2012 Manchester – Gender and Medieval Studies

2012 Conference
Gender and Punishment, Manchester

Martin Harris Centre, University of Manchester
11-13 January 2012

Programme

Wednesday 11 January

12:45-1:45pm: Registration (Foyer)

1:45pm: Welcome and Opening Remarks by Dr. Anke Bernau (University of Manchester) (John Thaw Lecture Theatre)

2-3:30pm: Keynote Lecture (John Thaw Studio Theatre)Chair: Professor Gale Owen-Crocker (University ofManchester)Professor Dawn Hadley (University of Sheffield): Masculinity and Mass Graves in Anglo-Saxon England

3:30-4pm: Coffee (Foyer)

4-5:30pm: Parallel Sessions

Panel 1a: Torture and Spectacle (John Thaw Studio Theatre)Chair: TBC

(i) David Matthews (University of Manchester): “Take example, and thereof beware”: The Medieval Execution Ritual

(ii) Megan Welton (University of Notre Dame): Diversis angustiata cruciatibus: Adelheid of Italy and Tenth-Century Capture, Torture, and Gender

(iii) Iain MacInnes (UHI Centre for History): “A somewhat too cruel vengeance was taken for the blood of the slain”: punishment of rebels and traitors in medieval Scotland, c.1100-c.1400

Panel 1b: Holy Women and Punishment (G16)Chair: TBC

(i) Jessica Cheetham (University of Bristol): Mechthild of Magdeburg and Vicarious Punishment

(ii) Clare Monagle (Monash University): Authority and Punishment in the Letters of Hildegard of Bingen and Catherine of Siena

(iii) Kate E. Bush (The Catholic University of America): Cani Giudei: Anti-Semitism in the Sermons of Saint Catherine of Bologna

5:30pm: Close

6pm: Wine reception at International Anthony Burgess Foundation (Engine House, Cambridge Street)

Thursday 12 January

9:30-11am: Parallel Sessions Panel 2a: Space and Punishment (John Thaw Studio Theatre)Chair: TBC

(i) Sergi Sancho Fibla (Universitat Pompeu Fabra): Marguerite d’Oingt’s Pagina Meditationum. The female hell for the “brothers of flies”

(ii) Polly Stevens Fields (University of Nevada, Reno): Reconsideration of Hrothwissa’s Convent Dramas: Source and Site of Female Punishment in Paphnutius

(iii) Kristin Distel (Ashland University): Holy Fear as Incentive for Enclosure

Panel 2b: Presence and Absence in Punishment (G16)Chair: TBC

(i) Drew Maxwell (University of Edinburgh): “Traytur untrew and trowthles”: Women’s roles as punishers and teachers in the concept of trowth within Ywain and Gawain and Sir Launfal

(ii) Hannah Priest (University of Manchester): “De l’altre part la dame a prise”: Hiding Punitive Violence Against Women in Insular Romance

(iii) Carl G. Martin (Norwich University): “Par destresce e par poür”: Bisclavret’s Constrained Bodies

11-11:30am: Coffee (Foyer)

11:30-1pm: Parallel Sessions Panel 3a: Law and Punishment (John Thaw Studio Theatre)Chair: TBC

(i) Daniela Fruscione (University of Frankfurt): Adultery, gender and punishment in the 7th century: Legal and social frames

(ii) Charlene M. Eska (Virginia Tech): Castration in Early Irish Law

(iii) Gillian R. Overing (Wake Forest University): Within Striking Distance: Gender, Insult and Injury in Some Anglo-Saxon Laws

Panel 3b: Virgins and Punishment (G16)Chair: TBC

(i) Christine Williamson (University of York): The Moment of Death in the Passiones of the Virgin Martyrs: Exploring Gendered Forms of Execution in Medieval Hagiography

(ii) Sarah Schäfer (University of Paderborn): “Letting Satan in…” On teeth, tongues, throats and symbolic defloration in Female Saints’ Legends

(iii) Stavroula Constantinou (University of Cyprus): Holy Violence: Crime and Punishment in the Miracles of Saint Thecla

1-2pm: Lunch (Foyer)

2-3:30pm: Parallel Sessions Panel 4a: Punitive Scripts of Selfhood (John Thaw Studio Theatre)Chair: TBC

(i) Emily Rhodes (University of Bristol): Punishment & Imitatio Christi: Medieval Holy Women Creating Purgatory

(ii) Sarah Macmillan (University of Birmingham): Punishment, Pain and the Invisible Injuries of Christina Mirabilis

(iii) Michelle M. Sauer (University of North Dakota): Devotional Violence and Sacred Sacrifice: Asceticism, Flagellation, and Penetration in A Talkyng of the Loue of Gode

Panel 4b: Gendered Punishment (G16)Chair: TBC

(i) Rachel Jones (Cardiff University): Punishing the Unruly Female Saint: The Anomalous Case of Mary Magdalene

(ii) Inna Matyushina (University of Exeter): Punishments in Chastity Tests

(iii) Anastasija Ropa and Edgar Rops (University of Wales, Bangor): Gender specific punishment in the ‘Queste del Saint Graal’ and contemporary legal practice

3:30-4pm: Coffee (Foyer)

4-5:30pm: Keynote Lecture (John Thaw Studio Theatre)Chair: Dr. Anke Bernau (University of Manchester)Professor Karen Pratt (King’s College, London): Does the punishment fit the crime, or only the person? The intersection of gender, class and punishment in Old French Literature

5:30pm: Close

7pm: Conference Dinner at Felicini (Oxford Road)

Friday 13 January

9:30-11am: Parallel Sessions Panel 5a: Uncanny Bodies and Punishment (John Thaw Studio Theatre)Chair: TBC(i) Stephen Gordon (University of Manchester): Post-Mortem Punishment and the Fear of the Errant Corpse in Writings of William of Newburgh

(ii) Patricia Skinner (University of Swansea): The Gendered Nose and its Lack – some thoughts on medieval rhinectomy

(iii) Katja Fält (University of Jyväskylä, Finland): Men, Women and Devils – Representations of Gender and the Diabolic in the Late-Medieval Wall Paintings of the Diocese of Turku (Finland)

Panel 5b: Discipline and Punish (G16)Chair: TBC

(i) Kathy Frances (University of Manchester): Penance and Punishment: The Male Body and Masculine Bonds in John Audelay the Blind’s Counsel of Conscience

(ii) Frank Battaglia (College of Staten Island/CUNY): Boys Should Be Heroes: Beowulf’s disciplinary discourse

(iii) Rachel Friedensen (Western Michigan University): Si invita passa est: Consent and Gender in Anglo-Saxon and Frankish Penitentials

11-11:30am Coffee (Foyer)

11:30-12:30pm: Panel 6: Timely Punishment (John Thaw Studio Theatre)Chair: TBC

(i) Beverly R. Sherringham (Farmingdale State College, New York): The Graceful Fall: Medieval Misogyny as a Redemptive Precursor to an Egalitarian Society

(ii) Daisy Black (University of Manchester): Troublesome Flotsam: Verbal Resurrections of a Drowned Past

12:30-1:30pm: Lunch (Foyer)

1:30-2:30pm: GMS Business Meeting (G16)

3-4:15pm: Optional Workshops

(i) John Rylands Library Manuscript Collections (John Rylands Library, Deansgate) or

(ii) The Heronbridge Skeletons (led by Dr. Bryan Sitch) (Manchester Museum, Oxford Road)

4:15pm Conference Close

Gender and Punishment: Gender and Medieval Studies Conference 2012

11th – 13th January 2012, The University of Manchester

Keynote Speakers: Professor Dawn Hadley (University of Sheffield) and Professor Karen Pratt (King’s College, London)

Submissions are now being accepted for 20 minute papers.

Punishment is intrinsically related to the way in which authorities (such as the church, monarchy and state) seek to control, enforce and legislate the behaviour of individuals, communities and nations, and accordingly it plays an integral role in regulating bodies, spaces, spirituality and relationships. Representations of punishment – whether threatened, enacted, depicted or performed – are regularly encountered by medievalists working across the disciplines of literature, history, art and archaeology. This conference seeks to explore functions and manifestations of punishment in the Middle Ages and to consider to what extent these are determined by, or aim to determine, gender identity. How is punishment gendered? How does gender intersect with punishment?

Topics to consider may include but are not limited to:

Punishment in the beginning; the medieval understanding of the Fall.
Punishment, pedagogy and gender: the use of punishment in teaching.
Christianity, gender and punishment; treatment of the sinful body.
Punishment of Jewish, Saracen and heretical men and women.
Personal identity and self-inflicted acts of punishment.
The (gendered) use of space as punishment.
Regal punishments; punishments enacted upon or by medieval rulers.
Punishment and the regulation of perceived sexual deviance.
Punishment and spectacle; performance of punishment on and off the stage.
Gender relations in specific acts of punishment.
Confession and penance (as punishment): gendered role of confessor; issues relating to differences between female and male confession and penance.
Hell, the diabolic, and representations of gender.

We welcome scholars from a range of disciplines, including history, literature, art history and archaeology. A travel fund is available for postgraduate students who would otherwise be unable to attend.