CFP: IARHS Sponsorded Session, "Time and the Outlaw," Leeds IMC 2026

 

IARHS Sponsored-Session Proposal: 'Time and the Outlaw'

Leeds International Medieval Congress 2026

6^th-9^th 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 26^th 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. 

CFP: IARHS-Sponsored Session, Southeastern Medieval Association Conference, November 6-8, 2025, University of Cincinnati

 

CFP: IARHS-Sponsored Session, Southeastern Medieval Association Conference, November 6-8, 2025, University of Cincinnati

Proposed Sponsored Session Title: “Confluences in the Robin Hood Tradition”

The theme of SEMA’s 50th annual conference is “Confluences”:

https://southeasternmedieval.wordpress.com/2025/05/07/sema-2025-cfp/

With that theme in mind, the IARHS welcomes abstracts for formal paper sessions to be considered for 1-2 possible sessions at SEMA’s in-person conference. 

• How does the Robin Hood tradition explore political, environmental, geographical, natural confluences in its body of literature?
•  In what ways does the Robin Hood tradition merge disparate or similar cultures, ideologies, texts to form something new?  
• In what ways is the Robin Hood tradition fixated upon or enamored with concepts of hybridity of physical, ideological, or textual bodies/forms?  
• "Confluences" suggests movement, which results in an overlapping, a layering, and/or a merging of objects or forms. As such, in what ways is the Robin Hood tradition (its body of literature, its various media texts) reliant upon existing or nascent textual conjunctions, accretions, convergences, and meetings not only to sustain itself but also to create new works?  

Please send to Alex Kaufman (alkaufman@bsu.edu) by June 25, 2025 the following items in a Word Document or a PDF for consideration for an IARHS-sponsored session at the SEMA Conference:

1. Your name

2. Your email

3. Your affiliation

4. A 250-word abstract

5. 3-5 keywords

6. If you will need technology to present at the conference

 

CFP: IARHS Sponsored Session for Leeds International Medieval Congress 2024 1st-4th July: Outlaws and Crises, Outlaws in Crisis

 

Proposed IARHS session for Leeds International Medieval Congress 2024 1st-4th July

 

Conference Theme: Crisis

 

Proposed session/s for IARHS: Outlaws and Crises, Outlaws in Crisis

 

This session explores the relationship between outlaws, bandits and the crises they encounter or initiate – their reasons, their activities and their results, in medieval and later times, and in ‘modern’ (and earlier) representations of the medieval which respond to and/or create crises of their own.

Around the world and throughout history outlaws and bandits have found themselves in situations of crisis. These might be political: in his fifteenth-century reference to Robin Hood and Little John, Walter Bower states that they were outlawed as a result of taking the side of Simon de Montfort in the 1260s Barons’ War against Henry III. They might also be social (as in the case of Hobsbawm’s ‘social bandits’, who fight back on behalf of those who lack power themselves), or personal (being victimized by powerful authority figures, or as a result of criminal activity gone wrong – theft that turns to murder, for example). Some (such as Ned Kelly and Zorro – and indeed Robin Hood) have developed popular narratives of fighting back against colonizing powers, whilst others from Dick Turpin through Billy the Kid, Jesse James through Prohibition gangs and Peaky Blinders to London’s Kray Brothers have given rise to (undeserved) ‘good outlaw’ legends in the style of Robin Hood and earlier ‘social bandits’.

 

As outlaws and bandits, these men and women faced crises of their own… from broken, fragile or treacherous relationships, as a result of attacks from without, and from parlous situations created by themselves or others. Outlaws regularly created crises themselves for a variety of reasons – to carry out rescues, to make restitution, to ‘equalize’ and to help the powerless, or to ensure survival for themselves and others. 

 

Which leads to another important question:

Is outlawry and banditry itself in crisis? Robin Hood and other outlaws have been adopted by commercial interests to advertise products (from flour to finance to chocolate bars), and by political interests to conduct (sometimes violent) campaigns against lawful authority or the forces of order. From terrorists to hackers, the term ‘outlaw’ is frequently applied to anyone who stands in opposition to a hegemonic and/or authoritarian power, a power often named and fashioned by themselves. In recent times this tactic of self-identification has been adopted by would-be popular despots in their quest for power. Has the terminology/ideology of outlawry and banditry been emptied out, to be filled and refilled in response to a never-ending multiplicity of requirements – or can it still have value? Can it perhaps be retrieved from the past to serve the present and future in effective ways? Does it/can it still have validity? If so, how, and how should we see the outlaw or bandit, in the historiographical past or in the present day? 

 

This excerpt from the Leeds IMC general call for papers may also be of interest to anyone considering our session topics:

 

‘‘Crisis’ has long been used when writing about the Middle Ages – incorporating climate and environmental issues such as epidemics, famines, and floods, political issues such as the breakdowns of dynasties and popular revolts, and socio-cultural issues such as religious apocalypticism and the questioning of faith…Medievalists are also interested in how individuals and communities coped with crisis. Indeed, medieval societies had their own perception and understanding of risk and found ways to adapt. An important component of this was the construction of crisis narratives, sometimes informed by religious beliefs – stories that changed across time, place, and audience. Temporality is also fundamental to medievalists’ understanding of crisis, offering important counter-perspectives to views of linear progress and modernization paradigms often seen in crisis historiography. While substantial crises could serve as short-term ruptures and turning points, crises also provoked more incremental changes within economies, institutions, and cultures over time. Some things stayed the same despite crises and, thus, continuity remains important’. 

 

Ideas for themes:

The creation of crisis narratives and stories / Explicitly gendered approaches to crises / Global and national pressures/hazards played out at local or micro levels / Early modern and modern representations of medieval crisis / Material culture and conceptualizing crisis – objects and rituals / Hazards, shocks, disasters, and their redistributive impact / Textual representations of crisis and its impact on human agents – trauma, emotion, physical, and mental responses / Medieval crises represented in visual culture, music culture, and the arts / Crises occurring or conceptualized across borders / Settlements: adaptation and continuity under stress / Human-animal connections and their place within crisis contexts / Hazards, the managed environment, and the body politic

Please send your proposals, with a short (200 word max.) abstract, by September 25th, 2023 to Dr Lesley Coote (l.a.coote@associate.hull.ac.uk), along with a short abstract, a working title for your paper, your preferred designation and email address. 

 

Papers should be no more than 20 minutes’ duration. As the conference will be hybrid, please indicate whether you would like to attend virtually or in person.

IARHS Sponsored Sessions at the ICMS, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI, USA, May 9-11, 2024

 

1. ECOMEDIEVAL ROBIN HOOD (VIRTUAL)

Even though the Robin Hood tradition is identified as medieval, most of the texts are post-medieval, hence medievalist. These are often situated against the background of natural environment, and thus Valerie Johnson coined the term “ecomedievalism” for “the application of ecocriticism to neomedieval texts.” Therefore, discussion of neomedievalist texts of popular culture, such as films and TV series about Robin Hood that relate more to the times when they were made than to the Middle Ages, is particularly welcome. The Robin Hood tradition contains different interpretations of the environment, such as the myth of unspoiled nature, but also nature as dangerous, with apocalypse as something imminent. This session invites such ecocritical readings of various neomedievalist outlaw texts that represent nature or the relationship of nature to culture. You can focus, for example, on:

• RH and greenwood in various cultural periods
• the culture/nature divide
•  apocalyptic versions of RH narrative

 

2. OUTLAW ENVIRONMENTS (VIRTUAL)

A popular saying has it that “Robin Hood in greenwood stood” and a similar phenomenon can be found in other outlaw texts and traditions. Such outlaws as Fouke le Fitz Waryn, Twm Shon Catty, or the Slovak Janosik all functioned in a specific natural environment. It needs to be examined how important this background was for their respective legends. The landscape was presented as a romanticized version of nature or as wilderness that went well with what was believed to be the outlaws’ “natural” brutality and violence. This tradition is important to examine as it is present in various countries, not only English-speaking. We can suggest, among others, the following topics:

• outlaws against romanticized landscape
•  violence of outlaws/wildness of nature
•  the specificity of the landscape against which an outlaw is presented
•  nature (e.g. its beauty) and nationalism in outlaw legends

 

Please send your abstract to: annaczarnowus@tlen.pl, but an official proposal can only be made and accepted through (https://icms.confex.com/icms/2024/cfp.cgi). The deadline for proposals is Sept. 15, 2023.

 

CFP: The 14th Biennial Conference of the International Association for Robin Hood Studies: “Robots, Androids, and Outlaws: How Machines and Bandits Disrupt Social Order," Oct. 18-21, 2023

 

Announcing The 14th Biennial Conference of the International Association for Robin Hood Studies: “Robots, Androids, and Outlaws: How Machines and Bandits Disrupt Social Order.”

 

The International Association for Robin Hood Studies Conference will be held at Missouri Valley College, USA, on October 18-21, 2023. It will be a hybrid conference. This conference brings together scholars to present current research on the famous outlaw as he appears in both medieval and post-medieval media. 

 

This conference will focus on (but not exclusively) discussions of Robin Hood and machine culture, with special emphasis on AI as a Robin Hood-like disrupter, banditry from robots and machines, and Robin as a subverter of social norms and expectations. We anticipate that this theme will allow us to address both traditional Robin Hood subjects and current changes happening in academic culture. 

 

Everyone interested are invited to submit paper proposals on this topic or any other topic related to Robin Hood. Please send a 500-word abstract to Dr. Thomas Rowland at rowlandt@moval.edu.

For those who would like to submit a session proposal, please submit an abstract description of the session topic and preferably three to four presenters. Please include with your proposal your name, paper title, and affiliation (if any). 

 

All proposals will be due by September 1, 2023.

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.