42nd Annual Medieval and Renaissance Forum:
The Sense of Taste in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance
Keene State College
Keene, NH, USA
Friday and Saturday April 29-30, 2022
 
Call for Papers and Sessions
We are delighted to announce that the 42nd Medieval and Renaissance Forum: The Sense of Taste in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance will take place on Friday, April 29 and Saturday April 30, 2022 at Keene State College in Keene, New Hampshire. The fourth in a series of five annual conferences dedicated to the five senses, the 42nd Medieval and Renaissance Forum will focus on all culinary and savory experiences in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. While we plan to hold the 42nd Annual Medieval and Renaissance Forum in person with a limited number of virtual presentations, the entire event may have to be moved online should the safety of our participants require it.

We welcome abstracts (one page or less) or panel proposals that discuss taste in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

Papers and sessions, however, need not be confined to this theme but may cover other aspects of medieval and Renaissance life, literature, languages, art, philosophy, theology, history, and music.

This year’s keynote speaker is Martha Carlin, Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. Professor’s Carlin research focuses on medieval London and Southwark and on everyday life in medieval England, including food, work, shopping, letters, household technologies, and inns. In recent years, Professor Carlin has turned up new evidence concerning the lives of John Gower, Geoffrey Chaucer, and William Shakespeare. Currently, she is working on a book on the rise of inns in medieval England and a sourcebook of translations from the Manières de langage (French language manuals written in England). She is the author of Food and Eating in Medieval Europe, Lost Letters of Medieval Life: English Society, 1200-1250, London and Southwark Inventories, 1316-1650: A Handlist of Extents for Debts, and, amongst many other articles and essays, “Why Stay at the Tabard? Public Inns and Their Amenities, c. 1400,” “The Bard at the Tabard,” and “The Senses in the Marketplace: Markets, Shops, and Shopping in Medieval Towns.”

Students, faculty, and independent scholars are welcome. Please indicate your status (undergraduate, graduate, or faculty), affiliation (if relevant), and full contact information, including email address on your proposal.

We welcome undergraduate sessions, but ask that students obtain a faculty member's approval and sponsorship.  

Graduate students are eligible for consideration for the South Wind Graduate Student Paper Award upon submission of their essays by April 1, 2022. The winner of the South Wind Graduate Student Paper Award will win $100 to be used for registration and/or travel expenses to the 43rd Annual Medieval and Renaissance Forum (travel expenses including but not limited to transportation to and from the conference and accommodations while in Keene). The winner of the South Wind Graduate Student Paper Award will be announced at lunch on Friday, April 29, 2022.

Please submit abstracts and full contact information on the form below.

Abstract deadline: January 15, 2022

Presenters and early registration: March 15, 2022

As always, we look forward to greeting returning and first-time participants to Keene in April!