Call for Papers: Saints in Crisis: Emotional Responses to Sanctity in the Middle Ages, International Medieval Congress (IMC 2024), University of Leeds, DUE BY 12 September 2023

Call for Papers

Saints in Crisis: Emotional Responses to Sanctity in the Middle Ages

International Medieval Congress (IMC 2024), University of Leeds

DUE BY 12 September 2023

They were frightened and they hit in great pain their heads and hearts– How do people react when they encounter the sanctity of saints? How do they feel? Are they in crisis – crisis for whom? Does crisis change individuals?

The proposed session focuses on the emotional responses of individuals/communities in relation to sanctity. Suggested topics on the emotional reactions of individuals/communities, from any geographic area or time period (between 300-1500), may include, but are not limited to:

  • Visual representations of emotions (behavior of the body, gestures, looks); 

  • Textual sources on emotional reactions (hagiographies, miracle stories, narratives in relation to crisis and sanctity);

  • Medical (psychological, neurological, physical, and mental) responses;

  • Liturgy and music culture;

  • Regions/areas of communities (rural, urban, monastic, ecclesiastic), emotions, and sanctity;

  • Living saints, discoveries of saints, relics – reliquaries, icons, and viewership reactions;

  • Performance, sanctity, and emotions;

  • External crisis/internal crisis, positive/negative emotional reactions, and sanctity;

  • Conversion stories/lack of conversion/otherness and emotional reactions;

Submissions from a variety of disciplines are accepted including but not limited to: history, art history, visual culture, social history, cultural history, hagiography, religious studies, cultural studies, textual studies in a transdisciplinary perspective. 

Please submit a 250- 400 word proposal (in English) for a 15-20 minute paper. Proposals should have an abstract format and be accompanied by a short CV, of no more than 800 words, including e-mail, institution, and profession. The session is planned to be in-presence. Please submit all relevant documents by 12 September 2023 to the e-mail address: znorovszkyandrea@usal.es

Contact information: Andrea-Bianka Znorovszky, University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain (znorovszkyandrea@usal.es)

For a an image of the call for papers, click here.