2012 Medieval Studies Graduate Student Conference: Fear and Loathing in the Middle Ages

2012 Medieval Studies Graduate Student Conference: Fear and Loathing in the Middle Ages

Keynote speaker: Teofilo F. Ruiz (History, UCLA)
Saturday, April 28
McCune Conference Room, HSSB 6020

A universal human constant, fear of the unknown transcends time, place, and culture; making the concept ripe for interdisciplinary analysis. Fear of death, the afterlife, and other cultures, religions, and traditions appear in societies across the globe and across time and medieval Europe was no exception. Throughout the Middle Ages, many of the anxieties that preoccupied antique Europe either dissipated or transformed. As anxieties shifted, they crystallized into new expressions of fear and loathing in law, culture, and society. The intersection of these issues presents innumerable options for interdisciplinary research and discussion, such as boundary maintenance and subversion, legal constructions of normativity and exclusion, and even the role of fear and loathing in fostering (or hindering) diplomatic relations. As such, our conference will combine various strands and disciplines of medieval scholarship around the ubiquitous, yet variegated, theme of the feared and the loathed.

Sponsored by UCSB’s Graduate Division, the Dept. of History, the Medieval Studies Program, and the IHC.
Website: http://medievalstudies.ucsb.edu/events.html