CFP Holy Grail, Batman? Expanding Knowledge of the Grail Legends in Popular Culture (Online) (9/15/2026; ICMS Kalamazoo/Online 5/13-15/2027)

Holy Grail, Batman? Expanding Knowledge of the Grail Legends in Popular Culture (Online)

62nd International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, MI), Thursday, 13 May, through Saturday, 15 May, 2026


Co-sponsored by Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain, Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture


Co-organized by Michael A. Torregrossa, Bristol Community College, and Carl B Sell, University of Pittsburgh

Rationale

The Holy Grail remains a powerful symbol in the post-medieval world; however, while its story continues to feature across popular culture, scholarship tracing its manifestations within mass media remains limited. Previous studies have concentrated predominantly on fiction and film, but the Grail legends extend into many other forms.


Using Richard Barber’s The Holy Grail: Imagination and Belief (2004), James B. Marino’s The Grail Legend in Modern Literature (2004), Juliette Wood’s Eternal Chalice: The Enduring Legend of the Holy Grail (2008) and Holy Grail: History and Legend (2012), and contributions to the collections The Grail: A Casebook (2000), Perceval/Parzival: A Casebook (2002), The Grail, the Quest, and the World of Arthur (2008), and The Holy Grail on Film: Essays on the Cinematic Quest (2015) as starting points, we seek in this session to expand our knowledge of the Grail’s presence in modern media.


Our objective is twofold. Linking past research and present texts, we ask panelists to share information about additional media (such as anime, bandes dessinées, comics, games, genre fiction, manga, memes, picture books, streaming video, and television programming) to help enlarge the corpus of Grail texts. In addition, we hope their presentations will also demonstrate a widening of the chronological and geographical scope of research on modern use of the Grail legends beyond the range of previous scholarship to illustrate the distribution of these stories across time and space, attesting to the prolonged global spread of these stories.


Topics might include representations of the Grail and/or legends about the Grail in any form of modern media, as well as depictions of Grail keepers (such as the Fisher King) and Grail seekers (including Bors, Galahad, Perceval, and Perceval’s sister, in addition to other questors) in similar texts.


We are especially interested in seeing submissions on the following:

• Arvid Nelson’s Rex Mundi
• Big Bang Comics’ Galahad and Kid Galahad
• Colleen Doran’s Chivalry, adapted from the work of Neil Gaiman
• Colleen Doran’s A Distant Soil
• Elaine Lee’s Indiana Jones and the Spear of Destiny
• Four Knights of the Apocalypse
• Greg Weisman’s Gargoyles
• The History Channel’s Knightfall
• Hugo Pratt’s Corto Maltese: The Secret Rose
• Image Comics
• Jean-Pierre Pécau’s The Secret History
• Jed MacKay’s Avengers
• Kieron Gillen’s Once and Future
• Lloyd Alexander’s The Black Cauldron and the Disney film adaptation
• Malcolm Guite’s Galahad and the Grail
• Marvel Comics
• Matt Wagner’s Mage series
• Merlin TV series
• Mike Barr’s Camelot 3000
• Mike Mignola’s Hellboy
• P. Craig Russell’s Parsifal
• Preacher comics
• Sailor Moon
• Stargate franchise
• Tainted Grail

We are not currently seeking proposals on the Grail in the DC universe, Fate/stay night, Slaine, and vampire/zombie fiction, as well as representations of Galahad in Golden Age comics. (This list will be expanded as more submissions come in.)

Submission Information

Please post paper submissions into the Confex site using the direct link https://icms.confex.com/icms/2027/prelim.cgi/Session/8804.

Do send any questions to the organizers at medievalinpopularculture@gmail.com. Submissions are due no later than 15 September 2026.


For this event, individuals are invited to make ONE paper proposal to ONE session of papers: either the sponsored or special sessions OR the general sessions. You may propose an unlimited number of contributions to roundtables, but you will not be scheduled to actively participate (as paper presenter, roundtable discussant, poster author, presider, respondent, workshop leader, demonstrator, or performer) in more than six sessions. See the conference’s policies page for more information at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/policies-guidelines.


Please be aware that those accepted to the panel must register for the conference in order to present. Past registration costs can be viewed at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/registration. The International Congress on Medieval Studies does offer limited funding as travel awards and subsidized registration costs; details are available at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/awards.



For more information about the Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain, do check out our website, King Arthur Forever: The Matter of Britain Lives: https://kingarthurforever.blogspot.com/.


For more information about the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture, do check out our website, Mass Mediævalisms: The Middle Ages of Popular Culture: https://medievalinpopularculture.blogspot.com/.

CFP Arthurian Mini-Conference at the Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies (SMRS) (Saint Louis University, June 8-10, 2026)

Sharing on behalf of the International Arthurian Society-North American Branch.

CFP for the Arthurian Mini-Conference at the Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies (SMRS) at Saint Louis University, June 8-10, 2026

The IAS-NAB invites proposals for individual papers, sessions and roundtables on all Arthurian topics at the Arthurian Mini-Conference held within the SMRS.



All proposals for the Arthurian-Mini-Conference must be made at https://www.smrs-slu.org/arthurian-conference.html. The portal to submit proposals opens on November 1 and closes December 31, 2025.



Melissa Ridley Elmes is organizing a session of papers on “Arthurian Queens.”

Their names are as familiar as Arthur's: Gwenevere, Isolde, Igraine, Morgause, Elaine, Celia .... the Queens of the Arthurian legend are essential figures, though they are typically relegated to secondary status in relation to the knights and kings they partner and serve as wives, consorts, and mothers. Magical female figures like Morgan le Fay and Nimue are investigated by scholars for their agency, strength and power, and how deeply they affect the narrative, but is it the case that only the magic-wielding women have agency, authority, and power in the Arthurian legend, while its quotidian Queens are relatively nonagential by comparison? This session seeks papers examining the role, representation, and/or legacy of Arthurian queens through any discipline or theoretical lens.

Please send abstracts of 250 words to Melissa Ridley Elmes at melmes@lindenwood.edu by 28 December 2025.



Evelyn Meyer is organizing a session of papers on “Arthurian Materiality.”

Materiality is the suggested focus of exploration at the SMRS, so I would like to contribute a session on Arthurian materiality. I invite proposals that engage the question if there is such a thing as “Arthurian materiality,” and if so what it might be; how medieval and modern notions of (Arthurian) materiality differ from one another but can offer new and intriguing insights into the Arthurian objects we study, be those images, manuscripts, stories, physical objects, legends and myths that spread around the world, that find themselves in modern adaptations and materiality, etc. What is the agency or the symbolism of these material objects? I am intentionally keeping the definition of Arthurian materiality vague to allow for a widest possible take on the subject and am seeking papers that address these ideas through any discipline or theoretical lens.

Please send abstracts of 250 words to Evelyn Meyer at evelyn.meyer@slu.edu by 28 December 2025.



We will have our own two plenary speakers, The Annual Loomises Lecture and The Annual Tolhurst Lecture. More information on these will be shared later.



The two SMRS Plenary Speakers are

Kathryn Starkey (Stanford, Professor of German in the Department of German Studies and, by courtesy, Professor of English, History, and Comparative Literature. Her work focuses primarily on medieval German literature from the eleventh to the thirteenth century, and her research topics encompass visuality and materiality, object/thing studies, manuscript illustration and transmission, language, performativity, and poetics.)

Robert Pasnau (Colorado Boulder, Professor of Philosophy, he has particularly devoted himself to the history of philosophy, especially the end of the Middle Ages and the beginnings of the modern era.)

Again, we can create connections with their research areas and our sessions, if there is interest.



Please share this CFP with interested colleagues outside the IAS-NAB as well. We look forward to receiving your proposals.

Sincerely,

Sîan, Molly & Evelyn

CFP More than The Green Knight: Exploring the Ongoing Tradition of Adapting and Appropriating Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (hybrid) (9/15/2024; ICMS Kalamazoo 5/8-10/2025)

Call for Papers

More than The Green Knight: Exploring the Ongoing Tradition of Adapting and Appropriating Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (hybrid)

Sponsored by Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture; International Arthurian Society, North American Branch (IAS/NAB); International Pearl-Poet Society

Organized by Michael A. Torregrossa, Joseph M. Sullivan, and Amber Dunai


60th International Congress on Medieval Studies

Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, Michigan)

Hybrid event: Thursday, 8 May, through Saturday, 10 May, 2025

Please Submit Proposals by 15 September 2024

Session Information

Released in 2021, David Lowery’s film The Green Knight thrust the medieval romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight into the spotlight like never before and attracted the attention of viewers and critics across the globe. Scholars of medieval literature and film have also been inspired by the film’s release, and there is now a flourishing field of The Green Knight Studies as displayed in articles, books, conferences, essays, special issues, and themed sessions. However, all of this attention on Lowery’s work creates a limited understanding of the full post-medieval afterlife of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.


We propose this session as a counter to the flurry of attention on Lowery’s work. The Green Knight is merely one example of a much wider array of adaptations of the story that began in the sixteenth century with The Greene Knight and continues to this day with comics, drama, fiction, film, games, illustration, music, opera, picture books, radio broadcasts, and television programming. Beyond these, aspects of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight have been appropriated by many creative artists and integrated into their own creations in various media. Collectively, these adaptations and appropriations make up a rich textual tradition for Sir Gawain and the Green Knight that now extends over five centuries and deserves more notice.


Our intent in this session is twofold:

• First, to uncover what we lose by focusing on Lowery’s film outside of the larger context of adaptation and appropriations of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
• Second, to highlight what can be added to the larger fields of Arthurian Studies and Pearl-Poet Studies by widening our view of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight to include further or other adaptations and appropriations of the text in our research and teaching.

Submissions should address at least one (if not both) of the following questions:

• What other adaptations and appropriations do we miss by focusing on Lowery’s film?
• What do we gain (for the disciple, our students, and/or ourselves) when we look beyond it?

Thank you for your interest in our session. Please address questions and/or concerns to the organizers at MedievalinPopularCulture@gmail.com.

Submissions will also be considered as part of an essay collection on the theme.

Submission Information

The process for proposing contributions to sessions of papers, roundtables and poster sessions for the International Congress on Medieval Studies uses an online submission system powered by Confex. Be advised that submissions cannot be accepted through email. Rather, access the direct link in Confex to our session at https://icms.confex.com/icms/2025/paper/papers/index.cgi?sessionid=6431. You can also view the full Call for Papers list at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/call.


Within Confex, proposals to sessions of papers, poster sessions and roundtables require the author's name, affiliation and contact information; an abstract (300 words) for consideration by session organizer(s); and a short description (50 words) that may be made public. Proposals to sessions of papers and poster sessions also require a title for the submission (contributions to roundtables are untitled).


Proposers of papers or contributions to roundtables for hybrid sessions should indicate in their abstracts whether they intend to present in person or virtually.


If you need help with your submissions, the Congress offers some resources at the Participating in the Congress page at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/participating-congress. Click to open the section labeled “Propose a Paper” and scroll down for the Quick Guide handouts.



Be advised of the following policies for participating in the Congress:


You are invited to propose one paper (as a sole author or as a co-author) for one session of papers. You may propose a paper for a sponsored or special session or for the general sessions, but not both. You may propose an unlimited number of contributions to roundtables and poster sessions, but you will not be scheduled to actively participate (as paper presenter, roundtable discussant, poster author, presider, respondent, workshop leader, demonstrator or performer) in more than three sessions.


Further details on the Congress’s Policies can be found at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/policies-guidelines.



A reminder: Presenters accepted to the Congress must register for the full event. The registration fee is the same for on-site and virtual participants. For planning, the cost for the previous year’s event is posted at the Congress’s Registration page at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/registration.


If necessary, the Medieval Institute and Richard Rawlinson Center at Western Michigan University offer limited funding to presenters. These include both subsidized registration grants and travel awards. Please see the Awards page at the Congress site for details at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/awards.

CFP Apocalyptic Arthuriana (A Roundtable) (virtual) (9/15/2024; ICMS Kalamazoo 5/8-10/2025)

Apocalyptic Arthuriana (A Roundtable) (virtual)

Sponsored by Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain and International Arthurian Society, North American Branch (IAS/NAB)

Organized by Michael A. Torregrossa and Joseph M. Sullivan


60th International Congress on Medieval Studies

Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, Michigan)

Hybrid event: Thursday, 8 May, through Saturday, 10 May, 2025

Please Submit Proposals by 15 September 2024

Session Information

The Arthurian story is one of rise, fall, and promised return.


In this panel, we’d like to focus, in part, on the end of Camelot to explore the events and interactions that caused its downfall in texts both medieval and post-medieval.


Related to this, we are also interested in tales from across the ages that move Arthurian elements across space and time, where, as once and future devices and figures, the relics and members of Arthur’s court are pitted against new threats endangering the realm and/or the world at large.


Thank you for your interest in our session. Please address questions and/or concerns to the organizers at MedievalinPopularCulture@gmail.com.

Guiding Questions

• How do notions of loss, catastrophe, and/or calamity figure into Arthurian narratives (past or present)?
• What are the affordances of the Arthurian corpus in theorizing about calamity in a range of contexts (medieval to present)?
• Who causes the fall of Camelot? Why? How?
• Who survives the fall of Camelot? Why? How?
• Which devices and figures are revived? When? Where? Why?
• What/Who do these revived devices and figures face in new eras and places?

Submission Information

The process for proposing contributions to sessions of papers, roundtables and poster sessions for the International Congress on Medieval Studies uses an online submission system powered by Confex. Be advised that submissions cannot be accepted through email. Rather, access the direct link in Confex to our session at https://icms.confex.com/icms/2025/round/papers/index.cgi?sessionid=6421. You can also view the full Call for Papers list at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/call.


Within Confex, proposals to sessions of papers, poster sessions and roundtables require the author's name, affiliation and contact information; an abstract (300 words) for consideration by session organizer(s); and a short description (50 words) that may be made public. Proposals to sessions of papers and poster sessions also require a title for the submission (contributions to roundtables are untitled).


Proposers of papers or contributions to roundtables for hybrid sessions should indicate in their abstracts whether they intend to present in person or virtually.


If you need help with your submissions, the Congress offers some resources at the Particpating in the Congress page at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/participating-congress. Click to open the section labeled “Propose a Paper” and scroll down for the Quick Guide handouts.



Be advised of the following policies for participating in the Congress:


You are invited to propose one paper (as a sole author or as a co-author) for one session of papers. You may propose a paper for a sponsored or special session or for the general sessions, but not both. You may propose an unlimited number of contributions to roundtables and poster sessions, but you will not be scheduled to actively participate (as paper presenter, roundtable discussant, poster author, presider, respondent, workshop leader, demonstrator or performer) in more than three sessions.


Further details on the Congress’s Policies can be found at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/policies-guidelines.



A reminder: Presenters accepted to the Congress must register for the full event. The registration fee is the same for on-site and virtual participants. For planning, the cost for the previous year’s event is posted at the Congress’s Registration page at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/registration.


If necessary, the Medieval Institute and Richard Rawlinson Center at Western Michigan University offer limited funding to presenters. These include both subsidized registration grants and travel awards. Please see the Awards page at the Congress site for details at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/awards.



For more information about the Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain, please see our website at https://kingarthurforever.blogspot.com/. For more information on the International Arthurian Society, North American Branch (IAS/NAB), please see our website at https://www.international-arthurian-society-nab.org/, and do consider becoming a member of the society.

CFP Teaching the Arthurian Tradition(s) (11/1/2024; IMA Symposium 1/17/2024)

Teaching the Arthurian Tradition(s)

deadline for submissions:
November 1, 2024

full name / name of organization:
Illinois Medieval Association

contact email:
mwgeorge.51@gmail.com

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2024/08/02/teaching-the-arthurian-traditions

Deadline for Proposals: November 1

Session: 2:00 pm (Central) January 17, online via Zoom

The Arthurian Tradition(s) is often most students’ first and only exposure to the Middle Ages. Exposure often comes from films that students have seen: Fuqua’s King Arthur (2004), Ritchie’s King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017), and Lowery’s Green Knight (2021). What students learn from a course or unit on the Arthurian Tradition(s) is often very different from filmed depictions. This session seeks papers that explore issues, opportunities, and innovations in teaching the Arthurian Traditions(s).

Submit full session proposals or paper proposals (no more than 300 words) to mwgeorge.51@gmail.com no later than November 1, 2024.



Last updated August 8, 2024

CFP Tradition and Innovation in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Conference (4/20/2024; Nancy, France/hybrid 11/21-22/2024)

CFP: Tradition and Innovation in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Source: https://medievalisms.org/cfp-tradition-and-innovation-in-sir-gawain-and-the-green-knight/

We are pleased to announce a call for papers for an upcoming conference on “Tradition and Innovation in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” to be held in Nancy (France) on 21-22 November 2024. This conference will be held in hybrid mode.

Conference Theme: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight has captivated readers for centuries with its complex narrative, moral dilemmas, and poetic excellence. The conference seeks to explore the dynamic interplay between tradition and innovation within the text, examining how the poem, but also the works derived from it and the scholarship devoted to it, draw upon established traditions while introducing novel elements.

The first axis of our inquiry focuses on the poem itself. While it is steeped in the traditions of Arthurian romance and Middle English poetry, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight departs from them and frustrates expectations in significant ways, both in terms of its content and its form. This exploration aims to shed light on the creative ways in which Sir Gawain and the Green Knight navigates established literary norms, both adhering to tradition and introducing innovative elements within its narrative structure and thematic content.

The second axis of our inquiry focuses on the many works inspired by Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. This includes rewritings, translations, and visual interpretations that grapple with the tension between fidelity to the original and the impulse to reimagine the narrative within contemporary contexts. From modern language adaptations to artistic representations, we seek to understand how the poem’s essence endures through the transformative lens of subsequent generations.

We invite proposals for individual papers (20 minutes). Please submit abstracts (250-300 words) along with a brief bio to Colette.Stevanovitch@univ-lorraine.fr by 20 April. Include your name, institutional affiliation, contact information, and any audiovisual requirements.

CFP Merlin (A Roundtable) (in person) (9/15/2023; ICMS May 2024)

Sharing on behalf of the International Arthurian Society, North American Branch:

Merlin (A Roundtable) (in person)

Sponsoring Organization: International Arthurian Society, North American Branch (IAS/NAB)

Organizer: Molly A. Martin

The IAS-NAB is sponsoring a roundtable on Merlin at the International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo next year. We are hoping to have a nice mix of short (5-10 min) papers that look at Merlin in different time periods, different language traditions, different media, etc. If you have thoughts about Merlin and plan to be in Kalamazoo (it is an in-person session), do consider submitting.



Submissions are through the official system (see the CFP here) and are due on September 15.



Let me know if you have any questions (martinma@uindy.edu).



Thanks,

Molly Martin

CFP Creating Camelot(s): The Idea of Community in Arthurian Texts (virtual) (9/15/2023; ICMS 5/9-11/2024)

Creating Camelot(s): The Idea of Community in Arthurian Texts (virtual)

Sponsored by Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain and International Arthurian Society, North American Branch (IAS/NAB)

Organizers: Michael A. Torregrossa and Joseph M. Sullivan


Call for Papers - Please Submit Proposals by 15 September 2023

59th International Congress on Medieval Studies

Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, Michigan)

Hybrid event: Thursday, 9 May, through Saturday, 11 May, 2024

Session Objective

Creating Camelot(s): The Idea of Community in Arthurian Texts (virtual)


Although we often refer to the Matter of Britain as the Arthurian tradition, the figure of King Arthur is merely the center point of the story. The tales are in fact about the community that Arthur builds and the ways those inside it (and outside as well) interact with each other. Through Arthur and those he surrounds himself with, Camelot becomes a living thing, and we experience its birth, maturity, and death, as well as its re-creation across the ages.


In this session, we’d like to highlight the multiple ways that Arthur’s realm has been constructed from the Middle Ages to the present. Submissions can explore the Arthurian legends from across time and/or space as represented through diverse genres and media.


We seek contributions from a range of scholars–those within the disciplines of Arthurian Studies and/or Medieval Studies as well as those in outside fields, including beyond the humanities–as they consider at least one of the following questions:

• What are the origins of Camelot? How do Arthur’s literary and/or historic predecessors (Ambrosius Aurelius, Arthur of Dal Riada, Constantine, Fionn mac Cumhaill, Lucius Artorius Castus, Riothamus, Uther Pendragon, Vortigern, etc.) influence the creation of his home base? What real locales inspired the idea or site of Camelot?
• Moving forwards, how has Camelot been built as a physical place whether in the Arthurian past or in post-Arthurian re-creations? What does the site look like? How does it function as a space where individuals live and work?
• Also, how has Camelot been shaped as a communal space, a location for people to come together in fellowship, and who has been included into this group? In what ways does the community grow and change under Arthur and/or his successors?
• Alternatively, who has been excluded and/or expelled from the space(s) of Camelot, and in what ways have those individuals dealt with this loss?
• Similarly, who has been invited to join the community at Camelot but resisted its entreaties and/or rebelled against Arthur and his rule (or that of his successors)? What are the reasons for their rejection of Camelot? How do their actions impact the Arthurian world?
• Lastly, do those removed from and/or repelled by Camelot ever integrate (or re-integrate) and become part of the community? How does this acceptance shape them and/or the world of Camelot?

Submission Information

All proposals must be submitted into the Confex system at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/call by 15 September 2023. You will be prompted to complete sections on Title and Presentation Information, People, Abstract, and Short Description.


Be advised of the following policies of the Congress: “You are invited to make one paper proposal to one session of papers. This may be to one of the Sponsored or Special Sessions of Papers, which are organized by colleagues around the world, OR to the General Sessions of Papers, which are organized by the Program Committee in Kalamazoo. You may propose an unlimited number of roundtable contributions. However, you will not be scheduled as an active participant (as a paper presenter, roundtable discussant, presider, respondent, workshop leader, or performer) in more than three sessions.”.



Thank you for your interest in our session. Please address questions and/or concerns to the organizers at KingArthurForever2000@gmail.com.


For more information on the Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain, please visit our website at https://KingArthurForever.blogspot.com/.


For more information on the International Arthurian Society, North American Branch (IAS/NAB), please visit our website at https://www.international-arthurian-society-nab.org/ and consider becoming a member of our organization.



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CFP History, Romance, Fantasy, and Others: The Blending of Genres in Arthuriana (9/15/2023; ICMS 5/9-11/2024)

ICMS CFP: History, Romance, Fantasy, and Others: The Blending of Genres in Arthuriana

Posted on August 5, 2023 by lhaught

Source: https://medievalisms.org/icms-cfp-history-romance-fantasy-and-others-the-blending-of-genres-in-arthuriana/.

History, Romance, Fantasy, and Others: The Blending of Genres in Arthuriana

Contact Person: Rachael Warmington; rachael.warmington@shu.edu

Delivery Mode: Traditional in-person

Principal Sponsoring Organization: International Arthurian Society, North American Branch (IAS/NAB)

The blending of genres in medieval Arthuriana signifies a crucial evolution in storytelling. These blended narratives resonate with contemporary audiences, fostering renewed interest in Arthuriana. As cultural norms shift, this intermingling of genres enables nuanced discussions of identity, ethics, and social roles. Additionally, these blended genres make possible reimaginations of the narratives that offer relevant and profound explorations of the human condition which foster a dialogue between the past and present. The diversity and hybridity of Arthuriana, particularly in chronicles, romances, and fantasies, align with contemporary literary tastes, enabling greater accessibility, relevance, and inclusivity.

Deadline for New Submissions: Friday, September 15, 2023; abstracts must be submitted through the ICMS website for consideration.

Last Call CFP: Revisiting a Racialized Camelot: Lesser Known "Knights of Color" and Addressing Lacunas in Our Approaches (A Round Table) (proposals by 9/15/2022)

Call for Papers ICMS 2023

Revisiting a Racialized Camelot: Lesser Known "Knights of Color" and Addressing Lacunas in Our Approaches (A Round Table).

Sponsored by: International Arthurian Society, North American Branch (IAS/NAB)

Co-Sponsoring Organization(s): Monsters: The Experimental Association for the Research of Cryptozoology through Scholarly Theory and Practical Application (MEARCSTAPA)

Keywords: Arthur, Arthurian, Camelot, knights, race and racialized, monstrosity.



This session contributes to ongoing discussions about "Race in the Middle Ages," focusing on minor "Knights of Color" in Arthuriana and how their characterizations might nuance scholarly perspectives of the racial dynamics at Camelot. We emphasize that the expected categories for determining race such as skin color, physiognomy, costume and, at times, religion remain insufficient and inconsistent when dealing critically with premodern race. Thus, the modifier of "Color" here should be understood to cover a variety of polities and geographical locations and not just epidermal difference. While a great deal has been written about Palamedes, Morien, and Feirefiz, we seek to forefront lesser-known, non-Latin Christian knights, including those with “monstrous” origins, present in Arthurian narratives. Additionally, given that the majority of medieval critical race frameworks come out of literary studies, this session seeks to create a crucial opportunity for other fields such as art history, performance studies, and philology, as well as more "global” approaches, to provide new lenses for understanding a racialized Camelot.

This session is especially interested in: the borders between race & monstrosity in Arthuriana, methodological lacunas in approaches to Camelot material, Arthurian enemies, the relationship between "Knights of Color" in Arthuriana and such knights in different traditions that appear in the same manuscripts, philological studies about the "garbled" names of “Knights of Color,” their linguistic origins, the presence of Arthurian narratives in non-Latin Christian contexts, teaching experiences around “Race in Arthuriana” and the roles “Knights of Color” play in medievalism when imagining a post-racial Camelot without having a post-racial present.

Please send an abstract (300 words maximum) to the ICMS Confex site https://icms.confex.com/icms/2023/cfp.cgi & Drew Narayanan at tnarayanan@wisc.edu by September 15th. The session will consist of 6 ten-minute papers followed by questions. The session will be In-Person at the International Conference on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo 2023.

CFP Accessing Avalon Today: Best Practices for Connecting Contemporary Readers to Arthurian Texts Online (9/15/2022; Kalamazoom 2023)

Call for Papers for Virtual Session of the 58th International Congress on Medieval Studies to be in a hybrid format Thursday, 11 May, through Saturday, 13 May 2023

Accessing Avalon Today: Best Practices for Connecting Contemporary Readers to Arthurian Texts Online

Sponsored by the Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain

Contact: Michael A Torregrossa

Modality: Virtual

The Matter of Britain is a living tradition with new texts produced each year in a variety of media and genres. The vastness, vitality, and adaptability of the corpus, from medieval to modern, allow for an incredibly rich potential for scholarship and teaching. However, the availability and cost of many items greatly restrict what can actually be accessed by us and our students. In this session, we’d like to start a conversation related to the digital humanities about Arthurian works that are open-access materials or open-educational resources and how they can best be used in the classroom and research.

Please submit paper proposal into the Congress’s Confex system accessible at the Call for Papers page for the event (at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/call). Scroll down to select “Make a Proposal,” and, once on that page, select our session under the list of “Sponsored and Special Sessions of Papers”.

Submission must be made no later than 15 September 2022.

More information about the Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain can be found at our blog at https://kingarthurforever.blogspot.com/.

CFP Sponsored Sessions Kalamazoom 2023 (deadline for proposals 9/15/2022)

 Sorry for being so late sharing this.

Please submit a proposal into Confex (from this link) , if you're interested in presenting. 

Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain

Accessing Avalon Today: Best Practices for Connecting Contemporary Readers to Arthurian Texts Online

Contact: Michael A Torregrossa
Modality: Virtual
The Matter of Britain is a living tradition with new texts produced each year in a variety of media and genres. The vastness, vitality, and adaptability of the corpus, from medieval to modern, allow for an incredibly rich potential for scholarship and teaching. However, the availability and cost of many items greatly restrict what can actually be accessed by ourselves and our students. In this session, we’d like to start a conversation related to the digital humanities about Arthurian works that are open-access materials or open-educational resources and how they can best be used in the classroom and research.

Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture

Medieval Women from the Middle Ages to Modern Mass Medievalisms

Contact: Michael A. Torregrossa
Modality: Virtual
Popular culture offers both positive and negative representations of medieval women in medievalist and medievalesque works from Arthuriana and depictions of Joan of Arc and Hildegard von Bingen to Disney’s Princesses, films like The Lord of the Rings, Snow White and the Huntress and The Duel, and streaming series like House of the Dragon and Rings of Power. There has been an increasing focus on these figures in both the popular press and academic discourse; however, much work remains to be done to more fully assess how these texts adapt, adopt, and/or appropriate medieval characters and tropes.

Michael

--

Michael A. Torregrossa (he/his/him), M.A.

*Founder, The Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture:https://medievalinpopularculture.blogspot.com/

*Founder, The Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain: https://kingarthurforever.blogspot.com/

CFP King Arthur "Quondam et Futurus" (7/11/2022; Medieval-Renaissance Conference, Wise, VA, 9/15-17/2022)

King Arthur "Quondam et Futurus"

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2022/04/16/king-arthur-quondam-et-futurus

deadline for submissions: July 11, 2022

full name / name of organization: Center for Medieval-Renaissance Studies, University of Virginia-Wise

contact email: kjt9t@uvawise.edu



This session is part of the 35th annual Medieval-Renaissance Conference, sponsored by the Center for Medieval-Renaissance Studies at the University of Virginia's College at Wise, September 15-17, 2022. It welcomes proposals about all topics related to King Arthur as a figure in literature, history, art, and entertainment. Interested in interdisciplinary approaches, such as the character of Arthur in romance and history, in art and literature, and in popular media, are especially encouraged. We also welcome proposals on:

• Origins of the Arthur Story
• Arthur in Romance and/or Chronicle
• Arthur in the Early Modern period
• European Representations of Arthur
• Receptions of the Arthur story in non-Western cultures
• Representations of Arthur in film, television, graphic fiction, and digital media
• Arthur in the contemporary classroom

Please submit 250-300 word abstracts for papers, or 150-200 word panel proposals, plus abstracts, to Kenneth Tiller, Professsor of English, University of Virginia-Wise, kjt9t@uvawise.edu, by July 11th.




Last updated April 20, 2022

CFP Fair Unknowns: Extending the Corpus of Arthurian Texts (9/30/21; NeMLA Baltimore 3/10-13/2022)

CFP Fair Unknowns: Extending the Corpus of Arthurian Texts

Sponsored by the Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain

For the 53rd Annual Convention of the Northeast Modern Language Association

To convene at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront, Baltimore, Maryland, from 10-13 March 2022

Proposals due by 30 September 2021

The Arthurian tradition has existed for over 1500 years, yet we still know only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the true size of the corpus of Arthurian texts. Many works from earlier periods have been neglected, and new works continue to appear each year. It is our contention that all of these can be as interesting as those texts continually turned to by Arthurianists; please, help us in expanding our view of the canon. 

Call for Papers

Arthurianists excel at locating and cataloging representations of the Matter of Britain, and, as bibliographers, comicsographers, discographers, and filmographers, we have done much to expand our knowledge of the ways creators have made use of the tradition. However, our knowledge of the corpus still remains incomplete. An untold number of Arthurian texts from older eras remain missed by previous investigations (whether ignored, forgotten, or lost), while perhaps just as many are too new to have yet been the focus of critical analysis. Both omissions create unfortunate gaps in building a full history of the Once and Future King and those that surround him. A more complete picture of the reception of the legend is important for our understanding of how and why stories of Arthur and his court continue to be retold and can offer fresh insight to aid our teaching and research. The goal of this panel, then, is to create a nexus where the Arthurian past and present (and perhaps future) can meet in a space where we can set them into the larger context of the Matter of Britain and discuss and debate what makes them worth adding to the canon and how they can build and/or (re)shape of our critical understanding of Arthurian texts today.

Potential questions for discussion:

• Is it worth maintaining a canon of Arthurian texts? 

• Are value-laden terms like “Lesser Arthuriana” useful critical tools?

• What Arthurian texts have yet to be discovered by scholars?

• What Arthurian texts have been unjustly neglected?

• What new Arthurian texts have been produced recently?

• How does your text fit into/engage with the larger Arthurian tradition?

Submissions should be made directly into NeMLA’s conference management program at https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/19480. Potential presenters will need to create an account with NeMLA to submit a proposal (including a presentation title, brief abstract--not more than 250 words--of some talking points addressing our major questions, academic bio, and AV needs)and to become members of NeMLA should their proposal be accepted for the session. Notice of acceptance will be made after 1 October 2021. Please go to the website nemla.org for details about session types and presenter guidelines.

Please address any other questions to the session organizers at KingArthurForever2000@gmail.com. We also welcome suggestions for resources (in print or online) that might be of value to the panel and its audience. 

CFP Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Brut (9/15/21; ICMS 2022)

Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Brut-ICMS 2022

deadline for submissions: 

September 15, 2021

full name / name of organization: 

International Lawman's Brut Society

contact email: 

kjt9t@uvawise.edu

Source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2021/07/12/interdisciplinary-approaches-to-the-brut-icms-2022

This session calls for papers that explore ways to incorporate the Brut—Layamon’s Brut and its analogues—into interdisciplinary studies, seeking to situate the Brut in a broader academic and pedagogical context.  How can the Brut, a text that has traditionally defied categorization, provide a way to introduce the interdisciplinary nature of medieval studies?  How might different disciplinary approaches broaden the appeal of a medieval historical poem to twenty-first century students and readers?  The session encourages proposals on teaching the Brut as part of an interdisciplinary curriculum.  We welcome studies that combine traditional academic disciplines, such as history, literature, and art, but we also look for papers that approach the Brut from new perspectives, including, for instance, media and popular culture studies.  

Please submit proposals (250-300 word) to the ICMS submissions website (https://icms.confex.com/icms/2022am/cfp.cgi) by September 15.

Please direct any questions to:

Kenneth Tiller

Professor of English

University of Virginia-Wise

kjt9t@uvawise.edu

cfp Language, Space, and Place in the Brut (9/15/21; ICMS 2022)

Language, Space, and Place in the Brut-ICMS 2022

deadline for submissions: 

September 15, 2021

full name / name of organization: 

International Lawman's Brut Society

contact email: 

kjt9t@uvawise.edu

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2021/07/12/language-space-and-place-in-the-brut-icms-2022

Scholarship on the Brut has begun to reexamine the role of space and place in the text’s presentation and readers’ reception of insular history.  The Brut texts provide fertile grounds for such discussions, as much of the legendary history documented in the Brut involves reshaping and redefining insular territory, including descriptions of the island and its wonders, the construction of cities and castles, the renaming of places and cities by rulers and conquerors, among others.  This session seeks proposals that further the critical conversation about territorial and textual space and its relation to language in the Brut and in its analogues.  We are particularly interested in proposals that examine ways the Brut texts engage medieval concepts of space and place: how is space defined, perceived, and navigated in the Brut?  How does Layamon’s own sense of place or space inform his identity?  Possible topics include: local space in the Brut, boundaries and territorial limits, text as space, Layamon in his West-Midlands context. 

Please submit proposals (250-300 word) to the ICMS submissions website (https://icms.confex.com/icms/2022am/cfp.cgi) by September 15.

Please direct any questions to:

Kenneth Tiller

Professor of English

University of Virginia-Wise

kjt9t@uvawise.edu

CFP King Arthur in the Middle Ages and Beyond (7/09/21, 9/16-18/21)

King Arthur in the Middle Ages and Beyond; 7/09, 9/16-18

Source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2021/05/15/king-arthur-in-the-middle-ages-and-beyond-709-916-18

deadline for submissions: July 9, 2021

full name / name of organization: 

Center for Medieval-Renaissance Studies, University of Virginia-Wise

contact email:  kjt9t@uvawise.edu

This session is part of the 34th annual Medieval-Renaissance Conference, sponsored by the Center for Medieval-Renaissance Studies at the University of Virginia's College at Wise, September 16-18, 2021.  It welcomes proposals about all topics related to King Arthur as a figure in literature, history, and art.  The panel is particularly interested in interdisciplinary approaches, such as the character of Arthur in romance and history, or in art and literature.  We also welcome proposals on:

• Arthur in the Early Modern period
• Arthur in Europe
• Receptions of the Arthur story in non-Western cultures
• Representations of Arthur in film, television, graphic fiction, and digital media
• Arthur in the contemporary classroom

Please submit 250-300 word abstracts for papers, or 150-200 word panel proposals, plus abstracts, to Kenneth Tiller, Professor of English, University of Virginia-Wise, kjt9t@uvawise.edu, by July 9th. 

Papers and panels may be presented in person or virtually via Zoom

Last updated May 20, 2021

CFP Arthurian Medievalism (Spec Issue of Journal of the International Arthurian Society; 11/30/21)

Cross-posted:

Call for Papers: Special Issue of the Journal of the International Arthurian Society on Arthurian Medievalism

The Journal of the International Arthurian Society (JIAS) welcomes submissions for a special issue (2022, volume 10) on Arthurian medievalism, or post-medieval adaptations, re- imaginings and recreations of medieval Arthurian texts, artefacts and spaces (real or imagined). The guest editors seek especially interdisciplinary and co-disciplinary explorations of how Arthurian myth makes meaning in a range of media, including (but not limited to) literary texts, television, film, games, visual arts, architecture, commodity culture, experiential medievalism, the heritage sector and geographical spaces.

Submissions from all categories of scholars, including postgraduate students, early career researchers and independent scholars are welcome, as are submissions from non-members of the Society.

Submissions must be between 7,000 and 10,000 words (inclusive of footnotes) and must follow the guidelines for submission for JIAS, which follow the MHRA style guide. Submissions (essay, short bio and abstract) should be sent electronically to the guest editors of the special issue, Dr Renée Ward (rward@lincoln.ac.uk) and Dr Andrew Elliott (aelliott@lincoln.ac.uk), no later than 30 November 2021.

CFP Movement through Arthurian Legend Conference (4/1/2020; Bangor, Wales 6/5/2020)

"Movement through Arthurian Legend" Bangor English Medievalism Transformed 2020

https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2020/03/04/movement-through-arthurian-legend-bangor-english-medievalism-transformed-2020
(and further details added from http://medievalismtransformed.bangor.ac.uk/)

deadline for submissions:
April 1, 2020

full name / name of organization:
School of English, Bangor University

contact email:
medievalismtransformed@bangor.ac.uk




Medievalism Transformed
16th Annual Medievalism Transformed Conference, 5th June 2020
Movement through Arthurian Legend

Medievalism Transformed is an annual event hosted by Bangor University, School of English, that aims to explore the medieval world and its sustained impact on subsequent culture and thought. It brings together postgraduates and early career researchers from across the United Kingdom and worldwide.

This conference is unique not only because it welcomes research from a multitude of medieval studies’ disciplines, but also because of its interest in the sustained fascination with and impact of the Middle Ages in later centuries.

Medievalism Transformed 2020 explores all historical and literary ideas relating to the theme of movement in the medieval world, from re-readings of the Arthurian legend through time — Geoffrey of Monmouth, Sir Thomas Malory, Tolkien, and Game of Thrones — to movement within the texts themselves — History of Emotions, bildungsroman, and travel narratives. How are texts re-invented across time? What role do texts play as cultural objects in their historical moment and beyond? How does a text engage with moving times, cultures, and space.


Twitter: @BangorMTC2020

Facebook: Bangor English Medievalism Transformed 2020






 CALL FOR PAPERS

"Movement through Arthurian Legend"

Medievalism Transformed 2020 explores all historical and literary ideas relating to the theme of movement in the medieval world. How are texts re-invented across time? What role do texts play as cultural objects in their historical moment and beyond? How does a text engage with moving times, cultures, and space?

We invite papers relating to movement through Arthurian legend crossing all periods, borders, and historical and literary disciplines including but not limited to:

• Travel, migration, and pilgrimage
• Familial bonding
• Life and death
• Dreams versus reality
• History of Emotions
• Translation between languages and mediums (ekphrasis, illustration, music)
• Movement of ideas through time, place, and space
• Re-readings of the Arthurian legend through time

We welcome individual proposals for twenty-minute papers (max. 200 words). We also encourage three-person panel proposals (max. 300 words). Submissions should include a title as well as five keywords. Please send all submissions (as PDF attachments) to medievalismtransformed@bangor.ac.uk.

We welcome applications from graduate students at any university.



Proposals due 1 April 2020

Follow us on Twitter @BangorMTC2020 and like our Facebook page “Bangor English Medievalism Transformed 2020”.

CFP International Arthurian Society, North American Branch Mini-conference within the Symposium for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (1/15/2020; Saint Louis University 6/15-20/2020)

Almost missed this. Posted from the International Arthurian Society, North American Branch:

Call for Papers

International Arthurian Society, North American Branch Mini-conference within the Symposium for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Saint Louis University

https://www.smrs-slu.org/

June 15-17, 2020

We would like to invite you to submit abstracts for a mini-conference of the International Arthurian Society, North American Branch at the Eight Annual Symposium for Medieval and Renaissance Studies hosted at Saint Louis University. The symposium takes place June 15-20, 2020. The official CFP submission deadline for the conference is December 31, 2018, but you have until January 15, 2020 to submit your proposals; a perk of he having the branch secretary-treasurer serving on the Symposium Program Committee. We can submit as many sessions as we can organize within the context of 3 days of conference sessions.

Each Year, the Executive and Advisory Board of the IAS-NAB invites a scholar to give the Loomises Lecture, which afterwards is published in Arthuriana. For 2020, we have invited Dorrie Armstrong to deliver the Loomises lecture.

With this in mind, here are the sessions that we are inviting your proposals for:

I. Arthurian Women

II. Chivalric Masculinity - When Knights Fail to Live Up to The Code of Chivalry: Who Survives? Who Dies? and Why?

III. Open Topic: all submissions welcome on Arthurian topics



Please submit your abstract to both David F. Johnson (djohnson@fsu.edu) and Evelyn Meyer (evelyn.meyer@slu.edu) no later than January 15, 2020. Do NOT submit it through the symposium submission portal as your submission won’t go to us and the IAS-NAB mini-conference at the SMRS but will be considered as part of the general pool of submissions at the SMRS.



Sincerely,
Evelyn Meyer
Secretary-Treasurer, IAS-NAB