IMC Leeds 2011 report, III (finally!): how to chair a rebellion and other tales

Yes, yes, the conference was in July and now it’s October, and yes, I’ve been to several conferences since Leeds and no, I haven’t written those up either. A combination of circumstances has meant that my feet have barely touched the floor since Leeds and so not only am I dreadfully behind on blogging, but on just about everything else in life too. Anyway, here is the much promised third installment of this year’s Leeds conference.*

Looking forward to … Leeds IMC 2011

July is nearly here, which means the annual International Medieval Congress at Leeds is just around the corner with all its madness. I tried explaining this conference to a modern historian friend who looked frankly terrified by the prospect, both in terms of size and duration, but for those of us made of sterner stuff what can we expect from the programme this year (with its rather episcopally-coloured cover)?

Battle Conference 2010

This year’s Battle Conference was held in Norwich (UEA), Pyke House still being closed and liable to remain so for the medium term. Aside from the horrors of having to cross London, Norwich was not at all a bad substitute and the conference was, as always, excellent.

IMC Leeds 2010 report

After a couple of nights in Whitley Bay with my sister’s family, it was on to Leeds for the annual International Medieval Congress. This was, in fact, the ninth congress I’d attended, which makes me feel rather old. This year can be summed up simply as ‘good papers, good beer and good company’.

The 2010 Ford lectures V: Centre, periphery and networks

This time around tea with two fellow Normannists preceded the latest installment in David Bates’ journey through the murky realms of empire and Norman history. I confess I was probably more interested in this lecture’s title than the others. Regular readers of this blog know that Reivers and I have an interest in life on boundaries in all sorts of senses. Also, my more recent research has focused on looking at the relationship between centre and periphery as made manifest in chroniclers’ descriptions of the landscape. What David did here was to underline how networks in particular perpetuate empire and how, in the case of Normandy, the centre/core remained remarkably resilient.

Battle conference 2009 report

This year, the Battle conference was at Gregynog in Powys due to the closure of the usual venue of Pyke House. Although beer in the Chequers was sorely missed, the conference itself was very interesting and, once I’d got my paper out of the way, enjoyable. I’m afraid tales of the social scene will have to come from someone else, as I was far too exhausted to stay up this year. So, what of the papers?

Looking ahead to Battle 2009

Next week sees my third, and hopefully final, conference of the summer – the Battle Conference on Anglo-Norman Studies 2009. Last year I commented on my experience of a past Battle and why I hadn’t been back to the conference for eight years. I also reported on what a good conference Battle 2008 turned out to be. This year, the conference will be in Gregynog (Powys) due to the closure of Pyke House. The observant among you will have noticed the slight change from my normal conference previews: I’m giving a paper this year and will no doubt look forward to the conference in retrospect!

Looking forward to … IMC 2009

The middle of July, as ever, will see many medievalists descending on University of Leeds for the International Medieval Congress. The theme of this year’s conference is ‘Heresy and Orthodoxy’ so what can we expect?

1066 or what on middle earth was that?

Yesterday and today Channel 4 broadcast a docudrama called ’1066: the Battle for Middle Earth’. The premise of the film is an interesting one, namely to show the effects of the battles of 1066 (Fulford, Stamford Bridge and Senlac Hill) on the ordinary people. The result is  something I thought impossible – Channel 4 makes 1066 boring.

Teaching Domesday Book

While Dr Jarrett has been busy listening to seminars on Domesday Book, I’ve been trying to teach the damn thing, again. Hopefully, this was the last time I shall ever have to do so, but Domesday Book is rather like a nasty, slimey something lurking under a stone. Pick up the stone and there it is, flapping its folios at you in a extremely menacing manner, with the remains of students and junior faculty who have tried to make sense of it and failed, scattered round about.