ASIMS is pleased to announce that it will sponsor three sessions at the International Medieval Congress in Kalamazoo, MI, to be held May 11-13, 2023. Along with the annual Ferrell lecture, ASIMS will sponsor a panel session on female authority in the medieval Irish church and a workshop on getting started with the digital humanities in the classroom.

Session Title: Who’s in Charge Here? Female Authority and the Medieval Irish Church

Session ID: 3735

Abstract: With women’s/women-identifying bodily autonomy challenged in courts; Amber Heard’s testimony drawing scrutiny of her likability and honesty; and Church officials charged with sexual improprieties, women’s authority—legal, social, religious—continues to vex. Meanwhile, we witness continued devaluing of women in Irish medieval studies, as evidenced by the debate over the merits of Elizabeth Boyle’s excellent book Fierce Appetites and the fact there are far fewer women scholars, far less cited than male counterparts, in this field. This session focuses on the authority of the female in/and the medieval Church as one avenue through which to examine historical contexts for these modern concerns. We invite 15-20 minute papers dealing with any aspect of female authority in the Irish medieval Church, broadly construed. We encourage in particular papers that {challenge traditional} disciplinary and methodological boundaries, including interdisciplinary/comparative approaches and the use of {hagiographical, archaeological, historical sources, employing} gender, material, philological, and digital humanities lenses and theories.

We invite paper proposals for these sessions from any scholars who work in the relevant fields. Please submit proposals through the IMC’s Confex system under the Sponsored Sessions category. The paper proposal deadline is September 15, 2022 and we will determine paper acceptance status by October 15, 2022.

Session Title: Farrell Lecture: Ethics in Medieval Ireland and the Ethics of Medieval Irish Studies

Session ID: 3747

The Farrell Lecture is sponsored annually by ASIMS and features an invited lecturer and respondent. No further space is available in this year’s Farrell Lecture session, though ASIMS members are always welcome to recommend future speakers to the ASIMS board.

Session Title: Digital Pedagogies for a Medieval World: Getting Started with Digital Humanities in the Classroom (A Workshop)

Session ID: 3741

Interested parties should please contact Vicky McAlister or Meg Smith to discuss the goals of this workshop.

Queen’s University Belfast on 24-26 June 2021 (virtual conference)

Call for Papers

The ICM welcomes speakers from Ireland and abroad on all aspects of the Middle Ages. We now invite proposals for papers on any aspect of medieval studies, including but not limited to:

• history
• archaeology
• art history
• literature
• linguistics
• theology
• hagiography
• apocrypha
• philosophy
• palaeography

Papers should last 15 minutes (+ 10 minutes for discussion). Please note the slightly shorter duration than normal.
 We also invite proposals for themed sessions, comprising 3 speakers (please provide a proposal for each paper, and you are welcome to nominate your own session chair).

Proposals should contain the following information:

• name
• institutional affiliation (if any)
• email address
• title
• abstract (c. 100 words)

Proposals are also invited for roundtable sessions of 50 minutes addressing major issues in a field. The proposal should include a short description of the purpose of the roundtable, the name of the chair and a list of agreed participants.

Proposals should be sent to icm@qub.ac.uk no later than Friday 19 March 2021.
Those submitting proposals can expect to be notified before Friday 9 April 2021.
Cuirfear fáilte roimh pháipéir as Gaeilge

San Francisco, CA, April 14-18 2021

Call for Papers

Symposium: “Irish Castle Archaeology: Revealing the True Complexion of Social Life in Medieval Ireland”

Two cultures, Old English and Gaelic, coexisted uneasily on the island of Ireland during the Middle Ages. The aristocratic stratum of these societies commenced to construct fortified residences of stone between the 13th and 15th centuries AD. Despite the paucity of available information on medieval Irish and settler social relations and lifeways, especially from the Gaelic areas, there has been very little investigation of these residences until recently. The participants in this symposium will report on the results of recent investigations on aristocratic residences and associated communities undertaken in Ireland.

Please submit proposals to Dr. D. Blair Gibson by September 16, 2020.

St Louis, MO, Oct 17-20, 2019

Call for Papers

Panel:  “Digital Visualization of late medieval and early modern material culture: objects, places, landscapes”

The American Society of Irish Medieval Studies calls for conference papers on the use of VR, AR and other digital-visualization mediums in research and/or teaching projects related to late medieval and early modern material culture.  This category of “material culture” can include but is not limited to:  castles, parks, manors, field systems, fortifications, landscapes, monuments, objects, etc.  Any culture and/or country can be represented and any technology discussed, although preference will be given to examples of cultures in or deriving from Ireland and the British Isles and/or Celtic cultures elsewhere.

November 14-16, 2019
Greensboro, NC

Medieval Gateways: Threshold, Transition, Exchange

The Southeastern Medieval Association is pleased to announce the Call for Papers for its 2019 Conference to be held at UNC-Greensboro, co-sponsored by UNCG, North Carolina Wesleyan College and Wake Forest University.

We invite proposals for individual papers, whole sessions, or round tables on the conference theme of “medieval gateways.” Papers might consider the notion of transforming places and identities within medieval history, literature, and culture; the role of liminality in literary and cultural productions; diaspora and migration in the medieval period; instances of ideological reform; transitions from the medieval to the modern; the rise of the vernacular, or iconoclasm.

The organizers are extremely proud that Greensboro was one of the earliest sites of the “sit-in” lunch counter protests that sparked the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. Our downtown is home to the International Civil Rights Center and Museum, which is located in the Woolworth Building and houses the original lunch counter where non-violent protesters sat in early 1960. In honor of this important aspect of our area’s history, the conference organizers also propose a secondary thematic thread for the conference on “Resistance.” Papers on this sub-topic might consider the various means of transgressing the physical, religious, social, political, legal, and economic boundaries imposed during the Middle Ages and beyond.

Proposals for individual papers should be limited to 300 words. Session proposals or roundtables should include abstracts for the three papers for a session, or 5-6 abstracts for a roundtable, as well as the contact information for all presenters.

Abstracts on any aspect of medieval studies are welcome, but we will give preference to submissions related to the conference theme. Please submit proposals to semagso2019@gmail.com no later than June 3, 2019.

ASIMS requests proposals for two of our sessions at the 53rd International Congress on Medieval Studies (colloquially known as “Kalamazoo”):

Early Ireland in a Roman Context

This session of papers will be co-hosted with The Heroic Age: A Journal of Early Medieval Northwestern Europe. Even though Ireland was not a Roman colony and always on the outskirts of the Empire, nevertheless there was Roman influence. With Christianization came Roman language, culture, and texts. This session wishes to explore Ireland and it’s relationship to Rome in the Late Antique and Early Medieval periods addressing issues of influence, perception, identity, transmission, syncretism, and related issues. This session will be chaired by Dr Deanna Forsman (North Hennepin Community College).

Living and Dying in Viking-Age Ireland

New research from archaeology, bioarchaeology, historical and literary writing and more, reveal much about the inhabitants of the Viking towns in Ireland. Scholarship can now focus on close-up views of the people who lived and died at these sites. This session seeks to include topics ranging from everyday economies, lives of women, the violent deaths of men, and more, to provide us with insights about living and dying in Viking-Age Ireland. This will be chaired by Dr James Lyttleton (Maynooth University).

Please submit abstracts to Dr James Lyttleton

Glenstal Abbey, September 22nd–September 24th, 2017

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Comhdháil Éireann An Cumann Meiriceánach um Léann na Meánaoise Éireannaí

Mainistir Ghleann Stáil, 22ú Mheán Fomhair–24ú Deireadh Fomhair

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Thursday 21st September (Dublin events)

17.30: Evensong at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
18.30: ASIMS Reception in St. Patrick’s Cathedral Deanery (generously hosted by William Morton, the dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral).

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Friday 22nd September

Conference attendees make their own way to Glenstal (Glenstal is c. 3hrs from Dublin).
18.00 Registration and Welcome
19.15 Supper with Monastic Community

20.00: Keynote Address: Colmán Ó Clabaigh (Glenstal Abbey), ‘When Brothers Live in Unity’: the Eucharist and Social Cohesion in Late Medieval Ireland.

21.30: Reception

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Saturday 23rd September

Breakfast 07.30

8.30-10.00 Session 1

• Speaker 1: Brian Ó Broin (William Paterson U, NJ), How did the Early Irish Saints Acquire Land for their Establishments?
• Speaker 2: Westley Follett (U of Southern Mississippi), Holy Men From the Sea: Origins of Monastic Life in Ireland.
• Speaker 3: Laura McCloskey Wolfe (George Mason U, VA), Exploring Meditatio and Memoria in Ireland through the Book of Durrow: Theological and Artistic Traditions Intersect in Manuscript Illumination.

10.00-10.30 Coffee/Tea in the Library

10.30-12.00 noon Session 2

• Speaker 4: Fiona Beglane (with James Bonsall) (IT Sligo), Dísert: a Place Apart.
• Speaker 5: Jimmy Schryver (U of Minnesota), Inhabiting the Landscape: The O’Conors and their Integration with the Land in Late-Medieval Ireland.
• Speaker 6: Miriam Clyne (U of Dublin), The Landscape and Settlement of Kilmacduagh: Change and Continuity.

12.10 Conventual Mass in the Abbey Church
12.45 Lunch in the school’s boardroom

14.00 – 15.30 Session 3

• Speaker 7: Thomas Finan (Saint Louis U, MO), Medieval Lough Key Archaeological Project, 2014-17: A Study of a Gaelic Lordship in the Thirteenth Century.
• Speaker 8: James Lyttleton (Independent Scholar), Scottish settlement in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-century Ulster, an Archaeological Perspective.
• Speaker 9: D Blair Gibson (El Camino College, CA) and Susan Saul (California State U, Los Angeles), Viewing Maya Political Systems through Irish Eyes.

15.30 – 16.00 Coffee/Tea, in the library

16.30 – 17.30 Session 4

• Speaker 10: Katja Ritari (U of Helsinki), Remembering the Saints in Félire Oengusso.
• Speaker 11: Nora White (U of Limerick), Layout, Carving and Epigraphy of Ogham in Ireland.
• Speaker 12: Niamh Wycherley (NUI, Galway), The Enduring Power of the Cult of Relics — an Early Irish Perspective.

18.00 Monastic Vespers
19.15 Supper with the Monastic Community

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Sunday 24th September

Sunday 10.00: Conventual Mass

11.15 – 12.15 Session 5

• Speaker 13: Margaret Murphy (Carlow College), Objects and Identity: a Consideration of ‘Things’ in Late-Medieval Ireland.
• Speaker 14: Emerson Storm Richards (Indiana U), Apocalypse, Then: A Comparative Analysis of Ninth through Thirteenth Century Irish, Carolingian, and Anglo-Norman Representations of Apocalypse in the Visual Cultures.

Sunday 12.30: Outing/Field Trip to Cashel, Holy Cross, and Athassel, led by Br. Colmán Ó Clabaigh.

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Conference Organizing Committee

Brian Ó Broin
Shannon Ambrose
James Lyttleton

Conference Fees

Residential Accommodation is now full.
Registration (includes attendance at lectures and presentations, teas, coffees, and snacks): €100/$110 (Unwaged: €80/$90).
If you plan to register, please notify Brian Ó Broin (obroinb@wpunj.edu) by the 15th September.

Nearby accommodation can be found by contacting the Abbey. The Abbey recommends the following venues for non-residential delegates wishing to stay over. Please contact the venues directly and make your own arrangements.

B&B: Rinnaknock (beside the Abbey): 061 386 189
B&B: Millbank (some 5 miles distance): 061 386 115
Hotel: Kilmurry Lodge (nr University of Limerick): 061 331 133
Hotel: Castle Oaks (Castleconnell): 061 377 666

Getting to Glenstal Abbey:

http://www.glenstal.org/contact/directions/
We plan to run a minibus from Dublin on Friday morning, returning on Monday morning. Please let Brian Ó Broin know if you plan to take the minibus (obroinb@wpunj.edu).

Conference Flyer

Please feel free to download and distribute our conference flyer and schedule.

About ASIMS

ASIMS is a multi-disciplinary society promoting trans-Atlantic collaboration in research on medieval Ireland. The Society sponsors regular panels for current Irish research at the annual International Congress of Medieval Studies (ICMS) at Kalamazoo, MI, and is represented at regional conferences in the USA, such as the South-Eastern Medievalists Association (SEMA). The Society publishes Eolas as its peer-reviewed annual journal, volume 10 appearing in May 2017.

The Ireland Conference 2017 is the third meeting of the Society in Ireland, and will present leading scholarship on the period between 500AD and 1650 AD from medievalists working in Europe and North America.

For more information, see www.asims.org or email: AmericanSocietyIrishMedieval@gmail.com

Martin Fanning from Four Courts Press will be at the International Congress for Medieval Studies this year. He’ll have a huge selection of discounted titles, so be sure to stop by and purchase those valuable additions to your personal library!

Call for Papers: The American Society of Irish Medieval Studies Irish Conference

Glenstal Abbey, Co. Limerick,
September 22nd-24th, 2017

The Ireland Conference of the American Society of Irish Medieval Studies is the second meeting of the Society in Ireland, and it hopes to advance leading scholarship on the period between c. 500-1650 AD from medievalists working in Ireland and the United States. The organizers welcome proposals for the 2017 congress on papers addressing any aspect of medieval Irish studies. Possible topics of exploration might include settlement and landscape studies, monastic practice and foundation, hagiography, gender theory, ecocritical approaches, material culture, law, Hiberno-Latin textual culture, or medieval Anglo-Irish texts.

Interested participants should submit abstracts of no more than 250 words to Dr. Brian Ó Broin, President of ASIMS, at ObroinB@wpunj.edu by March 1st, 2017. Those who submit proposals will be notified of their acceptance by March 31st, 2017.

ASIMS is a multi-disciplinary society promoting trans-Atlantic collaboration in research on medieval Ireland. The Society sponsors regular panels for current Irish research at the annual International Congress of Medieval Studies (ICMS) at Kalamazoo, MI, and is represented at regional conferences in the USA, such as the South-Eastern Medievalists Association (SEMA). In addition, ASIMS publishes Eolas, a peer reviewed journal advancing the interdisciplinary and international study of Irish medieval studies. Eolas is cataloged by EBSCO and available in digital format at JSTOR.

Please feel free to download and distribute the conference poster.

We are looking for more contributors to two of our sessions sponsored by ASIMS for the International Medieval Congress in Kalamazoo 2017. Prospective presenters can contact Dr James Lyttleton at jilyttleton@hotmail.com

‘The Life Course in Medieval Ireland’

Life is marked by various stages: birth, childhood, the coming of age, marriage, the raising of a family, old age and death. Although correlated with the biological processes of aging, each stage is also characterised by different kinds of knowledge, social roles, and symbolic meanings. The ways in which medieval society marked transitions between stages such as childhood with social rituals has recently become a topic of great interest to scholars, and this session shows how this cultural narrative of aging helped shape the everyday experience in medieval Ireland. Scholars in this session draw upon literary sources and material remains to provide insights and commentary on aspects of the life course in early and late medieval Ireland. This session will include contributions from the fields of history, literary studies, art history and archaeology, and will be chaired by Dr James Schryver (University of Miinesota, Morris).

Roundtable session ‘Pedagogical Approaches to Medieval Irish Studies’

As medieval studies and Irish studies become more popular at the university level, scholars teaching these courses draw on increasingly varied perspectives. We bring ideas into our classes inspired by archaeology, architecture, art history, literary studies and history, among many others. Courses can involve workshops, field trips, project based learning, and various ‘hands-on’ activities and assignments. These types of work build the students’ knowledge base, increase their understanding of the Middle Ages, and deliver a more enhanced learning experience. Digital humanities, building on the strengths of traditional scholarship, has also contributed to new ways of delivering course content. This roundtable session seeks to share various perspectives on teaching these subjects, including the incorporation of new pedagogical approaches in the classroom. This will be chaired by Dr James Lyttleton.

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ASIMS is also co-sponsoring a session with The Heroic Age:

Echoes of Columbanus

Contact: Deanna Forsman North Hennepin Community College 7411 85th Ave. North Brooklyn Park, MN 55445 Phone: 763-488-0405 dforsman@nhcc.edu

The Irish ascetic Columbanus is the most famous example of the classic peregrinus: an individual who chooses a life of exile among foreigners as a form of religious devotion. Columbanus is also famous for his monastic establishments and Rule, as well as his interactions with royalty and the bishop of Rome. This session seeks to further explore the long-term influence of Columbanus in multiple venues. Papers will examine the influence of the Columbanian Rule on ascetic practice, the relationship between monastery and royalty, sources of spiritual authority, the practice of peregrinatio, etc.