Intersectionality – Call For Papers

Intersectionality
The Medieval and Renaissance Graduate Association at The Ohio State University Fourth Annual Conference
Columbus, OH
October 14-15, 2016

Keynote Address: Professor Elina Gertsman (Case Western Reserve University)

As a perspective, intersectionality examines overlapping systems of oppression and discrimination such as gender, race, class, disability, and religion. First termed by black legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989, intersectionality poses new questions for scholars across disciplines and challenges how we evaluate and understand political, historical, and literary realities across time. This conference hopes to start a discussion about intersectionality in the Middle Ages and Renaissance in all of its various forms by specifically focusing on questions of how and why certain ideological structures and ideas intersect, and what implications emerge of these overlappings.

Themes may include but are not limited to:

  • Empire
  • Hybridity
  • Institutions in flux
  • Identities in transformation
  • Migration and travel
  • Constructions of race, class, and gender
  • Social inequality Ideologies
  • Fluidity of culture between periods
  • Religious politics
  • Reinterpretation through visual art and music
  • Changing family structures
  • Theatre production and performance
  • Popular culture
  • Pedagogy
  • Authorship
  • Time, space, and place
  • Cross-cultural contact, exchange, and appropriation

Individual Presentations: Presenters should plan to speak for 15-20 minutes on a single topic related to Medieval or Renaissance studies.

Abstracts of 250-300 words should be sent to MRGSA via e-mail at mrgsaosu@gmail.com by August 31, 2016. All submissions should include the title of the paper, the abstract, as well as the name, the institutional affiliation, and contact information of the author. Chosen participants will be notified by e-mail no later than September 12, 2016.

A $100 prize will be presented to the best paper at the conference. Interested parties should submit their final papers no later than October 7, 2016. MRGSA will evaluate participants based on quality of research, writing, and presentation. The winner will be notified after the conference. Last year’s winner was Brice A. Peterson, Pennsylvania State University, for his paper “Finding the Perfect Dietie Diett: Donne’s ‘Love’s Deity’ and ‘Love’s Diet’ as Answer Poetry about Choice.”

If you have any questions, email us at mrgsaosu@gmail.com.