Seeking papers for
TEAMS-sponsored/co-sponsored sessions
at the 2024 International Congress on Medieval Studies
(May 9 - 11, 2024)
Deadline
Friday, Sept. 15
https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/call
https://icms.confex.com/icms/2024/cfp.cgi
1. The TEAMS Bonnie Wheeler Session: The Seductions of Chivalry
(A Roundtable)
Bonnie Wheeler in “The Seductions of Chivalry,” 1 observed that including “‘chivalry’ or ‘King Arthur’ in an undergraduate course title” attracts students with diverse interests. If still true, is the variety of student fields advantageous? Do students come to your Arthurian course with basic knowledge? Or are their notions full of distorted mass media commonplaces? Do you extend your pedagogical focus themes that extend beyond Arthuriana? Is your approach to the course interdisciplinary? Grounded in particular texts? Tell us about your successes and failures.
1“King Arthur and the Seductions of Chivalry,” (Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching [SMART], 12, 1, 2005, 7-22)
2. Invisible, Perhaps Inaudible... But Not Ineffectual: The Impact of the Unnoticed and the Unseen in Fact and Fiction
(in person panel)
The public's perception of the Middle Ages rests on visions of the upper classes whose impact is primarily on the imagination. But other people outnumbered the nobles and heroes. As the public's fascination with a Middle Ages that never existed swells, scholars of many fields - especially social history, literature, and prosopography - present marginal and marginalized voices; dispel romanticized notions of an imaginary time; and counter the co-opting of images, ideas and contributions of workers, craftsmen, servants and people of color, the differently abled, and the cloistered. This session focuses on the people who actually made society run.
3. Medieval and Medievalist Masculinities
(A Roundtable)
"The search for a transcendent, timeless definition of manhood is a sociological phenomenon - we search for the timeless and eternal during moments of crisis...." Michael Kimmel, Manhood in America." The current conflict between those who reject traditional models of manhood and those who attempt to forcibly impose such models reveals the culturally contingent nature of masculinity. This roundtable invites discussion of the following: How do medievalist fantasies engage with the question of masculinity? How might medieval texts provide alternatives to reductive definitions of masculinity? What are the intersections among medievalism, toxic masculinity and white supremacy?
4. So, What Are You Gonna Do with That? Prospects and Possibilities for the Graduate Medievalist
(A Roundtable Co-sponsored with CARA)
As the academic job market tightens and the definition of “academia” itself evolves, those pursuing and holding graduate degrees in medieval fields increasingly ask “what will I do with this?” We invite roundtable contributors to share their stories of graduate work on the Middle Ages, perspectives on how that graduate training continues to shape them, the career paths to which it has led, and how they continue defining themselves as “medievalists,” highlighting the diversity and importance of all medievalists and the critical need for collegiality and inclusion to sustain Medieval Studies as a thriving field in the coming decades.
5. Teaching the TEAMS Middle English Text Series (METS): A Roundtable in Honor of Russell Peck
(Co-sponsored with the Rossell Hope Robbins Library)
This roundtable will celebrate the legacy of Russell Peck as the founder of the TEAMS Middle English Text Series (METS) and an award-winning educator. It will also celebrate the launch of the METS' new digital editions. We invite participants to share innovative approaches to using METS texts in the classroom -- and outside of it. We particularly encourage approaches that utilize less-common METS texts, that pair METS editions with digital tools, the use of METS in diverse classroom communities, and challenges posed by the Series, as well as proposed new ways forward.
6. The Past and Future of Digital Editions: A Session in Honor of Russell A. Peck
(hybrid, Co-sponsored with the Rossell Hope Robbins Library)
Digital scholarship, digital editions, and digital training have increasingly been held up as a cornerstone of the future of medieval studies. However, hidden below the clamor for is an epidemic of technical debt, exhausted and overlooked practitioners, and unstable funding. This panel invites participants to chart the hidden labor and costs of digital editions, and to chart a more just and sustainable path forward. We welcome papers that explore the realities of digital edition projects across disciplines and professions, best practices and workflows, and visions of the future for creators, users, and communities. We particularly invite papers from practitioners.
7. Generative AI in the Medieval Classroom
(A Roundtable Co-sponsored with Iter)
Since ChatGPT 3.5 debuted late in 2022, AI-bots’ uses, influences and threats have grown exponentially. Generative AI has already changed education more widely and profoundly than any other digital tool. Widely touted as an ancilla to save workers in all fields valuable time and energy, this handmaiden also serves dark forces. AI can generate syllabi, slide decks, lecture notes and images. It can help students brainstorm and proofread. It can also help students cheat on tests and papers, and hallucinate false information and sources. But it's not going away, so how will it affect teaching for good and for ill?
8. Entering the Once and Future Classroom: In the Steps of the TEAMS Project
(Co-sponsored with the International Pearl-Poet Society)
We invite proposals for a pedagogy roundtable on how recent dramatic shifts in teaching modes and other aspects of instruction have altered or reconfigured our approaches to teaching the Pearl-poems in classrooms of the present and future. We seek to celebrate the variety of ways these poems continue to teach well, at all levels of public and private education, and to explore and expand the palette of our pedagogical strategies when we teach them. Proposals focusing on strategies related to access, affordability, and student engagement/success in relation to medieval texts are particularly welcome.
