers comparative exploration of premodern religious communities across and within confessional traditions in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Central questions include: what tensions and comforts emerged from efforts to live deliberately within global communal systems (oikumene, ummah, ecclesia) and local communities (mosques, monasteries, synagogues)? How did interactions between distinct religious communities contribute to their identities? How did daily practice within religious community shape memory and ethnicity? How did heresy, conversion, or apostasy complicate community?
Session sponsored by the Marco Institute for Medieval & Renaissance Studies.

Submit proposals by Sept 15, 2021 to https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/call

We invite proposals for papers contributing to two paired sessions to be submitted for the 2022 Gender and Medieval Studies conference. The conference will take place 5th-7th January 2022, and will be hosted by the American University of Paris (Paris, France). Participants will be able to join remotely and/or asynchronously as well as having the option of on-site attendance. The conference theme is ‘Resilience, Persistence, and Agency’. These panels will use this theme as a starting point to open up discussion about the interplay of gendered power and sexuality in medieval contexts. Specifically, they will ask: how can reconsidering coercion and consent across global medieval literatures expose the gaps in our perceptions of premodern sexual dynamics? How do individual expressions of persistence, resilience and agency subvert hegemonic power, and (medieval or modern) readers’ expectations? And how might engagement with overlooked or marginalised medieval sexual experiences challenge us to reexamine corresponding misconceptions and elisions in modern discourses about coercive relationships?

We welcome any papers considering consent and coercion in the global Middle Ages (broadly considered as the period 500-1500); topics may include, but are not limited to:

• Readings of sexual and/or marital negotiations, different forms of sexual coercion, sexual violence and its effects in literary texts from across the medieval world
• Embodiment, agency and control in sexual relationships
• Consent and its limitations in medieval contexts
• Comparative approaches to consent and coercion across genres, cultures or literary traditions
• The impact of intersectional models of power on sexual vulnerability
• Atypical configurations of gender and power (for example, associations between masculinity and sexual vulnerability)
• LGBTQ+ experiences of consent and coercion in medieval literature
• Readings of sexual violence through gender, queer and/or disability theory
• Affect and readers’ responses: interpretive possibilities of traumatic narratives
• Literary depictions of sexual violence in dialogue or contrast with medieval legal or historical views
• The limitations and/or opportunities of applying modern theoretical views of consent and coercion to medieval material
• Pedagogy: teaching consent and coercion in the medieval literature classroom
• Intersections between medieval scholarship and activist engagement

We encourage academics of all levels (particularly postgraduate students and early career researchers) to submit abstracts for papers of 10-15 minutes. We are open to considering papers for a round table format rather than a traditional paper session, depending on submissions. We welcome papers that seek to generate a dialogue rather than necessarily offering an answer to a particular research question.

Please submit applications containing the title of your paper, an abstract of 300 words, and a short biography by 1 September 2021. All applications should be sent to janeebonsall@gmail.com and hannah.piercy@ens.unibe.ch. For more information about the conference, see https://medievalgender.co.uk/2022-paris/, and for questions about these specific sessions, please email Jane or Hannah.

To encourage the integration of Byzantine studies within the scholarly community and medieval studies in particular, the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture seeks proposals for a Mary Jaharis Center sponsored session at the 2022 International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, July 4–7, 2022. We invite session proposals on any topic relevant to Byzantine studies.

The thematic strand for the 2022 IMC is “Borders.” See the IMC Call for Papers (https://www.imc.leeds.ac.uk/imc-2022/) for additional information about the theme and suggested areas of discussion.

Session proposals must be submitted through the Mary Jaharis Center website (https://maryjahariscenter.org/sponsored-sessions/imc-2022). The deadline for submission is September 3, 2021. Proposals should include:

*Title
*100-word session abstract
*Session moderator and academic affiliation
*Information about the three papers to be presented in the session. For each paper: name of presenter and academic affiliation, proposed paper title, and 100-word abstract
*CV

Applicants will be contacted by mid-September about the status of their proposal.

The session organizer may act as the moderator or present a paper. Participants may only present papers in one session.

If the proposed session is approved, the Mary Jaharis Center will reimburse a maximum of 4 session participants (presenters and moderator) up to $600 maximum for European residents and up to $1200 maximum for those coming from outside Europe. Funding is through reimbursement only; advance funding cannot be provided. Eligible expenses include conference registration, transportation, and food and lodging. Receipts are required for reimbursement.

Please note that all listed speakers and the moderator should be prepared to participate remotely should health conditions necessitate a virtual conference or should local conditions make travel inadvisable for a participant. In the case of remote participation, the Mary Jaharis Center will reimburse participants for conference registration.

Please contact Brandie Ratliff (mjcbac@hchc.edu) Director, Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture with any questions.