IARHS Sponsored-Session Proposal: 'Time and the Outlaw'
Leeds International Medieval Congress 2026
6th-9th July 2026, University of Leeds, UK
Call for Papers
The theme of Leeds International Medieval Congress will be ‘Temporalities’
On the official ‘Call for Papers’ webpage, this is described as follows:
‘Diverse notions of the passage of time affected medieval people’s political decisions, economic exchanges, and production of objects and artefacts. Medieval people manipulated time to reflect their gender roles, narrative strategies, views on human ageing, shifts in ethnic or social groups, or changes in public and private spaces.
Modern concepts of medieval time are bound up with our own understanding and (ab)use of medieval temporalities. Whether we construct images of a ‘Dark Age’, or imagine a romantic time of chivalry and knighthood, these projections into the past reflect our own temporal outlooks and how today we organise ‘medieval time’ in a variety of ways that address modern diverse political or cultural agendas, which lie at the heart of our debate on medievalism.’
IARHS session proposal is ‘Time and the Outlaw’
Outlaw stories are like time travelers: they exist in their own time and seemingly outside time. Some of their elements remain fixed and unchanging whilst others are a product of negotiation between the tellers and their audiences, according to the needs of their present situations and ideological perspectives. They exist in a variety of media and in many different genres.
This session, therefore, examines outlaws and their stories through time: what they have been, what they are now, and what they may become. How have they been presented and how has that presentation changed, how might they be presented in the future – and why? Are outlaw stories simply ephemeral wish fulfillment, or do they really matter? What was their function in the past, what is it now, and what might it be in the future?
Outlaw heroes are not necessarily ‘different’ from other people – they frequently begin their stories living unremarkable lives in an everyday world – but their qualities are super-charged by their natural empathy and ability reacting to adverse circumstances created by (‘evil’) others. Their subsequent actions become the subject of myth, legend and popular culture. They speak truth to and about power in every age.
Medieval commentators regarded stories (such as those of Robin Hood) as either mindless diversions that did neither harm nor good, or as carriers of important socio-cultural messages that could be either supportive or subversive of hegemonic practices and beliefs. The outlaw’s relevance in and through time, to whom and why, is still a major subject of academic study and of interest to wider audiences.
We invite proposals for 20-minute papers on this topic. Some suitable Congress suggestions are: Medieval perceptions of time, temporality, and their modern interpretations; People in time; Time as an agent of change; Temporality in political, economic, and socio-cultural relations; Time, memory, and commemoration; Time, nature, and the environment; Medieval temporalities in film, media, digital technology, and Artificial Intelligence; Artistic representations of time and temporality; Medieval temporalities in literature, music, performing arts, and folklore; Medievalism and medieval temporalities; The future of the Middle Ages.
This is a limited list, but proposals on any aspect of time and outlaws/outlaw stories, in any or many media, medieval, post-medieval, modern or future are welcomed.
The session/s will be hybrid, so distance need not be a limitation.
To submit before the Congress deadline, proposals need to be made by midnight on Friday 26th September. There will be a waiting list in operation after that weekend.
Please send your proposal to the session organiser, Dr Lesley Coote, at coote081@gmail.com
Proposals need to be accompanied by a working title, speaker name and designation, and a contact address.
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