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Source:
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/imi/imc/imc2003/imc2003.htm
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INTERNATIONAL MEDIEVAL CONGRESS 2003

The tenth International Medieval Congress will take place in Leeds, from
14-17 July 2003. Please use the IMC 2003 Proposal Form
(http://www.leeds.ac.uk/imi/imc/imc2003/2003prop.htm) to submit complete
sessions or individual proposals.

Call for Papers/Sessions for IMC 2003

The International Medieval Congress aims to provide a forum for
interdisciplinary discussion of all aspects of the European Middle Ages,
300-1500. For 2003, the IMC will dedicate a special thematic strand to
Power and Authority, comprising 24 sessions. Scholars from all disciplines
and countries working within the medieval field are invited to submit
sessions and papers dealing with this theme. Please note, however, that
Power and Authority is not intended to be an exclusive theme, but that
sessions and papers will be welcomed, as always, on all aspects of
Medieval Studies.

Concepts of Power and Authority dominate nearly all aspects of medieval
life and culture, and scholars are encouraged to approach this theme in an
interdisciplinary fashion. Participants might wish to consider definitions
of authority as the basis for power; the nature and limitation of
sovereignty, both temporal or spiritual; the justification for royal or
aristocratic authority; the rise of collective authority, such as
parliaments, councils and cortes; the extension or containment of
authority through charters of liberty and legal codes. Power could be
considered, on the one hand, in terms of physical force and, on the other,
as persuasion through the giving of gifts or the preaching of sermons.
Discussion of empowerment might equally cover groups claiming succession
to the Apostolic life, or individuals leading particularly holy lives; it
would certainly include issues of gender and manumission of peasants.
Consideration of the authority of texts and the language of power, their
manifestation through literacy, art, architecture, liturgy, collections of
manuscripts, objects, or rare beasts, might encourage unconventional and
non-traditional approaches to this theme. Brenda Bolton, University of
London, will co-ordinate the strand.

Areas for discussion might include:

Authority of texts, authenticity and forgery
Architecture of power - castles, cathedrals, towers, walls and city gates
Arms, armour and weapons of resistance
Biblical and Scriptural authority
Camera di papagallo - kings and fools
Charters of Liberty and other charters
Ceremonial of power - adventus, processions, vestments, ordines and
liturgies
Collections of items - rare animals, manuscripts, books
Deputising for authority - vice-regal, legatine and comital or shrieval
powers
Genealogies - self-propagation, justifications for the creation of the
nobility
Humility as power
Images and symbols
Insignia, jewels, ferulae, staffs of office
Law and law codes
Literacy and the written word
Museums
Papal versus secular authority
Parliaments and their antecedents
Penitentials
Plenitude of power
Powerful and less powerful officials: the podesta and the ministeriales
Prisons and punishment
Protocol - order of precedence
Relationship between potentes and paupere
Rhetoric of power
Rules - monastic and religious
Subversion of authority
Tyranny and freedom

Individual paper proposals, including abstracts, for IMC 2003 (14-17 July
2003) must be submitted to the IMC Administration by 31 August 2002.
Proposals for full sessions of three 20 minute papers must be submitted by
30 September 2002.

Proposal Forms can be completed online by clicking
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/imi/imc/imc2003/2003prop.htm or through the IMC
Administration ([log in to unmask]).