IMC 2019 Call for Papers
The International Medieval Congress (IMC) 2019 (Special Thematic Strand: 'Materialities') will take place at the University of Leeds from 1-4 July 2019, and the Call for Papers is now available.
This Congress, the 26th IMC, welcomes proposals on any topic related to the Middle Ages. This year's Special Thematic Strand, 'Materialities', seeks to bring into conversation recent work on materialities by art historians, archaeologists, paleographers, historians, economists, musicologists, liturgists, philosophers, philologists, and scholars of literature, critical theory, and religious studies, among other fields.
Recent attention to objects, artefacts, matter, and material culture has reshaped scholarship in many fields. This strand seeks to address the impact of this new interest in things, theories, and methods as they relate to an expansive understanding of 'materiality'. Material objects and practices served as markers of cultural difference, but could also - simultaneously - become part of a shared culture of consumption, proximity suggesting gender and class affinities. Materialities shaped cultures of consumption, created regimes of circulation, and informed networks that defined both subjects and objects.
Ultimately materialities encompass interactions between peoples both near and far and offer an analytical framework that suggests the unity of the medieval world across religious, ethnic, and spatial distances and differences. Themes to be addressed may include but are not limited to:
- Material culture and consumption
- Agency of people and things
- The social life of things
- Material landscapes: urban, suburban, rural
- Gendered materialities
For more information, see the website here. The online proposal system will be available by 31 May 2018, along with Bursary applications; the deadline for submissions is 31 August 2018 for paper proposals, and 30 September 2018 for session proposals. Queries not answered on the website can be submitted to imc@leeds.ac.uk.
