Sometimes what we love is unpopular.  In the broadest sense, medieval studies face a cultural reckoning that sees us as irrelevant and unprofitable in contemporary higher education.  Yet, these generalizations ignore the rich worlds that exist in the literature, art, history, etc., that we love so much.  And so, how do we keep the medieval relevant to the 21st-Century student in order to revive our disciplines in ways that are both academically rigorous and imaginatively compelling?  This roundtable seeks presenters who have developed innovative and engaging courses, assignments, and classroom activities to share with other scholars to implement in their own courses.

Some topics might include:

• Pedagogical models that demonstrate that medieval literature, language, art, etc. can be taught with an anti-racist focus, or how a “traditional” medieval syllabus can be decolonized
• Making medieval courses engaging for neurodiverse students, non-traditional students, first-generation students, and students at HSIs, MSIs, and HBCUs
• Ways in which you have used medieval images, texts, philosophy, theology, in either medieval or non-medieval courses, such as creative, multimodal, or Comp Lit projects or assignments
• Any strategies for connecting the medieval to the contemporary for 21st-Century students that do not conform to traditional lecture or Socratic formats

Please send a no more than 250 word abstract that contains your name, title, and affiliation to Joanna.Shearer@nsc.edu by September 15, 2021.