IMC 2021: Sessions

In the Middle Ages, much like today, those who lived through the seemingly never-ending years of plague and political tension, lived with fears of disease, death, and disorder. If they avoided disease, they might starve or suffer loss of community, family, and connections. In other ways, fear was present in medieval communities. What were the experiences of minority faith communities, of 'foreign' individuals, of people with disabilities? Are there human commonalities or parallels in medieval expressions of fear with the many crises of the present day? Drawing together specialists from the early to the late medieval period with expertise ranging from studies in disability, disease, trauma, mental health, religion, and global medievalism, this round table discussion will be an open discussion of medieval ideas of fear and how individuals coped with living in climates of fear.

Participants include Esther Cohen (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Erin Connelly (University of Warwick), Christina Lee (University of Nottingham), Daniel McCann (Ruhr-Universität Bochum), and Wendy J. Turner (Augusta University, Georgia).