The Haskins Conference

The Twenty-Ninth International Conference of the Charles Homer Haskins Society  was held this year from November 5 – 7, 2010 at Boston College. The conference attracted scholars from around the world who listened to more than two dozen papers. These papers dealt with a wide range of topics related to the Middle Ages, ranging in area from Portugal to Bohemia, and discussing such issues as women lords, captivity, ecclesiastical reform, historiography and warfare.

Medievalists.net was allowed to attend to report on the conference, where we observed and interviewed the people attending the conference.

Video Interviews

Robin Fleming, one of the principal organizers of this year’s conference, gives her impressions of it went

Peter and Sandra of Medievalists.net give their thoughts on the Conference

William North, editor of The Haskins Society Journal

Chris Lewis, about the project “Profile of a Doomed Elite: The Structure of English Landed Society in 1066”

Richard Abels, who gave a paper entitled, “Representations of Warfare in the Morgan Picture Bible”

Katrin Sjursen, who gave a paper entitled “Weathering Thirteenth-Century Warfare: The Case of Blanche of Navarre”

Robin Fleming, on here paper “Recycling Rome after the Fall” and book Britain after Rome

Reports on Papers

We were able to attend the second and third days of the conference, and listened to many of the papers given. Here are our reports of the individual papers:

Session 8: Lordship, History, and the Dominae of Northern France

Rebellion and the Countess, by Heather J. Tanner

Female Lordship in the 13th c. Picard Historical Documents, by Kathy M. Krause

Weathering Thirteenth-Century Warfare: The Case of Blanche of Navarre, by Katrin Sjursen – coming soon

Session 6: Hostages and Captive Taking in the High Middle Ages

Heroes, Fosterage and Hagiography: The Function of Fosterage in Medieval Irish Literature, by Lahney Preston-Matto

The Two Matilda’s: Treatment of Captives and Ideals of Queenship, by Colleen Slater

That’s No Way to Treat a Lady! Hostage or Captive: What’s the Difference?, by Annette Parks

Session 5: Historiography in the Salian Age

Cosmas on the See of Prague

Fruitolf Michelsberg’s Chronicle, the Schools of Bamberg and the Preservation of Imperial Polemic

Session 4: Ideals of the Holy Man: Bishops and Abbots in France and England

Gerald of Wales and the Episcopal Ideal, by Matthew M. Mesley – coming soon

De abbatibus [of Mont-Saint-Michel] rubrica abreviata: Towards a New Edition, by Thomas N. Bisson – coming soon

Session 9: Texts, Rituals, and the Social Order

Badly Ordered: Walahfrid Strabo’s Vision of the Carolingian World in the Libellus de exordiis et incrementis quarandam in observationibus ecclesiasticis rerum, by Mary Zito

Lantfred’s Swithun and the Fundamentals of Reform: Educating Lay Pilgrims in Tenth-Century Winchester, by Christopher Riedel

See also our Facebook page for more pictures from the conference and the beautiful Boston College