CFP – In Sickness and in Health: Medieval Healing and the Community. Tenth Annual Medieval Studies Colloquium, 21 April 2023, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Deadline: 10 January 2023

The Medieval Studies Colloquium is an annual event which takes place on UW–Madison’s campus each spring. The Colloquium offers an opportunity for graduate students in multiple disciplines to present their research in the various fields of medieval studies, share and receive feedback, and participate in discussion on topics of interest with peers from a wider, interdisciplinary community of Medieval Studies scholars, without the restrictions of membership or registration fees.

Please join the Graduate Association of Medieval Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison for the Tenth Annual Medieval Studies Colloquium: “In Sickness and in Health: Medieval Healing and the Community.”

The colloquium will take place Friday, April 21st, 2023, in-person at the University of Wisconsin–Madison with a keynote address by Dr. Erin Sweany (English, Western Michigan University).

The Tenth Annual GAMS Colloquium is sponsored by the Program in Medieval Studies, Department of Art History, Department of History, Department of English, Department of French & Italian, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, and the Department of German, Nordic, and Slavic +. For accessibility accommodations, please contact: gams@rso.wisc.edu.

The Graduate Association of Medieval Studies at UW–Madison invites abstracts from graduate and undergraduate students on topics relating to sickness, health, and community (broadly defined). Please submit abstracts of no more than 300 words to gams@rso.wisc.edu by January 10th, 2023.

For further information visit the conference website.

CFP – Health, Illness, Medicine and Bodies in Medieval Northern Europe: 700-1500 CE – 58th International Congress on Medieval Studies

Kalamazoo, MI, 11-13 May 2023

Organiser: Luthien Cangemi (University College London)


The interest in the social understanding of Medicine has recently reached far beyond Medieval Studies, playing a central role in many fields of the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, as well as within medical and paramedical research. Exploring past conceptions of bodies, health and illness is instrumental to our contemporary approach to Medicine, as it provides the theoretical background to understand Medicine as a practice not limited to the biomedical paradigm. This panel wants to contribute to the scholarly debate by analysing how medieval communities in Northern Europe constructed their ideas of Medicine, Health, Illness and Bodies focussing on the intersection of social and cultural factors.
This panel explores the conceptions of bodies, health, illness and medicine in the Nordic areas of Medieval Europe: England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Scandinavia and Iceland, with an emphasis on how social factors such as gender, race, class, sexual orientation, religion, physical ability and culture contact can impact such ideas. The interdisciplinary approach of the panel welcomes contributions from the fields of history, literature, philosophy, science, religion, art, archaeology, and manuscript studies. Contributors are invited to analyse their sources both in Latin and vernacular languages, addressing questions pertaining to the social constructions of health, illness and medicine and their historical framework.

Please submit your paper proposal (title and 300-word abstract) through the submission portal by 15 September 2022 (https:/ /wmich.edu /medievalcongress /call). Papers should be 15-20 minutes in length. The session encourages submission from those attending the ICMS in-person. Please address any questions to the organiser at luthien.cangemi.20@ucl.ac.uk

CFPs on disability for the International Congress on Medieval Studies – Kalamazoo (and online) 2022

Medieval Sermon Studies I: Disease, Health, and Sermons

Contact Person: Jessalynn Bird ; jbird@saintmarys.edu

Principal Sponsoring Organization: International Medieval Sermon Studies Society

This session explores the rhetoric, metaphors, and physical realities of spiritual, mental, and physical illness in the medieval period in pastoral literature and sermons. Discourse between pastoralia and other genres is encouraged (liturgy, hagiography, miracle stories, vernacular literature, hospital records and medical treatises).

Deadline for New Submissions: Wednesday, September 15, 2021
 
 
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Of Pestilences and Plagues: Sickness in the Medieval Court

Contact Person: Shawn Cooper

Principal Sponsoring Organization: International Courtly Literature Society (ICLS), North American Branch

The International Courtly Literature Society (North American Branch) invites paper proposals for a sponsored session: Of Pestilences and Plagues: Sickness in the Medieval Court. We welcome submissions addressing the depiction of illness in courtly literatures, chronicles, histories, and other artistic media. Comparative readings of medieval and modern depictions of sickness in the setting of the medieval court are also welcome. Presenters will receive a year’s membership in the ICLS-NAB, and may be eligible for presentation-related grants and awards of the society.

Deadline for New Submissions: Wednesday, September 15, 2021
 
 
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Trauma, Disability, and the Anchorhold

Contact Person: Michelle Sauer

Principal Sponsoring Organization: International Anchoritic Society

Trauma studies and work that links studies of disability and trauma finds ample representation in the texts and contexts of anchorites, and their frequent citation of Christ’s wounds and the valorization of sickness, pain, and distress in the anchorhold. For this panel, we are seeking papers that interrogate the role and use of trauma and its attendant concerns—witnessing, wounds, pain—in the study of anchorites, their texts, and the responses to both. Papers are welcome that touch on the material realities of these figures and their receptions, or which concentrate on the figurative significance of trauma.

Deadline for New Submissions: Wednesday, September 15, 2021.
 
 
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The “New Paradigm” of Plague Studies: Expanded Geographies and Chronologies of the Medieval Pandemics

Contact Person: William York

Principal Sponsoring Organization: Medica: The Society for the Study of Healing in the Middle Ages

In 2014, Monica Green wrote “the field of historical plague studies … must be redefined in three dimensions: its geographic extent, its chronological extent, and the methodological registers we use to investigate it.” Since then, work on the full extent of both the 1st and 2nd Plague Pandemics has continued as Green anticipated, now encompassing the Mongol Empire (and perhaps the Xiongnu before them) and extending, perhaps, into sub-Saharan Africa. Whereas prior scholarship focused on the Mediterranean and Europe, pandemic studies must necessarily cast a wider net. This panel invites presentations of the latest work in the field.

Deadline for New Submissions: Wednesday, September 15, 2021.
 
 
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The Globalization of Medieval Medicine: Ideas, Authorities, and Products 1000-1600

Contact Person: William York

Principal Sponsoring Organization: Medica: The Society for the Study of Healing in the Middle Ages

This panel explores the globalization of medieval medicine, beginning in the eleventh century via the Silk Road and continuing through the early modern era of exploration and discovery. It will look at how medieval European medical practice and theory changed due to the influx of new ideas, practices, and pharmaceutical products. Panelists will also consider how medical consumerism and the transmission of ideas were affected by economic, religious, cultural, political, and technological changes, such as the advent of printed medical texts and the popularization of medical authorities outside of the ancient canon.

Deadline for New Submissions: Wednesday, September 15, 2021.
 
 
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Age in Monastic Life

Contact Person: Amelia Kennedy ; amelia.kennedy@uni-graz.at

From child oblates to venerable seniors, age plays a crucial role in monastic life. Yet it is easy to overlook mentions of age in historical sources as merely recording objective facts. This panel explores age as a socially constructed category within the monastery, asking how “age” was calculated, asserted, and negotiated. We invite proposals for 15-20-minute papers analyzing concepts of age and the life-cycle in medieval monasticism: How did monastic authors understand the aging process? How were relationships among different generations governed? What are the relationships between age and gender, authority, disability, or spirituality?

Deadline for New Submissions: Wednesday, September 15, 2021
 
 
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From Farm to Sick Bed: Food, Illness, and Medicine in the Medieval West

Contact Person: John Bollweg ; admin@mensetmensa.org

Principal Sponsoring Organization: Mens et Mensa: Society for the Study of Food in the Middle Ages

From epidemics traced to so-called “wet markets” dealing in food and medicine to the pursuit of longevity through the “Mediterranean Diet” — foods, diet, and regional foodways to be presented as both a cause and cure of illness. For this session, we seek papers on any examples (historical, literary, natural philosophical, religious, etc.), from Europe or the Mediterranean basin, in the years 500 C.E. through 1600 C.E., of food or drink as either the creator or the corrector of diseases physical or moral, individual or communal. This session continues the theme of a Fall 2021 conference.

Deadline for New Submissions: Wednesday, September 15, 2021
 
 
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Disability, Disease, and Health: New Voices, New Directions

Contact Person: Leah Parker

Principal Sponsoring Organization: Society for the Study of Disability in the Middle Ages

Paper proposals on any topic relating to disability, disease, and/or health will be welcomed, on any period between c. 500–1500 and on any geographical area. Topics might include, but are not limited to: lived experiences of impairment, medicine, healing, stigma, pandemic, contagion, textual or visual representations of bodily difference, archaeological evidence of impairment, theological/political/social attitudes toward disability, the body in law, etc. Presenters may be emerging in terms of their career (e.g., graduate students or early career researchers) or emerging by bringing their research into a new direction (i.e., newly engaging with the study of disability, disease, and/or health).

Deadline for New Submissions: Wednesday, September 15, 2021
 
 
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Medicine and Health Care in Medieval Iberia

Contact Person: Elisa Manzo

Principal Sponsoring Organization: Association of Graduate and Early Career Scholars of Medieval Iberia (AGECSMIberia)

Studies on premodern medicine have had a remarkable increase in the last decades and the recent global pandemic has done no more than further increase this trend. This session invites contributions on medicine and health care in Medieval Iberia from graduate and early career scholars, coming from a range of backgrounds and working on different aspects of this field. Potential topics may include: continuity or disruption in the medical practice between Roman and Post-Roman Iberia, regulations to safeguard physicians and patients, Jewish medicine in Christian and Arabic milieus, women healers’ status, the social effects of the so-called “medical pluralism”.

Deadline for New Submissions: Wednesday, September 15, 2021
 
 
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Medicine in the Global Middle Ages

Contact Person: Meg Oldman ; oldman@tarleton.edu

Principal Sponsoring Organization: Medieval Makars Society

After a year, the world is beginning to see an end to the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout it all, we have heard various ways to cope with or test our resilience against the novel coronavirus, from logical public health recommendations such as mask wearing and hand washing to abstract suggestions like injecting bleach and holding our breaths for 10 seconds. Suggestions such as these are nothing new. Prior to public health initiatives we know today, folklore was an important method of transmission for medical knowledge. We are looking for papers that explore global transmissions of medical knowledge through folkloric methods.

Deadline for New Submissions: Wednesday, September 15, 2021
 

Online conference – Composing Disability Conference: “A Cultural History of Disability”, hosted by the OrganizerGeorge Washington University – April 9th – 5:00 PM – 11:00 PM CEST

 

About this Event

We are happy to announce that the Composing Disability conference that was postponed last year will be returning virtually on April 9th, 2021. Please join us in celebrating the publication of A Cultural History of Disability. This six-volume collection focus on Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Long Eighteenth Century, the Long Nineteenth Century, and the Modern Age. The presenters for the event are listed below in the program and feature Martha Stoddard Holmes of California State, San Marcos and Joyce Huff of Ball State University (GW English PhD, 2001) who will deliver the keynote address for this event. All six volumes of A Cultural History of Disability will be available through the Gelman Library.

Composing Disability: A Cultural History of Disability is free and open to the public and will take place on April 9th, 2020 as a virtual event. The conference will feature live transcription and an ASL interpreter.

A Cultural History of Disability includes numerous participants from GW. The general editors for the six-volume series are David Bolt and GW English Professor Robert McRuer. The volume on the Middle Ages is edited by Professor Jonathan Hsy, along with Tory V. Pearman and Joshua R. Eyler, and the volume on the Modern Age is edited by Professor David T. Mitchell and Sharon L. Snyder. Department Chair Professor Maria Frawley has a chapter in the Nineteenth Century volume and PhD candidate Emily Lathrop has a chapter in the Renaissance volume. The volume on the Modern Age includes contributions from PhD candidate Zahari Richter, Samuel Yates (GW English PhD, 2019), and Theodora Danylevich (GW English PhD, 2018). The Renaissance volume also includes a chapter by Gallaudet Professor Jennifer Nelson, who received her BA from GW English in 1988. Alan Montroso (GW English PhD, 2019) and Haylie Swenson (GW English PhD, 2018) will also participate in the event.

A Cultural History of Disability spans more than 2,500 years. Bolt and McRuer write in the series preface: “A ‘system of representation,’ according to Stuart Hall, ‘consists, not of individual concepts, but of different ways of organizing, clustering, arranging, and classifying concepts, and of establishing complex relations between them.’ From this cultural studies perspective, a cultural history of disability is attuned to how disabled people have been caught up in systems of representation that, over the centuries (and with real, material effects), have variously contained, disciplined, marginalized, or normalized them. A cultural history of disability also, however, traces the ways in which disabled people themselves have authored or contested representations, shifting or altering the complex relations of power that determine the meanings of disability experience.”

Please join us on April 9th!

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

11:00 AM-12:30 PM ROUNDTABLE: A Cultural History of Disability in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Moderator: Jonathan Hsy

Haylie Swenson, “Disability Studies and Animal Studies”

Alan Montroso, “Monstrosity, Disability, Ecology”

Emily Lathrop, “Learning Difficulties: The Idiot and the Outsider in the Renaissance”

Jennifer Nelson, “Deafnesses and Silences in Shakespeare’s England”

1:30-3 PM ROUNDTABLE: A Cultural History of Disability in the Nineteenth Century and the Modern Age. Moderator: David Mitchell

Maria Frawley, “Chronic Pain: ‘The Wounded Soldiery of Mankind'”

Theodora Danylevich, “Chronic Pain and Illness: States of Privilege and Bodies of Abuse”

Zara Richter, “Speech Disability’s Awkward Late Modernity: A Multimodal Historical Approach”

Samuel Yates, “Deafness: Screening Signs in Contemporary Cinema”

3:30-5 PM Keynote Address: Martha Stoddard Holmes and Joyce Huff, editors of A Cultural History of Disability in the Long Nineteenth Century. Moderator: Robert McRuer

Conferences – Session on Medieval Disability – International Medieval Congress – online – 5-9 aJuly 2021.

The International Medieval Congress will take place online from 5-9 July 2021. The full programme is available as a downloadable PDF document here: https://www.imc.leeds.ac.uk/imc-2021/programme/pdf/

 

IMC 2021 Session

Monday 5 July 2021: 14.15-15.45

Session

202

Title

Arthurian Literature in Middle English

Date/Time

Monday 5 July 2021: 14.15-15.45

 

 

Organiser

IMC Programming Committee

 

 

Moderator/Chair

Kirsty Bolton, Centre for Medieval & Renaissance Culture / Department of English, University of Southampton

 

 

Paper 202-a

Blurring the Boundaries of Nature and Culture in Ywain and Gawain
(Language: English)
Selen Aktaran, Department of Foreign Languages, Gebze Technical University
Azime Pekşen Yakar, Department of English Translation & Interpretation, Ankara Science University
Index Terms: Language and Literature – Comparative; Language and Literature – Middle English

Paper 202-b

The Invisible Knight: Perceptions of Disability in Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur
(Language: English)
Linda Steele, Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, Carleton University, Ottawa
Index Terms: Gender Studies; Language and Literature – Middle English; Medievalism and Antiquarianism

Paper 202-c

Dislodging the Divine: Sword Imagery in Malory’s Morte d’Arthur
(Language: English)
Holly Robbins, Department of English, Converse College, South Carolina
Index Terms: Language and Literature – Middle English; Political Thought

 

 

Abstract

Paper -a:
Ywain and Gawain narrates Ywain’s knightly adventures due to which he is spiritually transformed into a perfect knight. His adventure begins with his departure from Arthur’s court with the intent of avenging his cousin Colgrevance upon hearing his anecdote of combat with a knight and his subsequent defeat. At the beginning of Ywain’s journey, nature/culture binary opposition becomes visible with the sudden change in topography from the civilised court to the wilderness. According to anthropocentricism, nature and culture are often thought to be separate from each other and dichotomous. At first glance, it seems that Ywain also adopts such an anthropocentric viewpoint, that is, culture predominates nature. However, it can be observed that nature/culture binary opposition and its rigid definitions are challenged and blurred throughout the romance. In this regard, this paper aims to explore Ywain’s treatment of nature/culture binary opposition and analyse how the narrative challenges the strict boundaries of these two concepts through the lens of Donna Haraway’s term ‘natureculture(s)’ which acknowledges the inseparability and equal importance of nature and culture.

Paper -b:
Published in 1485, Thomas Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur is a chivalric romance text reflecting late medieval attitudes and values, illuminating contemporary ideologies of social situations involving disability in the chivalric community. Laura Finke observes that ‘violence provides the foundation for an elaborate structure of exchange which determines hierarchies among men; it functions as a form of what anthropologist Pierre Bourdieu refers to as symbolic capital’. By examining the text, it is possible to ascertain medieval ideas and responses to disability through the character’s reaction to their own and other’s infirmities caused by violence. These attitudes, in turn, illustrate the development of societal views regarding disability, thereby pushing the boundaries of what societies consider ‘normal’.

Paper -c:
While much scholarly discussion has been devoted to the aspects of kingship in Malory’s Morte Darthur, the physical representations of these political models have received little focus. In this paper, I assert that sword imagery is a crucial key for understanding Malory’s two seemingly complimentary but ultimately contradictory models for kingship. Malory’s seeming demotion of the divine authority embodied in the sword in the stone (anvil) gives way to recognition of the author’s emphasis on reciprocity as represented by Excalibur. As this paper will demonstrate, Malory’s omissions from his Sangreal sources show his interest in dislodging divine kingship and constructing a reciprocal kingship in his Arthurian compendium.

 

 

Session

216

Title

Climates of Fear, I: Illness, Impairment, and Healing

Date/Time

Monday 5 July 2021: 14.15-15.45

 

 

Organiser

Joanne Edge, Department of History, University of Manchester

 

Jude Seal, Department of History, Royal Holloway, University of London

 

 

Moderator/Chair

Jude Seal, Department of History, Royal Holloway, University of London

 

 

Paper 216-a

‘Deliver this horse from evil’: Veterinary Rituals, Epizootic Disease, and Late Medieval Horse Medicine
(Language: English)
Sunny Harrison, Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds
Index Terms: Medicine; Science

Paper 216-b

The Interplay of Beliefs, Emotions, and Impaired Bodies in 14th-Century Canonisation Inquests
(Language: English)
Adelheid Russenberger, School of History, Queen Mary University of London
Index Terms: Hagiography; Medicine

Paper 216-c

‘Fire and fever inside her’: Hebrew Magical-Medicinal Recipes from 13th-Century Northern France
(Language: English)
Amit Shafran, ERC Project ‘Beyond the Elite’ / Department of History, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Index Terms: Hebrew and Jewish Studies; Medicine

 

 

Abstract

In the popular imagination the Middle Ages was a time where fear of the supernatural characterised the entire era. There have been many inaccurate descriptions of the Middle Ages as part of the fictional ‘Dark Ages’ where science and learning stagnated, medicine was a combination of herbalism, religion, and superstition, and women were arbitrarily executed by burning. However, medicine and science were not forgotten, nor was there widespread suppression of scientific learning. But advances that were made took place in a climate of fear. Religion, science, medicine, and magic were not distinct entities as they are in the modern day.

 

 

 

Monday 5 July 2021: 19.00-20.30

Session

414

Title

Climates of Fear: A Round Table Discussion

Date/Time

Monday 5 July 2021: 19.00-20.30

 

 

Organiser

Wendy J. Turner, Department of History, Anthropology & Philosophy, Augusta University, Georgia

 

 

Moderator/Chair

Iona McCleery, Institute for Medieval Studies / School of History, University of Leeds

 

 

Abstract

In the Middle Ages, much like today, those who lived through the seemingly never-ending years of plague and political tension, lived with fears of disease, death, and disorder. If they avoided disease, they might starve or suffer loss of community, family, and connections. In other ways, fear was present in medieval communities. What were the experiences of minority faith communities, of ‘foreign’ individuals, of people with disabilities? Are there human commonalities or parallels in medieval expressions of fear with the many crises of the present day? Drawing together specialists from the early to the late medieval period with expertise ranging from studies in disability, disease, trauma, mental health, religion, and global medievalism, this round table discussion will be an open discussion of medieval ideas of fear and how individuals coped with living in climates of fear.

Participants include Esther Cohen (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Erin Connelly (University of Warwick), Christina Lee (University of Nottingham), Daniel McCann (Ruhr-Universität Bochum), Irina Metzler (Independent Scholar), and Wendy J. Turner (Augusta University, Georgia).

 

 

Tuesday 6 July 2021: 11.15-12.45

Session

611

Title

Climate of the 15th Century, I: Extreme Weather and Societal Change

Date/Time

Tuesday 6 July 2021: 11.15-12.45

 

 

Sponsor

Technische Universität Wien

 

 

Organiser

Andrea Kiss, Institut für Wasserbau und Ingenieurhydrologie, Technische Universität Wien / Department of English Studies, University of Szeged

 

Kathleen Pribyl, Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia / Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, Universität Bern

 

 

Moderator/Chair

Dag Retsö, Institutionen för ekonomisk historia och internationella relationer, Stockholms universitet

 

 

Paper 611-a

Impacts of Extreme Climatic Events on Societies and Landscapes in Provence and the Southern French Alps in the 15th Century: A Comparative Analysis
(Language: English)
Nicolas Maughan, Institut de Mathématiques de Marseille (UMR 7373), Aix-Marseille Université
Index Terms: Geography and Settlement Studies; Local History; Medicine; Social History

Paper 611-b

A Troublesome Century: Politics, Economy, and Climate in Sweden in the 15th Century
(Language: English)
Dag Retsö, Institutionen för ekonomisk historia och internationella relationer, Stockholms universitet
Index Terms: Daily Life; Economics – General; Economics – Rural; Social History

Paper 611-c

Disease and Climate in 15th-Century Europe
(Language: English)
Kathleen Pribyl, Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia / Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, Universität Bern
Index Terms: Demography; Medicine; Science; Social History

Paper 611-d

Floods and Droughts in 15th-Century Europe
(Language: English)
Andrea Kiss, Institut für Wasserbau und Ingenieurhydrologie, Technische Universität Wien / Department of English Studies, University of Szeged
Index Terms: Economics – General; Geography and Settlement Studies; Science; Social History

 

 

Abstract

At the end of the Middle Ages, with a deepening of the Little Ice Age, societies across Europe faced increasingly difficult climatic conditions. This session studies the periodization of the 15th century for hydrometeorological extremes like droughts and floods and investigates the impact of those and other extreme meteorological events on society and economy, on the occurrence of disease and epidemics, on landscape change and even on political trends. The four contributions cover the whole continent, from north to south and from east to west, in the form of regional/country-wide case studies and European overviews. They delve into the complex subject placed at the intersection of natural sciences and humanities using quantitative methods as well as the qualitative approach.

 

 

Tuesday 6 July 2021: 14.15-15.45

Session

713

Title

Climate, the Environment, and the Natural World in Byzantium, II: Art, Climate, Death, and Disease

Date/Time

Tuesday 6 July 2021: 14.15-15.45

 

 

Sponsor

Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman & Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham

 

 

Organiser

Leslie Brubaker, Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman & Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham

 

 

Moderator/Chair

Daniel K. Reynolds, Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman & Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham

 

 

Paper 713-a

Nature into Art the Byzantine Way
(Language: English)
Liz James, Department of Art History, University of Sussex
Index Terms: Art History – General; Byzantine Studies

Paper 713-b

Mosaic-Making and Climate Change in the Holy Land
(Language: English)
Henry Maguire, Department of the History of Art, Johns Hopkins University
Index Terms: Art History – General; Byzantine Studies

Paper 713-c

Health and Disease in Early Byzantine Burials
(Language: English)
Laura M. Clark, Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman & Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham
Index Terms: Archaeology – General; Byzantine Studies; Medicine

 

 

Abstract

The impact of nature, climate, and the environment on visual images and material culture in Byzantium was very strong. Papers in this session evaluate images of the natural world, how climate change impacted on artisanal techniques, and evidence from burials of the effect of natural phenomena on human life.

 

 

Wednesday 7 July 2021: 11.15-12.45

Session

1112

Title

The Middle Ages in Modern Games, II: Medicine, Health, and Disease in Game Narratives and Mechanics

Date/Time

Wednesday 7 July 2021: 11.15-12.45

 

 

Sponsor

The Public Medievalist / Centre for Medieval & Renaissance Research, University of Winchester

 

 

Organiser

Robert Houghton, Centre for Medieval & Renaissance Research, University of Winchester

 

 

Moderator/Chair

Katherine J. Lewis, Department of English, Linguistics & History, University of Huddersfield

 

 

Paper 1112-a

‘Git gud, scrub!’: Disease as a Narrative / Gameplay Mechanic and Heroic Fortitude in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
(Language: English)
Geoffrey Fernandez, Department of Humanities & Social Sciences, Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani
Index Terms: Computing in Medieval Studies; Medicine; Medievalism and Antiquarianism

Paper 1112-b

The Progression of the Plague as a Narrative: Medieval Medicine’s Conceptions in A Plague Tale: Innocence and Dishonored
(Language: English)
Albert Leparc, Ecole de Bibliothécaires Documentalistes, Paris
Index Terms: Computing in Medieval Studies; Medicine; Medievalism and Antiquarianism

Paper 1112-c

Mental Breaks and Coping Mechanisms: Health and Stress as Mechanics in Crusader Kings III
(Language: English)
Robert Houghton, Centre for Medieval & Renaissance Research, University of Winchester
Index Terms: Computing in Medieval Studies; Medicine; Medievalism and Antiquarianism

 

 

Abstract

Within popular media and understanding, the Middle Ages are typically seen as a dirty and backwards period; rife with disease and with a complete absence of scientific and medical understanding. Representations of the Middle Ages in modern games often follow these same stereotypes and tropes within their stories and lore, but they frequently provide more unexpected and interesting considerations of medieval medicine and disease within their mechanics. The papers of this session consider the approach taken to medieval medicine and disease within games of a number of genres.

 

 

 

Wednesday 7 July 2021: 19.00-20.30

Session

1416

Title

#DisMed 4: Disability and Accessibility in Higher Education – A Round Table Discussion

Date/Time

Wednesday 7 July 2021: 19.00-20.30

 

 

Sponsor

Medievalists with Disabilities

 

 

Organiser

Alexandra R. A. Lee, Department of History, University College London

 

 

Moderator/Chair

Elizabeth Biggs, Beyond 2022 Project, Trinity College Dublin

 

 

Abstract

After three successful round tables bringing up issues around disability in Higher Education, we continue our discussions at IMC 2021. Contributions this year will focus on mental health in academia, invisible disabilities, and the accessibility of academic feedback.

Participants include Elizabeth Champion (University of Leeds), Hope Doherty (Durham University), Alexandra Lee (University College London), and Jude Seal (Royal Holloway, University of London).

 

 

 

Thursday 8 July 2021: 09.00-10.30

Session

1506

Title

Illness as Metaphor in the Middle Ages, I

Date/Time

Thursday 8 July 2021: 09.00-10.30

 

 

Sponsor

Institute of Polish Language, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków

 

 

Organiser

Krzysztof Nowak, Department of Medieval Latin, Institute of Polish Language, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków

 

 

Moderator/Chair

Krzysztof Nowak, Department of Medieval Latin, Institute of Polish Language, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków

 

 

Paper 1506-a

Le vocabulaire des maux et de la maladie dans la littérature ascétique latine d’origine orientale
(Language: Français)
Renaud Alexandre, Institut de Recherche et d’Histoire des Textes (IRHT), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris
Index Terms: Computing in Medieval Studies; Language and Literature – Latin; Mentalities

Paper 1506-b

From the Disease of Hunger to Heretical Plague: Metaphorical Illness and Its Treatment in the Corpus of Polish Medieval Latin
(Language: English)
Krzysztof Nowak, Department of Medieval Latin, Institute of Polish Language, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków
Index Terms: Computing in Medieval Studies; Language and Literature – Latin; Mentalities

Paper 1506-c

‘Amor non est medicabilis herbis’: The ‘Love is a Disease’ Metaphor from Early to Medieval Latin
(Language: English)
Irene de Felice, Dipartimento di lingue e culture moderne, Università di Genova
Chiara Fedriani, Dipartimento di lingue e culture moderne, Università di Genova
Index Terms: Language and Literature – Latin; Mentalities

 

 

Abstract

Contrary to what Susan Sonntag hoped, we will not be liberated from metaphors of illness anytime soon. Long before the pandemic, the imagery of disease had been employed to express uninhibited nature of emotions or to explain social processes. All too often, though, it has been used to exclude, to stigmatize the Other and to justify violence. A critical analysis of medieval metaphors may help us in understanding how our language is shaped by its remote past. This interdisciplinary session will provide a broad overview of the functions and dynamics of the metaphorical and symbolic use of illness in medieval Latin writing.

 

Session

1511

Title

Managing God’s Wrath: Socio-Cultural Responses to the Impacts of Environmental Disasters in Central and South-Eastern Europe

Date/Time

Thursday 8 July 2021: 09.00-10.30

 

 

Sponsor

Department of History / Centre for the Study of the Balkans, Goldsmiths, University of London

 

 

Organiser

Nada Zečević, Department of History / Centre for the Study of the Balkans, Goldsmiths, University of London

 

 

Moderator/Chair

Mihailo Popović, Abteilung Byzanzforschung, Institut für Mittelalterforschung, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien

 

 

Paper 1511-a

‘Then, just like now’: Famine, Floods, and Other Disasters in Medieval Zagreb and Its County
(Language: English)
Suzana Miljan, Institute of Historical & Social Sciences, Croatian Academy of Sciences & Arts, Zagreb
Index Terms: Administration; Daily Life; Economics – Urban; Social History

Paper 1511-b

Visualising God’s Wrath: Environmental Problems Displayed in Images
(Language: English)
Gerhard Jaritz, Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest/Wien
Index Terms: Art History – General; Daily Life; Mentalities; Social History

Paper 1511-c

The Kiss of Death: Balkan Émigrés and the Transmission of Infectious Diseases in Habsburg Hungary, 17th-18th Centuries
(Language: English)
Nada Zečević, Department of History / Centre for the Study of the Balkans, Goldsmiths, University of London
Index Terms: Daily Life; Medicine; Mentalities; Social History

 

 

Abstract

Greatly dependent on their natural environment, people of pre-modern Europe were highly vulnerable to its sudden changes. While these changes were usually perceived as justifiable and deserved godly wrath, people of the time devised various ways to neutralise its effects. This session explores societal responses to the impacts of extreme environmental processes in late-medieval and early-modern Central and South-eastern Europe. During the Middle Ages and the early-modern period, these regions were frequently seen as borderlands between the continent’s East and West and rural, somewhat ‘forgotten’ peripheries. The session’s key focus is on societal institutes and devices which the people of these areas used to respond and adapt themselves to the risks which the nature put before them. By comparatively following diverse experiences of handling famine, flood, infectious diseases, and other environmental disasters, the session draws a map of the region’s social abilities to efficiently manage environmental crisis, by which community cohesion, collective sense of place and notions of common belonging were constructed and transferred to the modern mentalities.

 

 

 

Thursday 8 July 2021: 11.15-12.45

Session

1606

Title

Illness as Metaphor in the Middle Ages, II

Date/Time

Thursday 8 July 2021: 11.15-12.45

 

 

Sponsor

Institute of Polish Language, Polish Academy of Sciences

 

 

Organiser

Krzysztof Nowak, Department of Medieval Latin, Institute of Polish Language, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków

 

 

Moderator/Chair

Krzysztof Nowak, Department of Medieval Latin, Institute of Polish Language, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków

 

 

Paper 1606-a

As a Monster and as a Sick Body: Illnesses of the corpus reipublicae in Medieval Discourses on Government
(Language: English)
Julien Le Mauff, Faculté des Lettres, Sorbonne Université, Paris
Index Terms: Philosophy; Political Thought

Paper 1606-b

Suffering and Deformed Bodies in Old English Medical Recipes (British Library, Royal MS 12 D XVII)
(Language: English)
Irene Tenchini, School of Arts, English & Languages, Queen’s University Belfast
Index Terms: Language and Literature – Old English; Medicine

Paper 1606-c

‘Infirmitates corporis, infirmitates animae’: Sin as Illness in Polish Medieval Sermons
(Language: English)
Łukasz Halida, Department of Medieval Latin, Institute of Polish Language, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków
Index Terms: Language and Literature – Latin; Sermons and Preaching

 

 

Abstract

Contrary to what Susan Sonntag hoped, we will not be liberated from metaphors of illness anytime soon. Long before the pandemic, the imagery of disease had been employed to express uninhibited nature of emotions or to explain social processes. All too often, though, it has been used to exclude, to stigmatize the Other and to justify violence. A critical analysis of medieval metaphors may help us in understanding how our language is shaped by its remote past. This session brings together scholars investigating the use of the figure of disease in political writing, medical recipes, and sermons.

 

 

Thursday 8 July 2021: 14.15-15.45

Session

1704

Title

Crusading on the Baltic and the Balkan Fronts

Date/Time

Thursday 8 July 2021: 14.15-15.45

 

 

Organiser

IMC Programming Committee

 

 

Moderator/Chair

Alan V. Murray, Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds

 

 

Paper 1704-a

The Emotional Formation of a Climate of Warfare in Livonia
(Language: English)
Patrick Eickman, Department of History, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Index Terms: Crusades; Military History; Monasticism

Paper 1704-b

Illness or Coup d’Etat?: The Case of Ludolf König, Great Master of the Teutonic Order in Prussia, 1342-1345
(Language: English)
Maciej Antoni Badowicz, Wydział Historyczny, Uniwersytet Gdański
Index Terms: Archives and Sources; Historiography – Medieval; Local History; Mentalities

Paper 1704-c

The Climate Factor in the Crusade of Varna
(Language: English)
Roman Ivashko, Independent Scholar, Lviv
Index Terms: Byzantine Studies; Crusades; Ecclesiastical History; Military History

 

 

Abstract

Paper -a:
Both the Heinrici Cronicon Lyvoniae (Chronicle of Henry of Livonia) and the Livändische Reimchronik (Livonian Rhymed Chronicle) heavily stressed the emotional nature of the Baltic Crusades. Henry of Livonia detailed how Bishop Albert wept when recruiting pilgrims to relieve besieged German colonists in Riga and the anonymous chronicler of the Reimchronik frequently invoked the joy felt by his fellow Teutonic Knights amid the heat of battle. Grounded in recent works of the emotional turn, this paper argues that both the Heinrici Cronicon Lyvoniae and the Livändische Reimchronik sought to create a climate of warfare in Livonia by creating genealogies of trauma for their different audiences of educated clergy and militant knight-brothers respectively.

Paper -b:
The metaphor of illness can provide the discussion about a problem seemingly simple with a hidden meaning from perspective of other parties. Simplified in future written sources may become hard to unread. The fate of Great Master of the Teutonic Order in Prussia Ludolf König had been sealed at the beginning of the year 1345 with undone invasion of the Order, and its guests into Lithuanian lands. The failure, according to relations, had aroused in him a kind of mental disease which needed a special treatment, and control. But the sequence methods of action provided by the closest entourage of the Great Master, and the memory of incidents in the year 1345 raise the following questions: discussion between meaning of linguistic phrases: magnus dolor in cordem, and demens; hypothesis about situation of the Order between March and August 1345, and the role of the Great Master during mentioned period; circumstances of Ludolf König’s resignation; Ludolf König as a resident in Engelsburg, and his death (until the end of the year 1347); the examination of the remains of Ludolf König’s skeleton in the crypts of cathedral in Kwidzyn (ger. Engelsburg). Discussion on the topic will be provided with comparision of narrative sources, documents and acts created by Teutonic Order in Prussia from period 1344-1345, and results of examination of great master’s skeleton.

Paper -c:
The perfect time to organize the crusade to rescue Constantinople was from mid-April to mid-October. The defenders of Rhodes complied with this term in 1444. But the crusaders at the Balkans began the campaigns of 1443, 1444, and 1445 late. Thus, at the end of ‘the long campaign’ they had already fought in snowy weather. Moreover, the crusaders were met by the strong wind before the battle of Varna. Finally, the crusade was stopped in 1445 with the withdrawal of the Burgundian fleet due to the approaching freezing of the Danube River.

 

 

Friday 9 July 2021: 09.00-10.30

Session

2008

Title

Growing Old in the Middle Ages: A Gendered Perspective, I

Date/Time

Friday 9 July 2021: 09.00-10.30

 

 

Sponsor

Anthropologie historique du long Moyen Âge (AHLOMA), École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris / Projecte Senecta, Universitat de Barcelona

 

 

Organiser

Laura Cayrol-Bernardo, Centre de Recherches Historiques, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris

 

 

Moderator/Chair

Laura Cayrol-Bernardo, Centre de Recherches Historiques, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris

 

 

Paper 2008-a

Too Old to Work: The End of Working Life in Medieval Catalonia
(Language: English)
Mireia Comas-Via, Departament d’Història i Arqueologia, Universitat de Barcelona
Index Terms: Charters and Diplomatics; Daily Life; Gender Studies; Social History

Paper 2008-b

Gender, Old Age, Disability, and Religiosity: The Intersectionality Invoked by Petitioners to Contravene Christian Prescriptions
(Language: English)
Ninon Dubourg, Laboratoire Identités Cultures et Territoires (ICT), Université Diderot Paris 7
Index Terms: Canon Law; Gender Studies; Religious Life; Social History

Paper 2008-c

The ‘Suitable Age’: Elderly Nuns and Ageing in Iberian Female Monasteries, c. 12th-16th Centuries
(Language: English)
Araceli Rosillo-Luque, Arxiu-Biblioteca dels Franciscans de Catalunya, Barcelona
Index Terms: Gender Studies; Monasticism; Religious Life; Social History

 

 

Abstract

Over the last few decades, studies on the biological, economic, social, psychological, and cultural aspects of old age have multiplied, due to current debate on ageing in western populations and its impact in our societies. However, despite the vast possibilities in social sciences to develop this topic of research, the subject still has not received the attention it deserves. This is particularly true when it comes to gender studies. This session aims to analyse different attitudes about ageing and old age in Medieval Western Europe, bearing in mind how these affected both men and women.

 

 

 

 

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