Center for Medieval Studies at the University of Minnesota

Past Conferences

Pilgrimage Conference, March 9, 2002
Many people in the Middle Ages felt their true home was somewhere else; life was a journey towards a better place. Religious pilgrimage therefore was something more than vacation; passing through a physical landscape towards a holy place had a higher purpose. It is no surprise that the study of pilgrims and the places where they went generates considerable insights into medieval life and thought.

Papal Avignon Conference, April 25-27, 2002
The purpose of the conference will be the exploration of aspects of the residence of the Papal Court at Avignon which have hitherto been little studied. While scholarship has focused on this interesting episode in the history of the Church as it pertains to political and ecclesiastical developments, less attention has been devoted to the Avignon papacy as the context for exchange between and among the cultures of late medieval Europe. Especially because many contributions to the study of cultural history have been grounded in a disciplinary practice limited by a national language or philology, the story of this seventy-year "displacement" of the center of the Western Church as an opening up of cultural institutions to new possibilities has yet to be told.

78th Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America, April 10 - 12, 2003
The program's theme, Encounter and Exchange, has stimulated a wide range of papers and multi-disciplinary panels. Papers on numerous other topics in a variety of disciplines and periods of medieval studies will also be presented.

Text and Image in Medieval England: A Conference in Honor of Calvin B. Kendall, October 23 - 25, 2003
Medieval texts resonate with vibrant verbal and visual images that fuel the imagination. From the runic poem inscribed on the Ruthwell cross to the words and illustrations that fill the pages of the Ellesmere manuscript of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, examples of the intersections of text and image abound. When scholars appreciate these cross-currents, they gain a better understanding of medieval literature, history, and art, and through them, medieval society. We hope that participants in this conference will engage in conversations about research that will enhance their ability to foster similar interdisciplinary discussion in their work and in their classrooms. We also hope to show how the connections between art and literature continue in our modern culture.

[Thank you to Hal and Jill Keen for generously sharing the Text and Image files with me and allowing me to integrate them here.]

Questioning the Queen: Isabel I of Castile 500 Years Later, April 30 and May 1, 2004
An interdisciplinary symposium commemorating the quincentenary of the death of Isabel I of Castile, early modern Europe’s first powerful queen regnant. Fifteen distinguished scholars of Isabelline literature, history, art, and music will examine the complex construction of Isabel's sovereignty, her influence as patron of the arts, and her enduring political and cultural legacy. In addition to the scholarly presentations, there will be an exhibit of rare books and maps from the age of Isabel at the James Ford Bell Rare Books Library and a concert of early Hispano-Jewish, Muslim, and Christian music by the award-winning Rose Ensemble.

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