Call for Papers:
Disposable Culture and Spaces of Consumption in Medieval Europe
For the annual meeting of the Medieval Academy will be held 18-21 March 2010, on Yale University Campus, New Haven, hosted by Connecticut College, Southern Connecticut State University, Trinity College (Hartford), University of Connecticut, Wesleyan University, and Yale University.
This panel will explore the ways in which private or public acts of consumption during the medieval period define relationships between people and the spaces they inhabit. Paper proposals concerning the use or consumption of material goods (culture) and how such consumptions relate to gender and power will be of particular interest. The paper proposals could cover but not necessarily be limited to the following: the body (speech, body language, fashion/costume); space (private/public, sacred/profane, architectural structures, landscapes); gender/sexuality (visual signs of masculinity and femininity, cultural assumptions about gender, attitudes toward sexual practices and preferences); and human activities ("work" of medieval people, making of material culture, prayer, pastimes/leisure, travel, feasts/fasting).
We invite submissions from various disciplinary, interdisciplinary, and comparative perspectives, focusing on individuals, single sects, or groups. If you are interested in contributing to this panel, please send a 250-500 word abstract of your proposed paper including your theoretical framework and your primary sources to Rebecca.Flynn@usiouxfalls.edu and Salvatore.Musumeci@usiouxfalls.edu.