Cfp: Medieval Association of Place and Space (MAPS):
International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo MI (May 9–12, 2019)
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Nasty, Brutish, and Long: Medieval Travel Writing
“In the Middle Ages, travel was nasty, brutish, and long.” So begins Shayne Legassie’s important new study, The Medieval Invention of Travel. Legassie’s argument is that the late Middle Ages began the genre of travel writing in its narratives about the Mongolian Empire, pilgrimage accounts of voyages to the Holy Land, chivalric adventures within the Mediterranean, and letters and other writings about real and imagined treks within Europe. Papers are sought that explore travel writing as a genre as well as the varieties of travel writing in the late Middle Ages. They may choose to react explicitly to Legassie’s arguments.
Digital Maps and Mapping
This session discusses the challenges in building platforms for medieval geodata, such as geographic information systems (GIS), for the presentation of data on maps and in other graphic forms. Panelists examine, theoretically and otherwise, the approaches and results of presenting geoinformation for medieval studies. Papers explore how GIS and other digital projects can produce new findings and investigate potential shortcomings. Analysis includes theorizations of geoinformatics, space more generally, and geographical and imaginary spaces. Questions panelists address include: What are medieval data? How qualitatively rich can digital information be, and what kinds of texts can or should be mapped? How is the visual presentation of data different from a written account? Are there useful ways to map non-specific or non-geographic spaces, and are there compelling reasons to do so?
To propose a paper, send an abstract (max. 250 words) and a completed Participant Information Form (attached and available via https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/submissions) to Matthew Boyd Goldie by September 15, 2018.
