2023-2024 Symposium General Call for Papers

The Illinois Medieval Association invites proposals for individual papers and especially full sessions for the 40th Annual Illinois Medieval Association Symposium, to be held online throughout the academic year. Papers presented at the Symposium are eligible for submission to our peer-reviewed proceedings volume, Essays in Medieval Studies, published annually by the West Virginia University Press and available via Project Muse. The Symposium aims to engage all disciplines and geographical areas of medieval studies.

This year’s topic is “Class and Culture in the Middle Ages: Contact, Conflict, Concord.” Social class was a complicated concept, as Chaucer’s reference to his pilgrims’ degree indicates. Culture could also be complicated when applied to the Middle Ages, as the idea of culture could and often did transcend geographic boundaries, as it does today. This year’s symposium seeks to investigate the two concepts in their various incarnations in the Middle Ages. We are looking for any aspect of class and/or culture—both broadly defined, and especially aspects of contact between/among classes and/or cultures. We especially welcome proposals for pre-organized sessions.

The Symposium is spread throughout the academic year, with sessions beginning at 3:00 pm Central time on the Fridays listed below and conducted via Zoom. All sessions are completely free and online.

Submissions to this general call are due by August 15. Each date will also have its own call for papers that we will distribute separately. Dates for this year are

• 9/15
• 9/29
• 10/13
• 11/10
• 1/26
• 2/9
• 2/16
• 3/1

To submit, please send a proposal of no more than 300 words to mwgeorge.51@gmail.com. Include your name, institutional affiliation (if any), title of the proposed paper/session, the date(s) for which you are submitting, and your proposal narrative. Please feel free to contact us at the above email address with ideas for special or pre-organized sessions at the above email address.