medieval

The Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Society (RMMRA) invites papers on any topic relating to the period 400 -1700 and welcomes scholars in a broad range of disciplines including history, literature, art history, music, and gender studies with special consideration given to papers and proposals on this year’s theme, “Antique Modes of Thought, Romantic Traditions, and Legendary Storytelling in the Middle Ages and Renaissance.”

Submissions should be directed through our online portal at www.memberplanet.com/s/rmmra/rmmra2020cfp. Questions about the conference or membership should be directed to rmmraconf@gmail.com.

GCRR is currently seeking written or visual submissions to be anthologized in a bound publication dedicated to the theme of violence in art (or perhaps the absence of violence in art). We welcome both industry leaders and scholars from the disciplines of art, humanities, design, technology, and education to submit abstracts of their essay that will make a unique contribution to the academic study of violence and art. Abstracts or Proposals are due March 1, 2020.

Final scholarly submissions should be approximately 3000 words, or 500 words and mixed media, that address one of the following:

The Spanish I (Peninsular Literature before 1700) permanent section of the Midwest Modern Language Association seeks proposals for the upcoming MMLA Conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (November 5-8, 2020). Though proposals on any topic related to Medieval and Early Modern Spanish Literature are welcome, we also seek proposals that specifically engage with the 2020 MMLA theme of “Cultures of Collectivity.” The conference theme includes, but is not limited to: cultural movements, subcultures, authorial collaborations, literary circles, and interdisciplinary networks. Please submit a 250-word abstract and a brief bio (or brief CV) to John McCaw at rjmccaw@uwm.edu by April 5, 2020. Papers may be in Spanish or English.

The Medieval and Renaissance Student Association (MaRSA) of California State University, Long Beach is seeking individual papers as well as panel submissions for their graduate student conference. The conference will be held at the Karl Anatol Center on the campus of CSULB on March 12th, 2020.

Executive Committees for the Forum on Medieval French Literature and the Forum on Sixteenth-Century French Literature, Joint Call for Proposals:

** DEADLINE EXTENDED TO FEBRUARY 14, 2020 **

Working Through and Beyond the “Global Turn” in Medieval Studies

The 15th Annual Pearl Kibre Medieval Study Graduate Student Conference

Date: May 1, 2020

Location: The Graduate Center, CUNY

Keynote Speaker: Kathleen Davis, University of Rhode Island

Please check out these CFPs for MLA 2021 in Toronto, sponsored by the CLCS Medieval Forum ObjectsHow do objects circulating within and around premodern literary texts reframe or intervene in traditional (national or imperial) literary histories or unearth new “global” literary histories? 250-word abstracts to Shirin Khanmohamadi (shirin1@sfsu.ed) by March 15. Medieval EmpiresWhat is a medieval empire? Extending the debate beyond the controversies of statehood in Europe, the panel considers non-European empires of the medieval world, imaginary or real, isolated or in contact with Europe. 250-word abstracts to Amy Vines (anvines@uncg.edu) by March 15.

What is Mythmoot VII?

Mythmoot VII, with the theme of “Defying and Defining Darkness,” combines an academic conference, creative writing meet-up, and fan convention for a unique experience. Here at Mythmoot, we have room for serious scholarship in fields such as science fiction, high fantasy, horror, gothic, mythology, children’s literature, folklore.. .the list goes on. We also appreciate less academic, but no less enthusiastic, pursuits of all the above—such as demonstrations of how to knit the best fake candle ever, presentations theorizing the exact recipe for Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder, or papers dissecting the cultural background of Baron Harkonnen!

Call for Proposals:

Medieval Leavings (https://medievaleavings.hcommons.org/) is a new, Open Access, online journal that publishes editorial orphans on topics in Medieval Studies (broadly construed) and makes them available for our community to use. We hope to ameliorate some of the inequities (and maybe also indignities) of journal publishing.

Medieval Leavings will also feature a special section, Archival Darlings (https://medievaleavings.hcommons.org/our-archival-darlings/), highlighting exciting archival finds that may be useful for other scholars to know about, but that simply don’t fit our own formal publication plans.

Traditionally attributed to King Solomon and defined by Rabbi Akiva as the “Holy of Holies” among the sacred scriptures (Mishnah Yadayim 3:5), the Song of Songs is one of the most fascinating and controversial Biblical books. Fervently read and carefully explained, celebrated as a key to the supreme mystery of the union between God and men, the Song of Songs, the primary source for the Christian pervasive metaphor of the sacred marriage and eros, was a text crucial not only to the Middle Ages, but also to the Renaissance period. This ambivalent book, which combined a sensual celebration of love with a well-established tradition of allegorical interpretation, held a particular appeal for poets.

The Medieval at Home: Domesticity in the Middle Ages

The Medieval Studies Program at Cornell University is pleased to announce its thirtieth annual graduate student colloquium, which will take place on the 15th of February 2020 at the A.D. White House on Cornell’s Ithaca, NY campus.

The Witch in Medieval and Early-Modern Literature

In our supposedly disenchanted world, depictions of witches follow fairly standard aesthetic and ideological criteria the role of which is to maintain or, on the contrary, to challenge societal considerations regarding gender roles or normative female bodily depictions. But such standardization does not do justice to the heterogeneity of representations that pre-modern witches actually possessed.

I'll be submitting a proposal for a panel on *Medieval Neurodiversity* to the Annual meeting of the Canadian Society of Medievalists conference, to be held at the 2020 Congress in London, Ontario, at the University of Western Ontario, June 3-5.  Discussions could tie in to medieval disability studies in a number of ways, including:

- medieval mental states/mental health, queer minds, nonbinary minds, anxious minds

- depictions of radical introversion (e.g., Diogenes)

- mental complexity in Middle English (e.g., Hoccleve)

- medieval social anxiety (e.g., Merlin and social exile in Monmouth, de Boron, et al.)

From Ragnarok to Revelation, from the utopian proposals of Plato’s Republic to the dystopian vision of Huxley’s Brave New World, a prominent concern of human language and literature has always been to describe possible futures. Some of these visions of the future are cataclysmic, looking forward to a time when Heaven—or Mother Earth—will wipe the slate clean; others propose a more optimistic vision of progress. Recent films such as Interstellar or Tomorrowland have taken a middle way, suggesting that although humanity has recently fallen short of its promise, there still remains hope that we will be able to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps.