Middle Ages in the Modern World (MAMO) 2015

Following the success of MAMO 2013, held at St Andrews last year, we are proud to announce that a follow-up conference will be held from Monday 29 June to Thursday 2 July 2015 at the University of Lincoln. It will also be held in conjunction with Lincoln’s celebrations of the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, where Lincoln’s own copy of the Magna Carta will have returned and be back proudly on display in the castle.

As the title suggests, MAMO aims to explore the continued return to, and relevance of, the Middle Ages in the modern world, and why the period continues to attract audiences and scholars. Particularly, its interdisciplinary focus is designed to explore a range of areas, from popular culture to public history, from science to advertising, and even legal frameworks and political rhetoric. Given the popularity of medievalism as a growing discipline, and given the fantastic reception of the last conference, we are expecting a wide audience from a range of fields and disciplines including History, Literature, Film & Television, Video Games, Performing Arts, Drama, Languages, Museum Curation and more besides.

Specific themes include, but are by no means limited to:

• The reception of the Middle Ages in the arts, music, film, politics & popular culture 
• The significance and relevance of Magna Carta to the modern world 
• Medievalism and Orientalism 
• Translating and interpreting medieval texts 
• Re-enactment and revival 
• Fantasy and the Middle Ages 
• Eco-Medievalism and postmodern approaches to medieval studies 
• The Middle Ages in Film, Television, Comic Books and Graphic Novels 
• Medievalism and video games 
• Science and the Middle Ages 
• The Middle Ages and documentary programming 

In this first round we welcome both proposals for complete panels as well as individual proposals for papers. There’s also a PDF version for download, so please do spread the word to your networks; click here for the Call for Papers poster.

For individual papers, abstracts of 250-300 words should be sent to themamoconference@gmail.com, by 15 September 2014.

We will be keeping all of the details and information up to date through the Facebook group, through the Twitter hashtag #MAMO2015 or on our conference website, located at www.themamo.org. Details of keynotes will be released shortly, and later in the year we will post further information on accommodation, registration and other details. For specific enquiries or details about the conference themes and logistics please contact Andrew Elliott directly on aelliott@lincoln.ac.uk.

Panel proposals should include abstracts, names and contact details of presenters and a short (c. 200 word) description of the panel itself with the organiser’s contact details; these should be sent by Sunday 31 August 2014.

CALL FOR PAPERS: Middle Ages in the Modern World (MAMO) 2015

Following the success of MAMO 2013, held at St Andrews last year, we are proud to announce that a follow-up conference will be held from Monday 29 June to Thursday 2 July 2015 at the University of Lincoln. It will also be held in conjunction with Lincoln’s celebrations of the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, where Lincoln’s own copy of the Magna Carta will have returned and be back proudly on display in the castle.

As the title suggests, MAMO aims to explore the continued return to, and relevance of, the Middle Ages in the modern world, and why the period continues to attract audiences and scholars. Particularly, its interdisciplinary focus is designed to explore a range of areas, from popular culture to public history, from science to advertising, and even legal frameworks and political rhetoric. Given the popularity of medievalism as a growing discipline, and given the fantastic reception of the last conference, we are expecting a wide audience from a range of fields and disciplines including History, Literature, Film & Television, Video Games, Performing Arts, Drama, Languages, Museum Curation and more besides.

Specific themes include, but are by no means limited to:

• The reception of the Middle Ages in the arts, music, film, politics & popular culture
• The significance and relevance of Magna Carta to the modern world
• Medievalism and Orientalism
• Translating and interpreting medieval texts
• Re-enactment and revival
• Fantasy and the Middle Ages
• Eco-Medievalism and postmodern approaches to medieval studies
• The Middle Ages in Film, Television, Comic Books and Graphic Novels
• Medievalism and video games
• Science and the Middle Ages
• The Middle Ages and documentary programming

In this first round we welcome both proposals for complete panels as well as individual proposals for papers. There’s also a PDF version for download, so please do spread the word to your networks; click here for the Call for Papers poster.

For individual papers, abstracts of 250-300 words should be sent to themamoconference@gmail.com, by 15 September 2014.

We will be keeping all of the details and information up to date through the Facebook group, through the Twitter hashtag #MAMO2015 or on our conference website, located at www.themamo.org. Details of keynotes will be released shortly, and later in the year we will post further information on accommodation, registration and other details. For specific enquiries or details about the conference themes and logistics please contact Andrew Elliott directly on aelliott@lincoln.ac.uk.

Panel proposals should include abstracts, names and contact details of presenters and a short (c. 200 word) description of the panel itself with the organiser’s contact details; these should be sent by Sunday 31 August 2014.

Renaissance Reincarnations

University of York, Saturday 17 March 2012

William Shakespeare – a lonely nobody furiously writing away in his garret, or an actor with a penchant for kingly parts? Elizabeth I – a jolly monarch with a partiality for sweets and a fondness for comedies involving dogs, or a cunning strategist thwarting the plans of her dangerous rivals? Philip Henslowe – enterprising money-lender or creative producer?

In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, we remain fascinated with Renaissance lives. This fascination has given rise to some of the most popular and admired works of fiction and liveliest critical debates of our time. While past studies have discussed Renaissance afterlives in isolation, this conference builds on recent interest in studying the modern representation of the Renaissance period from an interdisciplinary perspective. The aims of the conference are twofold – to map patterns and connections between the afterlives of Renaissance figures from different walks of life by bringing together academics from various disciplines; and to understand the ways in which the cultural stories of Renaissance figures shape our editorial, interpretive, and creative practice.

We invite proposals for individual papers (max. 20 minutes) on the theme of twentieth and twenty-first century representations and reincarnations of early modern historical persons who lived between 1500 and 1700 – from monarchs to musicians, poets to politicians. Possible topics may relate to (but are certainly not limited to) the following areas:

• Early modern men and women in popular fiction, e.g. Rupert of the Rhine’s reinvention in the romance novel, or Leonardo Da Vinci as discussed in The Da Vinci Code;
• Renaissance lives in biographies, histories, and scholarly debate, such as Germaine Greer’s Shakespeare's Wife;
• Stage versions of early modern lives, e.g. the award-winning A Man for all Seasons and The School of Night;
• Screen representations of early modern personalities, for instance Elizabeth’s childhood in The Tudors or Vermeer in Girl with a Pearl Earring;
• Musical and nursery rhyme recollections of historical persons, such as singing John Smith in Walt Disney’s Pocahontas, or the real ‘Georgie Porgie’.

Keynote speakers: Professor Martin Butler (University of Leeds) and Professor William Sheils (University of York).

Proposals (max. 300 words) are welcome from both established scholars and postgraduates, and should be sent by Friday 20th January to the conference organisers Dr Varsha Panjwani and Dr Chloe Preedy at renaissance.reincarnations@gmail.com. We very much look forward to receiving your proposal.