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Medievalists come to Leeds for IMC

The International Medieval Congress begins on Monday at the University of Leeds, drawing in over 2400 medievalists from from 46 countries around the world. The four-day conference is Europe’s largest annual gathering in humanities.

international medieval congress leeds

This is the 22nd Congress offers 2,400 delegates more than 600 academic sessions and 1,700 lectures, as well as a wide range of concerts, performances, readings, round tables, excursions, book fairs and associated events.

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In the past 21 years, the International Medieval Congress at the University of Leeds has received over 12,000 visitors and brought more than £10 million into the city and surrounding areas.

Director of the International Medieval Congress at University of Leeds, Axel Müller said, “The public are encouraged to come along and get involved in this medieval extravaganza. There are numerous events for people to join in and experience medieval culture, craft and cuisine.”

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The year’s focus for the congress is ‘Reform and Renewal’ and will feature three keynote lectures. On Monday morning, Keith Lilley of Queen’s University Belfast will speak on ‘Beyond National Narratives: Culture, States, and Reframing ‘Gregorian’ Reform’, which examines how significance of the intense reform efforts of the late 11th and early 12th centuries lies chiefly in the creation of a European-wide clerical culture and of new forms of territorially complex states. He will be followed by Maureen C. Miller from the University of California, Berkeley. She will give a lecture on ‘Spaces of Reform?: Urban Renewal and the Shaping of Cities in Medieval Europe’ that use a cross-disciplinary approach to look at examples of urban renewal from across Europe spanning the period 1100-1400.

Later on that day, Yale University’s Frank Griffel will give a keynote lecture on Reforming Islam at the Turn to the 6th/12th Century: Al-Ghazali’s Project of Reviving Religion through Aristotelianism and Mysticism. On Tuesday, Alaric Hall of the University of Leeds will give a special lecture on ‘J. R. R. Tolkien at Leeds and in the Brotherton Library Special Collections’ while Lenke Kovács and Raül Sanchis Francés from the Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, will speak about ‘Ballar el moro – Dancing the Moor: Festive Dances of Moors and Christians in the Western Mediterranean’. Other special lectures will be given through the week.

During the evening sessions, dozens of roundtable discussions will be held, on topics such as ‘Creative Writing and the Middle Ages’, ‘The Public Medievalist: What it Means for Medievalists to Be Public Intellectuals Today’ and ‘The Twitterati: Using Twitter in Medieval Scholarship and Pedagogy’

One can still register for the congress, either for the entire four days, or for indiviudal days. Go to https://www.leeds.ac.uk/ims/imc/IMC2015/imc2015.html for more details.

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Medievalists.net will be at the International Medieval Congress and sending out daily reports. You can also follow the congress on Twitter by using the hashtag #IMC2015

See also: Ten Reasons Why You Should Go to the 2015 International Medieval Congress

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