Cdn Society of Medievalists/Société Canadienne des médiévistes

CFP - CSM Sessions at ACCUTE's 2026 conference in Montreal, 4-7 June

Submit your paper proposals on
• Medieval Magic
• Medieval Masculinities

for two CSM-sponsored sessions. Deadline 15 Nov. 2025. Details here www.canadianmedievalists.org/CSM-at-ACCUT...

Laura Moncion – Boyle Prize Presentation / Colloque du prix Boyle - REGISTRATION / INSCRIPTION On 5 Nov. 2025 at 11h00 (EST), the Canadian Society of Medievalists will hold its second annual Boyle Prize Online Presentation, when Laura Moncion, the winner of the Society's Leonard E. Boyle Prize ...

La SCM en ligne : le mercredi 5 novembre 2025 à 11 h (heure de l'Est) on écoute Laura Moncion, lauréate du prix Boyle 2025, parler de sa thèse intitulée « Being a Recluse is No Small Thing: Late Medieval Women’s Reclusion in Theory and Practice ».

Inscription : forms.gle/n6LJh7JYKvRD...

Laura Moncion – Boyle Prize Presentation / Colloque du prix Boyle - REGISTRATION / INSCRIPTION On 5 Nov. 2025 at 11h00 (EST), the Canadian Society of Medievalists will hold its second annual Boyle Prize Online Presentation, when Laura Moncion, the winner of the Society's Leonard E. Boyle Prize ...

The CSM Online: Tune in Wednesday 5 Nov. 2025, at 11am EST to hear 2025 Boyle Prize Winner Laura Moncion talk about her dissertation, "Being a Recluse is No Small Thing: Late Medieval Women’s Reclusion in Theory and Practice."

Register for the Zoom link: forms.gle/n6LJh7JYKvRD...

At the top: a sculture of a woman with one hand behind her head and the other reaching out, on a grey background. Below that on a gold background are the words, CSANA Virtual Book Launch (for) Bound and Free: Voices of Mortal and Otherworld Women in Medieval Irish Literature by Joanne Findon. With responses from Amy Mulligan (Notre Dame) and Kristen Mills (University of Oslo). Register here (but see registration link in post). Tuesday September 30 12 pm (CST) and 6 PM (BST)

CSM Member Dr. Joanne Findon's new book, Bound and Free: Voices of Mortal and Otherworld Women in Medieval Irish Literature, is being celebrated with a virtual book launch on September 30! All are welcome but registration is required here: uark.zoom.us/meeting/regi.... See the poster attached.

Tudor tournaments were thus, Emma-Catherine argues "deeply rooted in Early English tournaments," not Burgundian models.

Emma-Catherine Wilson discussed early Tudor Tournament letters arguing that rather than relying on Burgundian models as other scholars have suggested, the Tudors drew from "a long lineage of insular tradition" in issuing challenges and creating the literary pageantry of tournaments.

Her work has traced the life of this textile fragment from an Islamic courtly setting in Grenada to a Christian Church in Castile. The fabric was eventually cut and survives now in fragments across the world. In its fragmented form these textiles served as book and treasure wraps.

Next up was Iris Bednarski who shared her work on a textile fragment now housed at the McGill Museum of Fine Arts. The pic here was kindly provided by Iris. The project attempted "to reconstruct the life of [this] object". The fragment is probably from Grenada and was likely created in the 13th c.

The Electronic Manipulus Florum Project _______________________________________________

of the MF and their uses. See the project here: manipulus-project.wlu.ca.

Another excellent panel from this year's CSM Annual Meeting. Chris Nighman spoke about two previously unknown sources for Robert of Naple's Sermo factus pro liga Lombardie, the Manipulus florum and John of Wales' Communiloquium. Much of Dr. Nighman's recent work has been exploring the manuscripts

nothing has survived to the present day. Dr. Bacola also noted the importance of the Fenland in the area, allowing for isolated conditions for those (saints) seeking solitude. Using ArcGIS also brings to light local power dynamics between neighbouring monasteries.

Finally Meredith Bacola described how she is using ArcGIS as a tool for understanding the development of Crowland Abbey. Amongst other fascinating findings, using ArcGIS made it clear that the geography supported the information found in hagiographies of St. Guthlac (and important finding since

was being read, but in the libraries, not the infirmaries, he speculates. @winstonblack is on bluesky, so ask questions!

kept in the infirmary not the library, and shows clear evidence of the incorporation of the textual knowledge in the MS into medical practice. Dr. Black also hinted that there was a distinction to be made between textual medicine and the medicine of the infirmaries. Constantine Africanus' new work

Next Winston Black reminded us that we should not be ignoring the role of monasteries in the history of medicine. Perhaps the locus of that medical knowledge was not only found in the libraries and scriptoria but in the infirmaries. Dr. Black's work on Bethesda NLM E8 suggests that manuscript was

a monastic community, Hildegard's own monasteries suggest her attitude may have been more flexible on this than her writing suggests. There is some evidence that suggests the presence of conversae in or near Rupertsberg. As always, Gudiño warns categories for class and types of religious are porous.

A list of papers presented in a panel. The text is as follows: Session 8A: New Perspectives on Medieval Monasticism Location: SJ2-2003 Carmen Gudiño, Ph.D. student, University of Toronto Social Diversity at Rupertsberg: Theology vs. Practice in Hildegard of Bingen Winston Black, St. Francis Xavier University Monastic Infirmaries in Twelfth-Century England: A reassessment of their role in the history of medicine Meredith Bacola, University of Manitoba Reconstructing the medieval past: ArcGIS as a tool for understanding the development of Crowland Abbey, England Chair: Jacqueline Murray, University of Guelph

Another day, another panel. First up, Carmen Gudiño, who examined the class diversity at the monastery of Rypertsberg under Hildegard of Bingen. While Hildegard's writings suggest that the importance of hierarchy when responding to a colleague's idea that only nobles should be allowed to enter into

Unfortunately, the paper by Dr. Laumonier on Montpelier butchers and their neighbours and environs had to be cancelled. We look forward to hearing about this project at future CSM Annual Conferences.

A recent photograph of Pont Neuf with the Île de la Cité in between the two different sections.

the consequences of such events much more visible. Attached here is a modern image of Pont Neuf, (credit: Wiki Commons) which is now the oldest bridge in in Paris, opened in 1607, long after the Great Winter.

This resulted in the Left Bank being isolated from the Île de la Cité or beyond. These parts of Paris became only accessible by ferry making trade and travel from the Left Bank much more difficult. Dr. Hutchison's larger point was how mapping some of the events found in chronicles can make

the importance of locating people in space as well as time for historians. Next up, CSM's treasurer, Emily Hutchison, who explored some of the impacts of the onset of the Little Ice Age on Paris. One example: when the Seine broke up after the "Great Winter" of 1408, it took down three bridges.

Amongst her interesting findings, that jongleurs lived near butchers and tanners, near Jongleur street, but perhaps not ON it, interacted with Jewish populations, and lived near taverns and places that would have allowed for good busking. It was fascinating and important research, that demonstrates

A part of a conference schedule noting the names of scholars and titles of papers for a particular panel, details below. Session 5A: Mapping Medieval People's Lives || Cartographier la vie des médiévaux Location: SJ2-2003 Katherine Pierpont, University of Toronto The Proof is in the Property: Digital Maps as Historical Narratives in Toulouse (c. 1150-1250) Emily Hutchison, Mount Royal University Healthscaping in a Time of Climate Change: Mapping the Evidence in Late Medieval Paris Lucie Laumonier, Concordia University Neighborly Relations: the Montpellier Butchers c. 1380-1500 Chair: Isabelle Cochelin, University of Toronto

Another day, another session summary! To begin, Katherine Pierpont used municipal records to trace the presence of troubadours and jongleurs in medieval Toulouse. Her work enables her to sometimes place individuals in precise domiciles and allows her to start to understand their social networks.

Laura Moncion

Congratulations to Laura Moncion, 2025 winner of the @canmedievalists.bsky.social Leonard Boyle Dissertation Prize! 🎉
www.medieval.utoronto.ca/news/laura-m...

Beowulf himself remains unchanged, and able to feel nothing at all -- a luxury not afforded to the grieving mother.

the framing of her character in previous translations and discussions as monstrous. This creates moments/ a continual experience of dysphoria in the reader. But further, change is forced on Grendel's mother--she is forced to repent the act of her grieving (and the destruction that followed) while

the agency Silence has in crafting their gender. Finally Gavin Foster explored Headley's representation of Grendel's mother as defined by her grief in her translation of Beowulf. Foster notes that although Headley asserts Grendel's mother acts out of grief and as a warrior, she cannot escape

continued and continuing transformation and the suggestion that traditional categories can be straddled, or perhaps better, entirely :"liquified". Adrien Savard-Arsenault explored trans characters in Roman de Silence and Yde et Olive noting the seemingly stricter system of gender in Yde et Olive and

An image of a folio page from the Exeter Book.

and heredity. Jes Battis invited us to imagiine Old English poetry as containing passages of trans joy and resistance Pointing to Wulf and Eadwacer and The Phoenix in particular. While content was explored, so was OE grammar and the idea of a kenning, both of which, Battis suggested, allow for

An imge of a conference program that take place between 3::30 adn 5:30. The panel is entitled Session 3A: Queer Past/Queer Futurities and includes the following papers: Location: SJ2-2003 Simran Dhaliwal, PhD Candidate, University of Cambridge Queer Time and Queer Failure in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Jes Battis, University of Regina Phoenix, Wolf, Day-Watcher: Trans Embodiment in Old English Verse Adrien Savard-Arseneault, Université de Montréal Foreseeable futures for the “trans man” in two medieval chivalric romances Gavin Foster, Ph.D. Candidate, Dalhousie University Translating Transtextually: Headley’s Beowulf and Oberman’s The Unstill Ones Chair: Siobhain Bly Calkin, Carleton University

Next up, a terrific panel entitled Queer Pasts and Queer Futurities. All of these papers looked at queer spaces, times and identities in medieval texts. Simran Dhaliwal discusses the fragility of a happy, carefree child-like Arthur in the court of Camelot in the face of expectations of masculinity