Medieval Association of the Pacific 2017 Conference
Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, California
16–18 March 2017

The 51st Annual Meeting of the Medieval Association of the Pacific will be held 16–18 March 2017, at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, located near the Pacific Ocean, just minutes from Los Angeles International Airport, and ranked among the most beautiful college campuses in the country. The conference will conclude with an exciting evening program at the J. Paul Getty Museum, renowned for its collections of antiquities, medieval manuscripts, European paintings, and photography.

Presentations on all aspects of medieval studies are welcomed, but the program committee particularly invites abstracts for papers on the theme “Preserving and Presenting the Medieval.” Possible topics could include the multiple uses of the medieval past in contemporary media and culture; the modern politics surrounding the conservation of medieval artifacts and sites; advances and challenges in curatorial science and methodology; medieval reflections on and practices toward ruins, renovation, and material heritage; the transmission, editing, translation, and dissemination of medieval texts; and debates over the meaning of the term “medieval,” its perpetuation, and its relevance. In keeping with MAP’s mission to bring together scholars from around the Pacific Rim, the program committee also encourages proposals treating cultures and societies of the Pacific world between ca. 500 and 1500, as well as submissions from medievalists based in Latin America, East and Southeast Asia, and Oceania.

Keynote Speakers:

• Zrinka Stahuljak, Professor, French and Francophone Studies, UCLA “The Medieval Potential”
• Nancy Turner, Conservator, Department of Paper Conservation, The Getty Museum “Observation and Image-Making: Medieval Illuminations and the View from L.A.”

Submissions:

For the 2017 MAP meeting, participants may submit a proposal for either a 20-minute paper or an 8- minute presentation as part of a roundtable session. Proposals must be submitted either as MS Word documents or as PDF files. Please send proposals to aperron@lmu.edu, laskaya@uoregon.edu, and map2017lmu@gmail.com. Keep in mind that the deadline of October 31, 2016, is firm and that proposals received after this date cannot be accepted.

Paper Proposals

Proposals need to include the following for each speaker: name, discipline, institution (if applicable), email address, and an abstract of up to 250 words. Papers normally will be 20 minutes in length (8–10 pages).

A small number of papers closely addressing the theme of the conference will be selected for inclusion in a plenary panel to open MAP 2017.

Roundtable Presentation Proposals

The program committee also invites participants for a small number of roundtable sessions focusing on specific aspects of the conference theme. These include:

• Medievalism, the media, and popular culture
• Preservation of medieval sites
• Manuscript transmission and conservation
• Medieval attitudes toward and practices concerning renovation and material heritage
• Rethinking the “Middle Ages” as a period

Those interested in participating in roundtable discussions should plan to speak for no more than 8 minutes and should send in their name, discipline, institution (if applicable), email address, and an abstract of no more than 100 words. The program committee will form the roundtables and put participants in contact with one another. To facilitate scholarly interchange, roundtable participants will be expected to pre-circulate their proposed comments among the group prior to the conference.

Conference Information & MAP Membership

The conference website, which will include further details about MAP 2017, is currently under construction and will be available in the fall. In the meantime, please direct any questions to Anthony Perron, History Department, Loyola Marymount University (aperron@lmu.edu). Participants in the conference must be current members of MAP. To join or renew your MAP membership, please go to www.medievalpacific.org.

Encounters and Reimaginings: Medieval Scandinavia and the World
2017 Berkeley Graduate Student Symposium
University of California, Berkeley
March 3-4, 2017

ScandGrads, the graduate organization affiliated with Department of Scandinavian at the University of California, Berkeley, is proud to announce the interdisciplinary Graduate Student Symposium in Berkeley, California to be held March 3-4, 2017.

From the shores of Vínland to the halls of Byzantium, the Norse traveled widely and encountered many cultures—which in turn influenced Norse society at home. Traces of these journeys can be found in the archaeological record, saga narratives, and modern interpretations thereof. Moreover, continental ideas and literary forms—from romances to saints’ lives—informed Scandinavian intellectual and everyday life. The organizing committee welcomes papers exploring encounters and reimaginings across the Old Norse world, as well as echoes and influences of medieval Scandinavia in modern contexts.

We are happy to announce our two plenary speakers for the conference:

• Professor Marianne Kalinke (Emerita, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
• Professor Jonas Wellendorf (University of California, Berkeley)

Both Professor Kalinke and Professor Wellendorf have written extensively on cultural and literary interactions between the Old Norse-Icelandic sphere and continental medieval Europe. We are very excited to welcome both of them in March!

Any student or early career researcher is welcome to submit a proposal related to the conference theme in areas of study including but not limited to: literary studies, material culture, migration, law, politics, religious studies, reception studies, linguistics, and textual studies.

All interested applicants are encouraged to submit an abstract of 200 words to the organizing committee at scandgrads@gmail.com by August 31, 2016.