10th Annual Conference on Medieval Studies (2012)

2012 Conference Schedule

The location of all the events, unless otherwise noted, will be in the basement room of the St. Thomas of Aquinas Church, directly across State Street from the Stewart Center.

Note: Any attendees not giving a paper should contact Trey Gorden so that we may produce name tags for you.

Call for Papers: (PDF) North Atlantic Connections: Texts and Interpretations of the Medieval North

Feb. 24–25, 2012

Keynote Speaker:Marianne E. Kalinke

CAS Professor Emerita of Germanic Languages and Literatures at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Author of The Arthur of the North: Arthurian Literature in the Norse and Rus' Realms


We invite submissions of abstracts for papers on any topic that addresses cultural transmission and interaction in the medieval North Atlantic, from Nova Scotia to Scandinavia, from Iceland to Normandy. Presenters are welcome to discuss any period of the Middle Ages. Possible themes include:

  • North Atlantic political interactions.
  • Medieval Irish and Viking activity in North America.
  • Influence of intercultural violence on urban architecture.
  • Impact of cultural cross-pollination on daily life.
  • Literature, music, drama, and the visual arts.
  • Cultural interaction as a catalyst for social change.
  • Insular monastic evangelism.
  • The Viking role in the emergence of nationalism.
  • Spread of the British Arthur across the North.
  • Legal ramifications of North Atlantic cultural interaction.
  • The legacy of such medieval interactions on later eras.

9th Annual Conference on Medieval Studies (2011)

2011 Conference Schedule

The location of all the events, unless otherwise noted, will be in basement room of the St. Thomas of Aquinas Church, directly across State Street from the Stewart Center.

Campus Map


Note: Any attendees not giving a paper should contact Chad Judkins so that we may produce name tags for you.

Friday, February 4th

4:00-4:45 p.m.


Public Reading of “A Parliament of Fowls” at the West Lafayette Public Library.


5:00-6:30

Session I: “Retelling the Tale”—Moderated by Jason Lotz
Paper Withdrawn Greta Lynn Smith, Miami University of Ohio: “Otto Ege: Finding Virtue among Scattered Leaves and Dealing with the Inheritance of Biblioclasty.”
 Nicholas Mohlmann, Purdue University: “'In Stead of the Muses': Paratext and Anxiety in George Sandys’ Ovid’s Metamorphoses Englished, Mythologized, and Represented in Figures"

7:00-9:00
Reception (Food and Beverages provided) at the home of J. Case Tompkins


Saturday, February 5th

8:15-9:00 a.m.
Breakfast at St. Thomas (Provided)

9:00 – 10:15
Session II: “Authorship and Historical Reconstruction”—Moderated by Hwanhee Park
Anessa Kemna, University of Minnesota Duluth: “Medieval Fragments and Miscellany: Tracing the Origins of the Modern Anthology”
Tuesday Rupp, Yale University Institute of Sacred Music: “Music, Book, Audience: Reception of Polyphony in the Codex Calixtinus”
Grant Leyton Simpson, Indiana University—Bloomington: “The Bessinger-Smith A Concordance to Beowulf: Investigating a Moment in the History of Old English Humanities Computing”

10:30 – 11:45
Keynote Address: Kathryn Kerby-Fulton, Professor of English, Notre-Dame University "Inspiring the Ellesmere Chaucer Glosses: Contemporary Models for Latin Marginalia with Ambivalent Voicing"

11:45-1:00
Lunch (Many local options are within a five minute walk.)

1:15-2:30
Session III: “Authorship and Social Life”—Moderated by Joanna Benskin
Carly Maris, University of California—Irvine: “Influential Moral Corruptions: Textual Tampering, Early Printing and the Future of (Pseudo?)Theophrastus and His Characters”
Tamara J. Carrell, Indiana University—Bloomington: “Rhetoric of the Roman de la Rose: from Roses to Swords”
Katie Langenfeld, Duke University: “Investigating Narrative Landscapes and Reader Response in Galbert of Bruges’ The Murder of Charles the Good”
Sarah Spalding, Catholic University of America: “The Angelic Guide: Collaboration and Authorship in the Twelfth Century”

2:45-4:00
Session IV: “Visualization and Marginalia”—Moderated by Trey Gordon
Christine Bachman, Indiana University—Bloomington: “The Court of the Heavens: A Visual and Textual Interpretation of the Planets in Sloane MS 3983”
Nicole Eddy, Medieval Institute, University of Notre Dame: “John Cok Reading Romance: The Annotations of Corpus Christi College Cambridge MS 80”
Jocelyn M. Karlan, Indiana University-Bloomington: “The Natural, the Grotesque, and the World Turned Upside Down: A Survey of Illustrated Marginalia in the Medieval Manuscripts of the Lilly Library at Indiana University”
Jan Volek, Western Michigan University: “How Did You Get This out of That? The Role of Christian Exegesis in Illuminating Vulgate Psalm 109”



8th Annual Conference on Medieval Studies (2010)

2010 Conference Schedule

All sessions will be held in Stewart 314 where a computer and projector will be available

Campus Map

Session I: Guilds and Politics—Moderated by Russell Keck
Trevor Babcock, University of Texas at Arlington: “Wearing Their Hearts on Their Sleeves: Guild Badges and Identity in the Medieval City”
Eileen Kim, University of Toronto: “Intersections in London Trade, Politics and Identity: Suppression versus Celebration of Life and Career in the Wills of Adam Fraunceys, Mercer of London, and John Northhampton, Draper of London”
Jennifer Konieczny, University of Toronto: ”Corporatism and Famiglie in the Late Medieval Italian Cities”

Session II: Religion and Social Influence—Moderated by Erin Kissick
Megan K. Young, Kansas University: “Hybridity of Spaces: St. Williams College, The Medieval College of Chantry Priests at York”
Sebastian Finger, Purdue University: “Religious Causes of the Decline and Cessation of the Chester Cycle”
Corey Sparks, Indiana University: “‘So hard it is to lyve and to do synne’: Langland’s Urban Ethics and the Figure of Haukyn in Piers Plowman”
Ashley Tussing, Purdue University: "Exposing the Expositor"

Keynote Address: Lawrence Clopper "From What We Thought We knew to Where We Are Now: The City and Biblical Drama."

Session III: Reception and Performance—Moderated by Chad Judkins
Samantha Wager, Purdue University: “Carnival in the Chester Cycle: Social Commentary and Social Approval”
Kristin Bourassa, University of Ottawa: “‘Comme ont fait les roys anciens’: Instructing the King in the Royal Entry of Henry VI, 1431”
John Paul Ewing, Purdue University: “Portents of the Reformation in Strasbourg and Basel: A Reception History of Sebastian Brant’s Das Narrenschiff”

Session IV: Learning—Moderated by David Sweeten
Alan Witt, University of Rhode Island: “Environmental Perceptions of Health and Healing in Italy and England in the High Middle Ages: An Analysis of the Effect of the Reintroduction of Greek Environmental Theories on Practical Medicine in Urban Settings”
Joshua Hartman, University of Wisconsin: “Parate Viam Domini: Christianizing Urban Space in Prudentius’ Contra Symmachum”
Natalie Latteri, Purdue University: “Big Mouth Beguines: The ‘Problem’ with Literate Laywomen”



7th Annual Conference on Medieval Studies (2009)

Plenary Speaker: Ann W. Astell, Professor of Theology at Notre Dame University, "Saints and Sinners"

Session I: Saints, Sinners, and Manuscripts
Erin Sweany, Indiana University: “Saints to Sinners, Sinners to Saints: Challenging the Medieval and Modern Categorization of Penance”
Sarah P. Baribeau, Cornerstone University: “An Unknown Coptic Bifolium and Monastic Spirituality”

Session II: Fictional Mystics
Russell L. Keck, Purdue University: “The Sanctified Soul and the Beatific Vision in Pearl.”
Arthur James Russell, Western Michigan University: “Chaucer’s Saint who Never Was: Virginia's Lost Tale and the Physician's Sinful Moral”

Session III: Female Mystics
Karen A. Napoli, Arizona State University: “Tensions within, tensions without: The Blessed Christina von Stommeln, Mystic and Beguine of Cologne”
James DeFrancis, University of Notre Dame: “Passionem Filii Mei Imitantes: Hildegard of Bingen’s Theology of Monastic Life in Scivias, Book II, Vision 5”
Hannah Zdansky, University of Notre Dame: “Glossing St. Catherine of Siena: The Hagiographer's Role in Expounding Her Theology of Love”

Session IV: Gender and Dissent
J. Case Tompkins, Purdue University: “Seen and Heard”
Rebekah M. Fowler, Southern Illinois University Carbondale: “Malory’s ‘Clean Maidens’: Monasticism and the Grail Knights”
Joshua Easterling, Ohio State University: “Robert of Knaresborough and the Forms of Authority”

Plenary Session with Ann W. Astell
Plenary Address: “Saints and Sinners”

Session V: Saints, Sinners, and Politics
Jessica E. Raffelson, Purdue University: “Battle for the Minds of Men”
Gary Lim, City University of New York: “All the King's Bodies: Abjection and Authority in Havelok the Dane and King Horn”
Kathryn McDonald, Cleveland State University: “Sebastian's Arrows: Understanding the Sacred”



6th Annual Conference on Medieval Studies (2008)

Plenary Speaker: Eve Salisbury, Associate Professor of English at Western Michigan University, "Anonymity, Attribution, and the Nearly Known: Medieval Authorship Revisited"

Session 1
Lynne Miles-Morillo, Purdue University, "The Hêliand and His hugi: Towards an Old Saxon Theory of Mind."
Daniel Brielmaier, University of Toronto, "Authority and Mediation in the Acallam na Senórach."
Richard Sévère, Purdue University, "Re-Writing Friendship: The Fear of Homoeroticism in Late Medieval Literature"

Session 2
William Hager, California State University – Long Beach, "Removal from the Court: The Displacement of Chevrefoil from the Tristan Legend."
Arthur J. Russell, Western Michigan University, "Learning to Read Again: Sir Cleges and the Quest for Orthodox Readers."

Session 3
Diana M. Cervone, Indiana University – Bloomington, "Shaping Authorship through the Mise en Page of Christine de Pizan's Epistre Othea Manuscripts: The Importance of Blank Spaces"
Andrew B. Grubb, University of Connecticut, "Buildings as Authors? The Case of English Round Churches."

Session 4
Karen Knudson, Purdue University, "Sparring with Solomon: The Figure and Texts of King Solomon in the Canterbury Tales."
Jenny Lee, Northwestern University, "Ovid's Fama and Auctorite in Chaucer's The House of Fame."
Karen Robinson, Purdue University, "The Betrayal of Readers in the Legend of Good Women."

Session 5
Jill Hebert, Western Michigan University, "Authority on Ambiguity: Morgan le Fay as Author."
Catherine Merritt, Auburn University – Montgomery, "The Arthurian Enchantresses through Time: The Influence of Authorship and Audience."



5th Annual Conference on Medieval Studies (2007)

Plenary Speaker: Patricia Clare Ingham, Associate Professor of English at Indiana University, Bloomington, "Old Worlds and New: the Edges of Novelty and the Limits of Enchantment."

Session 1
Elizabeth Williamsen, Indiana University – Bloomington, "The Boundaries of Betrayal in The Sowdone of Babylone."
Julianne Bruneau, University of Notre Dame - South Bend, "Chrétien's Perceval and the Borders of Britain."

Session 2
Stephen Sweat, University of Arizona, "Faith and Illusion: Boethian Cosmology and Magic in the Franklin's Tale."
Frank Tobienne, Purdue University, "La Historia de La Scientia Toletana en el Siglo XIII, or the Valuation of Magic in Spanish Medieval Literature."

Session 3
A. Arwen Taylor, Indiana University – Bloomington, "The Passion of Piers: Piers Plowman as Embodied Liminality."
Florin Beschea, Indiana University - Bloomington, "Heart and Body: The Relationship Between Moral and Physical Qualities in Three Miracles by Gautier de Coincy."

Session 4
Matthew Brown, University of Notre Dame - South Bend, "Insanity and Bureaucracy: Documentary Practice in Hoccleve's Series and Formulary."
Becky Winn, Indiana University - Bloomington, "'By word formyd in my understonding': Language and Its Reworking in The Shewings of Julian of Norwich."
Susanna Childress, Florida State University, "Dancing Through a Different Minefield: The Public Discourse of Margery Kempe as Subversive Liminality."

Session 5
Allison Scott, Purdue University, "The Royal Couple in Chaucer's Legend of Good Women."
Alex Vance, Purdue University, "The Parallels of Inferno and The Legend of Good Women."
Jesie Martinez, Purdue University, "Reflections of Richard in The Legend of Good Women."

Session 6
Deborah Searcy, University of Miami, "Piers Plowman and the Agency of Salvation."
Molly Martin, Purdue University, "Fleeing the Borders of Romance: Reclaiming Masculinity in Malory's 'Tale of Sir Gareth'."
Lesley Jacobs, Indiana University - Bloomington, "On the Edge of Incest: Power and Violence in the Second and Fourth Branches of the Mabinogi."



4th Annual Conference on Medieval Studies (2006)

Plenary Speaker: Bonnie Wheeler, Professor of English and Medieval Studies at Southern Methodist University and Editor of Arthuriana, "Mastering Literature."

Session 1 (Victorian Arthuriana)
Minjeon Kim, SUNY - Binghamton, "'In Defense of Guenevere' as a political revision."
Diana Lovelace, University of Tennessee, "The Courtly Love Game: Tennyson's Shifting Presentation of the Courtly Love Tradition."
Michael A. Moir, Jr., Catholic University of America, "'For out of the waste lands he had come': The Trials of the Colonial Subject in His Majesty's Service in Tennyson's Idylls of the King."

Session 2 (Arthur Beyond Borders)
Richard Barrett, Indiana University, "Merlin and St. Symeon of Emesa: Myrddin Wyllt as a Celtic Holy Fool."
Daniel Franke, University of Rochester, "Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival and the Courtly Ethic."
Piotr Toczyski, Graduate School for Social Research, Warsaw, Poland, "The Polish Arthurianism's Multiple Traditions."

Session 3 (Arthurian Texts and Readers)
Kristin Bovaird-Abbo, The University of Kansas, "Chaucer’s Arthurian Name-Dropping."
Rachel Kapelle, Brandeis University, "The Ends of Prophecy: Prediction and the Reader of the Morte Darthur."
Alexander L. Kaufman, Purdue University, "The Familial Other in The Awntyrs off Arthure."

Session 4 (The Alliterative Morte Arthure)
Karen Robinson, Purdue University, "What Does It Mean to Be King? Arthur in the Alliterative Morte Arthure."
Debbie Marcum, Cornell University, "Arthur the Conqueror to Arthur the Conquered in the Alliterative Morte Arthure."
Joy Santee, Purdue University, "Geographic Economy and the Giant of Gene in the Alliterative Morte Arthure."

Session 5 (Knighthood and Gender)
Ryan Naughton, Purdue University, "Filling in the Blanks: The Knighting of Lancelot in the Prose Lancelot."
Katherine Tanski, Purdue University, "The Subversive Female Knight: Grant Morrison's Re-Visioning of Gender in Shining Knight."
Richard Sévère, Purdue University, "Silencing Bodies: Recreating “Masculinity” in Les Roman des Silence."



3rd Annual Conference on Medieval Studies (2005)

Plenary Speaker: Dr. Claudia Bornholdt, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, "From Holy Man to Saintly Husband: Latin Legends in the Vernacular"

Session 1
Emily Redman, Purdue University, "Listing in Old English Poetry."
Mica Gould, Purdue University, "John Gower's Allegorical Science."
Joy Santee, Purdue University, "The Ethos of Medieval Mappaemundi: Legitimation through Cultural Memory."

Session 2
Karen Robinson, Purdue University, "Cynewulf and Cyneheard: A House Divided."
William Christopher Brown, Indiana University - Bloomington, "Spontaneity & Premeditation in the Chronicles of the Peasants' Revolt of 1381."
Alex Kaufman, Purdue University, "Jack Cade and the London Chronicles of the Fifteenth Century."

Session 3
Christine Dunn, Indiana University - Bloomington, "That you be not counted among the foolish virgins but among the wise": A Look at Jordan of Saxony's letters to Diana d'Andalo."
Gretchen Busl, University of Notre Dame - South Bend, "Feminine Rhetoric of the Body in Medieval Italian Mysticism."
Richard Sévère, Purdue University, "Dinadan in Drag: Heteronormativity Challenged in Malory's Morte Darthur."

Session 4
Eric Serna, Grand Valley State University, "Tending the Garden: The Literary Response to the Evolution of Chivalry."
Michelle Steil, Grand Valley State University, "The Death of King Arthur: The Legend Beyond the Legend."
Brooke Hazael-Massieux, Grand Valley State University, "Plato Dressed Up: Finding Philosophy in the Fabric of the Text in Erec and Enide."
Erica Rude, Purdue University, "The Domestic Economy of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight."



2nd Annual Conference on Medieval Studies (2004)

Plenary Speaker: Seth Lerer, Stanford University, "The Social Reception of Medieval Literature."

Session 1
Amy Bosworth, "Inventing History: The Merovingian Franks and Their Trojan Origins."
Eric Carlson, "Financing the Mortgage of Death: Compensation as Ritual Sacrifice."
Mary Maxine Browne, "Quatour Eburnae Imagines: The Mimetic Interior of Late Medieval Devotion."
Diane Fuchs, "Crucifixion Plaque from Rinnagan."

Session 2
Wendy N. Long, "Chaucer's Poetics of Prayer."
Russ Brickey, "Cultivating the Wild Bunch: Chaucerian Dialogues with the Garden Goddess."
Turgay Bayindir, "The Reflection of Class Consciousness in Capellanus' The Art of Courtly Love."

Session 3
Laura Boercker, "Laudine and Yvain: Modern Reconciliations of Love and Marriage in Children's Versions of Chrétien de Troyes' Knight with the Lion."
April Toadvine, "Putting the Cart Before the Horse: Courtly Love and Chivalry in The Knight of the Cart"
Monica Osborne, "I Know Something You Don't Know: Theological Re-Visioning in the Woman's Response to Master Richard's Bestiary of Love."



1st Annual Conference on Medieval Studies (2003)

Session 1
Anthony Mullis, "Charlemagne as Emperor or Chieftan."
William R. Blake, "Arthurian Illuminations and Illustrations."

Session 2
Sarah Martini, "Female Mediaeval Sexuality and the Wife of Bath."
Sarah E. LaDow, "The Wolf Within: George Eliot's Personal Politics."

Session 3
Vicki Willey, "The Axe, the Holly Bob, and the Aghlich Mayster: An (Other) Reading of the Green Knight."
Molly Martin, "The Perilous Impotence of the Male Gaze: The Wolf, the Lion, and Richard de Fournival."

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