Panel: International Congress for Medieval Studies, University of Western Michigan, Kalamzoo (May 14-16 2026)

This panel invites papers on Medusa’s reception across the Global Middle Ages. We welcome interdisciplinary and transtemporal perspectives that situate Medusa in medieval art, literature, theology, astronomy, and beyond. Long understood as a fearsome figure of alterity—femme, Black, queer—the medieval reception of Medusa could also reclaim the Monster as powerful, even sacred. Through the lens of Monster Studies and critical approaches including trans studies, Black studies, and feminism, participants will consider how medieval cultures understood the Gorgon in all her complexity. This panel supports a forthcoming publication, Medusa’s Gaze, and presenters may be invited to contribute.

Please feel free to contact the organizors with any questions! Abstracts should be submitted through ICMS's confex website here: https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/call#L

Christopher T. Richards (crichard@colby.edu), Toni Veneri (tveneri@holycross.edu), or David Wright (d.wright@bowdoin.edu).