Institute for Medieval Studies

Session	214
Title	In the Middle of What?: Period Boundaries in Medieval Studies, I
Date/Time	Monday 4 July 2022: 14.15-15.45
Sponsor	Ceræ: An Australasian Journal of Medieval & Early Modern Studies
Organiser	Gwendolyne Knight, Historiska institutionen, Stockholms universitet
Moderator/Chair	Matthew Firth, College of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences, Flinders University, Adelaide
Paper 214-a	The De-Romanization of the Early Middle Ages: Recontextualizing Post-Roman Britain and Italy (Language: English) Katrina Knight, Department of History, Emory University, Atlanta Index Terms: Administration; Historiography - Medieval; Language and Literature - Latin
Paper 214-b	Late Medieval Piety for the Early Modern Reader: Margery Kempe in Pepwell's Benyamyn Anthology (Language: English) Brenda A. Luies, Department of English, Simon Fraser University, British Columbia Index Terms: Language and Literature - Middle English; Lay Piety; Printing History; Women's Studies
Paper 214-c	A Heap of Sand through the Hourglass: Historical Periodisation and the Sorites Paradox (Language: English) Samuel Cardwell, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto Index Terms: Historiography - Modern Scholarship; Philosophy
Abstract	This session challenges the boundaries of periodisation applied both to and within the field of 'Medieval Studies'. The first paper probes the complex relationship between the concepts of the 'medieval and the 'modern', and while the second paper examines and problematises the internal boundary between Old and Middle English, its implications also probe this relationship. The final paper applies the Sorites paradox to the problem of periodisation, and explores the potential of vagueness as a solution.