Hailey O’Harrow

The Emotions of Medieval Crises The Society for the Study of Medieval Emotions (SSME) is organising a series of in-person sessions for Leeds International Medieval Congress 2024 (1-4 July 2024). In line with the IMC's special thematic strand of 'crisis', we are seeking proposals for 20-minute papers which consider the emotional aspects of medieval crises, broadly conceived. Papers could consider medieval emotional responses to and/or representations of political, social, environmental, or religious crises in any geographic setting, from personal crises (such as the death of a friend or relative), to spiritual crises (such as the prospect of the impending Apocalypse), to major societal crises (such as the Black Death). The history of emotions has an important part to play in discussions of medieval crisis and vice versa, not least because any consideration of emotional change over time-which has emerged as a rich vein of research in recent years-must navigate, and understand the impact of, the major crises of the medieval world. As such, we particularly welcome proposals that engage with continuity and change over time, for example by exploring whether or how major medieval crises, like the Black Death or the Hundred Years' War, altered (or failed to alter) the emotional evaluations of medieval societies.

Please send paper proposals, including a title, abstract of c.150 words, and a short bio, to socmedievalemotions@gmail.com by
4 September 2023.

Organisers: Hailey O’Harrow (St Andrews), Stephen Spencer (Northeastern University London), Ana del Campo (St Andrews)

Feeling Medieval, the inaugural conference of the Society for the Study of Medieval Emotions, is taking place on Tuesday 31 May–Wednesday 1 June 2022. The conference will be held in a hybrid format, and we therefore welcome online attendance.

It is free to attend online via Microsoft Teams, but please register at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/feeling-medieval-the-inaugural-conference-of-ssme-tickets-332609382617. The link will be disseminated 24 hours before the conference. Please find the conference programme attached (all timings are UK time), and please forward it to anyone you think may be interested.

We would like to thank the following institutions, whose generous funding has made this event possible: the Past & Present Society; Royal Historical Society; St Andrews Institute of Medieval Studies; School of History, St Andrews; St Leonard’s Doctoral and Postgraduate College; Department of History, King’s College London.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at socmedievalemotions@gmail.com.

The Feeling Medieval conference launches the newly formed Society for the Study of Medieval Emotions (SSME) - the first society in the UK devoted to understanding medieval emotional experiences and standards. Twenty-minute papers (to be delivered in English) are invited on any topic relating to the emotions and affective displays (real or imagined) of the Middle Ages (500-1500 CE) in any geographic setting.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:
• Emotional gestures/facial expressions, such as weeping, smiling, laughing
• Medieval theological and philosophical theories of emotion
• Individual emotions, such as fear, anger, shame, jealousy, joy
• Emotional lexicons
• Emotions and the vices/virtues
• Methodologies and sources for studying medieval emotions
• The depiction of emotions in literature
• Visual representations of emotions in art and material culture • Religious emotions
• Emotions and warfare
• Gender and emotions
• Emotions, politics and power
• Emotional changes during the Middle Ages

Please send paper proposals, including a title, abstract of c.150 words, and a short bio, to socmedievalemotions@gmail.com by 31 October 2019. If you would like any further information, please contact the conference organisers, Hailey Ogle (St Andrews) and Stephen Spencer (KCL), via the email address above.

Membership of SSME is free. To join, please visit https://socmedievalemotion.wixsite.com/website