The Anglo-Saxon Studies Colloquium
Call for Papers
Crosscurrents: Recontextualizing Early Medieval Studies
Columbia University September 13-14, 2019
“Cross-Currents” aims to provide a different context for the conceptualization of medieval
literature by putting the field, broadly conceived, into direct contact with scholarship in
African-American studies, Caribbean studies, improvisation studies, ethnic studies, queer theory,
island studies, post-colonial studies, and disability studies. While medieval scholarship has most
recently addressed difference or diversity in the conceptualization of gender, sexuality, and race,
it has often done so without reference to contemporary critical scholarship beyond medieval
studies itself. As medieval scholarship undergoes radical self-questioning in the aim of structural
change in the field, this two-day conference, “Cross-Currents,” re-situates the field by
juxtaposing shared themes, intersections, and methodologies with current scholarship in diverse
fields.
This conference invites exploration of methodological intersections as ways of putting
Anglo-Saxon and early medieval studies in dialogue with fields often conceived as “outside” its
domain. We invite full panels or individual papers and envision discussions with faculty and
scholars from multiple points of view. We welcome roundtables and panels that explore
possibilities and shared boundaries. Confirmed participants: Barbara Lalla, George Lewis.
Topics of possible interest may include, but are by no means limited to the following:
Foundational myths in medieval and Caribbean contexts; articulations of agency in subaltern,
postcolonial, and Anglo-Saxon studies; the intersection of improvisation studies and oral
formulaic poetry; disability and bodily economies in contemporary and medieval contexts;
comparative methodologies in the absence of archives in medieval and African-American
contexts; queer temporalities and the future in early medieval contexts; “assemblages” and
relations with the natural world in colonial and medieval contexts; translating methodologies in a
global context…and more!
Please send panel proposals of no more than 600 words or paper proposals of no more than 300
words to crosscurrents2019@gmail.com by April 1, 2019.
A limited number of travel subsidies are available to those in need. Applicants should include a
paragraph on estimated budget, requested subsidy, and funds available at home institution.
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