The International Congress on Medieval Studies has released a preview of the schedule for its 56th Congress. This conference guide is compiled from that preview and will be updated. Please check with the ICMS for complete event information.
Sessions with a stated or otherwise clear interest in disability have titles in black.
Sessions we have included despite clarity re: disability studies have titles in gray.
Asterisks (*) indicate the session will be recorded.
45* Monday, May 10, 1:00 p.m. EDT
The Syndergaard Ballad Session: Motives, Motifs, and Monsters
Sponsor: Kommission für Volksdichtung
Organizer: Lynn Wollstadt, South Suburban College
Presider: Lynn Wollstadt
Werewolves, Cannibalism, and Curses: Gender and the Corporeality of Monstrosity in Two Swedish Medieval Ballads
Rachel Bott, Independent Scholar
Kvedarlundar: The Ballad Repertoires of Folk Informants in Norway
Sandra Ballif Straubhaar, Univ. of Texas–Austin
59* Monday, May 10, 3:00 p.m. EDT
King Lear: Texts, Pre-Texts, and Aftertexts
Sponsor: Shakespeare at Kalamazoo
Organizer: Dianne E. Berg, Clark Univ.
Presider: Dianne E. Berg
“This Prophecy Merlin Shall Make”: Medieval Prophecy Poems and the Vision of History in King Lear
Natalia Khomenko, York Univ.
“Dost Thou Call Me Fool”: Staging Lear’s Madness
Christina L. Gutierrez-Dennehy, Northern Arizona Univ.
Is This the Promised End? Putting King Lear on Pause in Station Eleven Nora L. Corrigan, Mississippi Univ. for Women
99* Tuesday, May 11, 9:00 a.m. EDT
Whatever Happened to Baby Cain? Ambiguous Childhood in Medieval Literature I: Childhood Unbound
Organizer: Alexandra Claridge, Univ. of Liverpool
Presider: Madelaine Smart, Univ. of Liverpool
The Ambiguous Authority of Medieval Youth
Eve Salisbury, Western Michigan Univ
Mothers and Monstrosity: The Abject in Volsunga saga
Aaryn M. Smith, Univ. of Wisconsin–Madison
Prophetic Ragnarssons: Strange Births and Childhoods in the Hero’s Saga
Konrad B. Hughes, Univ. of Missouri
Demonic Changelings: Horrible to See, Distressing to Hear, and Cared for Consistently
Rose A. Sawyer, Keble College, Univ. of Oxford
144* Tuesday, May 11, 3:00 p.m. EDT
Medicine and Gender in the Arthurian World
Sponsor: International Arthurian Society, North American Branch (IAS/NAB)
Organizer: Melissa Ridley Elmes, Lindenwood Univ.
Presider: Melissa Ridley Elmes
“Evil deeds shame men / More than good ones help them”: Physical Injury, Healing, and Social “Purity” in Chrétien de Troyes’s Le Chevalier de la Charrette
Elizabeth Pafford, Kent State Univ.
Spells, Miracles, Potions, and Salves: Healing Practices in Arthurian Legend
Rachael K. Warmington, Seton Hall Univ.
Poisoned Politics in Malory’s Morte Darthur
Noah G. Peterson, Texas A&M Univ.
Synchronization with the Feminine and the Healing Poultices of Morgan le Fay in Hartmann von Aue’s Iwein and Erec
Walker Horsfall, Univ. of Toronto
149* Tuesday, May 11, 3:00 p.m. EDT
Chaucer and Trauma IV: Bodies and Capacity
Sponsor: Chaucer Review
Organizer: Susanna Fein, Kent State Univ.; David Raybin, Eastern Illinois Univ.
Presider: David Raybin
Motherhood Interrupted: Bodies, Borders, and Chaucer’s Griselda
Katherine Koppelman, Seattle Univ.
“Leeve mooder, leet me in!”: The Trauma of Aging in Chaucer
David Hadbawnik, Univ. of Wisconsin–Eau Claire
Trauma and Narrative Failure: Domestic Violence and the Wife of Bath
Erin Felicia Labbie, Bowling Green State Univ.
“Wax al deef ”: Disability, Gender, and Sovereignty in the Wife of Bath’s Prologue
Kayla M. Shea, Univ. of Tennessee–Knoxville
168* Wednesday, May 12, 9:00 a.m. EDT
Outer Limits of Identity: The Monstrous in the Iberian World
Sponsor: Center for Inter-American and Border Studies, Univ. of Texas–El Paso
Organizer: Matthew V. Desing, Univ. of Texas–El Paso
Presider: Matthew V. Desing
Body Horror: On the Margins of Monstrosity in Medieval Spain
Robin M. Bower, Pennsylvania State Univ.
Dehumanizing Transformations in the Alborayque, a Fifteenth-Century Pamphlet
Víctor Rodríguez-Pereira, Michigan State Univ.
Gods or Monsters: The Iberian Discovery of Hinduism in Velho, Castanheda, and Camões
Marcelo E. Fuentes, New Jersey City Univ.
268* Thursday, May 13, 11:00 a.m. EDT
Romance and the Animal Turn III: Romance and Posthumanism
Sponsor: Medieval Romance Society
Organizer: Tim Wingard, Centre for Medieval Studies, Univ. of York
Presider: Kate Maxwell, Univ. of Tromsø The Arctic Univ. of Norway
Life on the Borders: The Questing Beast and Ecotonal Imagery in Malory’s Le Morte Darthur
Catherine Brassell, Univ. of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign
“What beast is this?”: Queer Kinship, Species Panic, and the Language of “Kynde” in Cheuelere Assigne
Tim Wingard
The Gaze of the Werewolf: The Human/Animal Divide in Marie de France’s Bisclavret
Khizar Khan, Independent Scholar
281* Thursday, May 13, 3:00 p.m. EDT
Saintly Wounds
Sponsor: Hagiography Society
Organizer: Stephanie Grace-Petinos, Western Carolina Univ.
Presider: Stephanie Grace-Petinos
Byzantine Foreheads Disfigured: The Inversion of the Perfection of the Body in The Curious Case of Graptoi
Nikolas O. Hoel, Northeastern Illinois Univ.
Losing Face, Saving Grace: The Trope of Facial Disfigurement in Saints’ Lives
Lacey Bonar, West Virginia Univ.
The Postmortem Wound of Sainte Audrée
Christina Marie Virok, Independent Scholar
Desecration and Devotion: Integrating Douceline of Digne’s Wounded Body into Liturgical Spaces
Samantha Slaubaugh, Univ. of Notre Dame
The Mystical Narrative of Giovanni di Paolo’s Saint Catherine of Siena Predella
Nina Gonzalbez, Florida State Univ.
297* Thursday, May 13, 5:00 p.m. EDT
Intangible Cultural Heritage and the Global Middle Ages
Organizer: Rebecca Straple-Sovers, Western Michigan Univ.
Presider: Rebecca Straple-Sovers
A Universal Living Tradition of Acanthus-Arabesque Ornamentation in Christian, Islamic, and Hindu-Buddhist Religious Spaces
Hee Sook Lee-Niinioja, Independent Scholar
The Cultural Heritage of Mental Disability
Kisha G. Tracy, Fitchburg State Univ.
Contact: The Importance of Other Cultures at Norse/Viking Interpretive Sites
Megan Arnott, Western Michigan Univ.
Friday, May 14, 11 a.m. EDT
Business Meeting: Society for the Study of Disability in the Middle Ages
358* Friday, May 14, 3:00 p.m. EDT
Disability and Sanctity in the Middle Ages
Sponsor: Society for the Study of Disability in the Middle Ages; Hagiography Society
Organizer: Leah Parker, Univ. of Southern Mississippi
Presider: Tory V. Pearman, Miami Univ.–Hamilton
Disability and Race in the Posthumous Leg Transplant Miracle of Cosmas and Damian
Stephanie Grace-Petinos, Western Carolina Univ.
Material Miracles: An Ecology of Healing in the Middle Ages
Richard H. Godden, Louisiana State Univ.
Saint Margaret and Natal Disability
Leah Parker
Perspectives on Blindness, Deafness, and Muteness in the Medieval Chinese Emi- nent Monks Literature
Christopher Jon Jensen, Carleton Univ.
Respondent: Jennifer C. Edwards, Manhattan College
363 Friday, May 14, 3:00 p.m. EDT
Medicine and Magic
Presider: John L. Leland, Salem Univ.
Gender, Chatter, and Madness: Gemædla in Anglo-Saxon Leechbook III Emily R. Gerace, SUNY–Rockland
“Narcotics” in Medieval Islamic Magic
Liana Saif, Warburg Institute
The Female Body, or Is It?
Baylee M. Staufenbiel, Florida State Univ.
Madness, Subjective Dualism, and State Enforcement of Mental Health in King Lear and After
Andrew Scott, Bucknell Univ.
364* Friday, May 14, 3:00 p.m. EDT
Rulership at Kalamazoo II: Representing and Remembering Medieval Monarchies
Sponsor: Royal Studies Network
Organizer: Valerie E. Schutte, Independent Scholar
Presider: Anna C. S. Lukyanova, Univ. of North Carolina–Chapel Hill
Queenship and the Alchemists in Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire
Curtis Runstedler, Eberhard Karls Univ. Tübingen
The Poetics of DNA: Representing and Remembering King Richard III in Carol Ann Duffy’s 2015 Elegy
Michael A. Winkelman, Newman School
“Death” by Thirst at Arthur’s Court: The Relevance of an Eco-Feminist Myth for Today’s Environmental Crisis
Thérèse Saint Paul, Murray State Univ.
382* Friday, May 14, 5:00 p.m. EDT
Pandemic Pedagogies: Teaching Plagues across Time, Cultures, and Disciplines (A Panel Discussion)
Sponsor: TEAMS (Teaching Association for Medieval Studies)
Organizer: Thomas Goodmann, Univ. of Miami
Presider: Thomas Goodmann
A panel discussion with Deborah M. Sinnreich-Levi, Stevens Institute of Technology, and Suzanne Delle, York College of Pennsylvania.
387* Friday, May 14, 7:00 p.m. EDT
Disability as Language: Rethinking Communication in the Middle Ages (A Roundtable)
Sponsor: Society for the Study of Disability in the Middle Ages
Organizer: Tory V. Pearman, Miami Univ. Hamilton; Gregory Carrier, Univ. of Toronto
Presider: Tory V. Pearman
A roundtable discussion with Kisha G. Tracy, Fitchburg State Univ.; Leah Parker, Univ. of Southern Mississippi; Gregory Carrier; Cameron Hunt McNabb, Southeast- ern Univ.; and John P. Sexton, Bridgewater State Univ.
404 Saturday, May 15, 11:00 a.m. EDT
Healing and the Healer in Popular Culture
Sponsor: Medica: The Society for the Study of Healing in the Middle Ages
Organizer: William H. York, Portland State Univ.
Presider: William H. York
Laughter as Medicine and Laughing at Medicine in Adam de la Halle’s Jeu de la feuillée
Laine E. Doggett, St. Mary’s College of Maryland
Sir Knight, Heal Thyself! Health Care among Knights-Errant in Some Early Arthurian Romances
Helga Ruppe, Univ. of Western Ontario
“To Your Health!”: Examining the Influence of Medical Knowledge on Four- teenth-Century English Cuisine
Hannah R. Lloyd, Yale Univ.
438 Saturday, May 15, 3:00 p.m. EDT
Desire and Disease: The Medicalization of Sex in the Middle Ages
Sponsor: Medica: The Society for the Study of Healing in the Middle Ages
Organizer: William H. York, Portland State Univ.
Presider: William H. York
Sex Is Not the Treatment for Every Woman: Hildegard of Bingen’s Temperament Theory regarding Women’s Sexual Life
Minji Lee, Montclair State Univ.
Sex, Holes, and Late Medieval Regimen sanitatis Book
Danijela Zutic, McGill Univ.
Fertility and Faithlessness: Medieval Aphrodisiacs Repurposed as Treatments for Venereal Diseases in Early Modern England
Nichola E. Harris, SUNY–Ulster
447 Saturday, May 15, 5:00 p.m. EDT
De-Colonizing Medieval Disability Studies (A Workshop)
Sponsor: Society for the Study of Disability in the Middle Ages
Organizer: Kisha G. Tracy, Fitchburg State
Presider: Richard H. Godden, Louisiana State Univ.
A workshop led by Kisha G. Tracy.
The sessions in this guide were included on the basis of the terminology in their descriptions. If you would like your session to be included in this guide, please contact us.
