Les peaux médiévales

Skins

Call for Papers

Mid-America Medieval Association 42nd Annual Conference
University of Kansas, Lawrence
September 22, 2018

We construe the notion of skin, or skins, as having multiple meanings, contexts, and sites of enquiry; it could pertain to humans or animals; as a covering or a disguise, revealing or concealing identity, a marker of difference and similarity, race, class, and gender; the mutilated witness to heroic and saintly deeds, or the epitome of idealized beauty; it can be sacred or profane; it may also evoke science, medicine, and the body; skin as writing surface and manuscript; as palimpsest, the scraping away of layers of meaning; it may allude to blank spaces and lacunae; skin as the polychrome surface of a statue, or a fresco; architectural skins and façades; it could relate to surfaces, spaces, and landscapes; to the veneers of civilization and society. We invite papers thatengage these topics, or any related to the fieldof medieval studies.

Plenary address by Dr. Andrew Beresford,
University of Durham: "Dermal
Identities in the Legend of St Bartholomew"

Professor Beresford is the Associate Director of the Centre for Visual Arts and Culture, and a founding member of the Institute of Medieval and Early Modern Studies at Durham. His internationally recognized work focuses on intersections in early Spanish literature, art, and culture, with a focus on hagiography, gender, and literary theory. His many publications include The Severed Breast: The Legends of Saints Agatha and Lucy in Medieval Castilian Literature (2010), The Legend of Saint Agnes in Medieval Castilian Literature (2007), and The Legends of the Holy Harlots: Thaïs and Pelagia in Medieval Spanish Literature (2007).

Please send proposals of 250 words by June 1st to Caroline Jewers at cjewers@ku.edu.

Sponsored by The University of Kansas College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Hall Center for the Humanities, KU School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, The Franklin D. Murphy Lecture Fund, The Kress Foundation Department of Art History, KU Libraries, KU School of Music, and the KU Departments of: French, Francophone & Italian Studies, English, Germanic Languages & Literatures, History, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Slavic Languages & Literatures, Spanish and
Portuguese. Our special thanks to the journal La Corónica.

Organized by:
University of Kansas MEMS (Medieval and Early Modern Studies)