Paxson Winners & BABEL Events at #Kzoo2017!

by BABEL WORKING GROUP

[#MedievalDonut copiousness at #Kzoo2016; photo by Jeffrey]

First, BABEL is delighted to announce the three winners of the 2017 James J. Paxson Memorial Travel Grant for Scholars of Limited Funds, which supports scholars' participation in the annual International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo. They are (in alphabetical order)

• Jonathan Fruoco (Université Grenoble Alpes), to present “Translating Sufism in Medieval England: Chaucer and The Conference of the Birds”
• Sara Petrosillo (University of California, Davis), to present “Flying, Hunting, Reading: Feminism and Falconry”
• Shyama Rajendran (George Washington University), to present “Teaching The Legend of Philomela From Ovid to Gower”

We received many, many strong applications this year, and the difficult decision among them was made by a committee of four judges: Roland Betancourt (University of California, Irvine), Liza Blake (University of Toronto), Richard H. Godden (Tulane University), and Robin Norris (Carleton University). Thanks to the judges for their time and effort!

Also, we'd really like to thank the many donors to the BABEL fundraiser, who’ve made these grants possible! We’re continuing to raise $$ until mid-May, which will support travel to the 2017 BABEL conference next fall as well as Kalamazoo 2018. Please spread the word, and give if you can!

In the meantime, the International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo (or #Kzoo2017) is rapidly approaching, so here's a compilatio of BABEL and BABEL-adjacent events to add to your calendar. Everyone is welcome to everything!

• Wed May 10 at 9-11pm – MEDIEVAL DONUT 3.0 (Radisson Lobby), social gathering co-sponsored by GW MEMSI (Medieval and Early Modern Studies Institute); note the event site
• Thu May 11 at 3:30pm – BABEL ROUNDTABLE: Feminism with/out Gender (Fetzer 1045)
• Thu May 11 at 5:00pm - BABEL Working Group Business Meeting (Fetzer 1045)
• Fri May 12 at 1:30pm – GW MEMSI ROUNDTABLE: Catastrophe and Periodization (Fetzer 1010)
• Fri May 12 at 3:30pm – BABEL ROUNDTABLE: Access and the Academy (Sangren 1920)
• Fri May 12 at 5:00pm – BABEL + MATERIAL COLLECTIVE RECEPTION (Bernhard President's Dining Room)
• Fri May 12 at 9pm-11pm – FESTIVITIES AT BELL'S BREWERY, co-sponsored by ISAS (International Anglo-Saxon Society)
• Sat May 13 at 10am – POSTMEDIEVAL ROUNDTABLE: Atmospheric Medievalisms/Medieval Atmospheres (Bernhard 210)
• Sat May 13 at 5:45pm – “Whiteness in Medieval Studies: A Workshop,” organized by an open fellowship of Medievalists of Color and hosted by SMFS (Society for Medievalist Feminist Scholarship) during its Business Meeting and Reception (Fetzer 1045); note event website with info and readings
• Sat May 13 at 9pm – QUEERDIEVALIST gathering for queer medievalists and allies (Radisson Bar)

Anything else to add? Feel free to use the comments section below (comments are moderated so it might take some time for items to post).

3,000 Kalamazoos: Play, Change, Community

by JONATHAN HSY

PROLOGUE

My annual swag summary of Kalamazoo (click image to embiggen). [May 18, 2016]

It has been just about a week since the 2016 International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, MI (aka #Kzoo2016). About three thousand attendees made the journey to Kalamazoo this year (note also this great writeup before the conference), and there are thousands of stories can be told about the experience as a result.

The medievalist blogosphere has been active this week, and I'll let these varied accounts speak for themselves:

• Karra Shimabukuro, "#Kzoo2016 Reflections" (May 14 post at Folklore <--> Milton <--> Popular Culture)
• Kathleen E. Kennedy, "The Future of Medieval Conferences" (May 15 tumblr post)
• Maggie Williams, recap of Material Collective activities (May 16 blog post, with links to livetweets from the relevant sessions)
• Travis Neel, general reflections (May 17, public Facebook note)
• Shamma Boyarin, reflections on inclusion and disability approaches (May 16 and May 22)
• Josh Eyler's blog is hosting guest postings from the "Teaching the Humanities in the Current Climate of Higher Education" roundtable at Kzoo: Cameron Hunt McNabb: "Teaching to the Choir" (May 17); Leigh Ann Craig: "So Are You Going to Open A History Store?" (May 19); Kisha Tracy: "A Plea for Research, Part 1" (May 23)
• MW Bychowski, "Genres of Embodiment: A Theory of Medieval Transgender Literature" (May 17 blog post at Transliterature: Things Transform)
• Shyama Rajendran, "Kalamazoo 2016 and The Work We Still Have To Do" (May 18 blog post)
• David Hadbawnik, "Kalamazoo 2016 Redux" (May 21 blog post)
• Danielle Trynoski, "Digital Humanities at K'zoo: A Recap" (May 22 for Medievalists.net)
• Susan Signe Morrison, "Female Fun at Kalamazoo: All the Single (and Married) Ladies at the 51st International Congress on Medieval Studies" (May 23 blog post)

I'm still processing my own intellectual and affective responses to Kalamazoo 2016. Many of my perceptions are shaped by my own idiosyncratic social circles but do I have a general sense that this Kzoo felt … different, in ways I can’t quite express. Perhaps due to #femfog and the whole Frantzen affair earlier this year, Kzoo felt more overtly affirming and welcoming than previous years (more mentorship networks, sessions and panels foregrounding new voices, a range of inclusive gatherings and initiatives) and it also felt profoundly serious about considering the state of the field and how it can improve in structural ways (such as the Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship roundtable on harassment in the academy, online conversations about conference sociality and accessibility, frank discussions about social media use in medievalist circles). 

What sticks with me the most vividly from my own experience of Kzoo this year is a sense that new structures are being built and we don’t yet know what shape they will take. I feel like medievalists are collectively inhabiting an intriguing zone of potential and possibility.

My blog reflections are clustered by three key words: PLAY, CHANGE, and COMMUNITY.

PLAY

BANANA CAR spotting in downtown Kalamazoo! [May 13, 2016]

One reason I enjoy heading out to Kzoo each year is experiencing its sense of play. As always, Kzoo reminded me of the love that medievalists have for what we do (be it teaching, research, publishing, artistic production) and both the sessions and the social events can generate a shared sense of purpose and belonging.

• Medieval Donut 2.0. This donut-centered informal social gathering, graciously hosted by Jeffrey Cohen on Wednesday night, marked the second year of what is now becoming a Kzoo tradition. Although I missed the event (sniffle!), it clearly provided a low-key way to socialize and meet new people. For tweets and photos from this event and related festivities throughout the conference, see this curated 2016 #medievaldonut archive.

• PLAY roundtable. GW MEMSI (Medieval and Early Modern Studies Institute) hosted a ludic roundtable/playground that featured (among other things) balloons, a bouncing beach ball, toys on each seat, and some pretty awesome interactive game-presentations; for photos and tweets that nicely capture the spirit and the intellectual content of the event see here.

• Living Latin. The Paedeia Institute hosted a session on Latin language instruction that was actually held in Latin. *insert shocked emoji*

• Ooh astrolabes! An session teaching medievalists how to use an astrolabe culminated in enthusiastic applause.

• Fandom and role play. I participated in a session (organized by Anna Wilson) on fandom in medieval studies; this conversation touched on topics as wide-ranging as Mandeville marginalia, genderswapping and queer subjectivities in interactive novel roleplaying games, and the contemporary appropriation of medieval storytelling traditions beyond Europe.

CHANGE

Embrace the #femfog! SMFS swag. [May 15, 2016]

Much of this playfulness and spirit of experimentation (with new ideas and new social formations) extended into the conference sessions themselves. Some sessions not only asked how we can push the boundaries of our respective academic domains/disciplines but also explored how we can collectively transform the underlying social dynamics of the field.

• BABEL roundtables. The BABEL Working Group hosted two roundtables: "Where Else?" and "Far Out!" (see this archive of tweets from these sessions). I've been involved with BABEL for a few years now, and what I find so compelling about this community is its capacity to bring together (seemingly) unlikely people and things. In this spirit, the "Where Else?" roundtable incorporated varied disciplines and methods (art history, literature and ecotheory, Judaic studies and world literature, medical humanities and plague epidemiology) and disparate spaces (Cuba, medieval Britain, West Africa, the Bahamas, the Underworld). All of the presentations got me thinking specifically about how medievalists who for a variety of reasons occupy the "margins" of (a habitually Western/Eurocentric) medieval studies can find "homes" within their respective disciplines or institutions while also thriving as deliberate exiles/outsiders to such structures.

• SMFS roundtable on harassment. This session was originally planned around the anonymous online survey on harassment in the academy conducted by SFMS in 2015, and the conversation (as one might expect) addressed not only the climate of medieval studies in the wake of #femfog but also become an opportunity to brainstorm ways to make the profession more supportive for everyone (students and faculty). What was clear to me from this conversation (from survey data, speaker presentations, and some personal stories that emerged in the discussion) was that harassment can affect anyone regardless of gender, status, or sexuality. Harassment is about power, and anyone can be a potential victim or abuser. Consulting my handwritten notes during the session, I notice that just about 70% of survey respondents said they had experienced some form of harassment but around 70% never reported it. What I hope the SMFS survey and conversations can encourage is the creation of clear, accessible resources for those among us who have experienced harassment or seek to help others. For what it's worth, I'll just say that the Shakespeare Association of America has crafted an excellent sexual harassment policy (see page 9 in the January 2016 SAA Bulletin) and other professional societies could think carefully about building and sustaining similar structures. [Side note: SAA deserves kudos for its policies (including sexual harassment and social media usage) for three reasons: the guidelines are clear, the organizational structures are transparent (i.e., each was crafted by an ad hoc committee of scholars of varied stages/backgrounds), and the labor is acknowledged (SAA Bulletin, January 2016, pages 9-10).]

• Twitter roundtable and social media ethics. I took part in a roundtable (organized by Ben Ambler) on the ethics of live-tweeting academic conferences, and it morphed into a broader conversation about the ethics of social media use in academia more broadly. (You can consult this twitter archive for a fuller sense of the whole session and related conversations). The session addressed positive aspects of live-tweeting (such as timely access for people who can't attend, playful banter and community, signal boosting and disseminating work) as well as its negative aspects (graduate students and vulnerable scholars being "scooped," unease about the ethics of twitter as a corporation, potential for users to experience online abuse). Eileen Joy stressed the transformative capacity of social media (it can instigate tough conversations that wouldn't take place otherwise), but Angie Bennett pointed to some of its limits (not everyone has access to technology/mobile devices and conversations can unwittingly exclude as well). I've enthusiastically supported conference live-tweeting in the past, but I've since become ambivalently optimistic (or optimistically ambivalent) about it all. I'd say my "take home" message was that we as a medievalist community need to be better about establishing shared expectations and "best practices" for live-tweeting and clear guidelines would help; see some of the excellent examples and points by various folks near the end of this #Kzoo2016 twitter archive.

COMMUNITY

Donut diversity (photo: Cameron Hunt McNabb). [May 11, 2016]

It's probably no surprise that I'm ending this blog post with a section about community. I felt that community building was one of my personal priorities this year, and I'm so encouraged by the ways medievalists are coming together during and since Kzoo to creating a better field (and world).

• Inclusivity was a major theme in my experience of Kzoo. I was proud to see people wearing T-shirts with affirmative, inclusive sentiments (the proceeds of BABEL's #inclusivity fundraiser campaign go to SMFS) or displaying other signs of support for SMFS and a more capacious medieval studies. I'm also energized by ongoing efforts at Kzoo such as the annual Anglo-Saxonist "New Voices" sessions; mentoring initiatives; various informal gatherings attentive to LGBTQ communities and scholars of color; a BABEL gathering at Bell's Brewery open to anyone; and medievalists asking important questions about uneven access and exclusion in our field (along the lines of class, financial conditions, disability, age).

• Addressing transphobia. Over the past week or so medievalists have been responding to some unfortunately gender essentialist and transphobic presentations at the Pseudo Society session. The Pseudo Society immediately issued an apology and announced a new policy, and it gives me hope that medievalists quickly came together against transphobia: note this moving statement posted by Kaitlin Heller during Kzoo and a very powerful transformative blog post and essay by MW Bychowski (see also here).

• Rethinking access. I've been following with great interest some emergent conversations about accessibility at medieval conferences. Jeffrey's pre-Kzoo 2016 posting gives us much to think about in terms of social venues and practices, and Karra Shimabukuro has shared some good suggestions that she included in her responses to the annual Kzoo survey (here and here). (These links are not specifically Kzoo-related, but check out recent reflections by Rachel Moss on attending academic events as a new parent, and consult the Modern Language Association of America's helpful access guidelines before you prepare for your next conference.)

• Swangate. Last week, a story went viral about medievalist (known only as @chevalier_cygne) who brilliantly responded to a UKIP politician's racism and xenophobia (he had objected to a nonwhite actress portraying [Shakespeare's] medieval queen Margaret of Anjou). The story has since been picked up by the Independent and the Toast (with ancillary "cygnal boost" by Jeffrey and yours truly). If you're on twitter, you can follow the #swangate and #swantruther hashtags for more.

• Medievalist tattoos. Picking up on a recent conversation on social media about medievalists with tattoos, @izzybeth (on twitter) has created a tumblr blog called Badass Tattoos on Medievalists. If you're a medievalist who has a story to share about your tattoo (or otherwise have something relevant to contribute), feel free to check out the site!

This blog post ended up being much longer than I had intended, but I've tried my best to convey my sense of this year's vibe and ethos. I hope that some of the productive energy of Kzoo 2016 will continue to spark new thinking about our understanding of the Middle Ages and the future we'd like to see in our present-day communities.

BABEL events at Kzoo 2016

by JONATHAN HSY (on behalf of the BABEL Working Group's Steering Committee)

Pieter Brughel's "Little" Tower of Babel; explore more here.

MAY THE FOURTH be with you, one and all!

[for more medieval Star Wars fun, go here, here and here]

The International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo (or #Kzoo2016) is rapidly approaching. Here's a grand compilatio of BABEL and BABEL-adjacent events to add to your calendar.  Everyone is welcome to everything!

• Wed 8-11pm - MEDIEVAL DONUT 2.0 (Radisson Lobby), social gathering co-sponsored by GW MEMSI (Medieval and Early Modern Studies Institute); note the event site

• Thu 3:30pm - BABEL ROUNDTABLE: Where Else? (Sangren 1740)

• Fri 1:30pm - GW MEMSI ROUNDTABLE: Play (Bernhard 209)

• Fri 3:30pm - POSTMEDIEVAL ROUNDTABLE: Hermaphrodites: Genitalia, Gender, and Being Human in the Middle Ages (Fetzer 1005)

• Fri 5:15pm - BABEL + MATERIAL COLLECTIVE RECEPTION (Bernhard President's Dining Room)

• Fri 9pm-midnight - FESTIVITIES AT BELL'S BREWERY

• Sat 10am - BABEL ROUNDTABLE: Far Out! (Fetzer 1005)

• Sat 3:30pm - PUNCTUM SESSION: In Fashions Reminiscent: The Overlapping Objects, Discourses, and Ideas of the Sixties and the Middle Ages (Schneider 1225)

• Sat 3:30pm - SMFS (SOCIETY FOR MEDIEVAL FEMINIST SCHOLARSHIP) ROUNDTABLE: Harassment in the Academy (Schneider 1360)

Other BABEL-adjacent happenings:

• Thu 10am - MATERIAL COLLECTIVE SESSION: Speculatio, Medieval and Modern (Schneider 1140)
• Fri noon - MATERIAL COLLECTIVE BUSINESS MEETING (Fetzer 2030)
• Fri noon - GRAMMAR RABBLE BUSINESS MEETING (Fetzer 1060)
• Sat 10am - ETH PRESS PERFORMANCE AND ROUNDTABLE: “The Grail Is the Opposite of Poetry”: The Medieval Coterie in Jack Spicer’s The Holy Grail (Schneider 1280)
• Sun 10:30am - GRAMMAR RABBLE SESSION: Erratic Letters (Bernhard 210)

Other items of note for #Kzoo2016 [Jonathan now writing as an individual]:

• Mentoring initiatives are happening throughout the conference (see Mary Kate Hurley's post)!

• Medievalists continue to affirm their commitments to creating a better world. See Jeffrey Cohen's post noting recent statements by the SMFS, International Society for the Study of Medievalism, and ITM co-bloggers; note also affirmations from the Anglo-Saxonist community (here and here), BABEL (many previous manifestos here and here), International Anchoritic Society, International Society of Anglo-Saxonists (ISAS), Material Collective, MEARCSTAPA, Medieval Academy of America (with policies against harassment and bullying, among other things), New Chaucer Society (here and here), SFMS President, and SSDMA (Society for the Study of Disability in the Middle Ages).
• Kristen Mapes has collated this great list of Digital Humanities and DH-adjacent sessions at #Kzoo2016.

Anything else to add? Feel free to use the comments section below (comments are moderated so it might take some time for items to post).

Summer Digest 2015: Digital Publics, Diversity, Disability, Donuts

by JONATHAN HSY

[First, read all about JEFFREY's two new collaborative projects!]

NOTE: UPDATED with a few more links on August 31, 2015.

Summer is coming to a close and a new academic year approaches. It was productive and eventful summer for me, but the downside was I never got around to writing any new blog posts here at ITM.

In the spirit of trying new things, I present what I'm calling an ICYMI (In Case You Missed It) Summer Digest 2015: my own idiosyncratic listing of some interesting links and noteworthy things that happened over these summer months. (This list also gives you a vague sense of "What Jonathan Did Over Summer Break.")

ICMY Medievalist Summer Digest 2015

Conference Roundups:

May: International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI (#Kzoo2015):

• This #Kzoo2015 blogroll is my earlier compilation of blog posts and links [last updated May 30]; the 2015 conference also marked the emergence of the silly but somehow oddly compelling #MedevalDonut meme. JEFFREY also played a big part in all this. (A brief resurgence of #MedievalDonut also occurred on World Donut Day; check out these tweets archived by Sjoerd Levelt!)

• N.B. Leila K. Norako's writeup after Kalamazoo about the "Public Medievalist" roundtable and a lively session marking the 25th anniversary of the publication of Carolyn Dinshaw's Chaucer's Sexual Poetics.

June-July: The Middle Ages in the Modern World, Lincoln, UK (#MAMO15):

• "Diverse Pedagogies of Medievalism" Roundtable (org. Helen Young). Presenters: Helen Young, Kim Wilkins, Molly Brown, Carol Robinson [virtually via recorded presentation], Dorothy Kim, and Jonathan Hsy. The full videorecording is available online (includes a link to Robinson's presentation and a link to the slides from my talk), and there's also bit more info at Medievalists.net.

July: International Medieval Congress, Leeds, UK (#IMC2015):

• Panel of public medievalists (org. by the Grad Student Committee of the Medieval Academy of America). Presenters: Matthew Gabriele, Andrew James Johnston, and Erik Kwakkel: see Peter Konieczny's curated archive of live-tweets.

• Roundtable entitled "The Twitterati: Using Twitter in Scholarship and Pedagogy" (org. Carla María Thomas). Presenters: Dorothy Kim, Jonathan Hsy, Kristen Mapes, Angela Bennett Segler, and Kristen Mapes. Check out my curated archive of live-tweets from the session and this excellent summary of the conversation (by Carla María Thomas); note also a summary of the undelivered presentation by Shyama Rajendran. N.B. you can also read the full text of the informative talk by Kristin Mapes, and explore Mapes' collected data on twitter usage at Kalamazoo and Leeds in 2014.

• "Queer Manuscripts" thread: two sessions (orgs. Roberta Magnani and Diane Watt); check out Watt's archive of live-tweets from these conversations.

July: London Chaucer Conference ("Science, Magic, and Technology"), University of London, UK (#Chaucer2015):

• Plenaries by J. Allan Mitchell and Lisa H. Cooper; browse my archive of all the live-tweets.

Online Conversations and New Communities:

Public Medievalists (forum):

• Open access (i.e., FREE) postmedieval forum on "The Public Middle Ages" (featuring Holly A. Crocker, Marion Turner, Brantley L. Bryant, Kathleen E. Kennedy, Matthew Gabriele, Bruce Holsinger, Leila K. Noriko, David Perry).

• Over on his own blog, Perry offers this posting with his reaction to Bryant, his reaction to Kennedy, and reaction to Gabriele [more postings may be forthcoming].

• Richard Utz (at the Chronicle of Higher Education), "Don't Be Snobs, Medievalists." Note David Perry's subsequent response, and Utz responding to Perry.

#ILookLikeAProfessor (twitter hashtag):

• This twitter hashtag was created to combat stereotypes in academia and started a number of conversations about gender, race, class, disability, and the "public face" of university instructors and educators. Read accounts by co-creators Adeline Koh, Michelle Moravec, and Sara B. Pritchard; see also this piece by Kelly J. Baker (addressing gender as well as disability). The meme was also picked up by Buzzfeed, Colorlines, and Mashable (with a few medievalists featured each time).

The Lone Medievalist (community):

• New online network oriented toward anyone who is the only medievalist scholar in their campus or community; access via the website (requires login), Facebook community page, or follow on twitter @LoneMedievalist.

Society for the Study of Disability in the Middle Ages (SSDMA): 

• The SSDMA launched a Facebook group that is open to anyone interested in the study of disability, impairment, and varied modes of embodied difference in medieval culture.

Various other things (for academics on and off the tenure-track):

• Katie Rose Guest Pryal (at Chronicle Viate) offers an excellent perspective on freelance academics as public intellectuals.

• Eric Anthony Grollman (via Conditionally Accepted) collates some sound advice for new assistant professors.

New Open Access Publications:

• Interfaces: A Journal of Medieval European Literatures. Entire inaugural (2015) issue "Histories of Medieval European Literatures: New Patterns of Representation and Explanation" is available online; among a stellar international array of contributors are Simon Gaunt, Karla Mallette, and David Wallace.

• The Medieval Globe (edited by Monica H. Green). The inaugural (2014) issue "Pandemic Disease in the Medieval World: Rethinking the Black Plague" features a range of interdisciplinary and international contributions. Green's essay on "Making the Black Death Global" is well worth your time.

Upcoming Dates and Deadlines:

• Aug 31 (thread/session proposals due): Medieval Colloquium “Medieval Natures” in Sewannee, TN (plenary lectures by Caroline Walker Bynum and Carolyn Dinshaw; with "Defining Nature" seminar by Kellie Robertson), Apr 1-2, 2016.

• Aug 31 (individual paper proposals due): International Medieval Congress (Theme: “Food, Feast & Famine”) in Leeds, UK, Jul 4-7, 2016.
  
  
• Sep 1 (initial abstracts): edited volume on Embodied Difference: Monstrosity, Disability, and the Posthuman in the Medieval and Early Modern World (co-editors: Richard H. Godden and Asa Simon Mittman)

• Sep 15 (early registration ends): BABEL Meeting “Off the Books” in Toronto, ON, Oct 9-11, 2015 (featured speakers: Micha Cárdenas, Malisha Dewalt, David Gersten, Alexandra Gillespie, Randall McLeod [aka Random Cloud], Whitney Anne Trettien).

• Sep 15 (proposals due): Fordham Conference “Manuscript as Medium” in NYC, Mar 5-6, 2016 (confirmed speakers: Jessica Brantley, Kathryn Rudy, Andrew Taylor).

• Sep 15 (paper proposals due): International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, MI, May 12-15, 2016.

• Sep 15 (paper/session proposals due): MLA (Modern Language Association of America) International Symposium "Other Europes: Migrations, Translations, Transformations” in Düsseldorf, Germany, Jun 23-26, 2016.

• Sep 30 (session proposals due): International Medieval Congress (Theme: “Food, Feast & Famine”) in Leeds, UK, Jul 4-7, 2016.

• Oct 15 (paper/sessions proposals due): GW MEMSI (Medieval and Early Modern Studies Institute) Graduate Conference "Premodern Disorder” (keynotes: Sharon Kinoshita, Drew Daniel) in Washington, DC, Feb 16, 2016.

• Oct 15 (paper/panel abstracts due): “Composing Disability: Crip Ecologies" at GWU (speakers include Sunaura Taylor and Riva Lehrer) in Washington, DC, Apr 7-8, 2016.

• Oct 16 (abstracts due): BABEL, punctum books, and Studium join forces for the MLA (Modern Language Association of America) Subconference, Austin, TX, Jan 6-7, 2016.

• Oct 15-16: “The Provocative 15th Century” at the Huntington, CA (orgs. Lisa H. Cooper and Andrea Denny-Brown). Presenters: Anthony Bale, Anne Bernau, Jessica Brantley,  Lisa H. Cooper, Andrea Denny-Brown, Shannon Gayk, Alexandra Gillespie, Robert Meyer-Lee, Jenni Nuttall, Catherine Sanok, James Simpson, Daniel Wakelin).

• Oct 30: “Futures of the Past” Conference at GWU in Washington, DC. Presenters: Kim Hall, Patricia Clare Ingham, J. Allan Mitchell, Julie Orlemanski, Coll Thrush, Henry S. Turner.
  
  
• Nov 1 (proposals due): “Method and the Middle English Text” at UVA (plenary pairings: Alexandra Gillespie & Patricia Ingham; Andrew Cole & Kellie Robertson; Steven Justice & Emily Steiner), Charlottesville, VA, Apr 8-9, 2016.

• Nov 1 (proposals due): “Romance in Medieval Britain” at UBC in Vancouver, BC (plenaries: Suzanne Conklin Akbari and Corinne Saunders), Aug 17-19, 2016.
  
  
• Nov 2 (proposals due): Vagantes Grad Student Conference (including keynote by Diane Wolfthal on “Occupy the Middle Ages: Representations of Household Help”) at Rice University, Houston, TX, Feb 18-20, 2016.

• Dec 15 (queries and proposals): “Making Early Middle English” at University of Victoria, BC, Sep 23-25, 2016.

• Dec 31 (proposals due): “Anglo-Saxons 2016: Exchange, Cultures, Ideas, and Materials” in Edinburgh, Jun 9-10, 2016.

• Jan 31 (submissions welcomed from Fall 2015 term): Digital Medieval Disability Glossary, Society for the Study of Disability in the Middle Ages (see the CFP here; if you you have difficulty reading the image file, try this link).

#Kzoo2015 Blogroll

by JONATHAN HSY

[UPDATED May 30, 2015]

It's been just over a week since the annual International Congress on Medieval Studies (Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI) and quite a few blog posts relating to the conference have appeared online already. I'll be posting some of my own reflections on this site soon, but in the meantime check out this list of post-Kalamazoo links.

In addition to links to blog postings and transcripts of individual paper presentations, this list includes archives of tweets, public notes from sessions, Prezi and YouTube presentations ... and an alliterative poem.

Have I missed anything? Comment below or on my public Facebook thread and I'll update this list ASAP.

[Items listed alphabetically by title; each author/creator named at end of parentheses]

50th International ICMS Day 4 (curated tweet archive, Peter Konieczny)

50th International ICMS Day 3 (curated tweet archive, Peter Konieczny)

50th International ICMS Day 2 (curated tweet archive, Peter Konieczny)

50th International ICMS Day 1 (curated tweet archive, Peter Konieczny)

Best Tweets of Build IT Together (curated tweet archive, Garrett Wegner)

"Ascolat to Camelot, Guildford to Winchester: Narrative Travel in Malory's Morte d'Arthur" (paper presentation and reflections on session "Sacred and Secular Road Trips in Middle English Romance," Kristi J. Castleberry)

Bayeux Tapestry Pics from the Zoo (photos from premiere of “The Bayeux Tapestry: The Stitches Speak," Christopher Monk)

[Bayeux Tapestry] The stitches spoke! (review of Daisy Black’s dramatization of the Bayeux Tapestry, Christopher Monk)

Debatable Rule: (Re)assessing Medieval Statecraft, Power, Authority, and Gender (tweets from roundtable Session 291, Yvonne Seale)

Gower and Medicine (tweets from Session 469 sponsored by the Gower Project, M Bychowski)

I’m not dead! (blog post at The Public Medievalist, Paul B. Sturtevant)

Kalamazoo 2015 (blog post discussing Session 8, Session 153, Session 229, Session 360, and Session 535 with links to archives of tweets from additional sessions, Yvonne Seale)

Kalamazoo 2015: Congress 50 (tweets from Old English/Anglo-Saxon sessions including Session 36, Session 63, Session 113, Session 211, Session 270, Session 325, Session 356, and Session 420; also Session 464: "What Can Medieval Studies Bring to Ecocriticism?" by Nicole G. Discenza)

Kalamazoo [2015] Friday Update - Social Time and Not Farming Naked (blog post at Medieval History Geek, Curt Emanuel)

"Kalamazoo 2015: Human-Plant Assemblages in Cornish Ordinalia Plays" (Medieval Ecocriticisms blog posting about session on "Secret Lives of Medieval Plants" with transcript of paper presentation, Rob Barrett​)

Kalamazoo 2015 Round-Up! (esp. the session on Carolyn Dinshaw's Chaucer's Sexual Poetics org. by the BABEL Working Group, Leila K. Norako)

Kalamazoo 2015 Saturday Update and Wrap-up (blog post at Medieval History Geek, Curt Emanuel)

"Kalamazoo has come and gone" (alliterative poem, Stephen Hopkins​)

Looking Back AND Looking Forward: The Material Collective at Kalamazoo 2015 (blog of the Material Collective, Jennifer Borland)

"Lost At Sea / Forlornly Hopeful" (presentation at the GW Medieval and Early Modern Studies Institute's "Lost" Roundtable, Eileen A. Joy​)

Medieval Data: Prospects & Practices (Session 153 tweets, Kalani Craig)

#MedievalDonut (curated archive of twitter meme, Jonathan Hsy)

Medieval Materialisms Day 3 (forthcoming, Angela Bennett Segler)

Medieval Materialisms Day 2 (blog post, Angela Bennett Segler​)

Medieval Materialisms Day 2 (tweet archive, Angela Bennett Segler​)

Medieval Materialisms Day 1 (blog post, Angela Bennett Segler​)

Medieval Materialisms Day 1 (tweet archive, Angela Bennett Segler​)

Medieval Round-Up: KZOO 2015 (blog post mostly about sessions regarding medievalism in popular culture and public engagement, Sandra Alvarez)

Medieval Texts in Digital Environments: New Directions, Old Problems (Session 17 tweets, Kiera Naylor)

"Mental Disabilities and the Saint" (Prezi presentation with transcript, in session on "Disability in Medieval Saints' Lives" org. by the Society for the Study of Disability in the Middle Ages, Kisha Tracy​)

Moving More Online: Strategies and Challenges for Using Technology in the “Classroom” (tweets from roundtable Session 93, Yvonne Seale)

Moving Women, Moving Objects II (Session 558 tweets, Yvonne Seale)

My IMCS @ Kalamazoo 2015 (tweets from many sessions; note especially the Pseudo-Society event and "Ye Next Generacioun" roundtable featuring younger scholars, Anna Wilson)

The Nature of the Middle Ages: A Problem for Historians? (tweets from roundtable Session 226, Yvonne Seale)

"Neighboring Wastelands in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" (presentation in "Ecocatastrophes" session, Richard H. Godden)

Nunneries in Medieval Europe: New Historiographical and Methodological Approaches I & II (tweets from Session 404 & Session 463, Yvonne Seale)

On Owning the Word “Medieval”: My Approach (not really about the conference itself but still interesting, Daniel Franke)

Out of chaos, some sort of order: the International Congress on Medieval Studies at 50, May 14-17, 2015 (blog of the Journal of the History of Ideas, Elizabeth Biggs)

"Paradigms of Literary History" (presentation at session "Old English Language and Literature," Eric Weiscott)

"Prosthetics and the Dismodern Body in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" (presentation at session on "(Dis)Abilities in the Pearl-Poems" org. by Pearl-Poet Society, Richard H. Godden)

"The Provenance and History of the Manuscripts Formerly in the Phillips Collection" (slideshow in session "Networks of Transmission: Histories and Practices of Collecting Medieval Manuscripts and Documents," Toby Burrows)

Richard Utz’s Kalamazoo 2015 Plenary, “The Notion of the Middle Ages: Our Middle Ages, Ourselves” (tweets from plenary, Material Collective)

"Source Study: A Retrospective" (public notes on Session 269, Kristen Mapes)

"Source Study in a Digital Age" (presentation at session “Source Study: A Retrospective,” sponsored by the Sources of Anglo-Saxon Culture, Brandon Hawk​)

"Students, Period" (collaborative YouTube video, in session on "Unsettled Marks" org. by the Grammar Rabble, Kisha Tracy)

"Transhistorical Transnationalism: Constance’s Conversions and the Globalization of English" (presentation at session "Transnationalism Before the Nation?" by Shyama Rajendran​)

"Unconfessing Gender: Dysphoric Youths in Gower's Iphis" (presentation at "Gower and Medicine" session sponsored by the Gower Project, M Bychowski)

Women and Power to 1100 (tweets from roundtable Session 99, Yvonne Seale)

NOTA BENE:

Kristen Mapes​ offers a link to an archive of tweets using the #Kzoo2015 hashtag and an interactive network visualization of #Kzoo2015

The Material Collective's excellent list of 50 Questions for Medieval Studies (these questions were crowdsourced before the conference and also circulated at the Friday metasession "Medieval Originality: Looking Forward, Looking Back") [posting by Karen Overbey]