IMC 2024: Sessions

Social media is now an inescapable part of our everyday world. In the UK, over 90% of the population use social media, with an average of one hour and 52 minutes of social media use per day. Medievalists have not been strangers to social media, as illustrated by the widely known community of #MedievalTwitter. As Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube pick up the content slack left by Twitter/X, medievalists have new opportunities for public engagement and pedagogy beyond the classroom, exporting the discussions of today's academia into digestible yet scholarly scrolling. But with these opportunities comes a set of challenges. How can we use these platforms to make a positive contribution within and beyond our academic field? Is it possible to accurately represent scholarly nuance in short-form videos or text posts? And do we have a responsibility to 'debunk' content creators who co-opt the medieval past for views or more sinister agendas? This session will discuss anachronism, authority, and expertise in medieval studies as it exists on social media, exploring its benefits, its drawbacks, and how we might overcome them. This round table brings together medievalists from Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube ahead of a planned edited collection.

Participants include Charlotte Bowyer (Independent Scholar), E. K. McAlpine (Independent Scholar), and Mireille Juliette Pardon (Berea College, Kentucky).