Gender and Medieval Studies Conference 2022: Resilience, Persistence, and Agency

This year's edition of the Gender and Medieval Studies Conference explores expressions of resilience, persistence, and agency on a global scale. Resilience in the face of adversity for marginalized individuals, persistence in the face of obstacles created by hegemonic power structures, and creative or subversive forms of agency were often exerted by feminine and queer actors in the Middle Ages as they are in the twenty-first century. Intersectional feminist frameworks explore how individuals can understand and subvert power structures in the face of multiple oppressions, postcolonial studies broadens our understanding of what constitutes a “Middle Ages” and critical race theory invites medievalists to interrogate the history of their discipline and the pernicious ends to which “medievalism” has been put to in contemporary white supremacist discourses. This edition of the Gender and Medieval Studies Conference features papers that examine how resilience, persistence, and agency were deployed by actors during global Middle Ages and how medieval studies can play an activist role in deconstructing misperceptions of the period to buttress oppressive politics.

This hybrid conference includes over 100 participants on-site and on-line from around the globe. Keynote talks will be given by Dr. Dorothy Kim (Brandeis University), Dr. Roberta Magnani (Swansea University), and Dr. Anna Russakoff (The American University of Paris). On-line attendees are warmly invited to the conference and may register for free. Participants presenting on-site and on-line are invited to register before December 17th, 2021.