Medieval Association of the Midwest |
Dear MAM Colleagues -
Looking forward to seeing you at ICMS 2025.
We will be hosting a welcome hour and business update
and would love for you to join us at our sessions and our
social hour. If not in person, then see our virtual
offerings.
It would be great to share good news and to
have friends with us to welcome our new speakers for
this year's sessions, as well as the chance to get to
know potential speakers for our Medieval+ Monsters
conference in the fall (see below) - so please join us at
the Welcome Hour.
The agenda will be: to elect a new president, if you
have someone you would like to nominate, or wish to self-
nominate please let us know as soon as possible (before
May 8, 2025) by sending an email to:
Amity Reading our MAM secretary.
We are also currently seeking a co-editor for Enarratio,
please contact Alex Kaufman with suggestions or interest.
We will also be fielding suggestions for 2026 ICMS
sessions and will vote on them at our social hour,
so if you could send suggestions asap that would
be great. We would like to vote on them at the meeting.
Please email Mickey Sweeney
(msweeney@dom.edu) or Tory Schendel-Vyvoda
We will share updates from our Editor and Treasurer.
Good luck for the end of term!
All the best, Mickey
Mickey Sweeney
President of MAM
Professor of English, Dominican University
Sessions at ICMS 2025:
Sessions: 11, 90,142, 158, 337, & 441 (Eastern time)
Happy Hour: Thursday May 8, Student Center 1024, 6-7:30 pm
THURSDAY MAY 8, 20205
11 The Natural World in Medieval Thought (1): Fossils,
90 The Future of the Medieval Past: Resources and Technologies,
Old and New (A Roundtable - online) Co-Sponsored with Pearl Poet
Society
1:30-3:00pm (remote participation room Sangren 1406 reserved)
Friday May 9, 2025
158 The Natural World in Medieval Thought (2): Insects, Animals, Birds
Saturday, May 10, 2025
Sangren 4560 10:00-11:30 am Waldo 3027 3:30-5:00pm
Updates:
Medieval + Monsters Conference (2025) information:
We are very excited to report that we (MAM, IMA, MAMA)
have had a great response to our Call for Papers to the Medieval +
Monsters Conference, over 90 individual and session submissions.
Thanks to all of you that have already submitted.
We have just agreed our Speaker - Maria Dahvana Headley
(author of The Mere Wyf - see below) and are working with the
Newberry Library to develop workshops.
Please share with your colleagues and consider submitting
your own ideas, especially for a workshop.
Hosted @ Dominican University & the Newberry Library
Questions: Monsterconference2025@gmail.com
Maria Dahvana Headley will be our keynote speaker on
Friday October 17, 2025.
With the new addition to our Conference, we are hoping to engage
even more of our medieval and medievalism colleagues as the
creative and the academic merge in Headely's works, most
especially Beowulf and The Mere Wyf. We already have some
wonderful abstracts, but we hope to engage an even more
diverse number of fields to participate. Please share this conference info
with your grad students and colleagues as we seek to build a supportive
network for all.
New York Times Bestselling Author
Academy of American Poets Harold Morton Landon Translation
Awards
Joyce Carol Oates Prize Finalist
NPR Book of the Year
Maria Dahvana Headley is the New York Times-bestselling, World Fantasy and
Hugo Award-winning author of eight books, most recently Beowulf: A New
Translation (FSG, 2020), which won the Harold Morton Landon Translation Prize
from the Academy of American Poets, and The Mere Wife (FSG, 2018), a
contemporary novel adaptation of Beowulf. Her full cast musical adaptation of
The Aeneid, titled Vergil: a Mythological Musical, came out from Audible in 2023.
She delivered the Tolkien Lecture on Fantasy Literature at Oxford in 2023, and
has taught writing at Sarah Lawrence and Bennington, among many others.
When asked by Slate about her use of contemporary slang in her Beowulf
translation,Headley responded, “My whole career has been grabbing bits of
folklore and repurposing them, and testing out different meters and repurposing
them. That’s the writer I am. But in terms of using some of the more recent slang,
I was really just interested in how much of the English language has been
constructed out of slang always.That’s just the nature of the language. It’s a
language that grabs culturally, jumps class."
The Jim Falls Paper Prize will be awarded to the best paper by a graduate
student delivered at the 2025 joint meeting of (MAM), (MAMA), and the (IMA).
The prize includes a monetary award of $100.
Deadline: 15 September 2025.
Graduate students are encouraged to send a completed copy of the accepted
paper (no more than 10 pages not including notes) along with their name, university
institution, and graduate status to blantonv@umkc.edu
. Please include in the subject line: Jim Falls Graduate Prize. The paper you submit
should be the paper you intend to present at the conference. Please do not submit
an entry if you have previously received this award.
See the previous winners of the Jim Falls Paper Prize.
Cost to register for the conference:
$100.00 for faculty & working professionals (includes membership to
MAM for 2025)
$75.00 retired/independent scholar (includes 2025 MAM Membership)
Students: no charge
Payment options coming 
Conference Sessions will be at Dominican University (River Forest, IL),
the Newberry Library (Chicago, IL), and online. More to follow.
Professor of English, Dominican University
Honors; Medieval & Renaissance Minor
President of the Medieval Association of the Midwest
This conference is all about the strength in collaboration and partnerships,
we are looking to support all our colleagues in the future of their professions
and research. Enarratio, MAM's journal & Essays in Medieval Studies, the journal
for IMA, will be sharing the submissions for our mutual publications. Be sure to
see our 2024 collections now available online.
We are delighted to partner with the Center for Renaissance Studies and the
Newberry, which is a public research library located in Chicago that houses a
strong collection of medieval manuscripts, printed books, and other objects.
We are looking forward to a session, a workshop, and a tour of the library's
Medieval and Renaissance collections.
We are also grateful for the CARA grant that will support graduate
attendance at this conference.
Hosted @ Dominican University & the Newberry Library
Individual abstracts of 250 words should be submitted to: Monsterconference2025@gmail.com by March 15, 2025.
If you are graduate student, note if you want to participate in an on-line session in your proposal. Proposed panels are also accepted. Questions: Mickey Sweeney
Abstracts focused on medieval, or medievalism monstrous themes are welcome; this topic is broadly conceived to encourage colleagues from all relevant disciplines, such as art historians, linguists, literature, theologians, historians, history of science, and forms of medievalism etc., to apply. We also have an active group of graduate students & emerging scholars who are interested in developing online sessions, as well as in-person workshops in teaching the medieval through medievalism, gaming, etc. Please note on your abstract if you are interested in an in-person session or an online session and if you are proposing a graduate session/roundtable/traditional paper/session.
The Jim Falls Paper Prize will be awarded to the best paper by a graduate student delivered at the 2025 joint meeting of (MAM), (MAMA), and the (IMA). The prize includes a monetary award of $100.
Deadline: 15 September 2025.
Graduate students are encouraged to send a completed copy of the accepted paper (no more than 10 pages not including notes) along with their name, university institution, and graduate status to blantonv@umkc.edu. Please include in the subject line: Jim Falls Graduate Prize. The paper you submit should be the paper you intend to present at the conference. Please do not submit an entry if you have previously received this award.
See the previous winners of the Jim Falls Paper Prize.
Mickey Sweeney
Professor of English, Dominican University
Honors; Medieval & Renaissance Minor
President of the Medieval Association of the Midwest
This conference is all about the strength in collaboration and partnerships, we are looking to support all our colleagues in the future of their professions and research. Enarratio, MAM's journal & Essays in Medieval Studies, the journal for IMA, will be sharing the submissions for our mutual publications. Be sure to see our 2024 collections now available online.
We are delighted to partner with the Center for Renaissance Studies and the Newberry, which is a public research library located in Chicago that houses a strong collection of medieval manuscripts, printed books, and other objects. We are looking forward to a session, a workshop, and a tour of the library's Medieval and Renaissance collections.
We are also grateful for the CARA grant that will support graduate attendance at this conference.
Kalamazoo in May (sessions posted on home page)
Leeds session July 3rd (details and zoom link to follow)
& Co-hosting MAMA/MAM in the fall (see CFP on our page)
THIS IS WHAT 2023 Looked Like - We Were BUSY
Session | 927 |
Title | The Benefits of Being Entangled: A Round Table Discussion |
Date/Time | Tuesday 4 July 2023: 19.00-20.00 (English time) |
Sponsor | Pearl-Poet Society / Medieval Association of the Midwest (MAM) |
Organiser | Mickey Sweeney, School of English, Dominican University, Illinois |
Moderator/Chair | Ashley Bartelt, Department of English, Northern Illinois University |
Mickey Sweeney, School of English, Dominican University, Illinois | |
Abstract | Anglophone academic institutions increasingly argue against supporting medieval language and literary studies on the grounds that the discipline is irrelevant to current 'practically' driven, diversity / justice-inspired curriculums. This round table offers a forum for exploring strategies for cross-temporal and cross-disciplinary entanglements in the teaching of late 14th-century Middle English texts. As we are slowly being written out of the profile of English, History, and Philosophy degrees, on account of perceived student 'wants', or management's misunderstanding of relations between subjects of study within individual disciplines, we need to find ways to assert our joyfully messy and plural, yet intellectually rigorous, entanglements with all aspects of the humanities deemed specifically relevant to the present, entanglements that make knowledge of medieval culture integral not only to the learning goals and objectives of our own departments but of the liberal arts as a whole. So many of the great works of the present or cultural concerns of 2023 are grounded in a relationship with works / events of the past and the 'soft' skills that employers seek are bread and butter learning outcomes for our classes. We will also discuss strategies for devising courses that will convince people of the need to understand the origins of our contemporary culture. Like all good teaching, this round table offers practical and theoretical ways to continue to be a part of the work that needs to be done to help our colleagues and all our students to thrive in this complex time. We will invite the audience to come prepared with their ideas and suggestions. Participants include Ashley Bartelt (Northern Illinois University), Catherine J. Batt (University of Leeds), Jane Beal (University of La Verne, California), Michael Calabrese (California State University, Los Angeles) and Katie Jo LaRiviere (Mount Angel Seminary, Oregon). |
FALL 2023: MMH Conference in Grand Rapids October
Thanks to the Midwest Medieval Historical Conference (10 / 2023). It was great to be invited to host an online session for the MMHC, a dynamic group of people were there and a really lively discussion followed. It was decided by the MMHC that they would like to try and participate in our joint MAM/MAMA conference in 2024, so great news to welcome some potential sessions by historians.The Medieval Association of the Midwest holds an annual meeting, usually in late September or early October. This conference offers panels of papers, round tables, plenary sessions, as well as the occasional workshop on printing, manuscripts, or other tours or presentations related to medieval studies. The conference is generally held at a location in the Midwestern United States or the occasional exotic location (Mayaguez or Madrid).
The Association always welcomes invitations to host future conferences. For those who are interested in doing so, please review the brief pamphlet on resources for hosts of the MAM conference. Upcoming conferences are planned for the following locations:
Information about past conferences (with photos) can be found on the MAM Conference page.
Please join us for a joint meeting of
The Mid-America Medieval Association & the Medieval Association of the Midwest
The Medieval Out of Time & Place
Plenary: Dr. Elizabeth K. Hebbard of the Peripheral Manuscripts Project
French & Italian, Indiana University – Bloomington
In case you missed it: 2023 MAM Kalamazoo meeting Agenda: We would like to introduce our 2023 presenters to our association & we are keen to reconnect to our MAM memebers. We have some work to do - we need a quorum for making desperately needed changes to our constitution. We want ideas on how best to move forward with a regional organization and insight into the needs and expectations of our members. MEETING AGENDA:
Revised Constitution for your consideration:
HERE are the 58th International Congress on Medieval Studies MAM sessions 2023 - Join Us Medieval Association of the Midwest (MAM) Meeting & Drinks Reception @ Bernhard Center 242 Thursday (5/11) 5:30–6:30 p.m. The Medieval Association of the Midwest is pleased to announce five sponsored sessions that cover a breadth of topics (4 in person, 1 virtual) at the International Medieval Congress in Kalamazoo, Michigan, May 11–May 13, 2023. MAM supports scholars at all stages in their careers and greatly values your contribution. For any questions feel free to reach out to Dr. Stephen Yandell yandell@xavier.edu. 1. Wanted Dead and Alive: Schrödinger’s Cat and the Middle Ages// Session 61 Bernhard Center 208 @ Thursday (5/11) 1:30pm & the Second ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’ is Session 111, Thursday, 3:30 pm. Bernhard 208. These sessions invite contributors to explore ways that conceptions of death and understandings of what it means to live interweave in all aspects of medieval life. Where does one find life and death intersecting in and across medieval fields? What appears simultaneously alive and dead in medieval scholarship today? This session invites contributors to explore ways that conceptions of death and understandings of what it means to live interweave in all aspects of medieval life. Where does one find life and death intersecting in and across medieval fields? What appears simultaneously alive and dead in medieval scholarship today? 2. Vikings and Medieval Violence in the Modern Mind // Session 322 Bernhard Center 210 Saturday (5/13) @ 10:00am This session invites scholars to consider the popular depiction of Vikings as simultaneously adventurous and threatening. Papers are encouraged to explore any number of questions: what is the history of the romanticization of Vikings and medieval violence? What differences exist between medieval and modern cultural memories of Vikings and violence? How should medievalists as public intellectuals represent and respond to Vikings and medieval violence? 3. Conspicuous Consumption: Feasting, Fighting, and Tomfoolery (co-sponsored with the Pearl-Poet Society). VIRTUAL session // Friday (5/12) @ 1:30pm In this panel papers will consider ways that indulgence and gluttony are portrayed in medieval literary works (in the Pearl-Poet and beyond): how feasting and fighting can indicate the values of a medieval audience, and why authors like the Pearl-Poet condemned such excess, whether in the church or court, in nobility or commoner. 4. Teaching the Medieval in the Midwest // Session 176 Schneider Hall 1135 Friday (5/12) @10:00am This session seeks papers that explore the particular challenges and opportunities that arise when one teaches medieval topics in Midwestern classrooms. We are particularly interested in contributions from graduate students who have navigated medieval teaching experiences in the Midwest at the university level, including pedagogical practices, course development, and student engagement. The top graduate-paper submission will be awarded mentorship for preparing the piece to be published in the journal Enarratio. 5. Second Helping: Reading between the lines of celebration and heartbreak in Chaucer's feasts //Session 26 Schneider Hall 1245 Thursday (5/11) @10:00 am This session invites scholars to explore Chaucer's deliberate pairings of feasting and celebration with characters who are exposed at key moments in the Chaucerian corpus. The Prioress's genuine emotion for animals over innocent people says much about the preoccupations of her “kind,” for example. Papers are invited to explore this topic from any number of perspectives. What might Chaucer have intended by exposure of his characters specifically in food settings?
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