The Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies
conference committee seeks proposals for its 2021 conference on the theme ‘Reception and
Emotion’, to be held in Perth, Australia at The University of Western Australia from 8–12
February.

The committee welcomes all approaches to topics related to ‘reception and emotion’ broadly
conceived (and conceived either together or separately: i.e., on reception and emotion, or on
either reception or emotion), including but not limited to: trans-cultural, trans-temporal,
trans-disciplinary, translation, global studies, creative misreadings, theatrical and literary
revivals, forgeries, homages, cultural counter-strikes, regimes of periodisation, etc. We
welcome proposals considering the usefulness or otherwise of reception history as a
methodology: is ‘transformation’ more helpful than ‘reception’, for example, for appreciating
the active role of the audience of a text, play, or idea?

Work on emotions can be similarly broad, covering, e.g., what’s evidenced from the
‘receivers’ and from the ‘received’ (thinking of work, for example, on how Indigenous
people have received missionaries and their doctrines; how medievalists have reacted and
acted in relation to the worrying associations of their discipline; even how humanities
scholars feel about their reception in contemporary political circles; Jan Plamper’s suggestion
that historians should keep ‘field diaries’ about their personal response to work in the
archives; are there ‘objective’ studies?). What’s been the value and downside of the
‘emotional turn’ in humanities studies? How do we as scholars of the past deal with presentist
notions of ‘relevance’, and need we consider past scholarship as ‘outdated? How can we
marry approaches from humanities and life sciences in ‘emotions history’?

Call for Papers

The conference committee invites proposals for 20-minute papers, 90-minute themed panels
(of no more than 4 speakers) or workshops. Paper topics may include, but are not limited to:

• The reception of ideas about emotion in medieval/early modern texts;
• Reception and transformation of ideologies across time and space;
• The emotions of an audience in the reception of a play or sermon;
• The emotional impact of a text on a reader;
• Rituals and practices of receiving guests and dignitaries (and their emotional
  effects?);
• The reception of the past: medievalism and early-modernism;
• The reception of bodies / emotions and bodies / embodiment;
• Reception / emotion and sexuality;
• Reception / emotion and race;
• Reception / emotion and gender;
• Reception / emotion and music / art

Proposals for 20-minute conference papers should consist of:

1. A title;
2. An abstract (max. 200 words);
3. A short biography (max. 50 words).

The conference committee welcomes themed panel or workshop session proposals for the
conference. Proposals should consist of:

1. Panel/Workshop Title;
2. Proposed Chair (if available);
3. Details of each presenter and paper as described above.

NB: Workshops will be allotted 90 minutes, 30 of which should be reserved for general
discussion. We suggest a maximum of 6 speakers.

Submissions should be emailed (as a Word document attachment) to:
anzamems2021@gmail.com. Deadline for submissions: 31 July 2020.

NB: Should you require early acceptance of your proposal please highlight this in your email
and the committee will do our best to accommodate your request.

For more information please visit the conference website.