The Medieval Academy Blog

UCSB Medieval Studies Conference 2016:
Gender and Religious Practice in the Middle Ages
May 7, 2016: CFP

Monks, rabbis, abbesses, imams—when we think of religious practice in the Middle Ages, we often think about offices or organizations such as these that fall along clearly gendered lines. But these delimited categories belie complexities and nuance in how medieval people understood, constructed, and enacted gender in specific religious contexts. We are seeking papers that explore these complexities. Papers that engage with gender and religious practice from any discipline are welcome, and can include a diverse set of approaches, including but not limited to:

• Men and women interacting in religious spaces
• Same-sex interactions in religious spaces
• The gendering of religious space
• The construction or self-fashioning of masculinities/femininities in religious contexts
• The gendering of different religious groups or practices by outsiders
• Gendering of heterodoxy/orthodoxy
• Gendered patterns of devotion

Topics are not limited to the European/Western contexts; examinations of gender and religious

practice in any medieval geographical or religious context are encouraged. Paper submissions are due by February 26, 2016, and should include your name, email, university, and departmental affiliation with an abstract of 250-300 words.

The conference will feature a keynote talk by Fiona Griffiths, Associate Professor of History at Stanford, who will be presenting “Men in Women’s Monasteries: Nuns’ Priests in the Central Middle Ages”

Othello’s Island 2017
The 5th annual multidisciplinary conference
on medieval and renaissance studies
and their later legacies

Venue: Centre for Visual Arts and Research (CVAR)
Nicosia, Cyprus, 6 to 8 April 2017
with optional historic-site visits on 9 April

Advance Notice

CALL FOR PAPERS a collaborative event organised by academics from Sheffield Hallam University, SOAS University of London University of Kent, University of Sheffield and the University of Leeds:

www.tiny.cc/othello2017

Convenors

• Emeritus Professor James Fitzmaurice, Northern Arizona University (USA)
• Professor Lisa Hopkins, Sheffield Hallam University (UK)
• Dr Sarah James, University of Kent at Canterbury (UK)
• Dr Michael Paraskos, SOAS University of London (UK)
• Benedict Read FSA, University of Leeds (UK)
• Dr Rita Severis, CVAR (Cyprus)

We welcome applications from researchers to present papers at the 2017 edition of Othello’s Island.

First held in 2013, Othello’s Island now a well established annual meeting of academics, students and members of the public interested in medieval and renaissance art, literature, history and culture. 

Othello’s Island is growing in size and stature every year. In 2016 over seventy academics from across the world presented papers at the conference, whilst also experiencing the medieval and renaissance art, architecture and historical sites of Cyprus. 

This experience ranged from the island’s material culture, such as the French gothic cathedral of Nicosia, through to the remarkable living culture of the island that is still deeply affected by its medieval and renaissance past.

In 2017 we are interested in hearing papers on diverse aspects of medieval and renaissance literature, art, history, society and other culture.

Papers do not have to be specifically related to Cyprus or the Mediterranean region and do not have to be connected to Shakespeare.

It is worth looking at the range of papers from past conferences to see that previous speakers have covered topics ranging from slavery in medieval Cyprus and Malta, to the impact of Italian Renaissance art on Cypriot Byzantine painting, to the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf and Margaret Cavendish.

That said, given our location, Cyprus, the Levant and the Mediterranean do impact on the conference. In part this is because Cyprus is a real gem for anyone interested in medieval and renaissance history. Experience from the conference over the past four years shows that for researchers interested in placing their text-based research in a material context, visiting the island adds a new dimension to their studies. This comes in part from the conference itself, but also from the rich treasury of architectural and other material culture relating to the period that is available on Cyprus.

Othello’s Island itself has developed a reputation as one of the friendliest medieval and renaissance studies conferences in the world today, and it is also genuinely interdisciplinary. In part this is due to the relatively small size of the event, which generates a true sense of community during the conference.

For more informaton and submission deadlines please visit

www.tiny.cc/othello2017