Conferences
(Photograph: Andrew Stephenson)
Leeds IMC 2023: Networks & Entanglements
3-6 July 2023
Congress website and call for papers.
Paper proposal deadline: 31 August 2022
Session proposal deadline: 30 September 2022
The IMC provides an interdisciplinary forum for the discussion of all aspects of Medieval Studies. Proposals on any topic related to the Middle Ages are welcome, while every year the IMC also chooses a special thematic focus. In 2023 this is ‘Networks and Entanglements’.
Call for Sessions: Mary Jaharis Center Sponsored Panel, 2023 International Medieval Congress
To encourage the integration of Byzantine studies within the scholarly community and medieval studies in particular, the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture seeks proposals for a Mary Jaharis Center sponsored session at the 2023 International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, July 3–6, 2023. We invite session proposals on any topic relevant to Byzantine studies.
The thematic strand for the 2023 IMC is “Networks and Entanglements.” See the IMC Call for Papers for additional information about the theme and suggested areas of discussion.
Session proposals must be submitted through the Mary Jaharis Center website. The deadline for submission is September 6, 2022. Proposals should include title, 100-word session abstract, session moderator and academic affiliation, information about the three papers to be presented in the session, for each paper: name of presenter and academic affiliation, proposed paper title, and 100-word abstract, and organizer’s CV
The session organizer may act as the moderator or present a paper. Participants may only present papers in one session.
Applicants will be contacted by mid-September about the status of their proposal.
If the proposed session is approved, the Mary Jaharis Center will reimburse a maximum of 4 session participants (presenters and moderator) up to $800 maximum for European residents and up to $1400 maximum for those coming from outside Europe. Funding is through reimbursement only; advance funding cannot be provided. Eligible expenses include conference registration, transportation, and food and lodging. Receipts are required for reimbursement. For scholars participating remotely, the Mary Jaharis Center will reimburse participants for conference registration.
Please contact Brandie Ratliff (mjcbac@hchc.edu), Director, Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture with any questions.
CFP Royal Spectacle and Court Performance: Medieval and Early Modern Perspectives
21 September 2023
Royalty has often been accompanied by spectacle, ritual, and excess. Monarchs have exploited public space to exert authority, express anger or encourage love, deploying high-profile and fantastic rituals or displays to communicate with their publics. Clothing, accessories, gifts, food, and other materials have been used to build friendships, negotiate social hierarchies, or to convey displeasure. Art, statuary, monuments and buildings, as well as the more ephemeral prints, ribbons, or household goods, have been used as propaganda and to further a performance of power. Art and material goods were often part of elaborate performances at court, on stage, in the press, or on the street, where spectacle was embodied and communicated as identity, power and privilege. Such activities were replete with emotion, as courtiers sought to build or negotiate relationships, encourage awe or affection, and promote appreciation of systems of monarchical power and divine right. This workshop explores royal spectacles and court performances in the medieval and early modern world and now calls for papers that speak to this theme.
Topics can include but are not limited to:
Displays of monarchical power or identity
Court performances and interactions
Fashion diplomacy and dress
Gift-giving, hospitality and generosity
Abundance and excess
Ephemeral displays
Print power and the monarch in the public sphere
The audiences for monarchical displays and court performances
Displays of emotion and the capacity of performance to promote feeling
Drama, theatre, and literary court performances
Medieval and Early Modern spectacles in the modern era
Gender, race, class as spectacle
Deadline for proposals 30 April 2023.
Please email proposals to courtlyperformances@gmail.com.
The Natural and the Unnatural in the Early Medieval World
The Eighteenth International Conference of the Australian Early Medieval Association
28–29 September 2023
The University of Sydney and Online
In the largely rural and agrarian landscape of the medieval world, fauna and flora were highly regarded, as is evidenced by the importance of agriculture, the popularity of bestiaries, and the legacy of the elder Pliny’s Naturalis historia. The dynamics of the natural environment and social life has become an increasingly important topic in scholarship in recent years as we grapple with the impact of climate change.
For most people in the early Middle Ages, a supernatural world existed alongside the natural one and interacted with it. Indeed, the presence of the unnatural, whether in terms of bizarre creatures or disease and other environmental disasters, was taken as proof of the impact of the supernatural on the natural world and fed into philosophical and religious discourse.
Was nature cruel and heartless? Was it a manifestation of the divine? Was it there to be harnessed and exploited or was it wild and uncontrollable?
Potential themes include:
- Cosmology and astrology
- Climate and natural disasters
- Disease and medicines
- Technologies and superstitions
- Paganism and Christianity
- Biological cycles and human culture
- The natural and the supernatural
- Wilderness and domestication
- Life and the afterlife
- Daylight and darkness
- Monsters and totems
- Art and the imagination
Papers that focus on the dimensions of any or all of these worlds and their interplay in the early medieval period (c. 400 – 1100 CE), which either confirm or challenge this notion are invited to be presented at our annual conference to be held in September 2023 in hybrid mode.
Submissions may be in the form of individual papers of 20 minutes duration, themed panels of three 20‐minute papers, or Round Tables of up to six shorter papers (total of one hour). All sessions will include time for questions and general discussion.
Please send proposals (150–200 words per paper), along with author’s name, paper or panel title, and academic affiliation (if any) to conference@aema.net.au. Please also provide a note in your submission as to whether you intend on presenting in person or online.
Current AEMA graduate and ECR members (located outside of Sydney, Australia) are eligible to apply for a travel bursary up to the value of $300 AUD. For more details, or to apply for a bursary, please contact the AEMA committee at conference@aema.net.au.
The deadline for abstract submissions is 15 July 2023.
2023 Conference Convenors:
- Ms Erica Steiner (University of Sydney)
- Professor Daniel Anlezark (University of Sydney)
- The AEMA Committee
2024 ANZAMEMS Biennial Conference
The conference theme is Legacies and Relevance: Exploring the Medieval & Early Modern World Beyond Europe.
The conference will be held in person in Ōtautahi Christchurch, New Zealand from 8-11 February 2024 and will be followed by a 2-day ANZAMEMS Seminar hosted by the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand from 13-14 February 2024.
The conference co-convenors are: Dr Madi Williams (University of Canterbury, Aotahi) and A/Prof Chris Jones (University of Canterbury, History).
The Call for Papers will be circulated in mid-2023.