Institute for Medieval Studies

Session	1035
Title	The Theory and Politics of Medieval Studies, I: Theory
Date/Time	Wednesday 5 July 2017: 09.00-10.30
Sponsor	Leeds Studies in English
Organiser	Victoria Cooper, Department of English, Beijing International Bilingual Academy
Moderator/Chair	Kirsty Day, School of History, Classics & Archaeology, University of Edinburgh
Paper 1035-a	Changing Paradigms in the Humanities and in Medieval Studies: From Postmodernism to Postculturalism (Language: English) Han Nijdam, Fryske Akademy, De Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, Leeuwarden Index Terms: Historiography - Modern Scholarship; Medievalism and Antiquarianism; Teaching the Middle Ages
Paper 1035-b	The Historical Is Political: Understanding the Backlash against the Study of Race, Gender, and Representation in Medievalism (Language: English) Victoria Cooper, Department of English, Beijing International Bilingual Academy Index Terms: Computing in Medieval Studies; Historiography - Modern Scholarship; Medievalism and Antiquarianism
Paper 1035-c	Can Medievalists Save the World with Wikipedia? (Language: English) Alaric Hall, Institute for Medieval Studies / School of English, University of Leeds Index Terms: Computing in Medieval Studies; Historiography - Modern Scholarship; Medievalism and Antiquarianism
Abstract	Neoliberalism and the new prominence of 'post-truth politics' across the West, along with forces like environmental change, are pressing medievalists to question postmodern theoretical paradigms and to grapple anew with objective, material realities only partly accessible through human experience. This session examines from multiple angles vexed questions about truth, objectivity, and representation in medieval studies, both in terms of historiographical theory and the ways in which professional research is received and manipulated by wider audiences.