Call for papers for the May 14-17, 2015, Medieval Congress at Western Michigan University

Sponsored by The Friends of the Saints.
Panel theme: ‘Material Engagements with the Friends of God in Post-Roman Europe.’

Association with and promotion of holy figures and their relics has long been recognized as a way those in the Middle Ages laid claim to being part of a group and to that group’s authority. This panel proposes to explore how identities (e.g., individual, community, national, religious, legal) were claimed and formed through the material evidence of sanctity in post-Roman Europe. Papers addressing the following themes are particularly invited:

–Hagiography
–Manuscripts and the written word
–Material culture
–Relics
–Intersections of east and west in the former Roman Empire

Please send an abstract of no more than 200 words and a CV by September 15 to Jay Paul Gates
(jgates@jjay.cuny.edu) or

Jay Paul Gates
Department of English
John Jay College, CUNY
524 W. 59th St., 7th Floor
New York, NY 10019