Gender and Transgression in Middle Ages: Third Annual Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Conference
We are pleased to announce a call for papers to Gender and Transgression 2010, a two-day interdisciplinary postgraduate conference hosted by the St Andrews Institute of Mediaeval Studies. Now in its third year, the conference aims to create a lively and welcoming forum for postgraduate students and academic staff to build contacts, present research and participate in creative discussion on the topics of gender and transgression in the Middle Ages. We are especially keen to explore the ways in which these topics, frequently studied in reference to points of rupture or breakdown, may also be discussed in their relation to growth and change in the past.
We invite speakers working in the areas of History, Language, Literature, Art History, Theology, Philosophy, and any other relevant discipline to submit proposals for papers of approximately 20 minutes in length which engage with the themes of gender and/or transgression in the mediaeval period. This year’s keynote speaker will be Emeritus Professor R I Moore (School of Historical Studies, University of Newcastle), author of The Birth of Popular Heresy (1975), The Formation of a Persecuting Society (1987), and The First European Revolution (2000).
Possible topics for papers might include, but are by no means limited to:
- How may the concepts “gender” and/or “transgression” have been significant in mediaeval contexts?
- In what ways do these categories of analysis affect our study of religious (both ortho- and heterodox), social, economic or political history?
- Can transgression be seen as a constructive force in the Middle Ages?
- To what extent can the analytical categories of gender and transgression be usefully combined?
- Against what did mediaeval people transgress? (a point raised at the 2009 conference by keynote speaker Professor John Arnold)
All delegates are invited to attend an evening meal after the first day’s sessions. Refreshments will be provided throughout the second day, which will conclude with an informal roundtable discussion and wine reception.
Please send abstracts for papers of approximately 300 words to genderandtransgression@st-andrews.ac.uk. The deadline for submission is 14th February 2010.
