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/.

UPDATE Teaching the Arthurian Tradition (12/1/2024; Illinois Medieval Association Symposium 1/17/2025)

The deadline for the January 17 Illinois Medieval Association Symposium session, Teaching the Arthurian Tradition, has been extended to December 1. Please see the CFP below.



------------------------------

Deadline for Proposals: December 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). We welcome all aspects of teaching Arthuriana.

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













---------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael W. Hollis-George


Executive Director
Illinois Medieval Association




Professor of English
Millikin University

mwgeorge.51@gmail.com

Facebook: facebook.com/illinoismedieval

Twitter: @IllinoisMediev1

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

Visualizing Arthur April 2024 Events and Flier

Forwarded on behalf of Barbara Tepa Lupack:

Download the flier here. 

Download the postcard here.

◄ For Immediate Release ►

Visualizing Camelot

An Exhibition from the Collection of Drs. Alan Lupack and Barbara Tepa Lupack

At the University of Rochester

Visualizing Camelot, a University of Rochester River Campus Libraries exhibition from the collection of Drs. Alan Lupack and Barbara Tepa Lupack, explores the ongoing appeal of the Arthurian legends in England and America. The exhibition—which opened on March 7, 2024, with remarks from the Lupacks, a reception, and a tour of the exhibition—reveals the diverse ways that the stories of Camelot have been imagined and visualized, both in high culture (paintings, drawings, illustrated books) and in popular culture (film, toys, games, comic books, cartoons, dishware, product names, business logos, etc.). The exhibition, which includes more than 350 items (many of them unique), runs from the first to the fourth floor of Rush Rhees (from the Friedlander Lobby to Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation and to the Robbins Library). Visualizing Camelot is free and open to all, and a wide array of programming relating to the exhibition is planned throughout 2024.

Among the opening week’s events was a presentation by Dr. Kevin Whetter, Acadia University, on “Why Are There So Few Illustrations in Mediaeval English Arthurian Manuscripts? The Non-Visual Camelot.” 

Upcoming spring events include a five-film Arthurian Film Series hosted by the Eastman Museum’s Dryden Theatre in collaboration with the exhibition. That series will include A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1949), on April 6; Knights of the Round Table (1953), on April; 11; The Sword in the Stone (1963), on April 19; Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), on April 25; and Excalibur (1983), on May 5. For more information on the series, please go to Dryden Theatre | George Eastman Museum


Upcoming next month is a presentation by Dr. Kevin J. Harty, La Salle University, on April 19. Dr. Harty’s topic is “James Bond, A Grifter, A Video Avatar, and a Shark Walk into King Arthur’s Court: The Ever-Expanding Canon of Cinema Arthuriana.” The presentation will also be livestreamed. If interested, please register at the following link:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Lr0nRKZLfJZQl3ynshHWUWiHu1I3o6vG07-fkbaKOgY/edit

(or contact Dr. Anna Siebach-Larsen at annasiebachlarsen@rochester.edu.)

A digital exhibit Visualizing Camelot and an exhibition catalogue will follow by the end of April. A host of other activities and events are scheduled for summer and fall, 2024.

We hope that you will join us, in person or on-line, to tour Visiting Camelot and to participate in some of the exhibition events.

About the Lupacks

Dr. Alan Lupack, a noted Arthurian scholar and former director of the Robbins Library, is author or editor of numerous Arthurian studies, including Arthur, The Greatest King; Arthurian Drama; Modern Arthurian Literature; New Directions in Arthurian Studies; and The Oxford Guide to Arthurian Literature and Legend.

Dr. Barbara Tepa Lupack, the former academic dean at SUNY and New York State Public Scholar (2015-2018), is author or editor of more than 25 books, including The Girl’s King Arthur; King Arthur’s Crown; Adapting the Arthurian Legends for Children; and the recently published The Othering of Women in Silent Film.

The Lupacks have lectured and published widely on Arthurian topics. Together, they created The Camelot Project, a popular and award-winning database of texts, images, and information about the Arthurian legends, and coauthored studies such as Arthurian Literature by Women, Illustrating Camelot, and the award-winning King Arthur in America.

For More Information About the Exhibition: please contact Anna Siebach-Larsen, Director of the Robbins Library, at annasiebachlarsen@rochester.edu.

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.



.

CFP Re-Creating Camelot? Community-Building in Arthurian Studies (A Roundtable) (virtual) (9/15/2023; ICMS 5/9-11/2024)

Re-Creating Camelot? Community-Building in Arthurian Studies (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)

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


See the shared Google Doc for the full call with a list of suggested resources on the topic: https://tinyurl.com/Re-Creating-Camelot-ICMS-2024.

Panel Objective

Re-Creating Camelot? Community-Building in Arthurian Studies (A Roundtable) (virtual)


Building off our sponsored session idea on Creating Camelot(s): The Idea of Community in Arthurian Texts, we’d like, also, this year at Kalamazoo to highlight in a roundtable format the ways that Arthurian enthusiasts and scholars have come together over the ages outside of fiction and strived to establish aspects of Camelot as reality in our/their world.


Questions to guide our conversations include:

• How have the Arthurian legends influenced and inspired the formation of groups seeking to continue the work of the fellowship of the Round Table and/or help us to promote the Matter of Britain?
• How—both in positive and negative ways—has the Matter of Britain been adapted, appropriated, compressed, expanded, and/or transformed by these new communities?
• Ultimately, how have these communities succeeded in reviving the legends? In what ways could they do/have done better?

Presentations could focus on historic events and/or groups as well as current academic activities, organizations, and publications.


Some possible examples:

• Brands/companies (King Arthur Flour). .
• Classroom activities
• Collection development (Bangor, Newberry Library, Rochester)
• Fandoms (Merlin tv series)
• Fanfiction communities (Merlin tv series)
• Gaming/roleplaying communities
• Labor organizations
• Online communities (ArthurNet)
• Organizations (International Arthurian Society, IAS regional branches, MLA’s Arthurian Discussion Group, PCA’s Arthurian Legends Area)
• Outreach pursuits (conferences, symposia)
• Propaganda (medieval and/or post-medieval)
• Scholarly endeavors (Arthurian Literature, Arthuriana, Avalon to Camelot, book series, The Camelot Project, collections, special editions, special issues, sub-fields of Arthurian Studies)
• Wiki/Wikia building
• Youth groups

Please see the shared Google Doc for the full call with a list of suggested resources for examples of previous scholarship on our theme: https://tinyurl.com/Re-Creating-Camelot-ICMS-2024.

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.

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/