CFP Medieval Monsters and Their Afterlives (9/15/17; Kalamazoo 5/10-13/18)

I'm happy to announce the following session has been approved for the next International Congress on Medieval Studies. Please submit proposals by 15 September 2017.


Past, Present, Future: Medieval Monsters and Their Afterlives
Sponsored by The Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture
53rd International Congress on Medieval Studies
Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan
10-13 May 2018
Proposals due by 15 September 2017

The year 2018 marks the two-hundredth anniversary of the publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and, while this is certainly an important event, to celebrate it outside of its larger context is to ignore the rich history of the monstrous in Western tradition that underlies much of Shelley’s representation of the creature brought to life by Victor Frankenstein. Medieval texts, in particular, abound with monsters, and, like the creation of young Frankenstein, many of these remain prevalent in the minds (and, perhaps, fears) of modern-day audiences. Still, while Monster Studies has grown phenomenally as a discipline in recent decades, few have explored how medieval monsters, like their more modern counterparts, exist as part of an ongoing tradition from their point of origin in the medieval past to their most recent depiction in popular culture.

In furtherance of the goals of The Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture, we seek in this panel to unite Medieval Studies, Medievalism Studies, Monster Studies, and Popular Culture Studies to highlight points of contact between medieval monsters and their post-medieval representations. We hope to explore both continuity and change in addressing how these figures have been portrayed and to extrapolate from these trends to suggest how these monsters may be employed in future texts.  

Presentations will be limited to 10-15 minutes depending on panel size. If presenters are willing, The Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture hopes that accepted presenters might submit their completed papers for publication on the Medieval Studies on Screen site (https://medievalstudiesonscreen.blogspot.com/) prior to the conference to allow maximum dissemination of their ideas.

Interested individuals should submit, no later than 15 September 2017, (1) an abstract of approximately 500 words, (2) a 500-word academic biographical narrative, and (3) a completed Participant Information Form (accessible at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/submissions) to the organizers at MedievalStudiesonScreen@gmail.com using “Medieval Monsters and Their Afterlives” as their subject heading.

In planning your proposal, please be aware of the policies of the Congress (available at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/policies).