CFP: ‘Enemies’, Hortulus sponsored session, 20^th International Medieval Congress in Leeds

We are pleased to announce the call for papers for the first ever Hortulus-sponsored session at the International Medieval Congress in Leeds (IMC) to be held 7-10 July 2014!

When exploring the medieval world, it is easy to locate various ‘Empires’ (both political and ideological) across time and space – forever rising and falling in an endless flux of power across the millennium that has been denoted ‘medieval’. Existing in tandem with these various imperial regimes are inevitable ‘enemies’ – detractors, dissenters, troublemakers and traitors.

We at Hortulus would like to explore the concept of these ‘enemies’ in relation to Empire – both those who are enemies of Empire and also those who must overcome enmity in service to Empire. The topic of ‘enemies’ was selected by popular vote by the Hortulus community of graduate students and will also be the theme of the 2014 issue of the journal.

The breadth of this session allows for interdisciplinary exchanges; we invite paper topics ranging from explorations of enemies in literature, history and art to more focused interpretations of the notion of enmity in the medieval period. We encourage submissions from many disciplinary angles, welcoming textual, artistic and historical interpretations from scholars of literature, history, philosophy, musicology, archaeology, art history and other fields. We especially encourage interdisciplinary work.

Some topics to be discussed but are by no means limited to:

• How was an enemy constructed? How are they perceived?
• How were enemies built or discussed at the imperial level?
• What about supernatural enemies, such as God’s displeasure, demons, or personified vices?
• What was the threat of enemies to Empires? How were they punished?
• How did changes and developments within empires alter or dismantle existing enmities?

Please email an abstract (approximately 250 words) for a 20-minute paper to Liz Mincin (leeds@hortulus-journal.com) by 16 September 2013. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to get in touch!

The deadline is fast approaching for submissions for the fall anniversary issue! Send us a message if you have any questions, and don’t forget to pass on the CFP!

Hortulus: The Online Graduate Journal of Medieval Studies is a refereed, peer-reviewed, and born-digital journal devoted to the culture, literature, history, and society of the medieval past. Published semiannually, the journal collects exceptional examples of work by graduate students on any theme, discipline, subject, and period of medieval studies. We also welcome book reviews of monographs published or re-released in the past five years that are of interest to medievalists.

Our upcoming issue will be published in the autumn of 2013, and we are now accepting submissions on any topic of medieval studies. Possible topics may be drawn from any discipline: history, art history, archaeology, literature, linguistics, music, theology, etc. Work from every interpretive angle is encouraged – memory, gender, historiography, medievalism, consilience, etc. Most importantly, we seek engaging, original work that contributes to our collective understanding of the medieval era.

This autumnal issue will mark our 10th volume and as such, we are particularly interested in works which are related to previous issues of the journal. Articles and reviews which discuss past works in Hortulus–such as reviews of previous authors’s recent book and article publications, articles which expand upon and/or discuss previous Hortulus articles, address previous journal themes, or brings previous Hortulus scholarship into more recent medieval discussions are especially welcome, though this is not required. 

Contributions should be in English and roughly 6,000 – 12,000 words, including all documentation and citational apparatus; book reviews are typically between 500-1,000 words but cannot exceed 2,000. All notes must be endnotes, and a bibliography must be included; submission guidelines can be found here. Contributions may be submitted to hortulus@hortulus-journal.com and are due August 15, 2013. Queries about submissions or the journal more generally can also be sent to this address.

We invite submissions of 15-20 minute papers treating the widely conceived theme of “enemies” for the Hortulus sponsored session titled “Of whom shall I be afraid: Enemies in the Medieval Period” at the 49^th International Congress on Medieval Studies, to be held in Kalamazoo, Michigan, May 8-11, 2014.

We welcome paper topics ranging from explorations of enemies in literature, history, and visual studies to more focused interpretations of the notion of enmity in the medieval period. We encourage submissions from many disciplinary angles, welcoming textual, artistic, and historical interpretations from scholars of literature, history, philosophy, musicology, archaeology, art history, and other fields. We are particularly interested in interdisciplinary work.

Some questions this session seeks to pose and answer are the following:

• How are enemies identified, constructed, and described?
• What were the ramifications of enmity among individuals or within and between groups?
• How, if possible, could enmity be overcome?
• Were enemies always characterized as the “other”?
• How were non-human enemies treated?

The topic of “enemies” was selected by popular vote by the Hortulus community of graduate students and will also be the theme of the 2014 issue of the journal.

Please e-mail a one-page abstract (300 words maximum) to Emerson Richards (Dept. of Comparative Literature, Indiana University) at kalamazoo@hortulus-journal.com by or before September 15, 2013. Feel free to contact Emerson with questions about the session.

For general information about the 2014 Medieval Congress, visit: http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/