Our annual conference runs June 9-11, 2025  at St Jerome's University at the University of Waterloo. You will find the CFP here: https://www.canadianmedievalists.org/Annual Please submit proposals by January 15, 2025!

Notre réunion annuelle se passera le 9-11 juin, 2025 à l'Université St Jerome's à l'Université de Waterloo. Vous trouverez l'appel à  communications ici: https://www.canadianmedievalists.org/Annual Veuillez soumettre vos propositions avant le 15 janvier, 2025!

Sparks: Political, Intellectual, and Religious Utopia in the Premodern World

We invite chapter proposals for an edited volume on utopian history. Over the past half- century or so, scholarship about utopia has been predominantly led by the disciplines of literature and political science. With the exception of a few modernists who study socialist accomplishments and progressive thought, professional historians rarely engage in utopian discourse at large or treat utopia as a serious historical subject. Similarly, modern utopia acquired multiple meanings in both fictional and real worlds, but that of earlier centuries is still considered an equivalent to a narrow canon of literary texts, which scholars repeatedly recount and cannot elude. However, we believe that literary utopia, whether Morean or not, was only the tip of the iceberg. Implicit utopian manifestations were ubiquitous throughout the premodern world, appearing in forms such as mental images, theological treatises, legal texts, political agendas, ethical writings, polemical pamphlets, and lived communities. We declare that premodern utopia, rather than a genre, should encompass a much broader scope and become a necessary category of historical understanding. It symbolizes a sincere belief in the possible existence of a better society, shining in the great minds of political reformers, moral philosophers, religious leaders, and sometimes, lay commoners in the deep past. In this spirit, we welcome political, intellectual, and religious historians to unearth hidden utopian visions, or sparks of ideal society thought, in premodern times (pre-1750), worldwide, and to participate in building this new and exciting field of utopian history. 

In specific, each chapter will discuss a single utopian case (a figure, a community, or an event, non-literary, and could be non-textual). The author should also comment on the broader period/nation/movement (e.g. Is the Italian Renaissance an epoch of utopiacraft?) and offer some theoretical or methodological grappling with the notion of utopia in the premodern context (how it is connected to and differed from a related term, such as hope, desire, progress, idealism/realism, optimism/pessimism, future/past, imagination, perfection, seclusion, illusion, improvement, political ideal, fantasy, rationality, radicality, etc.). Emerging scholars are encouraged; non-Anglo-American examples are strongly preferred.

Prospective contributors should submit their title and abstract (300-500 words) along with a short bio to co-editors Geoffrey Dipple (University of Alberta) and Václav Zheng (Johns Hopkins University) at utopiansparks@hotmail.com by Jan 12, 2025.

We will notify applicants about our decisions in February, and the full manuscript (7000~8000 words) is due on Nov 12, 2025. We expect the publication of the volume in early 2027.

La 23e édition du colloque annuel Disputatio de la Société des études médiévales du Québec (SÉMQ) se déroulera pour la toute première fois à l’Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, le samedi 15 mars 2025. Les organisateurs invitent dès maintenant les étudiant.e.s de maîtrise et de doctorat à soumettre leur proposition de communication. Dans le cadre de cette édition qui marque le quarantième anniversaire de notre société, nous aurons le plaisir d’accueillir comme conférencier d’honneur Monsieur Joseph Morsel, professeur émérite d’histoire du Moyen Âge à Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. Ses travaux de recherche portent sur les problèmes sociohistoriques de la domination sociale, de la culture médiévale de l’écrit et du rapport épistémologique entre l’historien et le Moyen Âge. Les propositions de communication, d'environ 250 mots, doivent être accompagnées d'un curriculum vitæ sommaire (institution d’attache, programme d'étude, état d'avancement des recherches et nom du directeur ou de la directrice) et elles doivent être envoyées à Arnaud Montreuil (arnaudmontreuil@uqac.ca)  avant le 1er janvier 2025.

Le Centre d'études médiévales de l'Université de Montréal présente un cycle de conférences. Les conférences se tiennent à 16 heures au Carrefour des arts et des sciences, dans la salle C-2059.Gratuites et ouvertes à toutes et à tous, elles sont accessibles à distance, par l'entremise de la plateforme Zoom.

Pour les dates, voir le document ci-dessous..

Call For Contributions:

Conjuring Identity: Rethinking Magic in the Global Middle Ages

Volume Editors: Dr. Kersti Francis (Boston University), Dr. Misho Ishikawa (New York University), and Dr. Anne Le (University of Notre Dame)

ACMRS Press, the publications division of the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at Arizona State University, expresses strong interest in this proposed volume.

Editors’ Introduction and Abstract: Taking a broad approach to “magic,” the proposed volume explores premodern identity formation through narratives that test the very boundaries of the real. The collection intervenes in the burgeoning fields of medieval magic, identity studies, and the global Middle Ages by examining magic as a transcultural literary aesthetic closely linked to identity production. Magic, widely conceived, also offers scholars and students of the Middle Ages a methodology for reading against the Eurocentrism that has thus far dominated the discussion of medieval magic. While the collection resists the adoption of an abstracted, universal understanding of “magic,” the essays, when read together, assert a common structure to the use of magic in premodern texts: magic signals an aesthetic terrain that allows writers (and readers) to question not only nature and the natural world, but the normative modes of being that have been interpolated as natural.

We are strongly committed to the global scope of this project, and we especially seek case studies originating outside of Europe and the Mediterranean roughly between 500 CE to 1600 CE (e.g. Mesoamerican magical materiality, pre-colonial Ghanaian witchcraft, māyā within and beyond the Vedas). While this period generally corresponds to “the European Middle Ages,” this volume seeks to expand the geographies considered medieval through carefully-contextualized global examples. This comparative mode allows us in turn to question the very meaning of the “Middle Ages” itself.

Deadline:

Abstracts no longer than 300 words are due by September 20, 2024.

We welcome contributions from early career scholars and advanced graduate students.

Please send submissions to Dr. Francis (kerstif@bu.edu),

CCing Dr. Le (ale4@nd.edu) and Dr. Ishikawa (mi2501@nyu.edu)

We welcome submissions for work that intersects Indigenous Studies and Medieval Studies for three panels at the 60th International Congress on Medieval Studies Kalamazoo, Michigan ‧ May 9-10, 2025

“Red Reading the Premodern” (hybrid panel)

This panel takes up Cherokee scholar Scott Andrews’ 2018 challenge to interpret (non-Indigenous) literature from Indigenous perspectives, an approach that he labels a 'Red Reading,’ and extends it to premodern texts. Red Reading allows us to reconsider premodern texts, divorcing them from engrained approaches towards a plurality of perspectives. Our session takes a global approach to Indigeneity, and we welcome approaches and methods that extend from Indigenous communities within and beyond Turtle Island (examples of the latter includes Sami, Asante, Okinawan, or Zapotec to name but a few). The threads of Red Reading are many, and we welcome papers that consider (but are not limited to) the following areas of interrogation: 

• Reading premodern texts through Indigenous literary approaches and methods

• The representation of Indigenous peoples in premodern texts

• The early threads of settler-colonial ideologies 

• Indigenous adaptations/retellings of medieval texts

• Indigenous translations of medieval stories/texts

Organized by Brenna Duperron & Sarah LaVoy-Brunette

Contact: Brenna.Duperron@dal.ca

“Relational Approaches to the Indigenous Turn” (in-person panel)

In 2020, Bitterroot Salish scholar Tarren Andrews coined the term “Indigenous turn” when describing the recent medievalist engagement with Indigenous studies. Recent scholarship (e.g., Akbari 2023; Price 2024) demonstrates the potential for an Indigenous turn that is relational when combined with other critical approaches such as trans theory, gender and sexuality studies, premodern critical race studies, the Global Middle Ages, and others. This panel asks for critical contributions that take up relational approaches to the Indigenous turn that ultimately challenge and depart from white, heteronormative subjectivities by accounting for complexity, nuance, liminality, and/or queerness in their analyses.

Organized by Sarah LaVoy-Brunette & Jordan Chauncy

Contact: sfl39@cornell.edu

“Slowly Engaging with the Indigenous Turn” (in-person roundtable)

In 2020, Bitterroot Salish scholar Tarren Andrews, in discussing the recent Indigenous turn in medieval studies, asks medievalists to “slow down” their engagement with Indigenous studies, “to be more deliberate, to be thoughtful, and to consider first the ethics of kinship and reciprocity that we owe Indigenous peoples, places, and communities who have labored to craft Indigenous studies as an academic field” (2). This roundtable asks medievalists to discuss their own internal work and process of slowing down–the self-reflection, self-examination, reassessment, and reorientation needed to ethically and critically engage with Indigenous studies.

Organized by Sarah LaVoy-Brunette & Tarren Andrews

Contact: sfl39@cornell.edu

Abstract submissions due September 15th, 2024 to the ICMS Confex site: https://icms.confex.com/icms/2025/cfp.cgi

We welcome submissions for the annual conference of the Atlantic Medieval and Early Modern Group, which will be held at Mount Saint Vincent University on October 4th and 5th , 2024.

There will be a reception and keynote on the evening of October 4th , followed by a full day of panels on October 5th .

Proposals are invited from scholars at all career stages and from all disciplines, including graduate students, early career researchers, precariously employed individuals, and those not in traditional academic employment.

To propose a 20-minute paper on any subject, please submit abstracts of around 300 words.

To propose a panel, roundtable, or workshop, please submit abstracts of around 500 words.

This year, we also welcome proposals for 10-minute introductions to attendees’ research backgrounds and areas of interest. This will give new members, as well those embarking on new and different lines of research, the chance to introduce themselves. It will also give the whole group an opportunity to learn about the exciting work being done in Premodern Studies in Atlantic Canada. Proposals for 10-minute introductions should be around 150 words.

All abstracts should include your name(s) and brief bio(s) and should be sent to Adriana Benzaquén (adriana.benzaquen@msvu.ca) and Matthew Roby (matthew.roby@msvu.ca) by August 1st , 2024.

https://amemg.digitalearlymodern.com/

The Medieval Academy at 100

The 2025 Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America

Harvard University, Cambridge MA

20-22 March 2025

Call for Papers available at: https://www.medievalacademy.org/page/2025AnnualMeeting 

Proposals due by  June 3, 2024

NB: Some travel subventions available for scholars without research support!

The Toronto Old English Colloquium presents Professor Tarren Andrews (Ethnicity, Race, and Migration, Yale University) on "Legacies of Surveillance: Data, the Domesday Book, and the Dawes Act.”

When and Where

Friday, April 19, 2024, 2:30 pm to 4:30 pm EDT

In person: 3rd Floor Lillian Massey Building, 125 Queen’s Park, Toronto

Via Zoom: register to receive a link

 

Professor Andrews will also offer a seminar for graduate students from 11 am to 1 pm. Participants are also invited to attend a catered lunch (1 pm) and a closing reception (following the lecture).

All are welcome. For more information, contact Fabienne Michelet or Renée Trilling.

Click here to register.

 

The 43^rd annual Canadian Conference of Medieval Art Historians will be held at Concordia University in Montreal on March 15-16, 2024. It is organized by Cecily Hilsdale (McGill University), Steven Stowell (Concordia University), and Kristine Tanton (Université de Montréal) with support from the Global Pasts research group at McGill’s Lin Center. For further information, feel free to contact the organizing committee at ccmah2024@gmail.com.

Final program // Programme final

Le ^43e Colloque canadien des historiens de l'art médiéval se tiendra à l'Université Concordia à Montréal les 15 et 16 mars 2024. Il est organisé par Cecily Hilsdale (Université McGill), Steven Stowell (Université Concordia), et Kristine Tanton (Université de Montréal) avec le soutien du groupe de recherche Global Pasts du Lin Center de McGill. Pour plus d'informations, n'hésitez pas à contacter le comité organisateur à l'adresse ccmah2024@gmail.com.