CFP: Borderlands: Reimagining the Medieval Periphery

MEST Symposium, Indiana University Bloomington

April 11-12

 

Keynote: Dr. Dorsey Armstrong (Purdue University)

 

The Middle Ages and our study of it are defined by borderlands. To better understand and enrich our knowledge of the medieval world, this conference asks us to consider what lies at its peripheries and what happens when we attend carefully to these “borderlands.” 

 

Potential panels might consider:

•  Geographic boundaries: How might we consider the medieval world beyond its oftentimes limited boundaries? How do borderlands create cross-cultural exchanges or function within larger geopolitical sovereignties? 
• Cultural limits and taboos: How does breaking the law or tradition represent something more significant? How did medieval cultures and languages come into contact and what resulted from their interaction? 
• Chronological fringes: How might we consider the Middle Ages in conversation with late antiquity, the early modern period, or even our own contemporary world? 
• Artistic frontiers: What medieval works lay at the cutting-edge? What works appear anomalous or otherwise bizarre? What works have been relegated to the fringe of or excluded from the canon? 
• Disciplinary and theoretical margins: How might we expand the scope of medieval studies and of the theories with which we engage? 

 

Proposals for 20-minute papers or for complete panels should be submitted to iumestsymposium@gmail.com by December 15th, 2024.