Gender and Transgression in the Middle Ages
5-7 June 2014
Gender and Transgression in the Middle Ages 2014 is an interdisciplinary conference hosted by the University of St Andrews Institute of Mediaeval Studies (SAIMS). Entering into its sixth year, this conference welcomes participation from postgraduate, postdoctoral and early career researchers interested in one or both of the focal themes of gender studies or more general ideas of transgression in the mediaeval period.
This year’s conference will have a keynote lecture by Dr Dion Smythe of the Queen’s University Belfast as well as an optional workshop focused on Interdisciplinary Approaches to Mediaeval Transgression.
The Organizing Committee invites proposals for papers of approximately 20 minutes that engage with the themes of gender and/or transgression from various disciplinary standpoints, such as historical, linguistic, literary, archaeological, art historical, or others.
Possible topics may include, but are by no means limited to:
-Legal studies: men, women and the law, court cases, law-breaking, marriage
-Byzantine studies
-Masculinity and/or femininity in the Middle Ages: ideas of gender norms and their application within current historiography
-Ambiguous genders: eunuchs, transvestites, transgender
-Homosexuality and sexual deviancy
-Orthodoxy and Heresy: transgressing orthodox thought, portrayals of religious ‘outsiders’, monasticism, lay religion, mysticism
-Social outcasts
There will be three set strands of Medieval Law and Literature, Transgression in Byzantium and Masculinity in the Middle Ages. In addition to these, there will be several other sessions within the broader conference theme.
Those wishing to participate should submit an abstract of approximately 250 words to gender and [email protected] by 10 February 2014.
The abstract should be attached to the email as a Microsoft Word or PDF file and include name, home institution and stage of the applicant’s postgraduate or postdoctoral career.
Registration for the conference will be £15, which will cover tea, coffee and lunch on two days and two wine receptions. All delegates are also warmly invited to the conference meal on Friday 6 June. Further deta ils can be found at the website, http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/saims/gender/index.html as they become available.
