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.*

IMC Leeds 2011 report, II: Normans and Norman historians

Tuesday’s sessions continued the Norman theme with the strand ‘Normans, Normandy and the wider Norman world: 911 from a 2011 perspective’, bookended by David Bates and me, a fact which in no small way contributed to the pre-paper jitters of the previous evening. There were four sessions in all, though the third was the subject of an annoying clash and I ducked out to take part in a rebellion or two.

IMC Leeds 2011 report, I: southern Italian Normans

Best Leeds ever just about sums up IMC just gone. If last year was all about ‘good papers, good beer and good company‘, then this year’s IMC continued that theme with better weather and an energy about the place I haven’t felt in a while (and as evidenced by the number of people who joined in the dancing). As this year marks the eleven-hundredth anniversary of the traditional date of the foundation of Normandy, there was a decided Norman theme to parts of the conference and most certainly my session attendance. Well, let’s start with Monday and see how far I get.

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)?

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’.

IMC 2010: Medieval Routes

I am involved in organising some sessions for next year’s Leeds based on different medieval routes. We have a couple of gaps in various sessions, so if anyone has anything to say about the following please get in touch:

• German roads, routes and itineraries, particularly if these relate to palaces or the military orders
• Pilgrimage routes around the Mediterranean
• The Silk Road

We are particularly interested in papers that explore experience of routes from a narrative, archaeological or cartographic perspective. Please send proposals to Marianne O’Doherty as soon as possible. Thanks. Call for Papers

IMC Leeds 2009 report

I’ve survived another Leeds (my 8th I believe) and thankfully, it was better than last year’s, both in terms of quality and weather. I still have some concerns about the over-use of case studies, but more of those later. I failed miserably to make it to either bloggers’ meeting due to double-booking myself and a successful round table: I’m sure Magistra et Mater and Jonathan Jarrett will update everyone on that score (the bloggers, not the roundtable).

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?

‘Space’: International Medieval Society, Paris

Here is the first of three posts looking ahead to conferences over the next few weeks.  The International Medival Society’s (Paris) conference is on the theme of space, so it is not a surprise that I am going next week. Alas, I am not speaking as the session that I was involved in was deemed to be ‘too geographic’. In some respects this is an odd thing to have said, but moving on, what can we look forward to?

Battle 2008: the social side

In my last post, I wrote that I did not expect to be playing Jenga in the dark at the Battle Conference and promised to say more about this after giving a snapshot of the papers discussed there. The reason behind this slightly odd behaviour lies in the difference between Battle and huge conferences like the IMC at Leeds, and also the blurring of boundaries between work done within the confines of sessions and networking outside (literally in this case).