58th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, May 11-13, 2023

This panel invites contributors to present projects integrating the digital humanities with medieval environmental history research.

Inspired by the upcoming publication Routledge Handbook of the Digital Environmental Humanities, we are eager to hear from our colleagues about the digital methods and tools they use to “observe, interpret, and manage nature” in the pre-modern space.

Medieval Studies is interdisciplinary by nature. Nevertheless, the infrastructure for interdisciplinary research with peers outside of the humanities is rudimentary. We believe that medievalists whose research deals with the history of the environment and/or the history of science should be a part of building this infrastructure.

We hope that the papers in this session address one or more of the following questions: How are digital tools such as GIS, paleo-climate datasets or models, databases, virtual re-creation, and AI expanding our understanding of human-nature relationships in the Middle Ages? How are medievalists using these tools to explore (large) datasets from this period? What is or what should be the role of pre-modern researchers using digital tools within ongoing conversations around the climate crisis and environmental justice?

We invite contributions from scholars of all geographic regions working on environmental topics between 500-1500 C.E. We are especially keen to hear from collaborative teams where scientists and humanists are working together, though we will only have the space for 1-2 speakers from each project.

Possible topics may include, but are not limited to…

• Modeling
• Mapping
• Preservation
• The digital humanities in environmental archaeology
• Using digitized archives to characterize human-environment interactions

Please submit proposals (300 words) to camila.marcone@yale.edu and the ICMS confex portal (https://icms.confex.com/icms/2023/cfp.cgi)

 by September 15th.

Papers should be 20 minutes in length.