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)?

The Norman Conquest of North Africa

Recent research has taken me far from Normandy to much sunnier climes in my pursuit of understanding the relationship between landscape, people (for that read Normans) and history writing. It is not yet clear whether I have embarked on a hunt for the Questing Beast, or whether my Snark will turn out to be a Boojum, but for the moment, the project at least has the appearance of scholarly endeavour, rather than antiquarian nonsense. All this is a long-winded way of saying that on Monday I went to Oxford to hear about the Normans in North Africa given by the redoubtable Alex Metcalfe from Lancaster. I confess that I do not know much about the Normans in North Africa. I was vaguely aware that they went there and this might have something to do with Sicily, so I was keen to attend.

Plans and plotting

For a while now I’ve been wanting to write a detailed piece on the cuts currently faced by most areas of education in this country, regressive policies on what constitutes education and why Gove was wrong to call for ‘a cultural revolution just like the one they’ve had in China’. I’ve started the post several times over and every time it has degenerated to a rant bigger than those I am usually given to. I’ve decided it’s time to go back to blogging about Normans for a little while, so herewith, plots and plans in the life of Gesta.

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.

BBC Normans 1

Apparently gesta believes that a review of the BBC’s new series on the Normans, which started with the main programme last night presented by Prof. Rob Bartlett, will be more interesting if done by the ignorant rather than the informed. Up to the current standards of journalism, then…

Normans on the BBC

Just a quick post to flag up the forthcoming ‘Normans‘ season on the BBC. I expect I shall have some views on the content, presentation style etc. (please, please, please let there be nothing from Channel 4) and will blog in due course. The main series will be presented by Prof. Rob Bartlett who fronted the excellent BBC ‘Inside the Medieval Mind’ and will undoubtedly be better than the materials for families put out by the BBC. I’ll be discussing those later when I blog the Battle conference.

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’.