Written by committee member Gavin Foster (@northrndownpour on IG)
This year, I had the privilege of attending the 2024 Leeds IMC in-person, having received funding to travel from Canada for the dual purpose of archival research and conference attendance, and I had an absolutely wonderful time.
The university was beautiful. There was a great setup for the bookfair, there were vendors in a market-esque area selling artisan crafts, and there were bunnies everywhere! The bunnies were really a highlight of my time at Leeds.
There were also several excursions available, and I took a trip to Kirkstall Abbey on my day off, where I participated in a very peaceful walking tour— signs around the Abbey encourage visitors to try meditating as they explore.
At the conference, I primarily attended the Tolkien sessions, as that’s my field of expertise. I presented on 3 July in a session sponsored by the Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic at the University of Glasgow, “Bodily Crisis in Tolkien’s Medievalism, I.” My paper was titled “Éowyn and/or Dernhelm: Tolkien’s Paradoxical Gendering of Éowyn’s Disguise” and considered how Tolkien uses pronouns to illuminate emotion in times of crisis, with attention to both Old English pronoun structures and gendered pronouns. Also presenting in my session were Mercury Natis (“The Torment of Maedhros and a Crisis of Mercy: Bodily Crises in Tolkien’s Medievalism”) and Cami Agan (“Altered Bodies, Altered States in the ‘Tale of Tinúviel”), who both gave fantastic papers and who I so appreciated getting to meet in-person.
I also attended one of the Cerae-sponsored sessions, both of which were titled “Remembering in Times of Crisis.” The first session, on 2 July, was well-attended, moderated by Ashley Castelino, and featured presentations by Ella Jando-Saul, Isaac Amon, and Lindsay Church. Jando-Saul’s paper, “Constructing Cultural Memory in Time of Crisis” investigated how early English writers shaped cultural memory through hagiography. She argued that analysing hagiographic methods— especially in complex times— tells us about the place of saints in medieval culture. Amon’s paper, “1492 and Jewish Memory: The Timelessness of Crisis,” argued for the significance of the 1492 Edict of Expulsion in Jewish memory. Church’s paper, “Medieval Interjections in Marlow’s Dido, Queen of Carthage,” then, argued that, by privileging Dido, Marlowe demonstrates how early modern English authors were able to use medieval literature as modes of critique for early modern conceptions of power and Empire. Each paper brought a fascinating new perspective to the session’s theme.
The second Cerae session also took place on 2 July and was moderated by Lindsay Church (one of the speakers from the previous session). It featured online papers by David Trojan (“The So-Called Evil Years in the Bohemian Kingdom in Memory and Oblivion”), Nitya Chagti (“Remembering the Tyrants: Albertino Mussato’s Ecerinis and the Birth of the Renaissance in Trecento Padua”), and Tamara Quirico (“Medieval Art after the Black Death and COVID-19: Misinterpretations of the Past”). The seemingly disparate presentation topics ultimately resulted in a fruitful and surprising discussion period, with unexpected connections being made between the three topics.
Recordings of both sessions are still available on the IMC site so, if you have access as a conference attendee, consider giving them a listen! I know I’ll be going back and listening to quite a few sessions.
Remember to keep an eye out for our 2025 Leeds IMC panel CFP early this fall; we hope to see you (and your research) there!
Featured image: Gottfried von Strassburg, 13th century poet, with his work. Codex Manesse (ca.1300) by Rudiger Manesse and his son Johannes. Fol. 364r. University of Heidelberg. Library. Germany.