Paul Megna’s paper for the Middle English Forum at MLA 2022 invoked a Public Books piece by Irina Dumitrescu in order to prompt contemporary medievalists to ponder the events of 1/6/2021. How might 1/6/2021 cause us to reconsider the scholarly lenses through which we have typically interpreted the events of Rising of 1381 and their literary ma…[Read more]

Medieval studies is in a moment in which it is re-examining the long-held categories that have traditionally defined its boundaries. As this reconceptualization of the field progresses, Trans Studies offers a number of scholarly methodologies and insights that are changing the way medievalists consider their field and, more specifically, Trans…[Read more]

This session seeks to build upon the growing appreciation for the complex and multifarious discursive engagements between late medieval English literary texts and Islamicate or Persianate culture, society, language, or literature. Recognizing that such engagements include much more than direct literary representations of the individual Islamicate…[Read more]

Please send abstracts of 200-300 words to ylee@wellesley.edu before March 16, 2022.

1. Narratives Beyond Binaries: Does narrative still rely on binary structures in a world that has moved beyond them (male/female; past/present; public/private)? The binary and nonbinary as modes of thinking; post-poststructuralism; holding theory accountable to…

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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]

LLC Shakespeare members are presenting at three sessions at the MLA Annual Convention in DC in January:

1. “Re-Reading Timon of Athens” (Friday, 8.30-9.45, Marriott Marquis Dogwood)

2. “Who Owns Shakespeare?” (Friday, 10.15-11.30, Marriott Marquis Gallaudet)

3. “Shakespeare and White Supremacy” (Friday, 1.45-3, Marriott Marquis Dogwood).

You…[Read more]

In collaboration with the Bodleian Libraries, Oxford, the New Chaucer Society will support one or two one month (30 day) research visits by an early career scholar who is a member of the New Chaucer Society to the Special Collections of the Bodleian Library in the University of Oxford. Details here:…[Read more]