UPDATE CFP Saving the Day for Medieval Studies (10/15/2024; NeMLA Philadelphia 3/6-9/2025)

UPDATED DEADLINE

Saving the Day for Medieval Studies: Using Comics for Teaching the Middle Ages (Roundtable)

Co-organizers Michael A. Torregrossa, Karen Casey Casebier, and Carl B. Sell

Sponsored by Medieval Comics Project, an outreach effort of the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture

Call for Papers - Please Submit Proposals by 15 October 2024

56th Annual Convention of Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)

Philadelphia Marriott Downtown (Philadelphia, PA)

On-site event: 6-9 March 2025

Rationale

Interest in comics has steadily expanded as the medium has moved from a niche culture to mass media, and it is now well-attested that comics can serve as effective tools in the classroom for conveying information as well as expressing new interpretations of familiar stories and tropes. Consequently, we believe that many disciplines can benefit by using comics and related texts for teaching purposes. Our students are readily familiar with the conventions of the medium, and the interplay of text and image offers innovative ways to engage with course material.


Our focus in this session is on Medieval Studies and what comics can contribute to furthering the field. Comics based on medieval themes include adaptations of medieval stories as well as works that appropriate aspects of the medieval and transform this content into new characters or adventures.


In this session, we seek to build upon the work of medieval-comics scholars and share strategies for incorporating comics into the teaching of the various subfields of Medieval Studies, including art, history, languages, literature, and philosophy. We hope these ideas can help invigorate the discipline and bring more students into our classrooms. (As you plan your proposal, please see our growing resource guide for studies on medieval comics scholarship at https://tinyurl.com/MedievalComicsProjectBiblios.)

Submission Instructions

Our focus in this session is on Medieval Studies and what comics can contribute to furthering the field. We seek to build upon the work of medieval-comics scholars and share strategies for incorporating comics into the teaching of the various subfields of Medieval Studies, including art, history, languages, literature, and philosophy. We hope these ideas can help invigorate the discipline and bring more students into our classrooms. (As you plan your proposal, please see our growing resource guide for studies on medieval comics scholarship at https://tinyurl.com/MedievalComicsProjectBiblios.)


All proposals must be submitted into the CFPList system at https://cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/21106 by 15 October 2024. You will be prompted to create an account with NeMLA (if you do not already have one) and, then, to complete sections on Title, Abstract, and Media Needs.


Notification on the status of your submission will be made by 16 October 2024. If accepted, NeMLA asks you to confirm your participation with the session chairs by accepting their invitations and by registering for the event. The deadline for Registration/Membership is 9 December 2024.


Be advised of the following policies of the Convention: All participants must be members of NeMLA for the year of the conference. Participants may present on up to two sessions of different types (panels/seminars are considered of the same type). Submitters to the CFP site cannot upload the same abstract twice.(See the NeMLA Presenter Policies page, at https://www.nemla.org/convention/policies.html, for further details,)


NeMLA offers limited funding for travel to graduate students and to contingent faculty, adjunct instructors, independent scholars, and two-year college faculty. Details can be found at the NeMLA Travel Awards page at https://www.nemla.org/awards/travel.html.



Thank you for your interest in our session. Please address questions and/or concerns to the organizers at Comics.Get.Medieval@gmail.com.


For more information on the Medieval Comics Project please visit our website at https://Medieval-Comics-Project.blogspot.com/.

 

CFP Expanding Our View of Sherwood: Exploring the Matter of the Greenwood in Comics (A Roundtable) (virtual) (9/15/2024; ICMS 5/8-10/2025)

Call for Papers

Expanding Our View of Sherwood: Exploring the Matter of the Greenwood in Comics (A Roundtable) (virtual)

Sponsored by Medieval Comics Project and International Association for Robin Hood Studies (IARHS)

Organized by Michael A. Torregrossa and Carl B. Sell


60th International Congress on Medieval Studies

Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, Michigan)

Hybrid event: Thursday, 8 May, through Saturday, 10 May, 2025

Please Submit Proposals by 15 September 2024

Session Information

According to a recent search of the Grand Comics Database, creators of comic books and graphic novels have produced approximately five thousand comics directly based on or inspired by the Robin Hood tradition. These comics span over one hundred years and come from at least ten countries; however, the true scope of Hood’s influence on the medium appears much larger. A variety of archers, both heroes and villains, also feature within the pages of comics, and some, such as DC Comics’s Green Arrow, have even made the transition to the screen. In addition, Hood and his fellows have also frequented cartoons, comic strips, and manga, although their adventures there remain largely uncatalogued.


Of this vast array of comics and related media, relatively little of the corpus seems known to enthusiasts of the Matter of the Greenwood. Although Robin Hood scholars (working since the 1990s) have started to share some comics, much work still remains to be done to more fully assess the world of Sherwood Forest depicted in their panels. Therefore, in this co-sponsored session, we hope to create a deeper connection between Robin Hood Studies and Comics Studies to highlight items from this rich corpus and provide ideas and reflections on how to find, access, and employ Robin-Hood-themed comics in our classrooms and research.


Applicants to the roundtable are invited to revise their work for publication in a special issue of the open-access journal The Bulletin of the International Association for Robin Hood Studies.


Thank you for your interest in our session. Please address questions and/or concerns to the organizers at Comics.Get.Medieval@gmail.com. A full PDF version of this call can be accessed from Academia.Edu.

Submission Information

The process for proposing contributions to sessions of papers, roundtables and poster sessions for the International Congress on Medieval Studies uses an online submission system powered by Confex. Be advised that submissions cannot be accepted through email. Rather, access the direct link in Confex to our session at https://icms.confex.com/icms/2025/round/papers/index.cgi?sessionid=5826. You can also view the full Call for Papers list at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/call.


Within Confex, proposals to sessions of papers, poster sessions and roundtables require the author's name, affiliation and contact information; an abstract (300 words) for consideration by session organizer(s); and a short description (50 words) that may be made public. Proposals to sessions of papers and poster sessions also require a title for the submission (contributions to roundtables are untitled).


Proposers of papers or contributions to roundtables for hybrid sessions should indicate in their abstracts whether they intend to present in person or virtually.


If you need help with your submissions, the Congress offers some resources at the Participating in the Congress page at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/participating-congress. Click to open the section labeled “Propose a Paper” and scroll down for the Quick Guide handouts.



Be advised of the following policies for participating in the Congress:


You are invited to propose one paper (as a sole author or as a co-author) for one session of papers. You may propose a paper for a sponsored or special session or for the general sessions, but not both. You may propose an unlimited number of contributions to roundtables and poster sessions, but you will not be scheduled to actively participate (as paper presenter, roundtable discussant, poster author, presider, respondent, workshop leader, demonstrator or performer) in more than three sessions.


Further details on the Congress’s Policies can be found at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/policies-guidelines.



A reminder: Presenters accepted to the Congress must register for the full event. The registration fee is the same for on-site and virtual participants. For planning, the cost for the previous year’s event is posted at the Congress’s Registration page at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/registration.


If necessary, the Medieval Institute and Richard Rawlinson Center at Western Michigan University offer limited funding to presenters. These include both subsidized registration grants and travel awards. Please see the Awards page at the Congress site for details at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/awards.

Resources

For ideas and support, please see the following resources:

Torregrossa, Michael A. “The Matter of the Greenwood in Recent Comics.” Into a BrAIve New World: 14th Biennial Conference of the International Association for Robin Hood Studies, Missouri Valley College, Marshall, MO, 20 October 2023. Hybrid event. Academia.edu, https://www.academia.edu/108398145/2023_The_Matter_of_the_Greenwood_in_Recent_Comics_.

- - -. “Medieval Comics Project Bibliographies: Matter of the Greenwood (Robin Hood).” Medieval Comics Project Bibliographies, https://tinyurl.com/MedievalComicsProjectBiblios.

- - -. “Seeking Sherwood: Tools and Resources for Finding and Locating Comics Based on the Robin Hood Tradition for the Classroom and Research.” Global Outlaws: The Biennial Conference of the International Association for Robin Hood Studies, 5 December 2021. Virtual event. Academia.edu, https://www.academia.edu/63693049/2021_Seeking_Sherwood_Tools_and_Resources_for_Finding_and_Locating_Comics_Based_on_the_Robin_Hood_Tradition_for_the_Classroom_and_Research_.


For more information on the Medieval Comics Project and the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture, please check out our websites at
https://medieval-comics-project.blogspot.com/.


For more information on the International Association for Robin Hood Studies, please view our website Robin Hood Scholars: IARHS on the Web at https://robinhoodscholars.blogspot.com/. Details on The Bulletin of the International Association for Robin Hood Studies can be accessed from https://openjournals.bsu.edu/biarhs.

CFP Saving the Day for Medieval Studies (9/30/2024; NeMLA Philadelphia 3/6-9/2025)

Saving the Day for Medieval Studies: Using Comics for Teaching the Middle Ages (Roundtable)

Co-organizers Michael A. Torregrossa, Karen Casey Casebier, and Carl B. Sell

Sponsored by Medieval Comics Project, an outreach effort of the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture

Call for Papers - Please Submit Proposals by 30 September 2024

56th Annual Convention of Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)

Philadelphia Marriott Downtown (Philadelphia, PA)

On-site event: 6-9 March 2025

Rationale

Interest in comics has steadily expanded as the medium has moved from a niche culture to mass media, and it is now well-attested that comics can serve as effective tools in the classroom for conveying information as well as expressing new interpretations of familiar stories and tropes. Consequently, we believe that many disciplines can benefit by using comics and related texts for teaching purposes. Our students are readily familiar with the conventions of the medium, and the interplay of text and image offers innovative ways to engage with course material.


Our focus in this session is on Medieval Studies and what comics can contribute to furthering the field. Comics based on medieval themes include adaptations of medieval stories as well as works that appropriate aspects of the medieval and transform this content into new characters or adventures.


In this session, we seek to build upon the work of medieval-comics scholars and share strategies for incorporating comics into the teaching of the various subfields of Medieval Studies, including art, history, languages, literature, and philosophy. We hope these ideas can help invigorate the discipline and bring more students into our classrooms. (As you plan your proposal, please see our growing resource guide for studies on medieval comics scholarship at https://tinyurl.com/MedievalComicsProjectBiblios.)

Submission Instructions

Our focus in this session is on Medieval Studies and what comics can contribute to furthering the field. We seek to build upon the work of medieval-comics scholars and share strategies for incorporating comics into the teaching of the various subfields of Medieval Studies, including art, history, languages, literature, and philosophy. We hope these ideas can help invigorate the discipline and bring more students into our classrooms. (As you plan your proposal, please see our growing resource guide for studies on medieval comics scholarship at https://tinyurl.com/MedievalComicsProjectBiblios.)


All proposals must be submitted into the CFPList system at https://cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/21106 by 30 September 2024. You will be prompted to create an account with NeMLA (if you do not already have one) and, then, to complete sections on Title, Abstract, and Media Needs.


Notification on the status of your submission will be made by 16 October 2024. If accepted, NeMLA asks you to confirm your participation with the session chairs by accepting their invitations and by registering for the event. The deadline for Registration/Membership is 9 December 2024.


Be advised of the following policies of the Convention: All participants must be members of NeMLA for the year of the conference. Participants may present on up to two sessions of different types (panels/seminars are considered of the same type). Submitters to the CFP site cannot upload the same abstract twice.(See the NeMLA Presenter Policies page, at https://www.nemla.org/convention/policies.html, for further details,)


NeMLA offers limited funding for travel to graduate students and to contingent faculty, adjunct instructors, independent scholars, and two-year college faculty. Details can be found at the NeMLA Travel Awards page at https://www.nemla.org/awards/travel.html.



Thank you for your interest in our session. Please address questions and/or concerns to the organizers at Comics.Get.Medieval@gmail.com.


For more information on the Medieval Comics Project please visit our website at https://Medieval-Comics-Project.blogspot.com/.

 

CFP Medieval Comics Team-Up: The Values of Comics for Medieval Studies (6/1/2024; Medieval Academy of America - Cambridge, MA 3/20-22/2025)

Medieval Comics Team-Up: The Values of Comics for Medieval Studies

Session proposed for The Medieval Academy at 100: The 2025 Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America (Harvard University, Cambridge MA, from 20-22 March 2025)

Sponsored by Medieval Comics Project, an outreach effort of the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture

Organized by Michael A. Torregrossa

Paper Proposals due 1 June 2024

As any post-medieval adaptation of elements from the Middle Ages, the term medievalism encompasses a wide array of media, including comics. Searches on resources such as the Grand Comics Database reveal an astounding number of comics based on or inspired by aspects of the medieval past. It is a rich corpus produced, for over a century, by creators across the world, and one might expect a comparably robust tradition of medieval-comics scholarship. However, although medieval comics outnumber many other popular forms of medievalisms, they have received relatively little critical attention. Part of this may be lingering stigmas held against the medium, but it's more likely today that most medievalists just don’t know how to find and access comics. We hope to change that. 

This session is sponsored by the Medieval Comics Project, which was founded in 2003 as an outreach effort of the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture, and we seek to offer some resources and practices for how to make (better) use of medieval-themed comics in our teaching and research. 

We define comics to include cartoons, comic books, comic strips, graphic albums/bandes dessinées, graphic novels, manga, and webcomics, as well as adaptations of these into related media (like anime, collectibles, fiction, films, games, radio, and television). 

Proposals might address any of the following topics:

• Activities creating comics inspired by and/or reacting to the medieval. 
• Comic-like narratives from the Middle Ages.
• Comics that adapt aspects of the medieval (such as historical events or literary texts).
• Creation or sharing of resources to further scholarship on medieval-themed comics.
• Medieval motifs adapted and/or appropriated in modern comics.
• Pairings of the medieval with modern comics.

Additional ideas can be found at the Medieval Comics Project accessible at https://medieval-comics-project.blogspot.com/.

If you are interested in joining this session, please send to Comics.Get.Medieval@gmail.com a paper title, a paper abstract of about 250 words, and a short biographical statement (50-100 words) addressing your qualifications as a medievalist and/or comics scholar. 

Per the requirements of the organizers, presenters must be or become members of the Medieval Academy of America in order to present at the conference. However, exceptions may be given to individuals whose specialty would not normally involve membership in the Medieval Academy. Please contact MAA Executive Director Lisa Fagin Davis (lfd@themedievalacademy.org) with any questions about this policy. Details on membership classes and rates can be found at https://www.medievalacademy.org/page/Member_Rates. 

Please note that the Medieval Academy will offer some opportunities for funding to attend the conference. Details can be found on the meeting site at https://www.medievalacademy.org/page/2025AnnualMeeting. 

Update - Saving the Day at Kalamazoo: Finding Comics for Medievalist Research and Teaching (A Workshop)

Saving the Day at Kalamazoo: Finding Comics for Medievalist Research and Teaching (A Workshop) (Virtual)

59th International Congress on Medieval Studies (you must register to attend)

Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, MI)

Virtual Session

Session 319: Friday, 10 May 2024, from 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM

Sponsored by Medieval Comics Project

Organized by Michael A. Torregrossa, Bristol Community College

Presider: Scott Manning, Independent Scholar

Presentation #1:

“Medieval Comics Project: The Basics”

Michael A. Torregrossa

Michael A. Torregrossa (he/him/his) is a graduate of the Medieval Studies program at the University of Connecticut (Storrs) and works as an adjunct instructor of writing and literature courses in both Rhode Island and Massachusetts. His research focuses on popular culture’s adaptation and appropriation of literary classics, including the Arthurian legends, Beowulf, and the Robin Hood story, and he has published an annotated comicsography, an article, and two encyclopedia entries on Arthurian comics. As part of his work on medieval-themed comics, Michael founded the Arthurian Comics Discussion List in 2000 and the Medieval Comics Project Discussion List in 2005. He also maintains their associated blogs: The Arthur of the Comics Project and The Medieval Comics Project. 

Michael’s profile on Academia.edu (with links to his work on medieval-themed comics).

Medieval Comics Project: The Basics

Introduction

The term medieval comics refers both to comic-like media from the medieval past (such as the Bayeux tapestry and manuscript illuminations) as well as to adaptations and appropriations of the medieval produced by creators of comics in the post-medieval world. This second group represents a fascinating form of global medievalisms featured in materials that include cartoons, comic books, comic strips, graphic albums, graphic novels, and related media (such as anime, books, collectibles, films, games, television programming, and toys) based on comics.  

My presentation will share some general links and some starting points to find and access some comics and engage with them within the larger context of the field, 

Medieval Comics Links

Sponsored Resources

The Medieval Comics Project

The Medieval Comics Project Discussion List (sign up at Groups.io)

The Arthurian Comics Project

The Arthurian Comics Discussion List (sign up at Groups.io)

Comics and Medieval Studies Survey (link to Google Form)

Monographs

Bishop, Chris, Medievalist Comics and the American Century (UP of Mississippi).

Gorgievski, Sandra, Representing the Crusades: From Medieval Imagination to Contemporary Popular Culture (McFarland).

Nokes, Richard Scott, Beowulf in Comic Books and Graphic Novels (McFarland).

Tondro, Jason, Superheroes of the Round Table: Comics Connections to Medieval and Renaissance Literature (McFarland).

Resources for Finding and Accessing Medieval Comics and Medieval Comics Scholarship

Keywords

Medieval:

Arthurian, Beowulf/Grendel, Celtic, Chaucer/Canterbury Tales, Cid, Dante/Inferno/Commedia, Joan of Arc/Jeanne d'Arc, Knight (?), Medieval/Middle Ages/Dark Ages, Norse Mythology, Robin, Roland, Vikings. 

Medievalisms:

Cervantes, Scott, Hugo, Twain, Wagner, Stoker, and Smurfs.

Library Databases

MLA International Bibliography (EBSCOhost) (best starting point)

Academic Search Complete (EBSCOhost) (useful secondary resources; also includes some reviews)

Gale Literature Resource Center (seems to draw from a different set of resources) 

Search restrictors: (comics or "graphic novels" or "comic books" or “comic strip” or cartoon or manga)

Academic Databases for Comics

Bonn Online Bibliography of Comics Research 

Comics-Specific Databases and Other Resources

Grand Comics Database (great starting resource) 

Comics Vine (good to supplement the GCD)

Lone Star Comics website (create an account to access the “Advanced Search” - most comics have some description)

Comic Book Plus (repository of out-of-copyright comics; items have limited descriptions that are searchable)

Presentation #2

“Comics and Graphic Novels in the Beowulf’s Afterlives Bibliographic Database (BABD)”

Britt Mize, Texas A&M Univ.

Britt Mize (he/him) is a Professor in the Department of English at Texas A&M University. He works on Old English poetry and poetics, Middle English drama, and (of greatest relevance here) post-1705 representations and adaptations of Beowulf. As part of this work on Beowulf, Britt has created The Beowulf’s Afterlives Bibliographic Database, which (in addition to its freestanding existence as a digital resource) has supported several traditional publications, including the book Beowulf as Children’s Literature (2021).

BABD link: beowulf.dh.tamu.edu

Beowulf as Children’s Literature (U of Toronto)

Beowulf as Children’s Literature (JSTOR)

Presentation #3

“The Medieval Comics Database Project”

Richard Scott Nokes, Troy Univ.

Richard Scott Nokes (he/him) is a professor of medieval literature at Troy University and the Senior Academic Editor for Witan Publishing. His most recent book is Beowulf in Comic Books and Graphic Novels. Scott is also the lead on a new project called The Medieval Comics Database, the focus of his presentation today. This resource includes the work of scholars from the United States as well as Vietnam, India, and Uganda.

The Medieval Comics Database

Presentation #4

“Questioning Signifiers of Authenticity in Medieval Comics for Pedagogical Use”

Elizabeth Allyn Woock, Palacký Univ.

Straddling two fields—Medieval Studies and Literature—Elizabeth Allyn Woock (she/her) is an assistant professor at Palacký University, in Olomouc, Czech Republic. Her research ranges from questions on medieval monasticism to investigating medievalisms in modern-day comic books, elements of narrative in comic books, and medievalisms in the Gothic and horror modes. She just finished a book about the poetics of medievalist spaces in comics called Medieval Spaces in Comics: Affect and Ideology, which should be out soon. She is eagerly following the development of comics as a form of scholarly communication within comics-based research.

Personal webpage: eallynwoock.com

Presentation: Finding Comics for Medievalist Research and Teaching.pptx

Presentation #5

“Finding Medievalist Comics: Using Kindle”

Carl B. Sell, Univ. of Pittsburgh

Dr. Carl B. Sell (he/him/his) is the Assistant Director of the Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program at the University of Pittsburgh. His research explores appropriations of Arthurian legend narratives, characters, and themes in popular culture as an extension of the medieval adaptive tradition. He serves as a member of the advisory boards for The Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture and the Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain, and he is the author of journal articles and book chapters on Arthurian topics and DC’s Aquaman.

Presentation Link: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/17w13gp7uqMX63N5kQmmbi-H-C-ceUw9i/edit?usp=drive_link&ouid=100650849758700312253&rtpof=true&sd=true 

Amazon Kindle Store for Comics and Graphic Novels:

https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/comics-store/home?ref_=sub_ebooks_cat_5 

Rutledge on Dante and Alan Moore

New work on Dante in the comics from the latest issue of Mythlore:

Rutledge, Zachary. "Hell as an Exploration of Sin: A Comparison of Alan Moore’s Providence to Dante’s Inferno." Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature, vol. 42, no. 2, Spring/Summer 2024, article 10, https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol42/iss2/10.

The full issue can also be purchased from the Mythopoeic Society at https://www.mythsoc.org/mythlore/mythlore-144.htm.