School of English

Booklet for the panel 'Water Crisis: Catastrophe and Community' for the 115th AAA annual meeting in Minneapolis, Thursday 17 November from 16:00 – 17:45. With discussant Veronica Strang.
This booklet Includes participants; panel outline; and presentation abstracts. Audience is invited!

THE PUBLIC MEDIEVALIST IS PLEASED TO SPONSOR A SERIES OF SESSIONS AROUND THE THEME 'PLAYING THE MIDDLE AGES' AT THE LEEDS INTERNATIONAL MEDIEVAL CONGRESS (IMC), FROM 1 TO 4 JULY 2019

The medium of games is vibrant and powerful. Over the last few decades the rise and spread of computer games, a renaissance in board and tabletop games, and a popularisation of roleplaying games and LARPing. These games are of interest to medievalists and educators for a wide range of reasons. They can engage their players with historical
period. They can be used to teach theory and historical debates. They can act as research tools. They can even fundamentally influence how we think and talk about the Middle Ages.

This strand moves beyond well-trodden debates over historical accuracy and authenticity in games to consider the utility of this medium in the classroom, in our research, and in the wider world. We invite papers that address any aspects of the expression of the medieval period in any and all forms of modern games.

Topics may include (but are not restricted to):
• Games as teaching tools
• Game Design and Mechanics
• Identity in games and gaming communities
• Games as national narratives
• Historical research in support of games
• Appropriation of games by extremist groups
• Engaging Historiography through Games
• Controversy in and around games
• Differentiation between history and fantasy
• Roleplay and Simulation
• Archaeology in/of games
• Games as historical debate and research

We encourage submissions from medievalists or games and media scholars at any point in their career. We also welcome pieces dealing with any region of the globe, and within a very broad definition of 'medieval'—including the pseudo-medieval fantasy genre.

Participants will be invited to adapt their papers for publication on The Public Medievalist.

Abstracts should not exceed 300 words and should be sent, as attachments in Word, to Robert.Houghton@Winchester.ac.uk by Friday 14 September.

The Public Medievalist (https://www.publicmedievalist.com/) is a web publication with a simple purpose: to present thoughtful, nuanced, and cutting-edge scholarship on medieval studies freely to the public in an accessible and engaging format. The articles on the site run the gamut from medievalist film and video game commentaries to explorations of lesser-known pieces of medieval history and literature, to work that shows how the Middle Ages remains present in contemporary politics and culture. Even more than a publication, The Public Medievalist strives to be a platform where medievalists of any level can promote their work to, and practice their skills at writing for, a wider audience.

THE PUBLIC MEDIEVALIST AND THE CENTRE FOR MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE RESEARCH AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WINCHESTER ARE
PLEASED TO SPONSOR A SERIES OF SESSIONS AROUND THE THEME ‘PLAYING THE MIDDLE AGES’ AT THE LEEDS INTERNATIONAL MEDIEVAL CONGRESS (IMC), FROM 6 TO 9 JULY 2020.

Games are increasingly important to our field. Medieval and fantasy tabletop, roleplaying and computer games command a considerable and growing audience. These games can fundamentally influence how their players think about and understand the Middle Ages. This can make them powerful teaching and outreach tools, but can also lead to fundamental misunderstandings about the period and the reinforcement of tropes and stereotypes.

This strand engages the potential and pitfalls of games. Building on the success of the strand at the IMC in 2019, it will consider the utility of this medium in the classroom, in our research, and in the wider world. We invite papers that address any aspects of the expression of the medieval period or medievalism in any and all forms of modern games.

Topics may include (but are not restricted to):
• Games as teaching or heritage tools
• Creation and modification of games
• Racialised and gendered identities in games
• History and historians in games
• Gamer identities and communities
• Fantasy and medievalism in games
• Controversy in and around games
• Roleplay and Simulation
• Games and archaeology
• Games as historical debate and research

We encourage submissions from medievalists or games and media scholars at any point in their career. We also welcome pieces dealing with any region of the globe, and within a very broad definition of ‘medieval’—including the pseudo-medieval fantasy genre.

Participants will be invited to adapt their papers for publication on The Public Medievalist.

Abstracts should not exceed 300 words and should be sent, as attachments in Word, to Robert.Houghton@Winchester.ac.uk by Friday 13 September.

The Public Medievalist (https://www.publicmedievalist.com/) is a web publication with a simple purpose: to present thoughtful, nuanced, and cutting-edge scholarship on medieval studies freely to the public in an accessible and engaging format. The articles on the site run the gamut from medievalist film and video game commentaries to explorations of lesser-known pieces of medieval history and literature, to work that shows how the Middle Ages remains present in contemporary politics and culture. Even more than a publication,The Public Medievalist strives to be a platform where medievalists of any level can promote their work to, and practice their skills at writing for, a wider audience.

This essay explores the extent to which residues of the practices inherent in nineteenth-century science lecture-demonstrations from the Royal Institution of Great Britain (RI) are evident in contemporary forms of Science Museum Group (SMG) Explainer presentations. The discipline of Performance Studies offers a number of models to discuss such a consideration and this essay draws particularly on the connected, transgenerational theories of vertical transmission, embodied knowledge and intertheatricality. Specifically, the focus is on three notable scientists, selected here for their particular influence on the lecture-demonstration practices at the RI during the nineteenth century: Humphry Davy, Michael Faraday and John Tyndall. It suggests that aspects of their embodied performances in the lecture theatre have been transmitted through subsequent generations of RI practitioners. Extending this transmission, via specific events in 1954 that led to Science Museum Guide Lecturers observing RI practices, it suggests that these practices were then inherited and passed down through generations of lecturing and explaining staff at the museum.

This article examines the impact of funding models on contem- porary Malawian theatre. It attempts to examine how, since its emergence, the form has been hampered by the lack of a national arts council or funding strategy. We discuss theatre in the 1970s and ‘80s before examining NGO funded theatre since the 1990s, moving to a case study of an international donor aided theatre company, Nanzikambe Arts.
In this article, we argue that under President Kamuzu Banda’s dictatorship (1964-1994) theatre was not supported by the state, in part, because it was perceived as a threat to the re- gime and artistic voices were, some times violently, silenced. After 1994, the arts funding situation did not change and into the gap came NGOs, who used performers to make message-based theatre. We also assert that in the 2000s theatre practice became further complicated by the in ux of international donors and their promotion of the European canon, at the expense of theatre that was truly made by, for and about Malawians in their own languages, and using their local performance forms. Ultimately, our argument is that politics and economics has affected theatre progression and professionalism in the country, for change to happen there must be an overhaul of current funding structures.