ℌappy July, all!
The Society is pleased to report that we have THREE offerings for the 2026 International Congress on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo! All three are online. The first of them is co-sponsored with Tolkien at Kalamazoo, the roundtable Adaptations of Tolkien: Medieval Traces in Movies, Games and Other Transmedial Texts. Building upon the #Kzoo2025 work of the Society, it's session 7564, and the description the Congress has of it is
This roundtable explores enduring medieval influences in adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien's works across various media, including films and television, table-top and video games, and other transmedial texts. Roundtable panelists will examine how Tolkien's deep engagement with medieval literature, history, and mythology continues to shape modern interpretations, from the visual aesthetics and world-building in cinematic adaptations to the narrative structures and mechanics in interactive games and other media. Through interdisciplinary perspectives, the discussion will address ways medieval motifs are preserved, altered, or reimagined in these adaptations, considering both creative intentions and audience reception.
The second session, a paper session, is Off of the Printed Prose Page: Multimodal Medievalisms. It's session 7569, and the description the Congress has of it is
While the pop culture landscape of books and films often borrow from and are inspired by "the medieval period"–as well as frequently disseminated, propagated, and influenced by neo-medievalist works such as those by Martin, Jordan, Sanderson, and Hobb–relatively little discourse focuses on how other types of contemporary works pull from the same and/or similar influences. With the increasing popularity of medievalism in games, music, etc., this paper panel seeks to prompt, deepen, and explore the study and discussion of the less commonly talked about–yet no less consumed–works and how they look to and use popular mis/understandings of the medieval.
The third, another paper session, is Bad Medieval/ism: Mis/Uses of the Medieval in Contemporary Fiction. Originally subtitled "I Know It's Wrong, But I Want to Have Fun," it's session 7572, and the description the Congress has of it is
This session seeks to examine the misuses and misapplications of the medieval within any fictional media from 1974 forward. Sometimes, accessibility to contemporary audiences requires deviation from what is known to scholarship; sometimes, narrative demands impose changes to particular interpretations of source material. Sometimes, however, things are flatly wrong. Effects on audiences differ, but it is clear that many audiences and authors use contemporary fiction as a means to understand earlier periods. This session seeks to explore what they get right, what they get less right, and why it matters to our ongoing understanding of the belief about the medieval.
Dear members, and dear readers, please publicize this widely; tell your friends, tell your colleagues, tell your students who have them! And get your own abstracts ready; we'd love to have your work!
Submissions for each are due no later than 15 September 2025 via Confex; details are forthcoming on the Congress site. Details are forthcoming, too, of the AGM.
