Medieval-Renaissance Conference
UVA Wise Medieval-Renaissance Conference XXXIX (September 17-19, 2026) deadline for submissions: June 26, 2026 full name / name of organization: University of Virginia-Wise Center for Medieval-Renaissance Studies contact email: kjt9t@uvawise.edu
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 division 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
Arthur's Great Death in Malory and its Afterlives
Karen Cherewatuk, Saint Olaf College
Professor Cherewatuk's address examines Malory's use of a "great death” in Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur and analyzes Arthur's demise as an example. She then discusses how later writers and artists respond to Malory's presentation of the king's death. The post-medieval works examined inlcude Tennyson's "The Passing of Arthur," Edward Burne-Jones' "The Sleep of Arthur in Avalon," T.H.White's The Once and Future King, and Catherine Donaldson's wood engravings for The Death of Arthur (1928).
Karen Cherewatuk is Professor Emeritus of English and Marie M. Meyer Distinguished Professor at Saint Olaf's College in Minnesota. She is the author of Marriage, Adultery, and Inheritance in Malory’s Morte Darthur (Boydell and Brewer 2006), co-editor of The Arthurian Way of Death (Boydell and Brewer 2009) and has written numerous articles on the works of Sir Thomas Malory and Arthurian Literature. She has a book forthcoming, titled Grief and Mourning Malory's Morte Darthur.