Proposals are invited for sessions on The Body and the Text: Medical Humanities and Medieval Literature, c. 1150 – 1550, to be convened at the Leeds International Medieval Congress, 1-4 July 2019.

Recent years have witnessed a surge in scholarship in the field of the Medical Humanities. In considering medicine in its cultural and social contexts, the Medical Humanities has symbolised a ‘paradigm shift away from what might be called medical reductionism to medical holism, where patients are not reduced to diseases and bodies but rather are seen as whole persons in contexts and in relations’ (Cole et al, 2015:8). In seeking to merge disciplines and foster interactive dialogues, this area of research is inherently inclusive, dynamic, and elastic. Furthermore, since the topics of science, medicine, physiology, religion, astrology, and magic were often discussed within the same medieval texts and contexts, the multidisciplinarity of the Medical Humanities is particularly apt for Medieval Studies.

We therefore seek to put together a session or sessions on Medieval Literature and the Medical Humanities. Our focus is global and will include proposals from two complementary directions: how are medicine, health and wellbeing represented in medieval and early modern literature? How may literary texts from this period contribute to training and practice in the Medical Humanities?

• Representations of health and sickness in literary texts;
• Depictions of medical knowledge, practice and practitioners in literary texts;
• Representations of the senses and / or emotions;
• The relationship between medicine and religion in the Middle Ages;
• Engagement with texts (reading and listening) as a therapeutic practice in the Middle Ages;
• A consideration of how medieval literature might contribute to training and practice in the Medical Humanities;
• Defining the Medical Humanities in a medieval context.

Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be submitted to the session organisers DrAlison Williams (a.j.williams@swansea.ac.uk) and Dr Laura Kalas Williams (l.e.williams@swansea.ac.uk) by 31 August 2018.

Abstracts are invited for the 2019 British Legal History Conference taking place at the University of St Andrews, Scotland, 10-13 July 2019. The conference theme is comparative legal history.

The theme builds upon F.W. Maitland’s famous observation that “history involves comparison”, and that those who ignore every system but their own “hardly came in sight of the idea of legal history”.[1] The aim is to examine differences and similarities across a broad time-period to produce better approaches to the subject of legal history, combining depth of analysis with historical contextualization. Rather than comparing individual rules or searching for universal systems, the theme will take an intermediate approach the topic of comparative law, investigating patterns in legal norms, processes, and practice.

The papers accepted for this conference may themselves take a comparative approach. However, there is no requirement that each paper is explicitly comparative, as the sessions will be designed to allow comparative perspectives to emerge between individual papers.

We welcome proposals from historians in all fields of legal history, whether doctrinal or contextual, domestic or transnational. Proposals which inform our understanding of the Common Law through comparison with other legal systems (e.g. civil or canon) as well as geographical comparisons are particularly welcome.

Proposals from postgraduate and early career researchers are encouraged.

Please email abstracts (strict maximum 250 words) to blhc2019@st-andrews.ac.uk by 15 September 2018.

Further information on the conference, travel, and accommodation can be found on the following website: www.blhc2019.uk

[1] F.W. Maitland, “Why the History of English Law is not Written”, In H.A.L. Fisher, ed., Collected Papers (Cambridge, 1911), i, 488.

Proposals are invited for sessions on “From Fiber to Decorated Textiles in the Early North Atlantic: Making, Methods, and Meanings,” to be convened as part of IONA: Early Medieval Studies on the Islands of the North Atlantic. Transformative networks, skills, theories, and methods for the future of the field. The conference will be held at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, BC, Canada. April 11-13, 2019.

Textiles are a ubiquitous part of life, essentially so in eras when they had to be produced by hand. In early medieval Europe the making and use of textiles also had symbolic, metaphorical, and even allegorical meanings, in additional to the functional. We wish to spend time exploring the connections between the act of making and understanding how something is being made as well as connections among disciplines, approaches, and interpretations.

We are envisioning a series of linked sessions in which participants first learn generally about the textile-making process in the Early North Atlantic, before choosing one skill to learn more deeply, which they will then proceed to practice for the remainder of the sessions. During this final part, scholars will also present their research findings and interpretations, most likely in a modified roundtable format, culminating in a final large discussion that brings together the insights of making through practice and how this might influence interpretation.

We invite proposals of two kinds. First we seek those versed in the making of early medieval textiles and the teaching of those skills. We are specifically interested in scholars accomplished in one of the following: nalbinding, lucet braiding, tablet weaving, inkle weaving, sprang, upright loom weaving, and other fabric and fiber arts. The organizers will be instructing in the use of the hand spindle and loop stitch embroidery. We also welcome other textile skills that were employed in the early North Atlantic world. The session organizers hope to be able to provide basic materials such as yarn, needles, fabric, and thread, and may be able to help provide larger specialty equipment.

The second kind of proposal we invite is from interpreters of early medieval textiles in the North Atlantic and the methods of making them. We hope to gather an interdisciplinary group of researchers, teachers, curators, and artists working in this area to spark a dialogue about how one can practically and metaphorically come to understand any of the following:

• textile and textile tool remains
• literary and artistic depictions of textile-making processes
• how gender, region, religion, or economics were part of meaning making in textiles and the how the making process was experienced by medieval people or how these categories of analysis impact our contemporary understanding
• the role of trade and/or migration in disseminating or adapting textile making processes, decoration, and raw and finished materials
• how access to resources impacted the making of textiles
• methods of decorating textiles (embroidery, braid, trim, and so forth)

If one is both a maker and an interpreter, one may submit a joint proposal.

Questions may be addressed to Karen Agee (karen.agee@uni.edu), Erika Lindgren (lindgrenedu@gmail.com), or Alexandra Makin (alexandrammakin@gmail.com). Please submit a 250 words proposal/abstract to Karen Agee (karen.agee@uni.edu) by 25 July, 2018. Please use Textiles IONA in the subject line.

The full website with all the CFPs and conference information can be found here: https://www.sfu.ca/english/iona.html.

De Re Militari: The Society for Medieval Military History is seeking proposals for five sessions at the International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo 2019 (Western Michigan University, 9-12 May 2019).

De Re Militari is interested in papers on all aspects of warfare, broadly defined. Papers from the Kalamazoo sessions may be considered for publication in the Journal of Medieval Military History https://boydellandbrewer.com/series/journal-of-medieval-military-history.html

The five sessions are:

1. Annual Journal of Medieval Military History Lecture
2. War and Chivalry
3. Early and High Medieval Military History
4. Late Medieval Military History
5. Medieval Military Technology

Proposal deadline is 15 September 2018. Proposals should be sent to Dr Valerie Eads, Department of Humanities and Sciences, School of Visual Arts, New York: veads@sva.edu

The Material Collective is sponsoring a roundtable at the International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo 2019 (Western Michigan University, 9-12 May 2019) on The Middle Ages: What Does it Have to Do with Me?

What does medieval art, culture, and history have to do with my life; what is the point of knowing this stuff? Immersed in the study of the Middle Ages as we are, we may lose sight of the fact that for many people the material to which we are passionately devoted holds little to no interest. It is our hope that this roundtable discussion can produce some strategies for countering this disengagement.

As we consider how to expand access to and engagement with the field, we invite consideration of the roles identity can play in both academic and popular engagement with Medieval Studies. From its antiquarian origins to today, the field has been shaped by nationalist identities, impulses, and agendas. In more recent decades, scholarly attention to gender, racial, ethnic, religious, and sexual identities has expanded and re-shaped the field and created opportunities for multiple identifications with the past. We also wish to question this paradigm: must engagement be structured by identity?

We welcome contributions treating all aspects of fostering access to and engagement with Medieval Studies both in the classroom and beyond. This includes consideration of the way we as scholars talk about Medieval Studies—where our voices are heard and what we can be heard to say. With humanities fields under constant threat, we may also wish to consider the various publics with whom we might profitably engage. Beyond undergraduate students are the parents, administrators, and legislators whose voices sway what does and does not get taught at colleges and universities; there are also the primary and secondary school students who may enter our classrooms someday in the future.

A discussion of public engagement is also an opportunity to reconsider the way we conceive of our field. Ongoing efforts to decolonize Medieval Studies are essential to the mission of making the field accessible to a more diverse public. This includes engaging colleagues to recognize the need for change as well as the need to support medievalists marginalized by race, LGBTQ identity, or employment status.

Topics for consideration may include but not be limited to:

• Engaging students
• Engaging the public beyond the classroom
• Medieval Studies and modern identities
• Medieval Studies in the neoliberal academy
• Promoting access to Medieval Studies
• Role of public scholarship within the academy

Please submit abstracts of 300 words by 15 September 2018 to Rachel Dressler (dressler@albany.edu) and Maeve Doyle (DOYLEMAE@EASTERNCT.EDU).

The University of Sydney Postgraduate History Conference will be held on 28 and 29 November 2018. We warmly invite postgraduate students to submit an abstract for this two-day interdisciplinary conference on the theme of Connected Histories.

Ideas. Culture. Family. Environment. Media. War. Trade. Language. Food. Histories are connected in more ways than we can imagine. At the 2018 University of Sydney Postgraduate History Conference we invite you to share your research and the historical connections you’ve uncovered. We take a broad understanding of this theme and invite you to submit an abstract based on our suggestions below or one of your own choosing:

• Global, international, and transnational connections
• Interdisciplinary connections
• Histories of empire and colonialism
• Connections of past and present: how understandings of the past impact us today
• Intellectual histories of connected ideas and concepts
• Chance encounters: unexpected connections?

We welcome abstracts from postgraduate students across disciplines and encourage anyone with a historical aspect to their work to apply.

If you wish to present, please submit an abstract of no more than 200 words for a twenty minute presentation, as well as a short bio, here.

Please note, abstracts are due by 3^rd August 2018.

To register to attend, whether presenting or not, click here.