'Rethinking the Medieval Frontier' Proposal Deadline Approaching

'Rethinking the Medieval Frontier', a conference being held at the University of Leeds on 10 April 2018, is accepting paper proposals until the deadline of 1 February 2018.

This conference, organised by Jonathan Jarrett, Lecturer in Early Medieval History at the University of Leeds, explores frontiers and borders in the medieval period. Few topics in medieval studies have as much current relevance and activity, yet approaches to their study in the Middle Ages are often untheorised, and compare, if at all, only to often outdated studies of the ancient or modern world. 

A fully comparative approach to the possibilities of what it meant to establish, live in or contest a frontier or border zone shown by the societies of late Antiquity and the Middle Ages can power the development of a new shared understanding of the processes at work where borders are laid down or transgressed. Questions to address include, but are not limited to, 'Who defines or defined a frontier, and with what effect?' and 'What persons or groups lived in border zones, for what reasons?'

Scholars at all levels working on frontiers or borders within the period 100-1500 CE in any geographical area are welcomed; proposals must be submitted by 1 February, 2018 to Jonathan Jarrett (j.jarrett@leeds.ac.uk). The Call for Papers is available here.