Call for Papers: ANZAMEMS 2021: Reception and Emotion

The Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies conference committee seeks proposals for its 2021 conference on the theme ‘Reception and Emotion’, to be held in Perth, Australia at The University of Western Australia from 8–12 February.

The committee welcomes all approaches to topics related to ‘reception and emotion’ broadly conceived (and conceived either together or separately: i.e., on reception and emotion, or on either reception or emotion), including but not limited to: trans-cultural, trans-temporal, trans-disciplinary, translation, global studies, creative misreadings, theatrical and literary revivals, forgeries, homages, cultural counter-strikes, regimes of periodisation, etc. We welcome proposals considering the usefulness or otherwise of reception history as a methodology: is ‘transformation’ more helpful than ‘reception’, for example, for appreciating the active role of the audience of a text, play, or idea?

Work on emotions can be similarly broad, covering, e.g., what’s evidenced from the ‘receivers’ and from the ‘received’ (thinking of work, for example, on how Indigenous people have received missionaries and their doctrines; how medievalists have reacted and acted in relation to the worrying associations of their discipline; even how humanities scholars feel about their reception in contemporary political circles; Jan Plamper’s suggestion that historians should keep ‘field diaries’ about their personal response to work in the archives; are there ‘objective’ studies?). What’s been the value and downside of the ‘emotional turn’ in humanities studies? How do we as scholars of the past deal with presentist notions of ‘relevance’, and need we consider past scholarship as ‘outdated? How can we marry approaches from humanities and life sciences in ‘emotions history’?

​Call for Papers

[Download a PDF copy of the Call for Papers]

The conference committee invites proposals for 20-minute papers, 90-minute themed panels (of no more than 4 speakers) or workshops. Paper topics may include, but are not limited to:

• The reception of ideas about emotion in medieval/early modern texts;
• Reception and transformation of ideologies across time and space;
• The emotions of an audience in the reception of a play or sermon;
• The emotional impact of a text on a reader;
• Rituals and practices of receiving guests and dignitaries (and their emotional effects?);
• The reception of the past: medievalism and early-modernism;
• The reception of bodies / emotions and bodies / embodiment;
• Reception / emotion and sexuality;
• Reception / emotion and race;
• Reception / emotion and gender;
• Reception / emotion and music / art.

Proposals for 20-minute conference papers should consist of:

1. A title;
2. An abstract (max. 200 words);
3. A short biography (max. 50 words).

The conference committee welcomes themed panel or workshop session proposals for the conference. Proposals should consist of:

1. Panel/Workshop Title;
2. Proposed Chair (if available);
3. Details of each presenter and paper as described above.

NB: Workshops will be allotted 90 minutes, 30 of which should be reserved for general discussion. We suggest a maximum of 6 speakers.

Submissions should be emailed (as a Word document attachment) to: anzamems2021@gmail.com.

Deadline for submissions: 31 July 2020.

NB: Should you require early acceptance of your proposal please highlight this in your email and the committee will do our best to accommodate your request.