American Academy of Research Historians of Medieval Spain / Kalamazoo 2019 (May 9–12)

AARHMS Sessions for Kalamazoo 2019

AARHMS got 4 sessions approved for the 2019 International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo. More information is available below!

Women, Power, and Gender in Medieval Iberia I and II: In Memory of Simon Barton (1962-2017)

 Studies of women and gender in medieval Iberia have not only explored the experiences of women and conceptions of gender roles, but also illuminated a wide range of other topics, including interfaith relations, economy, legal culture, and the process of maintaining conquests. These sessions, organized in memory of the late Simon Barton, invite scholars to present exciting new research on the topic of women and gender, broadly defined, across the Iberian Peninsula. Papers considering intersections between gender and power, as Barton so effectively accomplished in his final book, are particularly encouraged, as are papers that place gender in the context of interfaith relations in medieval Iberia.

Doing More with Less: Methodological Creativity with Medieval Castilian Sources

This session seeks to explore how scholars of medieval Castile work with and sometimes around troublesome sources. There is a relative paucity of textual evidence from medieval Castile, and some scholars have therefore gravitated towards its more well-documented neighbors in eastern Iberia, including Catalonia and Aragon. Scholars of Castile during the High Middle Ages, therefore, are obliged to be resourceful. This panel seeks to bring together scholars of medieval Castile to discuss methodological creativity – doing more with less. It will foster discussion on interdisciplinary and collaborative research and the value of looking across disciplines for relevant source material. Papers discussing literary, theological, philosophical, medical, legal, and art historical sources will be welcome.

Iberia in the Fourteenth Century (co-sponsored with the Fourteenth Century Society)

The fourteenth century in the Iberian Peninsula did not lack in dramatic crises and transformations.  The wars involving Castile, Aragon, Portugal, and Granada, royal minorities, bloody civil wars, violence between noble factions, attacks on religious minorities, and the devastation of the Black Death and the famine shook the Iberian realms to the core. But the fourteenth century was also the time of reform and transition: the rise of new administrative structures, the maturation of representative assemblies, the coming to power of a new dynasty in Castile, and Aragon’s continuing expansion into the Mediterranean. The session seeks papers that highlight the significance of the fourteenth century in Iberia’s political, military, economic, social, and cultural development.     


While we already have a strong roster of speakers for these sessions, there are limited places available. If you are interested in joining these sessions, please reply directly to this email, and attach an abstract of no more than 250 words by September 15, 2018.
Please also attach a completed PIF form with your proposal:

https://wmich.edu/sites/default/files/attachments/u434/2017/medieval-pif-2018.pdf