Calls for Papers

We have two virtual sessions for the 62nd International Congress on Medieval Studies this upcoming May 13-15, 2027. We encourage everyone interested to submit an abstract to one or both because one is a roundtable and the other is a formal paper panel.

Paper Panel: Digital Humanities Projects on Medieval England, ca. 1100–1350

This paper panel is meant to provide a space for scholarship being done on any topic in, near, or tangential to England, ca. 1100-1350, that is using digital humanities in some way to interrogate, visualize, or share such research. Medieval digital humanities projects are only growing and becoming even more accessible than ever before, and we invite anyone doing work in this area related to the Early Middle English period to share their work with us.

Please submit an abstract of 250 words to the conference Confex website: https://icms.confex.com/icms/2027/paper/papers/index.cgi?sessionid=8818

Roundtable Panel: Queering Early Middle English (A Roundtable)

In a period that saw great transition and instability, Early Middle English texts, manuscripts, and their socio-political contexts provide rich ground for an application of queer theory. Whether scholars approach this idea of “queering” literally or figuratively, either drawing out potential queer readings in an otherwise heterosexual tradition or, perhaps, queering the material record as we know it, we welcome abstracts for a roundtable presentation on some aspect of Early Middle English—perhaps even the very notion of the period itself (ca. 1100-1350)—with a fresh queer perspective.

Please submit an abstract of 250 words to the conference Confex website: https://icms.confex.com/icms/2027/round/papers/index.cgi?sessionid=8820

For more information, please contact earlymesociety@gmail.com. All abstracts are due September 15, 2026.

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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, April 4-6, 2025. The conference trip will be to Salem, MA (home of the infamous witch trials) on April 6.

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.

Please send 300-word abstracts to iasemeconference@gmail.com by April 15, 2024 May 1, 2024, December 31, 2024.

We have had both of our in-person panels accepted for the 60th International Congress on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, MI, May 8-10, 2025. The CFPs for both (one a paper session and the other a roundtable session) are below.

Paper Panel: “Reading Women in England, c.1150-1350”

From hagiographies featuring women saints to texts written for women, like the Ancrene Wisse and Sawles Warde, the Early Middle English period contains rich evidence of women readership and, more importantly, shifting manuscript contexts that end up with women ownership, such as a couple cases of the manuscript witnesses of Poema Morale. The French of England and Early Middle English often commingled in manuscripts that attest to a rich vernacular devotional tradition and more. This panel invites papers on this tradition as it pertains to women and vernacular reading practices.

Please submit abstracts of 250 words for this paper panel via the ICMS Confex website at https://icms.confex.com/icms/2025/paper/papers/index.cgi?sessionid=6070.

Roundtable Panel: “Early Middle English in the Classroom”

This roundtable invites speakers to share their experiences in learning or teaching Early Middle English texts of any kind. What was your first encounter with Early Middle English? How do you choose to introduce it to your students? What significance do you place on texts from the Early Middle English period, whether English language literature or not? We’re hoping for a dynamic conversation about teaching and learning Early Middle English (c.1150-1350) in the college classroom, including but not limited to personal experience, syllabus construction, assignments or exercises that appeal to students, and much more.

Please submit abstracts of 250 words for this roundtable panel via the ICMS Confex website at https://icms.confex.com/icms/2025/round/papers/index.cgi?sessionid=6073.

For more information, please contact earlymesociety@gmail.com. All proposals are due by September 15, 2024!

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**NEW DATES**
April 4-6, 2025

“Defining Ourselves” in the early Middle Ages

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

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

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.

Hybrid panels will run concurrently with in-person panels.

Keynote speakers will be Liz Herbert McAvoy, Michelle M. Sauer, and Adrienne Williams Boyarin.