CFP The Lives and Legacies of Medieval Comics: A Commemoration of Ninety Years of Hal Foster's Prince Valiant (Hybrid) (9/15/2026; ICMS Kalamazoo/Online 5/13-15/2027)

The Lives and Legacies of Medieval Comics: A Commemoration of Ninety Years of Hal Foster's Prince Valiant (Hybrid)

62nd International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, MI), Thursday, 13 May, through Saturday, 15 May, 2026

Co-sponsored by Medieval Comics Project, Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture

Co-organized by Michael A. Torregrossa, Bristol Community College, and Carl B Sell, University of Pittsburgh

Rationale

The comics have a long history of adapting aspects of the Middle Ages, and, while many series and characters have disappeared over time, Hal Foster’s comic strip Prince Valiant has persevered, continuing under a series of writers and artists over nine decades.


In commemoration of the ninetieth anniversary of Foster’s comic in 2027, we’d like to assess the ways that comics (and their adaptations across media) have contributed to the public’s understanding of the medieval past and to illuminate strategies for expanding knowledge of and interest in this corpus as creators, researchers, and teachers.

Submissions that look directly at Prince Valiant (or any of its adaptations) are especially encouraged; however, we will also consider proposals devoted to other characters, creators, and/or series that make use of medieval themes.


Do check out our expanding resource, the Medieval Comics Project Bibliographies, at https://tinyurl.com/MedievalComicsProjectBiblios, for information on prior studies of medievalist comics.

Submission Information

Please post paper submissions into the Confex site using the direct link https://icms.confex.com/icms/2027/prelim.cgi/Session/8806.

Do send any questions to the organizers at comics.get.medieval@gmail.com. Submissions are due no later than 15 September 2026.


For this event, individuals are invited to make ONE paper proposal to ONE session of papers: either the sponsored or special sessions OR the general sessions. You may propose an unlimited number of contributions to roundtables, 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 six sessions. See the conference’s policies page for more information at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/policies-guidelines.


Please be aware that those accepted to the panel must register for the conference in order to present. Past registration costs can be viewed at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/registration. The International Congress on Medieval Studies does offer limited funding as travel awards and subsidized registration costs; details are available at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/awards.



For more information about the Medieval Comics Project, do check out our website at https://medieval-comics-project.blogspot.com/ and consider signing up for our listserv, The Medieval Comics Project Discussion List, at https://groups.io/g/medieval-comixlist.


For more information about the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture, do check out our website, Mass Mediævalisms: The Middle Ages of Popular Culture: https://medievalinpopularculture.blogspot.com/.

CFP Using Comics to Build Community: Approaches to Teaching Comics (Roundtable) (Virtual) (9/30/2026; NeMLA 3/6-9/2027)

Using Comics to Build Community: Approaches to Teaching Comics (Roundtable) (Virtual)

Co-organizers Michael A. Torregrossa and Carl B. Sell

Sponsored by Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture

Call for Papers - Please Submit Proposals by 30 September 2026

58th Annual Convention of Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)

Salve Regina University (Newport, RI)/Online.

Hybrid event: 6-9 March 2027


This session’s modality is Virtual Only, meaning all presentations will be delivered via Zoom regardless of whether the presenters are in-person.

Rationale

Teaching with comics offers many ways to engage with the conference theme of Empowering Communities.

Comics, through their interplay of text and image, can support and/or supplement the reading of traditional texts and help all students to engage equally with a story. In addition, comics, by themselves, offer unique examples and models of a wide array of literary genres, both as fiction and non-fiction, spurring conversations and debate within the classroom. Lastly, the creation of comics as an activity forges a third type of community as creators work together to produce and (often) publish their work.

In this session, we seek to highlight innovative ways that instructors are using comics in their classrooms, either through one of the strategies we’ve outlined or through something unique to their own teaching.

We welcome submissions from instructors of all disciplines and experiences.

 

Submission Instructions

All proposals must be submitted into the CFPList system at https://cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/22574 by 30 September 2026. 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, Brief Bio, Media Needs, and Modality. This session’s modality is Virtual Only, meaning all presentations will be delivered via Zoom regardless of whether the presenters are in-person.


Notification on the status of your submission will be made by 16 October 2026. If accepted, NeMLA asks you to confirm your participation with the session chairs by accepting their invitation and by registering for the event. The deadline for Registration/Membership is 9 December 2026. For the 2027 Convention, registration will be the same for in-person and remote attendance. (See NeMLA’s Membership and Registration page, at https://www.nemla.org/about/members.html, for full details.)


Be advised of the following policies for the Convention: All participants must be members of NeMLA for the year of the conference. Participants may present on up to two sessions of any type. Registrants at NeMLA may not present the same abstract/paper on two different sessions. (See NeMLA’s Presenter Policies page, at https://www.nemla.org/convention/policies.html, for further details. Information on Session Types can be found at https://www.nemla.org/convention/sessions.html.)


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 NeMLA’s 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 MedievalinPopularCulture@gmail.com.


For more information on the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture, please visit our blog, Mass Mediævalisms: The Middle Ages of Popular Culture, at https://MedievalinPopularCulture.blogspot.com/.

CFP Comics Session for Keene State Medieval and Renaissance Forum (1/15/2026; Keene, NH 4/10-11-2026)

The Medieval Comics Project would like to organize a session on comics for the 46th Annual Medieval and Renaissance Forum to be held at Keene State College in Keene, New Hampshire, on Friday and Saturday, 10-11 April 2026.


Presentations can be in-person or remote.

Possible topics might include

• “comics” of the medieval and/or Renaissance eras
• comics adaptations of medieval and/or Renaissance literary texts
• comics depictions of medieval and/or Renaissance historical events
• approaches to using comics to teach about the Middle Ages and/or Renaissance
• reception of Comics Studies with the disciplines of Medieval Studies and/or Renaissance Studies

Please send a brief proposal and academic biographical statement to comics.get.medieval@gmail.com by 15 January 2026.



For more information on the Medieval Comics Project, please check out our blog at https://medieval-comics-project.blogspot.com/.

We also welcome individuals to join our moderated discussion list at https://groups.io/g/medieval-comixlist.

CFP Medieval Temporalities and Comics (Hybrid) (9/20/2025; Leeds IMC 7/6-9/2026)

Medieval Temporalities and Comics (Hybrid) (Leeds IMC, 6th-9th July, 2026)

deadline for submissions:
September 20, 2025

full name / name of organization:
Natalie Hopwood and Michael Torregrossa / The Medieval Comics Project

contact email:
ennrho@leeds.ac.uk



Medieval Temporalities and Comics

Leeds International Medieval Congress, 6th-9th July 2026

Hybrid Session

Co-organized by Natalie Hopwood, University of Leeds and Michael A. Torregrossa, Bristol Community College (The Medieval Comics Project)

This session aims to discuss the lasting legacy of the medieval on modern comics, sequential art, manga, and related media, and how the medieval continues to affect us today. We invite proposals for 20 minute papers about topics including, but not limited to:

Adaptations of medieval sources/characters into modern comics
Parallels between medieval art and comics
Longevity of medieval-themed comics characters (Prince Valiant, Shining Knight, etc.)
Reimaginings of the medieval in science fiction (Camelot 3000, Fourth World, etc.)
Time-displaced medieval characters in modern comics



Abstracts (250 words) and a short bio can be emailed to Natalie Hopwood (ennrho@leeds.ac.uk) and Michael Torregrossa (comics.get.medieval@gmail.com) of The Medieval Comics Project by 20th September 2025. Feel free to contact us with any questions!

CFP Medieval Classics (Re)Illustrated: A Medieval Comics Project Team-up (Hybrid) (9/15/2025; ICMS Kalamazoo/Online 5/14-16/2026)

Medieval Classics (Re)Illustrated: A Medieval Comics Project Team-up (Hybrid)

61st International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, MI), Thursday, 14 May, through Saturday, 16 May, 2026

Co-sponsored by Medieval Comics Project, International Arthurian Society/North American Branch, International Society for the Study of Medievalism 

Co-organized by Michael A. Torregrossa, Bristol Community College, and Siân Echard, University of British Columbia

There is a rich tradition of illustrating medieval literary texts that stretches from the Middle Ages to the present, and the comics medium has been an important contributor to this continuum. Medieval literature has long been popular with comics creators as the source for stories and characters, which have been adapted, appropriated, and/or transformed within a variety of comics published for readers of all ages across the globe. Despite the wealth of the corpus, there has been limited attention paid by medievalists to this work, with the notable exception of scholars in Beowulf Studies and Dante Studies. 

In this co-sponsored session, we seek, primarily, to unite the disciplines of Comics Studies and Medieval(ism) Studies at large to explore the history of comics adaptations, appropriations, and transformations of medieval literature for their value to our teaching and research. In addition, we hope panelists will also address how these comics can shed insight into a creator’s personal connections to the medieval past and/or their readers’ reception of the content either at their contemporary moment or as relics of our recent past. 

Possible topics for exploration might include specific texts like Book of Kells, Cantar de mio Cid, Canterbury Tales, History of the Kings of Britain, Lais of Marie de France, Le Morte Darthur, Nibelungenlied, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Song of Roland, Volsung Saga, and Yvain as well as the Arthurian and Robin Hood traditions. The work of cartoonist Jodie Troutman on Lit Brick also warrants some attention. Further insights into adaptations of Beowulf or Dante’s Commedia (which have been the subject of much prior study) would also be welcome. (Do check out expanding resource, the Medieval Comics Project Bibliographies at https://tinyurl.com/MedievalComicsProjectBiblios, for information on prior studies of medievalist comics.)

Please post paper submissions into the Confex site using the direct link https://icms.confex.com/icms/2026/prelim.cgi/Session/7242.  

Do send any questions to the organizers at comics.get.medieval@gmail.com. Submissions are due no later than 15 September 2025.

Please be aware that those accepted to the panel must register for the conference in order to present. Past registration costs can be viewed at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/registration. The International Congress on Medieval Studies does offer limited funding as travel awards and subsidized registration costs; details are available at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/awards.   

For more information about the Medieval Comics Project, do check out our website at https://medieval-comics-project.blogspot.com/ and consider signing up for our listserv, The Medieval Comics Project Discussion List, at https://groups.io/g/medieval-comixlist. 

For more information about the International Arthurian Society/North American Branch, do check out our website at https://www.international-arthurian-society-nab.org/ and consider becoming a member of our organization.

For more information about the International Society for the Study of Medievalism, do check out our website at https://medievalisms.org/ and consider signing up for our listserv (details at https://medievalisms.org/issm-listserv/). 

Call for Papers Notice for Kalamazoo and Leeds 2026

Call for Papers Kalamazoo and Leeds 2026

Dear friends of the Medieval Comics Project.

Two updates to share. 

First up, Kalamazoo 2026.

We've had much success this summer with session proposals for the 2026 International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo and have been awarded both a panel and workshop on medieval-themed comics.

Please consider submitting a proposal and/or sharing these with your network. Submissions are due by 15 September 2025. Please use the links provided. (The ICMS does offer limited travel awards and grants for subsidized registration; details are available at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/awards.) 

Medieval Classics (Re)Illustrated: A Medieval Comics Project Teamup (hybrid): https://icms.confex.com/icms/2026/prelim.cgi/Session/7242.

Medieval literature has long been popular with comics creators as the source for stories and characters, which have been adapted, appropriated, and/or transformed within a variety of comics. In this co-sponsored session we seek, primarily, to unite the disciplines of Comics Studies and Medieval(ism) Studies at large to explore the history of comics adaptations, appropriations, and transformations of medieval literature for their value to our teaching and research. In addition, we hope panelists will also address how these comics can shed insight into a creator’s personal connections to the medieval past and/or their readers’ reception of the content.

The Medieval Comics Project Bibliographies: Resources for Finding and Accessing Comics and Critiques (A Workshop) (virtual): https://icms.confex.com/icms/2026/prelim.cgi/Session/7246.  

This workshop session will highlight the recently launched Medieval Comics Project Bibliographies (https://tinyurl.com/MedievalComicsProjectBiblios), an open-access resource devoted to spreading knowledge of comics based on medieval subjects and furthering discussion and debate of this material.

Second, Leeds 2026 (and other events).

Looking ahead a bit further, Natalie Hopwood of Leeds University has offered to organize a session on comics for the 2026 International Medieval Congress under its theme of "Temporalities". If you have ideas for papers, please forward them to me (comics.get.medieval@gmail.com) and Natalie (ennrho@leeds.ac.uk). The conference is hybrid as well.

Do also share with me (comics.get.medieval@gmail.com) any other events that you think would be of value for sharing work on comics.

Thanks for your time,

Michael

--

Michael A. Torregrossa (he/him/his)

Organizer, The Comics Get Medieval: details at https://medieval-comics-project.blogspot.com/.

Architect: The Medieval Comics Project Bibliographies: https://tinyurl.com/MedievalComicsProjectBiblios.

Founder, The Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture: https://medievalinpopularculture.blogspot.com/.

Founder, The Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain: https://kingarthurforever.blogspot.com/.

CFP Medieval + Monsters in Comics (3/15/2025; online session 10/17-18/2025)

Medieval + Monsters in Comics

Online Sponsored Session Proposed for Medieval + Monsters: Medieval Association of the Midwest (MAM), Mid-America Medieval Association (MAMA), Illinois Medieval Association (IMA) Joint Conference with The Newberry Library
Hosted at Dominican University & the Newberry Library
17-18 October 2025

The Medieval Comics Project and the Monsters & the Monstrous Area of the Northeast Popular/American Culture Association seek proposals of 250 words for a proposed online panel devoted to the theme of the medieval and the monstrous in sequential art, comics, manga, and related media.

Topics might include:

• Adaptations of medieval monsters in modern comics/manga/related media

• Monsters in sequential art of the medieval era

• Monsters in marginalia in medieval manuscripts (akin to modern panel comics)

• New monsters in comics/manga/related media set in the medieval era

• The use of horror in comics/manga/related media set in the medieval era

• The use of monstrosity to represent issues of class/gender/race in comic/manga versions of the Middle Ages

Please send submissions (250-word proposal plus a short biographical statement) to the session organizers (Michael A. Torregrossa, Karen Casey Casebier, and Benjamin H. Hoover) at Comics.Get.Medieval@gmail.com by 15 March 2025.

For more information on the Medieval Comics Project, please see our blog at https://medieval-comics-project.blogspot.com/.  

For more information on the Monsters & the Monstrous Area of the Northeast Popular/American Culture Association, please see our blog at https://popularpreternaturaliana.blogspot.com/.  

Further details on the conference itself can be accessed at https://www.dom.edu/medieval-monsters-conference.  

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. 

CFP UPDATE Comics Get Medieval 2023: New Work on the Comics Medium in Medieval Studies (virtual) (9/15/2023; ICSM 10/26-28/2023)

Comics Get Medieval 2023: New Work on the Comics Medium in Medieval Studies (virtual)

Call for Papers (UPDATED) - Please Submit Proposals by 15 September 2023

The Medieval in Cyberspace: 2023 International Conference for the Study of Medievalism

The UNICORN Castle (https://unicorn-castle.org/)

Online event: Thursday, 26 October, through Saturday, 28 October, 2023

Comics Get Medieval 2023: New Work on the Comics Medium in Medieval Studies (virtual)

Sponsoring Organization: Medieval Comics Project

Organizers: Michael A. Torregrossa, Richard Scott Nokes, and Carl Sell




The comics medium offers a wealth of material of relevance to medievalists from comic-like art and illustrations created during the Middle Ages to cartoons, comics, and related media designed in post-medieval times.

Comics from the medieval era present unique insights into the past and allow us to forge a connection with those that lived and worked then through a now-familiar artform.

Meanwhile, modern comics with medieval themes adapt, appropriate, and transform the medieval, allowing present-day creators to bring history, legends, literature, myths, and personages to life through disparate formats and genres presented for audiences across the globe.




In this session, we seek to celebrate and explore the variety and vitality of medieval comics (both those from the medieval past as well as more contemporary ones) and to share that material with our colleagues to promote further debate, discussion, and inquiry and to, hopefully, inspire future research and teaching.




Topics might include:

• Creating medieval or medieval-themed comics
• Sharing resources for accessing medieval or medieval-themed comics
• Study of a particular character across a series or variety of comics
• Study of a particular comic or series of comics
• Study of a particular creator (artist, writer, etc.) of comics
• Using medieval comics in the classroom or for research
• Using medieval-themed comics in the classroom or for research

We are especially seeking coverage on comics from outside the United States. We also welcome assistance through bibliographies, interviews, and/or resource guides that can be shared with our audience.




All proposals for the session must be submitted directly to the organizers, at Comics.Get.Medieval@gmail.com, by 15 September 2023.





Please check out our growing resources on medieval-themed comics at the Medieval Comics Project (https://medieval-comics-project.blogspot.com/) and the Arthurian Comics Project (https://arthur-of-the-comics-project.blogspot.com/) websites. We also maintain two listservs of relevance–both the Medieval Comics Discussion List (at https://groups.io/g/medieval-comixlist) and the Arthurian Comics Discussion List (at https://groups.io/g/arthurian-comixlist)--and welcome new members. :




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

CFP Comics Get Medieval 2023: New Work on the Comics Medium in Medieval Studies (virtual) (8/15/2023; ICSM 10/26-28/2023)

Comics Get Medieval 2023: New Work on the Comics Medium in Medieval Studies (virtual)

Call for Papers - Please Submit Proposals by 15 August 2023

The Medieval in Cyberspace: 2023 International Conference for the Study of Medievalism

The UNICORN Castle (https://unicorn-castle.org/)

Online event: Thursday, 26 October, through Saturday, 28 October, 2023

Comics Get Medieval 2023: New Work on the Comics Medium in Medieval Studies (virtual)

Sponsoring Organization: Medieval Comics Project

Organizers: Michael A. Torregrossa, Richard Scott Nokes, and Carl Sell


The comics medium offers a wealth of material of relevance to medievalists from comic-like art and illustrations from the Middle Ages to post-medieval cartoons, comics, and related media. Comics from the medieval era present unique insights into the past and allow us to forge a connection with those that lived then through a now-familiar artform. Meanwhile, modern comics with medieval themes adapt, appropriate, and transform the medieval bringing history, legends, literature, myths, and personages to life through disparate formats and genres presented for audiences across the globe.


In this session, we seek to celebrate and explore the variety and vitality of medieval comics (both those from the medieval past as well as contemporary ones) and to share that material with our colleagues to promote further debate, discussion, and inquiry and to, hopefully, inspire future research and teaching.


Topics might include:

• Creating medieval or medieval-themed comics
• Sharing resources for accessing medieval or medieval-themed comics
• Study of a particular character across a series or variety of comics
• Study of a particular creator of comics
• Study of a particular series of comics
• Using medieval comics in the classroom or for research
• Using medieval-themed comics in the classroom or for research

.

We are especially seeking coverage on comics from outside the United States. We also welcome assistance through bibliographies, interviews, and/or resource guides that can be shared with our audience.


All proposals for the session must be submitted directly to the organizers, at Comics.Get.Medieval@gmail.com, by 15 August 2023.



Please check out our growing resources on medieval-themed comics at the Medieval Comics Project (https://medieval-comics-project.blogspot.com/) and the Arthurian Comics Project (https://arthur-of-the-comics-project.blogspot.com/) websites. We also maintain two listservs of relevance–both the Medieval Comics Discussion List (at https://groups.io/g/medieval-comixlist) and the Arthurian Comics Discussion List (at https://groups.io/g/arthurian-comixlist)--and welcome new members. :


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

CFP Saving the Day at Kalamazoo: Finding Comics for Medievalist Research and Teaching (A Workshop) (virtual) (9/15/2023; ICMS 5/9-11/2024)

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

Call for Presenters - Please Submit Proposals by 15 September 2023

59th International Congress on Medieval Studies

Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, Michigan)

Hybrid event: Thursday, 9 May, through Saturday, 11 May, 2024

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

Sponsoring Organization: Medieval Comics Project

Organizers: Michael A. Torregrossa, Richard Scott Nokes, and Carl Sell


The comics medium has much to offer to the field of Medieval Studies, but medievalists are often unfamiliar with comics and how to go about locating them and incorporating them productively into their work.


The focus of this workshop will be to present resources for finding comics of relevance to medieval topics (and legitimate scholarship on them) and to allow participants to employ these tools under the guidance of experts in the field. In addition, we hope that this forum will serve as a safe space to ask questions and address concerns about comics and their value.


To support our endeavors, we are interested in contributions to the workshop towards helping participants access medieval-themed comics in general as well as approaches to more focused topics relevant to the field of Medieval Studies. We are especially seeking coverage on comics from outside the United States. We also welcome assistance through bibliographies, interviews, and/or resource guides that can be shared with our participants.


All proposals for the workshop must be submitted directly to the organizers, at Comics.Get.Medieval@gmail.com, by 15 September 2023.



Please check out our growing resources on medieval-themed comics at the Medieval Comics Project (https://medieval-comics-project.blogspot.com/) and the Arthurian Comics Project (https://arthur-of-the-comics-project.blogspot.com/) websites. We also maintain two listservs of relevance–both the Medieval Comics Discussion List (at https://groups.io/g/medieval-comixlist) and the Arthurian Comics Discussion List (at https://groups.io/g/arthurian-comixlist)--and welcome new members. :


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

CFP Saving the Day for Robin Hood Studies: Perspectives and Reflections on Comics Adapted from the Matter of the Greenwood (Roundtable) (10/11/21; IARHS virtual 12/3-5/21)

Saving the Day for Robin Hood Studies: Perspectives and Reflections on Comics Adapted from the Matter of the Greenwood (Roundtable)

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

For Global Outlaws: The Biennial Conference of the International Association for Robin Hood Studies

Tentative Date: 3-5 December 2021.                                          

Medium: VIRTUAL.

Deadline for Proposals: 11 October 2021.

 

            According to a recent search of the Grand Comics Database, creators of comic books and graphic novels have produced over three thousand comics directly based on or inspired by the Robin Hood tradition. These comics span almost ninety years and come from over twenty 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 Hood and his fellows have also frequented both cartoons and comic strips, though their adventures there remain largely uncatalogued.

            Of these thousands of comics, how much and what items are actually known to enthusiasts of the Matter of the Greenwood? Robin Hood scholars, since the1990s, have started to offer some answers, but much work still remains to more fully explore the world of Sherwood Forest depicted in their panels. In this sponsored session, we hope to create a deeper connection between Robin Hood Studies and Comics Studies to highlight this rich corpus and provide tools and resources for how to find, access, and employ Robin-Hood-themed comics in our classroom and research.

Please send proposals of approximately 250 words and a short academic biography to the panel organizers at Comics.Get.Medieval@gmail.com. We will forward the full panel details to the conference committee.

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/ and https://medievalinpopularculture.blogspot.com/.

 

 

 

CFP Dante Alighieri and the Divine Comedy in comics and sequential art (7/31/2021)

The following call came on the Comix Scholars List earlier this month.



-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [COMIXSCHOLARS-L] Call for contributions: Dante Alighieri and the Divine Comedy in comics and sequential art
From: Mattia Petricola <mattia.petricola@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2020, 1:31 PM
To: COMIXSCHOLARS-L@lists.ufl.edu
CC:

(Apologies for cross-posting)

Dear all,

I recently became involved as co-editor in a project on the intermedial reception of Dante Alighieri headed by Caroline Fischer (University of Pau, France). The project stems from a panel originally held at the 2019 ESCL (European Society of Comparative Literature) Conference in Lille (France) and will result in a collection of articles. The articles will be published by the end of the year in Between (https://ojs.unica.it/index.php/between/index), the open-access, peer-reviewed journal of the Italian Society of Comparative Literature, in the wider context of an international number on intermediality edited by Massimo Fusillo (University of L'Aquila, Italy) and Hans-Joachim Backe (IT University of Copenhagen).

In order to further enrich our focus section on Dante and intermediality, we are looking for contributions in English or French (max 40.000 characters) exploring the intermedial reception of Dante (not limited to the Divine Comedy) in comics/graphic novels/manga/sequential art. The deadline for article submissions is July 30, 2020. If you are interested, please write to mattia.petricola@gmail.com as soon as you can with a short abstract and bio.

If you have any questions or require any further information, please let me know.

Kind regards,

Mattia Petricola

________________________

Mattia Petricola

University of L'Aquila

Department of Humanities

mattia.petricola@gmail.com

ᐧ

News of CFP Saving the Day for Medievalists: Accessing Medieval-Themed Comics in the Twenty-first Century (Roundtable) (9/15/19; Kalamazoo 5/7-10/2020)

The Medieval Comics Project is sponsoring a session for next year's International Congress on Medieval Studies. The full details on the call for paper can be found on the Making Medievalisms Matter site at https://medievalinpopularculture.blogspot.com/2019/08/cfpsaving-day-for-medievalists.html.

Paper proposals are due by 15 September 2019.

Thanks for your support of our endeavors.

Comics Get Medieval at Kalamazoo 2020!

I am pleased to announce that the organizers of the International Congress on Medieval Studies have approved part of our proposal for sessions on medieval-themed comics for their 2020 assembly.

Details on our session, "Saving the Day for Medievalists: Accessing Medieval-Themed Comics in the Twenty-first Century (Roundtable),", will be forthcoming.

Michael Torregrossa
Founder, Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture

CFP More than Marvel: Representations of Norse Mythology in Contemporary Popular Culture (9/15/2018; ICoMS Kalamazoo 5/9-12/2019)

Please excuse the cross-posting:

I'm pleased to announce the call for our sponsored session for next year's International Congress on Medieval Studies. Do follow our Medieval Comics Project site (https://medieval-comics-project.blogspot.com/) for updates during the year.


More than Marvel: Representations of Norse Mythology in Contemporary Popular Culture
Sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture
54th International Congress on Medieval Studies
Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan
9-12 May 2019
Proposals due by 15 September 2018

Myths and legends from the Middle Ages remain important links to the past, and there has been much interest in recasting this material into post-medieval contexts, forging a bridge between our forebears and our modern selves. Creators of our own time have been especially prolific in reviving these stories for new audiences. The tales told of the gods of the Norsemen are one such medieval legacy to find currency today, and they have appeared in a variety of media, including comics. For example, Marvel Comics’ representation of the Norse god Thor has been an important element of its shared world since his debut in 1962, and, in its incorporation of the character into the Marvel Universe, the publisher has done much in the service of Medieval Studies through its widespread dissemination across the globe of a relatable depiction of the Norse Gods and the intricate mythology associated with them. Marvel’s account of Thor and his compatriots has also featured in an array of media beyond the pages of its long-running comic book series, and the recent release of three feature films centered around the Asgardian as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, one of the world’s most popular and prosperous movie and television franchises, has provided additional texts to further knowledge of the Nine Worlds and its inhabitants. Nonetheless, while Marvel remains the most prominent creator of modern tales of the Norse gods, the company does not hold the exclusive rights to this material. Other writers, comics creators, filmmakers, television producers, and game designers have also appropriated the stories and legends of the gods of Asgard and further individuals within the cosmology of the Nine Worlds for their own purposes, yet their work remain relatively unknown when compared to the phenomenal success and reach of Marvel Comics and Marvel Studios.

It is the intent of this session to shed the spotlight on these other examples of Nordic-inspired medievalisms and to bring them into ongoing conversations and debates about the reception of the medieval in the post-medieval world. We are especially interested in the reach of Marvel’s versions beyond the United States and how other approaches to the material engage with, react to, or ignore Marvel’s work. In addition, we hope to include coverage of texts from non-Western media (like anime and manga) that have embraced the traditions of the Norse gods in innovative ways.

Potential Topics: (a good starting point is the “Norse mythology in popular culture” page on Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norse_mythology_in_popular_culture)

• The Almighty Johnsons
• American Gods
• Day of the Giants (Lester del Rey)
• Fafner in the Azure
• Doctor Who
• Everworld (K. A. Applegate)
• Gods of Asgard (Erik A. Evensen)
• Graphic Myths and Legends series
• Hammer of the Gods (Michael Avon Oeming and Mark Wheatley)
• Hercules: The Legendary Journeys / Xena: Warrior Princess
• The Incredible Hulk Returns
• Last Days of the Justice Society of America
• The Life Eaters (David Brin and Scott Hampton)
• Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard (Rick Riordan)
• The Mask
• The Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok
• Mythquest
• Norse Myths: A Viking Graphic Novel series
• Odyssey of the Amazons (DC Comics)
• Oh! My Goddess!
• Ragnarok (Myung Jin Lee) / Ragnarok Online
• Stargate
• Supernatural
• Valhalla (Peter Madsens)
• Witches of East End

Presentations will be limited to 15 or 20 minutes depending on final panel size.

Interested individuals should submit, no later than 15 September 2018, (1) paper proposal or abstract of approximately 500 words, (2) a 250 to 500-word academic biographical narrative, and (3) a completed Participant Information Form (accessible at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/submissions) to the organizers at Comics.Get.Medieval@gmail.com using “More than Marvel” as their subject heading.

In planning your proposal, please be aware of the policies of the Congress (available at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/policies). 

Further information about the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture and its outreach efforts can be accessed at The Medieval in Popular Culture (https://medievalinpopularculture.blogspot.com/).
Of especial interest, the Association hosts sites devoted to both medieval-themed films and comics. These can be accessed at Medieval Studies on Screen (http://medievalstudiesonscreen.blogspot.com/) and The Medieval Comics Project (https://medieval-comics-project.blogspot.com/), respectively.

Rejected (Again) by Kalamazoo

It is with much sadness that I report that the organizers of the International Congress on Medieval Studies have rejected another of our proposals to educate and inform the Medieval Studies community of the value, variety, and availability of comics for medievalist teaching and research.

Details of the now deceased session can be found at https://medieval-comics-project.blogspot.com/2018/06/notice-of-comics-get-medieval-at.html.

If you have any suggestions for other venues, please contact me at Comics.Get.Medieval@gmail.com.

Michael Torregrossa,
Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture