Journeying along Medieval Routes at the International Medieval Congress 2010

Following on from the round table ‘Navigating Space’ at the International Medieval Congress 2009, we are planning a series of interdisciplinary sessions and a round table on ‘Routes’ for IMC 2010’s theme ‘Travel and Exploration’. The proposed sessions will investigate routes taken by medieval travellers in an interdisciplinary or cross-disciplinary way.  Each session will consider a single, specific route or places upon that route using different varieties of evidence, such as travel narratives (widely interpreted), contemporary maps, and archaeological traces. Routes for consideration might include pilgrimage routes, trade routes, routes of military expeditions (including crusades), postal networks, land routes, and waterways (inland and maritime). We therefore invite individual papers that, through textual, archaeological, cartographic or other visual evidence, approach specific routes in three broadly-defined areas: within Europe, between Europe and the eastern Mediterranean, and within south-west Asia/the Islamic world.

It is hoped that, through these sessions and in particular through the round table discussion that will conclude the series, we will raise and begin to answer a number of key questions about travelling, routes, and space in the Middle Ages. What is the relationship between the experience and conceptualisation of travel? What gaps exist in the evidence for travel as a physical, economic, social and cultural phenomenon, and can interdisciplinary work help us to bridge these? Can interdisciplinary approaches enhance our understanding of past experiences and conceptualisations of space, place and travel?