Call for Papers: “Defining Ourselves” in the Early Middle Ages

A hybrid conference hosted by the International Anchoritic Society and the Early Middle English Society

18-21 September 2025, Brandeis University, Boston, MA, USA

The International Anchoritic Society and the Early Middle English Society invite you to submit abstracts for their forthcoming conference at Brandeis University, in Boston, MA, September 18-21, 2025. The conference trip will be to Salem, MA (home of the infamous witch trials) on September 21.

The general theme for the conference is “Defining Ourselves.” Within that overarching theme, many possibilities exist, including:

-Breaking boundaries Exploding periodization

-Contextualizing the past (e.g., post-medieval anchorites)

-Interdisciplinary connections

-The canon

-Paleography and Linguistics

-Any other topic your heart desires

We would like to emphasize the following:  papers do not have to be on English works, even if you submit to an Early Middle English session, nor do they have to be on religious literature.

Submissions to IAS sessions will need to be on religious literature but may be on works from any country and any faith.

We anticipate two or three publications stemming from this conference, including both special issues of the journal Early Middle English and edited collection(s). More details will be provided at the conference itself.

Hybrid panels will run concurrently with in-person panels.

Keynote speakers will be Liz Herbert McAvoy and Michelle M. Sauer (“Reclusion after the Middle Ages: Variations in Solitude through the Centuries”), and Adrienne Williams Boyarin (“Early Middle English and Hebrew Poetry in Late Thirteenth-Century Norwich”).

Please send 300-word abstracts to iasemeconference@gmail.com by July 31, 2025