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.