The Chaucer Forum warmly invites submissions for our MLA 2023 (San Francisco, January 5-8) sessions:

Chaucer’s Ornamentalism and Gimmickry

This roundtable session brings Anne Anlin Cheng’s concept of ornamentalism and Sianne Ngai’s work on the gimmick into conversation with Chaucer’s work. For instance, in The Squire’s Tale, Canacee’s…[Read more]

Guaranteed Session: Infinite Variety? Antony and Cleopatra, Then and Now 

This is a call for papers on Antony and Cleopatra. we are open to a diverse array of critical interests, including but not limited to: premodern critical race studies, histories of empire and racial capitalism, early modern trans and sexuality studies, disability studies,…[Read more]

How are various new media forms (e.g. apps, memes, gaming avatars, Webcast rites) creating performative representations of religion?  200-word proposals by March 15.  Manisha Basu, U of Illinois, Urbana (mbasu@illinois.edu ) Adrienne Brown, U of Chicago (adrienneb@uchicago.edu ).

More information: How have visual digital forms supplemented r…[Read more]

How do cleric-sleuths or other religious detective figures (e.g., Cadfael, Granchester, Father Brown, etc.)  navigate/challenge religion alongside police or state-sponsored will-to-knowledge? 200-word proposal to mbasu@illinois.edu by March 10.

More information: From G.K. Chesterton’s ‘Father Brown’ to Ellis Peters’ Brother Cadfael, from Harry…[Read more]

Memorialization, “entering the canon,” and the influence of politics, race, class, or gender. Who decides on the people, texts, places, dates, etc. selected to be commemorated, studied, and/or enshrined? Theorists such as Lonergan, Bourdieu, Girard, and Agamben have explored “sacralization” as a process of making holy or sacred that can inv…[Read more]

New Directions in Feminist and Queer Readings of Medieval French Literature: a Session in Honor of Simon Gaunt

Simon Gaunt’s research interests were remarkably varied: from Romance philology to psychoanalysis, postcolonial studies, and beyond. This panel honors one important part of his legacy: his groundbreaking feminist and queer readings of m…[Read more]

The omnipresence of religious rhetoric in medieval French culture is among the most salient and often among the most alienating cultural juggernauts faced by students and scholars alike. Yet, sacred biography–hagiographical, Marian, and Christological–has not fully found its place in the discipline of medieval French studies. As a corpus at onc…[Read more]

Dear Members of the LLC 16th-Century English Forum:

The members of the current Executive Committee for the LLC 16th-Century English Forum invite nominations/suggestions of names of people serve on the Executive Committee. This is a great opportunity to shape panels at MLA and the field generally Please send questions or suggestions to committee…[Read more]

The executive committee of the Arthurian Forum would like to solicit nominations (including self-nominations) for a new member of the executive committee who will serve from Feb. 1, 2022-Jan. 31, 2027. The new member must be an MLA member (if they aren’t currently, the appointee can join or renew and then be eligible); they cannot already be s…[Read more]

As you may have heard, the Program Committee has implemented a change to the process of assembling Forum Executive Committees. We will use an appointment model as a trial run for the next three years, meaning the existing committee will select new members. The rationale for this change is that the MLA has heard from many executive committees that…[Read more]