Medieval-Renaissance Conference

The Center for Medieval-Renaissance Studies of the University of Virginia’s College at Wise is pleased to announce Medieval-Renaissance Conference XXXVIII, September 18-20, 2025

Founded in 1986 by Professors Richard H. Peake and the late Jack Mahony, both of the Department of Language and Literature, the Medieval-Renaissance Conference began as a way of promoting scholarly activity on campus and providing visibility for the College in the larger academic community. The first conference was a success, hosting twelve speakers from mainly area colleges. Welcoming papers on all areas of medieval and renaissance studies, including literature, history, philosophy, art and music, the conference has enjoyed steady growth and increased national presence, with speakers representing institutions across the country – and the occasional international speaker. By the late 1990s it had grown to a gathering of thirty or forty presentations per year, growth that continues the legacy of Professors Peake and Mahony and confirms the value of an academic conference at the College. In spite of this growth, the conference remains small enough to foster a sense of academic community, generating lively discussions and feedback not always achievable at larger conferences. We also work to maintain an open, informal and friendly setting for participants. Many younger scholars, presenting their first academic paper, find their experience with the conference encouraging and helpful to their academic growth.

Sponsored by the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, the University of Virginia’s College at Wise Medieval-Renaissance Conference promotes scholarly discussion in all disciplines of Medieval and Renaissance studies. The conference welcomes proposals for papers and panels on Medieval or Renaissance literature, language, history, philosophy, science, pedagogy, and the arts.  Abstracts for papers should be 300 or fewer words.  Proposals for panels should include: a) title of the panel; b) names and institutional affiliations of the chair and all panelists; c) a 200-250 word description of the panel).  A branch campus of the University of Virginia, the University of Virginia’s College at Wise is a public four-year liberal arts college located in the scenic Appalachian Mountains of Southwest Virginia. 

Keynote Address

“Cervantes’ Architectures: Windows, Holes, Corners and Fissures”
Frederick de Armas, University of Chicago

Professor de Armas will present his study of the architectures in Cervantes’ works, especially depictions of smaller architectural elements such as rooms in the attic, shuttered windows and even keyholes. Professor de Armas will also investigate other holes, along with corners and fissures, conjugating the apparent insignificance of some architectural features or flaws, with their inordinate consequences. Specifically, his address will discuss the three moments in the Don Quixote in which the story of Pyramus and Thisbe come into play and show how its cracks and fissures are spaces for innovation in Cervantes’ novel. 

Frederick De Armas, Professor Emeritus of Spanish at the University of Chicago, is one of the nation’s leading scholars of Early Modern Spanish literature.  He is the author of eight books, including Cervantes’ Architectures: The Dangers Outside (Toronto 2022), Women Warriors in Early Modern Spain (Delaware 2019), and El retorno de Astrea: astrología, mito e imperio en Calderón (Iberoamericana 2016), as well as numerous articles. Before coming to the University of Chicago, Professor De Armas taught at Louisiana State University, Duke University and Pennsylvania State University. He received his PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (1969) and was awarded a doctorate Honoris Causa by the Université de Neuchatel (Switzerland) in 2018. He received the Norman Maclean Faculty Award at the University of Chicago in 2023. He has also been Andrew W. Mellon Professor and then Robert O. Anderson Distinguished Service Professor in Romance Languages and Comparative Literature at the University of Chicago (2000-2024). At Chicago, Professor De Armas has served as Chair of the Department of RLL and Director of Graduate Studies. He has been President of the Cervantes Society of America and President of AISO (Asociación Internacional Siglo de Oro) and is currently Honorary President of AISO and of EMIT: Early Modern Image and Text Society.  He has been awarded several NEH Fellowships and has directed several NEH Seminars.

Program and Schedule of Events

Thursday, September 18

Sessions will be held in the Chapel of All Faiths (C) and in the Rhododendron Room, Slemp Student Center, fifth floor (R).  Papers marked with an asterisk (*) will be presented remotely via Zoom.

12:00-2:20: Registration and Welcome, Chapel of All Faiths

2:30-3:50: Session I: Early Modern European Texts: Transmission, Translation, and Reception (C)

“No se pescan truchas a bragas enjutas: Antonio de Zamora’s refundición of Ruiz de Alarcón’s No hay mal que por buen no venga, Don Domingo de Don Blas”

    John T. Cull, University of Virginia’s College at Wise

“From Parchment to Bytes: The Digital Edition of Alfonso’s General Estoria Project.”

     Francisco Gago-Jover, College of the Holy Cross

“Approaches to Understanding Urban Space in Cervantes’ novelas ejemplares”

     Carolyn A. Nadeau, Illinois Wesleyan University

Chair: Verónica Rodriguez, University of Virginia’s College at Wise

4:10-4:40: Performance, “Dance, Sequence, Lai” 

     Sten Maulsby, Independent Scholar, Flutes and Harp 

5:00-5:30: Ars Nova Chorus

      Director, Hannah Ryan, University of Virginia’ College at Wise

5:30-7:30

`WELCOME AND RECEPTION, Rhododendron Room, Slemp Center

     Greetings from Gary Johnson, Provost 

Friday, September 19

8:00-8:30

Coffee and Registration, Chapel of All Faiths

8:30-9:50

Session II: Arthurian Literature

 “Interpreting Gogmagog the Giant of Albion: A Reassessment”

     Daniel Helbert, Young-Harris College

“Arthurian Werewolf Tales”

     Louis J. Boyle, Carlow University

“Malory's Vivian Adapted by Tennyson and Robinson”

     David Bradshaw, Independent Scholar

Chair: Kenneth Tiller, University of Virginia’s College at Wise

10:10-11:50 Session III: Spenser and Shakespeare: In Honor of Richard H. Peake

“The Call to Glory: Spenser and Shakespeare”*

     Robert Reid, Emory and Henry College 

“Shakespeare’s Scots Before Macbeth”

     Benita Huffman Muth, Middle Georgia State University 

“Ophelia Rising: Film Adaptations of Hamlet”

      Richard Vela, University of North Carolina-Pembroke

 “Nothing Will Come of Nothing: The Un/naturally Un/conditional Familial Love in King Lear and Mom and Dad (2017)” 

    Shay Williams, University of New Hampshire

Chair: Shay Williams, University of New Hampshire

Concurrent Session, Undergraduate Session 1: Adapting the Middle Ages and Renaissance 

“T.H. White’s Pacifism: How The Once and Future King Approaches Chivalric Violence in the Context of Arthurian Mythos”

     Andrew Cowan, Young-Harris College

“ ‘Darling, I Would Do It Again’: Hozier’s Francesca as a Reinvention of Dante’s Inferno Canto V”

      Haley Kelley, Young-Harris College

“Styling Shakesperean Fools: A Costuming Case Study”

      Bailey Lantman, University of Virginia’s College at Wise

Chair: Molly Owens, University of Virginia’s College at Wise

11:50-12:50: LUNCH, Smith Dining Commons, Private Dining Room

1:00-2:40 Session IV: Space and Place

“The Cannibal and Christian Mind in Andreas: An Evaluation of the Impermeable Mental Enclosure Motif and Its Eucharistic Implications”

     Anna Von Holten, Fordham University

“Hubris, Humility, and the Shape of Salvation: Aristotelian Ethics in Giotto’s Arena Chapel and Dante’s Divine Comedy”

     Dave Buckner, Mountain Empire Community College

“ ‘I Like This Place’: Race, Conduct, and Ownership in As You Like It”*

     Christina Cawdery, University of Hawaii at Manoa

Chair: Benita Huffman-Muth, University of North Georgia

Concurrent Session: Undergraduate Session 2: Chaucer

“Biblical Influence and Blasphemy in The Miller’s Tale”

     Emma Fortner, University of Virginia’s College at Wise

“Nature’s Purpose in Chaucer’s Works”

     Megan Cothren, Young-Harris College

“An Analysis of Arcite’s Self-Induced Malady in Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale”

     Molly Owens, University of Virginia’s College at Wise

Chair: 

2:50-4:30 Session V: Visual and Ekphrastic Moments in the Literature of Medieval and Early Modern Spain

 “The Textured Thresholds of Fiction: Intricate Entryways to Enchanted Realms in Apuleius’s Golden Ass, Isaac ibn Sahula’s Fables from a Distant Past, Conde Lucanor, and Don Quixote ”

     Keith Budner, University of Illinois, Chicago

“Where is Apollo? Theophany and Ur-ekphrasis in Book Illustrations of Don Quixote’s First Sally”

      Daniel Holcombe, Georgia College & State University

 “Ekphrasis in Calderón de la Barca's Not Even Love Is Free from Love: Emotions, Visual Arts and Text”

    Carmela V. Mattza, Louisiana State University

 “Falling Figures: Visual Motifs in Antonio de Solís’ Eurydice and Orpheus”

     Felipe E. Rojas, West Liberty University

Chair: Frederick A. de Armas, University of Chicago

Concurrent Session, Undergraduate Session 3: Heroes and the Supernatural

“Making the Next Arthur: Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Contemporary Contexts and Influence”

     Will Fuller, Young-Harris College

“Faeries in Medieval and Modern Contexts”

    Isabella Rey, Young-Harris College

“Which Witch is Which?: A Comparative Analogy of King James’ Daemonologie and Shakespeare’s Macbeth”

    Madison Smith, University of Virginia’s College at Wise

Chair: Donald Leech, University of Virginia’s College at Wise

4:40-5:20: In Memorium: Professor Richard H. Peake

5:30-6:30 KEYNOTE ADDRESS

Frederick A. De Armas, University of Chicago

“Cervantes’ Architectures: Windows, Holes, Corners and Fissures”

6:30: DINNER Cantrell Dining hall

Saturday, September 20

8:30-9:00 Coffee, Chapel

9:00-10:40 Session VI: Gender and Theology

“The Discontinuity of ‘Science’?”

     Michael Muth, Mercer University

“Divine Ecstasy and Erotic Submission:  Pauline Rage’s Story of O and the Medieval Mysticism of Mechthild of Magdeburg and Margery Kempe”*

    Lauren Crawford, San Juan College

“Queer Devotional Reading in Aelred of Rievaulx’s De Institutione Inclusarum”

    Rachel Schremp, Harvard Divinity School

Chair: Macklin Cowart, University of North Georgia, Gainesville

10:50-12:10 Session VII: Translation and Adaptation

“The Minstrels and Audience of the Early Robin Hood Corpus”

    Macklin Cowart, University of North Georgia, Gainesville

“Are All Those Thorgrims Really Necessary? Presenting Norse Sagas to a New Generation”

     Christine Schott, Erskine College

“François Villon and the Double ‘Today’: A Contemporary Reading of The Ballade of the Hanged Men”

     Clara Adame de Heu, University of Virginia’s College at Wise

Chair: Amelia J. Harris, University of Virginia’s College at Wise

12:10 LUNCH, Chapel, and Closing Remarks