The Medieval Academy Blog

Title: “Marching on Rome: Contesting the Eternal City through the Centuries”

Location: Italian Academy, Columbia University, New York City

Date: October 28, 2022

October 28, 2022 marks the centenary of Mussolini’s March on Rome and the Fascist accession to power. Yet the Fascists were not the first, nor the last, to stage a symbolic assault on the Eternal City; indeed, marches on Rome have been a mainstay of Italian political life for centuries. For figures as diverse as Julius Caesar, Cola di Rienzo, Petrarch, Charles V, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Umberto Bossi and Beppe Grillo, the Urbs Caput Mundi has variously served as a prize, a source of inspiration, and a nemesis. Marching on Rome is a tradition since antiquity that has inspired medieval, early modern, and modern versions of this important political ritual.

In its first standalone conference, cosponsored with the Italian Academy at Columbia University, the Society of Italian Historical Studies (SIHS) seeks to investigate Rome’s function as a contested space—both symbolic and physical—across the longue durée of Italian history. Topics may include, but are not limited to:

• Political, cultural and social movements directed “toward” or “against” Rome.
• Rome’s histories of warfare, insurgency, and protest.
• Contests over religion and secularism, and over Rome’s local, national, Mediterranean, and global identities.
• Regionalist and federalist critiques of Rome as a locus of centralized authority and corruption.

The SIHS seeks to foster dialogue and exchange amongst scholars of medieval, early modern and modern Italian history, working across a diverse array of thematic and methodological approaches. We especially welcome proposals from early career scholars in the field.

The SIHS anticipates being able to offer modest subventions for younger and independent scholars in order to facilitate their travel to and from New York City.

Additionally, there will be an opportunity to publish a select number of the conference’s papers via an Open Access journal. Conference presenters will be invited to submit their papers for potential inclusion in a special issue of California Italian Studies, which will be edited by Brad Bouley and Claudio Fogu.

Please submit your proposal by July 1, 2022 (including your name, affiliation, email, paper title, and ca. 250 word abstract) to: conference@italianhistoricalstudies.org. The Conference Committee will send out its decisions by July 15, 2022.

Registration will be open to the public. The following will be the costs of registration according to professional category:

• Graduate students and independent scholars: $0
• Assistant professors: $50
• Associate and Full Professors: $150

Financial donations are welcome on a voluntary basis. Registration fees will be used to support the conference, including a reception for attendees and the establishment of a fund to offer modest travel grants for graduate students and independent scholars who will be presenting their papers at the conference.

For any general questions, please write to: info@italianhistoricalstudies.org.

32nd Texas Medieval Association Annual Conference
Virtual Meeting
October 21-22, 2022
Hosted by the Unviersity of Dallas, Dallas, TX

The 32nd Annual Conference of the Texas Medieval Association will be held virtually, via an online platform, and hosted by The University of Dallas.

The 2022 TEMA program committee is pleased to invite papers and sessions on all topics in medieval studies. We especially invite papers and sessions contributing to the 2022 conference theme of Violent Clerics, Victimized Religious as well as papers and sessions that contribute to the permanent theme of Race and Medieval Studies.

TEMA recognizes diversity as a critical component of medieval studies. Therefore, the organizers of the 2020 TEMA meeting established a permanent strand of linked thematic sessions on Race and Medieval Studies that will be part of all future meetings. Papers, sessions, roundtables, and other events that engage with any aspect of this theme are very welcome.

Papers may be submitted in any language, but if you wish to present in a language other than English, please specify this preference. Send title and abstract of approximately 200 words to Dr. Donald Kagay (donkagay@gmail.com; dkagay@udallas.edu) or Dr. Kelly Gibson (kgibson@udallas.edu) (with TEMA 2022 PROPOSAL in the subject line) no later than September 1, 2022. Early submission is encouraged: rolling acceptance will begin on July 1, 2022. Among proposals for full sessions, those including participants from more than one institution will be given priority. Those wishing to propose a panel should submit a session title, along with the paper titles, abstracts, and speakers.

A prize will be awarded for the best paper by a graduate student. For more information, visit the Texas Medieval Association website [www.texasmedieval.net].

TEMA Values
Founded in 1986 to promote medieval studies in Texas, TEMA invites medieval scholars throughout Texas and the Southwest to gather annually to share ideas, collaborate on publications, and mentor students in a safe, nurturing community in which everyone may participate. In our formal statement of policies, we assert our belief that diversity is crucial to medieval studies. TEMA supports a learning community that embraces our members for their individual differences and offers respect for their unique perspectives. In support of this academic vision, TEMA does not tolerate discrimination based on academic status, gender identity, sexual orientation, political affiliation, religious belief, or racial/ethnic background. Moreover, TEMA has a strong history of collegiality and mentoring. We welcome papers from medievalists at every point of their professional development, from graduate students to emeritus scholars; from K-12 and secondary teachers to those at the collegiate level; from affiliated scholars to those currently unaffiliated. TEMA has built a friendly and non-threatening conference atmosphere that treats everyone as a colleague, no matter their “rank.” The purpose of our annual conference is to help each medievalist further develop their ideas, while benefitting from the feedback of a diverse, encouraging community.

For more information, visit the Texas Medieval Association website [www.texasmedieval.net].

New England Medieval Conference 2022
Medieval Ecologies

October 8, 2022
Colby College
Waterville, ME

This conference will provide an opportunity for medievalists working across a range of disciplines and geographic areas to join in conversation about premodern ecologies and their literary historical representations, as well as their material and cultural entanglements. We interpret “ecologies” broadly as interaction and interrelation within and between human, animal, and material worlds. Accordingly, we invite papers that may ask such questions as: How can the textual and material evidence of the past inform our understanding of human interactions with the natural world, including anthropogenic impacts, practices of care, cultivation, environmental remediation, and the longue durée of environmental change? How can ecocritical approaches enrich our understanding of the Middle Ages? What do the philosophical and theoretical perspectives of premodern thinkers offer to the Environmental Humanities? How might medieval ways of knowing the world shape understandings of contemporary environmental crises? Might premodern epistemologies and ontologies disrupt contemporary understandings of biodiversity, practices of care, and our interconnectedness to animal, vegetal, and fungal critters?

We invite abstracts for twenty-minute papers, as well as pre-organized panels of three papers. Please send abstracts of 300 words to Megan Cook (mlcook@colby.edu) and Anita Savo (asavo@bu.edu) by Monday, June 20, 2022.

CALL FOR PAPERS
“Gower in Contexts: His Words, His Books, His Heritage”
V International Congress of the John Gower Society
University of St. Andrews, Scotland
7-10 July 2023

The John Gower Society invites proposals for presentations at the V International Congress of the Society, July 7- 10, with an optional excursion 11 July, 2023, on the campus of the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. The Congress theme, “Gower in Contexts: His Words, His Books, His Heritage,” is broadly understood, to encompass:
– interpretative, linguistic, and/or stylistic discussions of his poetry;
– books behind the books he wrote — his sources;
– published forms his work has taken, both in manuscript and print;
– his poetic legacy, including the nature and extent of his influence on his contemporaries and later writers;
– Gower in the classroom.

In addition to proposals for individual papers consonant with the Congress theme, full paper sessions and/or roundtables organized around a relevant topic are also encouraged.
Proposals of all types should be no more than 250 words in length, and sent to R. F. Yeager, President of the Society, via email at rfyeager@hotmail.com or alternatively to Brian Gastle, by either email bgastle@email.wcu.edu or by post, Department of English, 305 Coulter Hall, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC 28723.

The deadline for receipt of proposals is 1 September, 2022.

N.B. Presenters originally scheduled for the cancelled 2020 Congress at Notre Dame may be included automatically in the 2023 program. If your paper was accepted for the 2020 Congress, and you wish to present at the 2023 Congress, please email R. F. Yeager (rfyeager@hotmail.com) with your updated title and a brief (a few sentences would be fine) precis if your focus has changed or developed significantly.

Call for Papers for a forthcoming edited collection, Pandemic Reflections: Saint Francis and the Lepers Catch Up with COVID

To be published with Ethics International Press (https://ethicspress.com/).

The collection will focus on Saint Francis, his life with lepers, and the COVID pandemic. The collection is meant to explore what it means to think about Francis in light of the pandemic and what to think of the pandemic in light of Francis, specifically his embrace of and subsequent life with lepers.

Given the profundity of Francis’ relationship with lepers, his enduring status and influence, and the complexities associated with the COVID pandemic, the volume calls for an array of scholarly and disciplinary reflections. The collection is significant because it will fill a lacuna in Catholic-Franciscan scholarship. The collection will constitute the first book length treatment focusing specifically on the application of Francis’ life with lepers to how individuals and communities ought to live.

The call for papers can be accessed with the following link: https://ethicspress.com/pages/pandemic-reflections-saint-francis-and-the-lepers The call provides further details regarding the project and potential themes for development. Abstracts for the project are due by July 31st. Completed essays are due by January 15th 2023. The collection is aiming for pieces roughly 3,000 to 6,000 words in length. However, this is more of a guideline than a hard and fast limit.

To discuss or submit a Chapter for consideration in Pandemic Reflections: Saint Francis and the Lepers Catch Up with COVID Collection, please contact the Editor, Geoffrey Karabin – karabing@neumann.edu or Ethics International Press – admin@ethicspress.com.