The Medieval Academy Blog

“Medieval Borders and Frontiers”
The Thirty-third Annual Conference of the Medieval Association of the Midwest
October 19–21, 2017
The University of Kansas, Lawrence

The Medieval Association of the Midwest invites papers and complete sessions on any aspect of the 2017 conference theme: “Medieval Borders and Frontiers.”

The organizers view frontiers and borders as starting points for the exploration of the cultural fluidity in the medieval world. We encourage submission of papers from a range of disciplines: archeology; art history; history, literature, music; material artifacts; religion, politics, and law. Especially welcomed are topics discussing phenomena such as migration in the Middle Ages, multilingualism, and the volatility of cultures. Organizers will also welcome paper and session proposals on any topic related to medieval and early modern history, literature, language, and culture.

Please send an abstract of no more than 300 words (media requests included) and a one-page CV to lcc@ku.edu by August 15, 2017.

Charlemagne’s Ghost: Legacies, Leftovers, and Legends of the Carolingian Empire 

44^th Annual New England Medieval Conference
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
Saturday, October 7, 2017

Keynote Speaker:
Simon MacLean, University of St. Andrews, “What Was Post-Carolingian about Post-Carolingian Europe?”

It is well known that the Frankish emperor Charlemagne (768-814) and his dynasty – the Carolingians – played an important role in the formation of Europe.  Yet scholars still debate the long-term consequences of the collapse of the Carolingian empire in 888 and the diverse ways in which Charlemagne’s family shaped subsequent medieval civilization.  This conference invites medievalists of all disciplines and specializations to investigate the legacies, leftovers, and legends of the Carolingian empire in the central and later Middle Ages.  We welcome papers that consider a wide array of Carolingian legacies in the realms of kingship and political culture, literature and art, manuscripts and material artifacts, the Church and monasticism, as well as Europe’s relations with the wider world.  We urge participants to reflect on the ways in which later medieval rulers, writers, artists, and communities remembered Charlemagne and the Frankish empire and adapted Carolingian inheritances to fit new circumstances.  In short, this conference will explore the ways in which Charlemagne’s ghost haunted the medieval world.

Please send an abstract of 250 words and a CV to Eric Goldberg (egoldber@mit.edu) via email attachment. On your abstract please provide your name, institution, the title of your proposal, and email address.  Abstracts are due July 1, 2017.

ReLACS 2017 (Regional Late Antiquity Consortium Southeast)
October 19-20, 2017.

ReLACS, now in its fifth year, is a annual workshop of scholars of Late Antiquity held on a rotating basis at Vanderbilt University, the University of Tennessee, and the University of Kentucky.

The 2017 meeting will be hosted by the Program in Classical and Mediterranean Studies and the Divinity School at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. Participation is open to all scholars interested in Late Antiquity broadly defined. Participation by graduate students is particularly encouraged.

The workshop kicks off with a public lecture on the evening of Thursday, October 19th given by Stephen J. Davis, Professor of Religious Studies and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Yale University, on “The Archaeology of Early Christian Monasticism: Evidentiary Problems and Criteria.” This lecture presents a reassessment of what we know (and how we know what we know) about the archaeological evidence for Christian monasticism in the first millennium CE. Assessing the current state of the field, Prof. Davis will first address problems we face in both the identification and the dating of “monastic” sites and then discuss criteria by which we can engage more critically with the material evidence available to us.

On Friday, October 20th, the workshop will host several sessions. Phillip I. Lieberman, Associate Professor of Jewish Studies and Law at Vanderbilt University, will lead a pro-seminar on “Introduction to the Cairo Geniza” designed to introduce non-specialists to resources for using the Geniza in teaching and research. The Cairo Geniza comprises the largest collection of documentary materials from the premodern Islamic world and is a critical resource for the social, economic, legal, and political history of the reception of antiquity into the medieval Mediterranean.

In addition we invite proposals from regional participants for work-in-progress papers on any topic broadly related to Late Antiquity or the early middle ages in any geographic region. Papers will be given 30-minute sessions and may be read aloud or pre-circulated to allow more time for discussion.

Please send a short description of the paper (approximately 200 words) including mention of its context (conference paper, part of a book manuscript, etc.) to David Michelson (david.a.michelson@vanderbilt.edu). Paper proposals will be considered by a steering committee (faculty from UT, VU, and UK) and selections will be made on the basis of maximizing regional participation from a diverse group of presenters. Proposals are due by August 1, 2017.

If you would like to attend or to receive further information about ReLACS workshops please subscribe to our e-mail list:

To subscribe, send an email to listserv@list.vanderbilt.edu with the command “SUBSCRIBE LATE-ANTIQUITY-SOUTHEAST” in the body of your message. This list is a public listserv intended as a regional e-mail list to connect ReLACS scholars (including students) throughout the southeastern United States. Messages publicize regional meetings or other regional collaborations of interest to the list. (This regionally-oriented list does not reduplicate the nationally-oriented list maintained by the University of South Carolina).