CFP: The University of Manchester Medieval Postgraduate Conference

Education and Ignorance:

The Use of Knowledge in the Medieval World c.550-1550

John Rylands Library, Deansgate

Monday 6th-Tuesday 7th June 2011

CALL FOR PAPERS

Modern historiography has often depicted the Middle Ages as a period of ignorance, dogma and superstition - a period in which knowledge stagnated and education was both restricted to a privileged minority and dominated by the institutional and ideological authority of the Church. From the Carolingian Renaissance and the rise of the medieval universities to the condemnation of heretical teachings and the intellectual and spiritual ferment of the Reformation, the reality about education and knowledge in the medieval world is undoubtedly far more complex and contested than this picture suggests. This two day conference seeks to explore that reality through a diverse range of disciplines and across the full historical span of the period. We aim to address the questions - How was education theorised, institutionalised and practiced throughout the Middle Ages? How was knowledge controlled, transmitted and transformed? and To what uses were they put both by established ecclesiastical and feudal powers and the social and religious formations that opposed them?

With these questions in mind, we invite proposals for twenty minute papers from postgraduates and early career researchers on a variety of topics including, but not limited to:

• the losses and restoration of Classical knowledge in the early Middle Ages
• the development of the medieval universities
• the educational role of the monasteries and the mendicant orders
• scholasticism, scepticism and humanism
• heresy, censorship and reformation ideas about education
• didacticism in medieval literature, drama, art and architecture
• material culture and education: manuscripts, libraries, printing etc.
• theories and methods of learning - memory and scriptural exegesis
• unconventional and popular learning - alchemy, folk and occult practice

Please email abstracts of 250-300 words to the Manchester Medieval Postgraduate Conference along with your name, affiliation and title of paper. All queries should also be directed to this address. The deadline for submission is 31st March 2011. Selection of papers will be made by 15th April.

For more information concerning the conference, see our website.