IMC 2015: Sessions

This round table discussion brings together experts from various fields in medieval studies to discuss the semantic and methodological challenges facing scholars when studying reform and renewal in medieval contexts. It is becoming increasingly clear that different disciplines in medieval studies, and even different specializations within each of these, rely on different definitions of what constitutes a reform or renewal of past practices, attitudes, and beliefs. These definitions often originated in intellectual circumstances far removed from what we currently regard as objective observation of past realities. The result is that is has become very difficult to discuss reform and renewal across disciplines, or even establish a consensus on what constitutes a reform, or a renewal. Basing themselves on the current state of the art in medieval studies, the issues addressed in the keynote lectures, and three days’ worth of sessions on reform and renewal, the participants will investigate the origins of this problem, consider possibilities for resolving it, and identify priorities for future theoretical and source-based research.

Participants include Frank Griffel (Yale University), Carmen Cardelle de Hartmann (Universität Zürich), Conrad Leyser (University of Oxford), and Maureen C. Miller (University of California, Berkeley).