Magics, Marvels, Metamorphoses, and Monsters: Horrors of the Medieval Past, Present, and Future (Virtual)
Co-sponsored by Monsters & the Monstrous Area of the Northeast Popular Culture Association, Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture, International Society for the Study of Medievalism
Organized by Michael A. Torregrossa, Bristol Community College, and June-Ann Greeley, Sacred Heart University
Medieval art, culture, and literature contain many elements we view as fantastical today. Images and stories are filled with displays of magic, appearances of marvels, occurrences of metamorphoses, and threats of monsters. All of these are now considered features of the horror genre, but did readers in the Middle Ages perceive them as such? Has our view of the preternatural changed so radically from the medieval era to now? In what ways have these aspects been transformed over time and in new places? We seek to answer these and similar questions in this session designed to unite medieval(ism)ists with colleagues across Monster Studies.
Possible topics:
Demons, dragons, Faerie, gargoyles, giants, the Green Knight, Grendelkin, magic, Melusine, Merlin (his origins/abilities), Morgan le Fay, the Questing Beast, revenants, sea monsters, transformations, vampires, werewolves, wild folk, witches, wonders of the East.
Please post paper submissions into the Confex site using the direct link https://icms.confex.com/icms/2026/prelim.cgi/Session/7279.
Do send any questions to the organizers at popular.preternaturaliana@gmail.com. Submissions are due no later than 15 September 2025.
Please be aware that those accepted to the panel must register for the conference in order to present. Past registration costs can be viewed at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/registration. The International Congress on Medieval Studies does offer limited funding as travel awards and subsidized registration costs; details are available at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/awards.
For more information about the Monsters & the Monstrous Area of the Northeast Popular Culture Association, do check out our website Popular Preternaturaliana: Studying the Monstrous in Popular Culture: https://popularpreternaturaliana.blogspot.com/.
For more information about the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture, do check out our website Mass Mediævalisms: The Middle Ages of Popular Culture: https://medievalinpopularculture.blogspot.com/.
For more information about the International Society for the Study of Medievalism, do check out our website at https://medievalisms.org/ and consider signing up for our listserv (details at https://medievalisms.org/issm-listserv/).
