Calls for Papers, Kalamazoo and Leeds

Call for Papers: Crossing the Hanseatic Threshold and Beyond: Making Connections in Medieval Art, c. 1200-1500

International Congress on Medieval Studies, May 12-15, 2016 at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI, U.S.A.

Sponsor: International Center of Medieval Art Student Committee

Organizers: Lehti Mairike Keelmann, University of Michigan, and Laura Tillery, University of Pennsylvania

The Hanse, also known as the Hanseatic League, was a trade network of merchants and cities across the Northern and Baltic Seas that flourished in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Due to its geographic reach, the Hanse provided a framework to connect distant towns, peoples, cultures, ideas, and materials together. This session aims to explore the often-overlooked artistic production in the transnational Hanseatic region. Artistic exchange across Hanse trade routes was extensive and wide reaching. Art objects traveled long distances and were produced with great variety to reflect the multi-faceted identities and goals of their patrons.

For this session, we invite papers that address artistic circulation, mobility, exchange, networks, identity, media, and/or patronage in the Hanseatic arena. We welcome both specific case studies as well as papers that interrogate larger questions on ‘Hanseatic art’, Hanse art historical historiography, and the self-fashioning of Hanse merchants or patrons. Along these lines, papers could also explore artistic links between the Hanse and other trade networks or more generally, art and mercantile trade in littoral and riverine towns in Europe, c. 1200-1500.

The Student Committee of the International Center of Medieval Art involves and advocates for all members with student status. As a committee that addresses the concerns of students, we see this session as a forum for discussion and informal mentorship within our field.

To propose a paper, please send an abstract, C.V., and a completed Congress Participant Information Form, available on the Congress website to Lehti Mairike Keelmann (lehtik@umich.edu) and Laura Tillery (tillery@sas.upenn.edu).  Proposals should be emailed no later than September 15th, 2015.  

Call for Papers: Setting the Table: Medieval Tablescapes, Dining, and the Visual Culture of Food

International Medieval Congress, July 4-7, 2016 at University of Leeds, Leeds, U.K.

Sponsor: International Center of Medieval Art Student Committee

Organizer: Meg Bernstein, U.C.L.A.

In connection with the broad theme of Leeds, “Food, Feast & Famine,” the Student Committee of the International Center for Medieval Art (ICMA) seeks proposals for 15-20 minute papers that examine the roles of food, dining, and production in the visual culture of all periods and geographies of the Middle Ages. Food is a thread that links together religious and secular, elites and peasants, and is a theme that welcomes papers on the humblest as well as the most lavish objects and buildings. 

Possible topics include but are not limited to: depictions of food, feasting, or food preparation in sculpture, manuscripts, or other media; the Eucharist as food; representations of food and hospitality for travellers or pilgrims; the automatons, textiles, metalworks, and other objects that were used in feast or banquet settings; the architecture of feasting or food-preparation spaces; the depiction of patron saints of food-producing guilds (e.g. winemakers), and even representations of abstinence from food. 

Kress travel grants might be available for presenters to supplement the cost of travel.

The Student Committee of the International Center of Medieval Art involves and advocates for all members with student status. As a committee that addresses the concerns of students, we see this session as a forum for discussion and informal mentorship within our field. 

To propose a paper, please send an abstract and C.V. to Meg Bernstein (megbernstein@ucla.edu). Proposals should be emailed no later than August 25th,