The Medieval Academy Blog

Gender and Medieval Studies Conference 2013
Corsham Court, Bath Spa University

Gender in Material Culture
4th-6th January 2013

Keynote Speakers
Prof. Catherine Karkov, University of Leeds
Dr Simon Yarrow, University of Birmingham

From saintly relics to grave goods, and from domestic furnishings to the built environment, medieval people inhabited a material world saturated with symbolism. Gender had a profound influence on production and consumption in this material culture. Birth charms and objects of Marian devotion were crafted most often with women in mind, whilst gender shaped the internal spaces of male and female religious houses. The material environment could evoke intense emotions from onlookers, whether fostering reverence in religious rituals, or inspiring awe during royal processions. How did gender influence encounters with these objects and the built environment? Seldom purely functional, these items could incorporate complex meanings, enabling acts of display at every level of society, in fashionable circles at European courts or amongst civic guilds sponsoring lavish pageants. Did gender influence aesthetic choices, and how did status shape the way that people engaged with their physical surroundings? In literary texts and in art, the depiction of clothing and objects can be used to negotiate symbolic space as well as class, gender, sexuality and ethnicity. Texts and images also circulated as material objects themselves, with patterns of transmission across the British Isles, the Anglo-Norman world, and between East and West. The exchange of such objects both accompanied and enacted cross-fertilisation in linguistic, political and cultural spheres.

The Conference will consider the gendered nature of social, religious and economic uses of ‘things’, exploring the way that objects and material culture were produced, consumed and displayed. Papers will address questions of gender from a range of interdisciplinary perspectives, embracing literature, history, art history, and archaeology.

Themes will include:

•  adornment, clothing and self-fashioning
•  the material culture of devotion
•  objects and materialism
•  the material culture of children and adolescents
•  the material culture of life cycle
•  emotion, intimacy and love-gifts
•  entertainment and games
•  memory and commemoration
•  pleasure, pain, and bodily discipline
•  production and consumption
•  monastic material culture
•  material culture in literary texts

Please e-mail proposals of approximately 300 words for 20 minute papers to the GMS committee at gms.bathspa.2013@gmail.com by 14 September 2012. Please also include your name, research area, institution and level of study in your abstract.

The 19^th Annual ACMRS Conference

When:  14 – 16 February 2013
Where:  Renaissance Hotel, Phoenix, AZ, USA

Theme:  BEASTS, HUMANS AND TRANSHUMANS IN THE MIDDLE AGES AND RENAISSANCE
Description:  The 19^th Annual ACMRS Conference will be held on 14-16 February 2013, Phoenix, AZ, USA.
Keynote speaker:  Professor Juliana Schiesari, Department of Comparative Literature, University of California, Davis.

CALL FOR PAPERS:

We welcome any topic related to the study and teaching of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, especially those that focus on this year’s theme of beasts, humans and transhumans both in literal and metaphorical manifestations. Proposals must be submitted electronically at http://link.library.utoronto.ca/acmrs/conference  through 20 November 2012.

Details and information: www.acmrs.org/conferences/annual-acmrs-conference
Contact:  acmrs@acmrs.org   phone:  480-965-9323   fax:  480-965-1681

Books Have Their Histories: Medieval Chronicles and Their Scribes, Manuscripts, and Early Editions – In Memory of Lister M. Matheson
International Medieval Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, Michigan: May 9-12, 2013.

Deadline: September 15, 2012
For information, contact dominique.hoche@westliberty.edu or dominique.hoche@gmail.com

Lister Matheson (1948-2012; Professor of English and Medieval Studies, Michigan State University) was a major scholar in many fields, but two of his most important scholarly legacies lie in the arenas of medieval chronicle studies (including the Middle English Prose Brut and the relation of chronicles to medieval literary traditions) and early book and manuscript studies (in a wide variety of content areas, from historical writing and popular legends to scientific texts and ownership/biographical studies). He was a frequent and fondly-remembered participant in many Medieval Congresses over the years, both as a speaker and as an organizer and chair of sessions.

Papers for these memorial sessions should be united by the broad theme of the medieval presentation of history and the codicological settings through which that history was transmitted. Papers may focus on various aspects of later medieval chronicles; manuscripts and printed texts linked to medieval historical writings; the scribes, printers, owners, or commissioners of such texts; and similar topics. As Professor Matheson’s own work has shown, a full understanding of medieval historical texts demands attention to both the content of the works in question — which could vary quite significantly depending on the needs or interests of the users of those texts — and the material circumstances of producing those works. Papers illuminating these connections shou
ld be of interest to historians, literary specialists, and/or early book scholars, inter alia.

Proposals should be no longer than 400 words and must clearly indicate the significance, line of argument, principal texts and relation to existing scholarship (if possible). Email the proposal in the body of the message, a 50-word bio note, and a completed Participant Information form (http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/submissions/index.html#PIF) to Dominique Hoche at dominique.hoche@westliberty.edu or dominique.hoche@gmail.com . Due September 15, 2012.

For general information about the 2013 Medieval Congress, visit: http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/index.html.