The animal turn has become hugely influential in medieval scholarship over the last decade. However, the contributions of ecofeminism and queer ecology have often been side-lined. Nevertheless, scholars are increasingly finding these modes of analysis to offer useful ways of exploring the role of the animal in medieval romance texts.

The Medieval Romance Society is hosting three sessions on romance and the animal turn at the 55th International Congress on Medieval Studies 2020, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo. All papers must be presented in English; however, we welcome submissions on romances from any region in the Middle Ages. We invite papers that respond to ecofeminist and queer ecological literary criticism; papers that respond to posthumanist and related philosophical theories; and papers which do not take a theoretical approach.

Session I: Romance and the Animal Turn I: Romance and Ecofeminism

This session welcomes papers looking at representations of gender, masculinity and/or femininity in relation to animals and nature in romance texts. Example topics could include: the role of the horse in chivalric masculinity, animal foster-mothers for human children, or gendered discourses of meat-eating. We particularly encourage papers that respond to contemporary ecofeminist theory, although this is not required.

Session II: Romance and the Animal Turn II: Romance and Queer Ecology

This session invites papers looking at representations of sex and sexuality and/or queer identity in relation to discourses of animals and nature in romance texts. Papers might explore the role of animals in the construction of heteronormative ideologies, queer animals in romance narratives, and species panic. We particularly encourage papers that respond to contemporary theories of queer ecology, although this is not required.

Session III: Romance and the Animal Turn III: Romance and Posthumanism

This session welcomes papers that explore discourses of human and animal identity in romance texts. Example topics could include: the role of the animal in ideologies of race, interspecies hybridity, and animal subjectivity in romance. We particularly encourage papers that respond to contemporary posthumanist theory, although this is not required.

Please send abstracts of up to 300 words to Tim Wingard (tw659@york.ac.uk) by 1 September 2019.

For more information, visit: medievalromanceanimal.wordpress.com

Proposals are invited for the David Nichol Smith Seminar in Eighteenth-Century Studies XVII ‘Dark Enlightenments’, to take place 2-4 December 2020 in Adelaide, Australia.

Keynotes: Associate Professor Kate Fullager (Macquarie)
Professor Sasha Handley (Manchester)
Associate Professor Eugenia Zuroski (McMaster)

The Australian and New Zealand Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ANZSECS), Flinders University, and the University of Adelaide invite you to the 17th David Nichol Smith (DNS) Seminar for Eighteenth-Century Studies. Inaugurated in 1966 by the National Library of Australia, the DNS is the leading forum for eighteenth-century studies in Australasia. It brings together scholars from across the region and internationally who work on the long eighteenth century in a range of disciplines, including history, literature, art and architectural history, philosophy, theology, the history of science, musicology, anthropology, archaeology and studies of material culture.

The theme for this conference is ‘Dark Enlightenments.’ We ask delegates to consider the dark, shadowy aspects of enlightenment processes of the eighteenth century. When broadly conceived, the theme is open to numerous up-to-the-minute, interdisciplinary possibilities, including (for example):

• the dark side of the public sphere, such as expressed in satire and polemic;
• Empire and enlightenment;
• critiques of empathy and humanitarianism;
• negative emotions;
• crime, conflict and violence;
• the use and abuse of the past;
• progress and ethics (political, social, scientific);
• war;
• romanticising death;
• the Gothic;
• the numinous eighteenth century;
• the transformation of night-time;
• developments in notions of privacy, secrecy and the hidden self;
• the “shady” moralities of libertinism;
• the aesthetics of darkness and light.

This, we believe, is a particularly timely theme, partly owing to the nationalist turn in global politics, and the recent controversy stirred in Australia by the proposed Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation. It offers both sides of the political spectrum the opportunity to interrogate and fully understand the costs, benefits, and legacies of eighteenth-century “progress.” It is also a theme designed to emphasise the Enlightenment in its moral complexity and richness, and the wide range of domains (from the everyday to philosophical thought) that contributed to its production.

We also welcome papers for subjects that fall outside the main conference theme.

Proposals for 20-minute papers should consist of a title, 250-word abstract, and short bio sent via email as a pdf attachment to DNS2020@flinders.edu.au.

We also accept proposals for panels of three papers, which should include all the above for each presenter, a panel title, and if possible, the name and short bio of the panel chair.

Deadlines for submissions:

For early deliberation: 1 November 2019.
A first round of acceptances will be made shortly after this date to facilitate international attendance.

Final deadline: 1 March 2020

For further details, please consult the conference website: https://dnsxvii2020.wordpress.com/