The International Association for Robin Hood Studies (IARHS) is sponsoring two sessions for The 60th International Congress on Medieval Studies, which takes place Thursday, May 8, through Saturday, May 10, 2025: https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/call
The Congress’ deadline for abstract proposals is Sunday, September 15, 2024. All abstract proposals must be made through the Congress’ Confex system to be considered, links below provided. For queries regarding the IARHS-sponsored sessions, please contact the individual session organizer.
Care and Caring in the Robin Hood Legend and the Outlaw Tradition (Virtual)
Organizer: Anna Czarnowus (annaczarnowus@op.pl)
Sponsor: IARHS
The Robin Hood legend and the outlaw tradition have been associated mainly with violence and transgression. Various outlaws committed violence and avoided harsh punishment by the legal systems they lived it. They transgressed against accepted social norms. Yet self-care and acts of caring about others have been parts of those legends as well. Hiding yourself in the wilderness was an example of caring about yourself. Outlaws also cared about those whom they treated as their guests, to mention Robin Hood’s hospitable treatment of Sir Richard atte Lee. They cared about their families, as the legend of Ned Kelly and his life among his relatives shows. Kindness was something that paid, sometimes literally, as when Robin Hood got his money back from the Virgin Mary. The ethics of care has been inseparable from the outlaw legends.
Click here to submit a proposal to this paper session: https://icms.confex.com/icms/2025/paper/papers/index.cgi?sessionid=6326
Please also email your abstract proposal to the organizer at: annaczarnowus@op.pl.
Expanding Our View of Sherwood: Exploring the Matter of the Greenwood in Comics (A Roundtable) (Virtual)
Organizers: Michael A. Torregrossa (medievalinpopularculture@gmail.com) and Carl Sell (cscarlsell@gmail.com)
Sponsors: Medieval Comics Project & IARHS
There are thousands of comics based on or inspired by the Matter of the Greenwood, and, although Robin Hood scholars (working since the 1990s) have started to share some information about this corpus, 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 collective and provide ideas and reflections on how to find, access, and employ Robin-Hood-themed comics in our classrooms and research.
Click here to submit a proposal to this roundtable session: https://icms.confex.com/icms/2025/round/papers/index.cgi?sessionid=5826
