Tuesday, August 16, 2022

CFP: Leeds International Medieval Congress, 3 – 6 July, 2023, “Networks and Entanglements” & The IARHS

 


International Association for Robin Hood Studies Sponsored Session(s): “Outlaw Networks”

Although they sometimes work alone, outlaws in history and literature always belong to a series of networks. They exist alongside, within or outside communities, and have groups of supporters, opponents and comrades.  Outlaw stories depend for their dissemination on networks and groups, and the stories themselves exist within groups of related narratives.  This session examines some of these networks, and the individuals and groups who inhabit them. Possible topics for this session may include the following: 

  • familial networks, bonds, relations  
  • gendered networks  
  • guild and mercantile networks 
  • ecclesiastical and royal administrative networks  
  • networks of texts, authors, editors, and printers  
  • environmental networks  
  • social "networking" of characters and authors 

If you have anything you would like to present on any of these themes, either medieval or neo-medieval, please contact Dr. Lesley Coote by Friday 23rd September, 2022, with a working title and a short (but interesting!) abstract of around 100-200 words.  

Contact information: l.a.coote@associate.hull.ac.uk  or  coote081@gmail.com 

Thursday, August 11, 2022

Vol. 4 (2022) The Bulletin of the International Association for Robin Hood Studies

 Volume 4 (2022) of The Bulletin of the International Association for Robin Hood Studies is now available at https://openjournals.bsu.edu/biarhs/issue/view/320.

Table of Contents:

English Law and the Outlaw: Resistance and Contempt, Wendy Turner

‘for Gamelyn was yongest he shuld have nought’: (Economic) Violence, Outlawry, and the Pursuit of Justice in The Tale of Gamelyn, Lucy Ryell

The Storied Matter of the Greenwood in the More-Than-Human World, Jason Hogue

The Imperialist Games Ethic in Late-Victorian and Edwardian Robin Hood Novels, Stephen Basdeo


The Bulletin of the International Association for Robin Hood Studies (ISSN 2574-2191) is a peer-reviewed, open-access scholarly journal, affiliated with The International Association for Robin Hood Studies. The Bulletin invites scholars working on any aspect of the Robin Hood tradition in any period or context to submit articles or essays detailing original research. The editors particularly welcome essays in the following areas: formal literary explication, manuscript and early printed book investigations, historical inquiries, new media examinations, and theory or cultural studies approaches.

The Bulletin accepts submissions on a rolling basis. Submissions should be sent via email to both of the journal editors, Alexander L. Kaufman (alkaufman@bsu.edu) and Valerie B. Johnson (vjohnso6@montevallo.edu). Please view Author Guidelines for further details regarding content, length, etc.

Tuesday, July 19, 2022

CFP: 58th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 11–13, 2023

DEADLINE EXTENDED TO 23 SEPTEMBER 2022 FOR PROPOSALS  

Two Sponsored Sessions of the International Association for Robin Hood Studies (IARHS) 

(1) The Mutable Ideologies of the Robin Hood Tradition (Session of Papers)

Contact: Anna Czarnowus, annaczarnowus@tlen.pl

Modality: Virtual

 

Robin Hood narratives, whether literary or other media (cf. film), have always contained embedded ideologies. From social hierarchies of the later Middle Ages and the Renaissance, 18th-century nostalgic Anglo-Saxonism (taken up again in Romanticism, Victorianism, and Modernism) to contemporary American designations, the Robin Hood tradition hosts conflicting ideological perspectives. These conflicts ensure the tradition is diverse, and interpretations of the story reproduce that diversity. Exploring the origins and implications of these perspectives is key to scholarly analysis of the trans-temporal and increasingly global Robin Hood tradition.

The Robin Hood tradition has never been objective or ideologically naïve: alongside their undeniable entertainment value, the narratives served to bolster, create, or attack ideological perspectives. Yet diverse interpretations of the story coexist with each other, and apparently mutually exclusive interpretations of the tradition can enhance its popularity. This panel seeks papers that explore these ideological perspectives across media, whether the traditional late medieval / early modern ballads, novels, performances, art, music, and modern film. How are ideologies of the past still relevant within medieval and post-medieval Robin Hood texts? How do post-medieval ideologies contribute to or problematize the tradition?

Please send a 250-word abstract by 23 September 2022 to the email annaczarnowus@tlen.pl and simultaneously submit it to the Confex system for the ICMS: https://icms.confex.com/icms/2023/cfp.cgi. Proposals must be uploaded to the Confex system for consideration.

 

(2) Robin Hood Fantasies: Beyond Realism and Verisimilitude (A Roundtable)

Contact: Alexander L. Kaufman, alkaufman@bsu.edu


Modality: Virtual


For audiences of Robin Hood texts, there is a tendency to describe the tradition as grounded in realism. This roundtable seeks papers that explore how the medieval and post-medieval Robin Hood tradition negotiates the reality of outlawry and the historical contexts associated with the outlaw, alongside tropes that belong to genres such as speculative fiction, fantasy, science fiction, fairy tales, and contemporary romance in literature and media. Have we fully moved toward an un-real Robin Hood, and if so, what are the implications? In focusing on the fantastical, this panel seeks to interrogate the value of fiction as fiction.

The Robin Hood tradition has been connected in some manner with a historical reality, and some scholars continue to seek the “real” that is within literary texts or historical records. This panel further seeks to underscore how the histories that are a part of Robin Hood texts are themselves fictive, literary representations of a history, historical event, or figure. We should begin to consider how Robin Hood literary and media texts belong to the broad genre of fantasy and its numerous sub- and adjacent-genres.

Please send a 250-word abstract by 23 September 2022 to alkaufman@bsu.edu and simultaneously submit it to the Confex system for the ICMS: https://icms.confex.com/icms/2023/cfp.cgi. Proposals must be uploaded to the Confex system for consideration.

 

Sunday, May 15, 2022

DEADLINE EXTENDED: CFP Southeastern Medieval Association, 10-12 November 2022

 

International Association for Robin Hood Studies

Call for Papers

2022 Conference of the Southeastern Medieval Association

10-12 November in Birmingham, Alabama

Robin Hood and other medieval outlaws of fact and fiction engage in a variety of physical endeavors:  archery, swordsmanship, wrestling, quarterstaff, hunting, even cross-dressing; they also pursue and escape (or seek to escape).  When they fail to escape, their bodies may be tortured or killed in some manner. Living or dead, their bodies may also be objects, the subject of the gaze. 

In keeping with the 2022 conference theme of the Southeastern Medieval Association (SEMA), “The Body and the Human,” the International Association for Robin Hood Studies invites paper proposals for two sessions titled “Outlaw Bodies.”  SEMA 2022 will be in-person in Birmingham, Alabama, 10-12 November.  Please send a 150- to 250-word abstract or proposal on any aspect of medieval outlaw bodies – historical, fictional, dramatized, filmed, etc. – to Sherron Lux at sherron_lux@yahoo.com by Tuesday, 19 July 2022, with any technology requests.