MLA Members, please consider submitting an abstract for the following three panels sponsored by the Old English Forum at the upcoming 2023 MLA meeting, to be held 5th-8th January in San Francisco. Please share widely–the deadline for submitting abstracts is 15th March, 2022!
NEW: Old English, Middle English, and Contemporary Trans Studies
Medieval studies is in a moment in which it is re-examining the long-held categories that have traditionally defined its boundaries. As this reconceptualization of the field progresses, Trans Studies offers a number of scholarly methodologies and insights that are changing the way medievalists consider their field and, more specifically, Trans history both in the period and beyond. Indeed, a cohort of emerging and established scholars have recently published groundbreaking new research in the area, including 2019’s special issue of the Medieval Feminist Forum on “Visions of Medieval Trans Feminism” (eds. Bychowski and Kim) and 2021’s Trans and Genderqueer Subjects in Medieval Hagiography (eds. Spencer-Hall and Gutt) and Trans Historical (eds. LaFleur, Raskolnikov, and Klosowska). These new works read the medieval archive in light of the work of modern Trans Studies scholars, demonstrating how the latter generates insights into genres as diverse as saints’ lives, mystical texts, and romance. This roundtable panel invites contributions that examine the intersections of medieval studies and Trans Studies, including (but not limited to): papers that show how the conceptual resources of Trans Studies can enrich existing medievalist methodologies and vice versa; reflections on the development of medieval Trans Studies, including work in Trans Studies avant la lettre; innovative approaches to the intersections among feminism, Trans Studies, and the medieval; new readings and insights from the archives that take up these topics; how transgender, non-binary, genderqueer, and intersex lives in the Middle Ages can help clarify, modify, or engage in modern Trans Studies and theory; and how our professional spaces, such as university departments or conferences like the MLA, remain problematic for marginalized scholars working in “traditional” historical and literary fields. We particularly welcome papers that engage with Trans history writ large, from, say, Old English trans masculine warriors to the rich Trans history of this year’s MLA location, San Francisco, with its formative events such as the Compton’s Cafeteria riot. 250-word abstracts for this roundtable session should be sent to Claire Waters (cmwaters@ucdavis.edu) and Mary Kate Hurley (hurleym1@ohio.edu) no later than March 18, 2022.
Secrets and Secret Writing in Early England
While often represented as cryptologically trivial, early medieval ciphers and other systems for secret communication are preserved in a broad range of contexts and often persistently defy satisfactory decryption. This session welcomes engagements with how and in what sort of contexts secret communications are represented as well as with what such encryptions might signify. Please send 250-word abstracts to Susan Kim (smkim2@ilstu.edu) by March 15 2022.
Death, Disease, and Decay in Early Medieval England
Early English writers knew the end was near. In homilies, law codes, and poems, we are confronted with the fact of a fleeting world and the precarity of everything in it. In our own time, in a late-stage pandemic, scholars have found themselves drawn to the conversations of these long-dead writers about ways of dying well, ways to ward off death and disease, about the ubiquity of decay. This panel seeks papers considering new angles on dying, disease and decay in early medieval England. Topics might include the ars moriendi tradition, the deaths of saints, remedies for disease, the decline of kingdoms, depictions of decay (or its relationship to decadence,) and other related topics. Please send 250-word abstracts to Jennifer Lorden (jalorden@wm.edu) by March 15, 2022.
NON GUARANTEED SESSION: Early Medievalists in the Lab: Reflections on Scientific Collaborations
Medieval studies has recently seen a plethora of innovative research collaborations with scientists: in 2015, Professor Christina Lee’s research with colleagues in microbiology into the effectiveness of early medieval charms against modern MRSA infections was in the news frequently, and began a resurgence of interest both in early medieval medicine and the kinds of knowledge that can be created when we collaborate with colleagues in the sciences. At Ohio State University, the recent Popular Culture and the Deep Past conference emphasized “The Experimental Archaeology of Medieval and Renaissance Food.” And at Yale, macro X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy has revealed that the Vinland Map is – as has been long argued – a modern fabrication.
As funding and prestige for such projects continues to grow, it seems an important moment to reflect on innovative collaborations between researchers in STEM fields and early medieval English, and this panel invites papers that reflect on, report about, or examine the contours of such scholarly endeavors. Potential topics include but are not limited to current research collaborations, potential avenues for future research, and reflections on the ethical and intellectual ramifications of this sort of work. This session is a non-guaranteed session designed to coincide with the Presidential theme for the 2023 MLA Conference, “Working Conditions.” Please send 250-word abstracts to Mary Kate Hurley (hurleym1@ohio.edu) by March 15, 2022.
Jennifer A. Lorden 