interdisciplinary

Sacred space is, in part, defined by its possible violation, examples of which abound in the Middle Ages. The martyrdom of Saint Nicaise, killed in his church by Vandals, is preserved in narrative and art. In Bokenham’s “Life of Saint Margaret,” the saint complains that her relics have been abandoned in churches destroyed by conflict and neglect. Legal sources also betray anxiety about the instability of sacred space: several sources note that damaging church property was an excommunicable sin, while Gratian’s decretals dictate the reconsecration of churches desecrated by bodily fluids.

Medieval refugees’ stories can be difficult to access, but our own encounters with contemporary refugee crises may hint at the disruption that accompanied mass displacement in the Middle Ages. As millions across the globe continue to be uprooted, what can we learn about the experience of displacement in the medieval world? Persecution, war, plague, poverty, and other factors all contributed to forced migration and exile, as seen in the expulsions of Jews from England and France; the expulsion of Andalusi Muslims during Spain’s Reconquista; displacements caused by the Mongol invasions; and in the migration of peoples escaping the Black Death.

The Nautilus: A Maritime Journal of Literature, History, and Culture, a peer-reviewed scholarly publication, seeks submissions for its eleventh annual issue, to be published in spring 2020. Contributors are encouraged to submit manuscripts on any aspect of maritime literature, history, or culture, following MLA style, using endnotes and the works cited format. Manuscripts are usually in the range of 20-25 pages; however, shorter and longer works are sometimes accepted for publication.

https://music.columbia.edu/news/new-materialist-approaches-to-sound-conference-call-for-proposals

Scholars working under the broad umbrella of New Materialism have offered compelling reappraisals of the ways in which we know, interact with, and exist in the world. This scholarship also intersects with recent work on music and sound, which raises rich sets of questions regarding human agency, material, ethics, aesthetics, embodiment, and the subject/object dichotomy, among other issues. 

Whatever Happened to Baby Cain?

Childhood Unbound, Childhood Tamed, Childhood Eternal

Growing up is a perennial feature of human societies. While anxieties surrounding childhood are universal, the manifestations of these concerns vary between cultures. This series of sessions proposes to shed light upon the nexus of ambiguity surrounding the medieval child, as depicted in contemporaneous literature. We invite abstracts for papers that will explore the representation of childhood in texts of any language, genre, and period within the Middle Ages. Topic may include, but are not limited to: