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47th International Congress on Medieval Studies draws over 3000 medievalists

Over 3000 scholars, historians, writers, students and medievalists came to Kalamazoo, Michigan over the last four days, where they took part in the 47th International Congress on Medieval Studies.

Through 547 sessions, papers were delivered on a wide variety of topics, ranging from “The Trial of the Templars in Germany” to “What Can Games Teach Us and Our Students about the Middle Ages?” Some historical events celebrating anniversaries, such as the 800th anniversary of the Battle of Las Novas de Tolosa, and the 600th birthday of Joan of Arc, provided the theme for several sessions.

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Noah Guynn, from the University of California Davis, told MLive.com that the congress is “the place where you see everyone from different disciplines. For medieval studies, it’s the most important conference and it always has been.”

Emergency repairs forced the closure to one of the main roads leading into the campus of Western Michigan University, which caused some conference-goers to be delayed in reaching their sessions. Several book sellers also noted that there were fewer people browsing and purchasing books in the book room.

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On Friday night, Medievalists.net recorded a video roundtable session with Candace Robb, a bestselling author, and Elan Justice Pavlinich, a graduate student from Western Michigan University:

Social media users were also on hand at the congress. A large number of congress attendees using twitters posted with the hashtag #Kzoo2012. Here is also a series of blog posts about the congress:

Patricia Bracewell gives her account of the four-day conference on her blog Earthwalker One

Kendra Leonard has described her first trip to Kalamazoo here and here.

Natalie Grinnell has added her thoughts in her blog Funnier than Grading about books, and Food and Drink.

Medieval History Geek contributed Brief Kalamazoo 2012 Thoughts to his blog, while the group blog Things Medieval posted It’s That Time of Year Again.

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Finally, Lisa Evans has posted her faux paper ‘Noble, Honorable, and Utterly Unbelievable: The Unsung Influence of Jean-Louis de Pouffe‘ which she delivered to many laughs at the annual Pseudo Society session held on Saturday night.

Medievalists.net will be providing further reports on papers and events from the congress over the next few weeks.

 

 

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