MAMO Conference 2025
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MAMO Conference 2025
@themamoconf.bsky.social
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The 5th Middle Ages in the Modern World conference (MAMO). King's College London, 24-26 June 2025.
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Today's the day - MAMO 2025 kicks off at King's College London, Strand Campus!
Look out for our student helpers or conference organisers: Josh Davies, Rebecca Menmuir, and Sarah Salih.
Ask us anything; or our inbox will be monitored: <themamoconference@gmail.com>.
Josh Davies Sarah Salih Rebecca Menmuir
June 24, 2025 at 7:01 AM
themamoconf.bsky.social
Taking Margery to Lynn! Find out more about @mirabelledomine.bsky.social and @lukeewalker.bsky.social's film project on Thursday's 'Modern Mysticism' panel at MAMO.
Hanseatic festival in King’s Lynn. Image: Mirabelle Dominé-Walley. Hanseatic festival in King’s Lynn. Image: Mirabelle Dominé-Walley. Hanseatic festival in King’s Lynn. Image: Mirabelle Dominé-Walley.
June 23, 2025 at 2:28 PM
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Continuing with our MAMO thread of reflecting on practices of medievalism, we look forward to our Thursday panel on 'Pedagogy and Practice'!
With Kirsty Bolton (@lusignanmermaid.bsky.social, Oxford), Karen A. Winstead (Ohio), and Brendan O'Connell (Trinity Dublin). #MAMOmonth
Session 3C: Pedagogy and Practice [Room K020] Chair: Laura Varnam Kirsty Bolton (University of Oxford): Medieval and Modern Experiences of Migration Karen A. Winstead (The Ohio State University): Medievalism as Pedagogy: Creating “Wicked Students” Brendan O’Connell (Trinity College Dublin): Teaching Medieval Complaint through Sara Ahmed
June 23, 2025 at 11:05 AM
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'New Theoretical Approaches' at MAMO will explore just that - new ways of approaching medievalism!
A panel with Usha Vishnuvajjala (SUNY-New Paltz), Sophia Philomena Wolf (@philouw.bsky.social, Freiburg), and Caroline Banerjee (City London). #MAMOmonth
Session 2D: New Theoretical Approaches [Room K020] Chair: Karen Winstead Usha Vishnuvajjala (SUNY-New Paltz): Medieval(ist) Mothers and Daughters: One Avenue for Reconciling Medieval Studies and Medievalism Studies Sophia Philomena Wolf (University of Freiburg): Experiments with Blank Spaces: Condensation and Expansion in Contemporary Retellings Caroline Banerjee (City, University of London): Liveable Cities and Liveable Bodies: Stepping into Power in Caroline Bergvall’s Alisoun Sings
June 23, 2025 at 11:03 AM
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Next up for #MAMOmonth is our Thursday panel, 'Visibility, Connectivity, Creativity: Honouring Medieval Women’s Stories in the Modern World'!
With Laura Varnam (@drlauravarnam.bsky.social, Oxford), Sheila Passey (Wolverhampton), and Daisy Black (@daisyeblack.bsky.social, Wolverhampton).
Session 2C: Visibility, Connectivity, Creativity: Honouring Medieval Women’s Stories in the Modern World [Room K019] Chair: Fran Allfrey Laura Varnam (University College, Oxford): Wealhtheow on the Whale-Road and Beyond: Poems for Heorot’s Queen and Reflections on Writing Her Story / Herstory Sheila Passey (University of Wolverhampton): Reclaiming Aethelflaed: Feminist Storytelling and the Challenges of Adapting Early Medieval Herstories into Modern Historical Fiction Daisy Black (University of Wolverhampton): A Many-Woman Show: Yde and Olive, Women’s Work and Storytelling as Medievalist Feminist Praxis
June 22, 2025 at 10:38 AM
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MAMO's second 'Christianity and Medievalism' panel is on Thursday 26th, 3-4:30pm, and ranges across Ireland, Japan, England and France!
With Emmet Taylor (@emmettaylor.bsky.social, Cork), Allie Richardson (Tennessee Knoxville), and Lucie Herbreteau! #MAMOmonth
Session 3B: Christianity and Medievalism (II) [Room K018] Chair: Michelle Sauer Emmet Taylor (University College Cork): Mythconceptions: ‘Paganized’ Retellings of Lebor Gabála Érenn Allie Richardson (University of Tennessee Knoxville): Exploring Japanese Demonology: The Red Book of Appin in Anime and Manga Lucie Herbreteau: Who will kill the dragon? Rewriting the legend of Saint George and the dragon for children in the 20th and 21st century
June 22, 2025 at 9:54 AM
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Two panels at MAMO will focus on Christianity and Medievalism!
First on Thursday 26th, 1-2:30pm: Helen Young (@heyouonline.bsky.social, Deakin) and Sarah Schnödewind (Hamburg). 👇 #MAMOmonth
Session 2B: Christianity and Medievalism (I) [Room K018] Chair: Eleanor Janega Helen Young (Deakin University): “The New Middle Ages” and Twenty-First Century Christian Nationalism Sarah Schnödewind (University of Hamburg): Between Popular Culture and New Age. The Modern Reinterpretation of the Cathars in “The Cathar Tarot: The Secret Wisdom of the Cathars”
June 22, 2025 at 9:54 AM
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The second of our MAMO Landscapes and Medievalisms panel features papers by Fran Allfrey (York), Kathryn Maude (@krmaude.bsky.social‬, The National Archives) and Emily Robinson (@emilyrobinson.bsky.social, Sussex), and Bathsheba Lockwood Brook (UCL). 👇 #MAMOmonth
Session 3A: Landscapes and Medievalisms (II) [Room K016] Chair: Eduardo De Oliveira Correia Fran Allfrey (University of York): Medieval stories in a neolithic landscape Kathryn Maude (The National Archives) and Emily Robinson (University of Sussex): Curating the Medieval: Telling the ‘Lost’ History of a Sunken Island Bathsheba Lockwood Brook (University College London): Moving Encounters: Towards an Affective Practice of Walking in Refugee Tales
June 21, 2025 at 3:22 PM
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There will be two panels at MAMO dedicated to Landscapes and Medievalisms!
Our first panel (Thursday, 1-2:30pm) includes papers by Emma Nuding (@eknuding.bsky.social, York), Maia Blumberg (@maiablumberg.bsky.social, Queen Mary), and Linsey Hunter (@linseyhunter.bsky.social, UHI). #MAMOmonth
Session 2A: Landscapes and Medievalisms (I) [Room K016] Chair: Simon Trafford Emma Nuding (University of York): More Foreign than ‘Fellow’: Finding the Early Medieval with Charles Kingsley and St Guthlac of Crowland Maia Blumberg (Queen Mary University of London): Local Medievalisms and ‘Nostalgia for the Ordinary’: The Case of Malmesbury Linsey Hunter (UHI): Why here? Why now? An analysis of Identity and Place in retellings of the legend of Finella, Lady of the Mearns, c. 1900-c.1960
June 21, 2025 at 3:21 PM
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MAMO will feature a panel on ‘Medievalism and Scholarship Today’, part of a broader thread throughout the conference about the history and current state of medievalism studies. With Camille Campos Fragoso (EHESS, Paris) and Peter Jones (Plymouth). Thursday 26th, 10:30-12:00. #MAMOmonth
Session 1D: Medievalism and Scholarship Today [Room K020] Chair: Kathryn Maude Camille Campos Fragoso (EHESS, Paris): Searching for Oneself in the Medieval Past: Trans Erasures, Cis Gestalts, and the Limits of Historiography Peter Jones (University of Plymouth): MORRÍSLAND Glöggt er gests augað (William Morris & Iceland)
June 20, 2025 at 9:23 AM
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Next up for #MAMOmonth is our Thursday panel on 'Modern Mysticism', with a strong focus on films! With papers by Michelle M. Sauer (North Dakota), Mirabelle Dominé-Walley and Luke Walker, and Eduardo De Oliveira Correia (KCL). 👇
Session 1C: Modern Mysticism [Room K019] Chair: Sarah Salih Michelle M. Sauer (University of North Dakota): Modern Adaptations of the Medieval Anchoritic Lifestyle Mirabelle Dominé-Walley and Luke Walker: Into the Mystic Eduardo De Oliveira Correia (King’s College London): ‘To Give Rise to a True Image’: Andrei Tarkovsky’s Andrei Rublev and Julian of Norwich’s Revelations of Divine Love
June 20, 2025 at 9:22 AM
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Next up for #MAMOmonth: 'Crusade Imagery in the 21st Century: Symbol, Image, and Action'.
With papers from Eleanor Janega (@goingmedieval.bsky.social), Matthew Gabriele (@profgabriele.com‬, Virginia Tech), Mike Horswell (@mjhorswell.bsky.social), and a response by Brett Whalen (UNC-Chapel Hill).
Session 1B: Crusade Imagery in the 21st Century: Symbol, Image, and Action [Room K018] Chair: Daisy Black Eleanor Janega: Nostalgia, Easy Answers and the Battle for the Public Imagination Matthew Gabriele (Virginia Tech): Crusade Studies Haunted by the So-Called Clash of Civilizations Mike Horswell: Back to the Crusades: Reflecting on Crusader Medievalism after 9/11 in Comics Brett Whalen (University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill): Response
June 19, 2025 at 9:12 AM
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Thursday 26th at MAMO kicks off with MedievalWiki – A Wikipedia citation-a-thon for MAMO 2025!
Led by Fran Allfrey (York), Lucy Hinnie (@yclepit.bsky.social, Leeds and Wikimedia), Lucy Moore (York), and Richard Nevell (@richardnevell.bsky.social, Exeter and Wikimedia). #MAMOmonth
Session 1A: Workshop [Room K016] MedievalWiki – A Wikipedia citation-a-thon for MAMO 2025 Organised by Fran Allfrey (University of York), Lucy Hinnie (University of Leeds and Wikimedia UK), Lucy Moore (University of York), and Richard Nevell (University of Exeter and Wikimedia UK). With billions of page-views every month, and its content scraped to power artificial intelligence, digital assistants, and search engines, there’s a case to be made that Wikipedia is one of the most effective ways to get the Middle Ages out into the modern world. However, Wikipedia tends to reproduce biases and exclusions that exist in the real world. Work by women, BIPOC, and queer scholars is under-represented on medieval historical topic pages, which often rely on a limited number of cited sources. In this hands-on workshop, we will introduce participants to key concepts and practical tools for Wikipedia editing. Participants will be split into folks who have edited before and first-time editors. Experienced editors will be invited to select existing Wikipedia pages to audit and improve, and to gather research to cite. First time editors will learn the basics of editing before moving to live editing to improve articles together.
June 19, 2025 at 8:41 AM
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Rounding off our Chaucerian thread at MAMO is the hybrid session 'Chaucer: Scholars and Theories'!
With Yasmin Ibrahim (KCL) and Wan-Chuan Kao (@wanchuankao.bsky.social, Washington and Lee University). #MAMOmonth
Session 3D: Chaucer: Scholars and Theories [Room K020 – hybrid session] Chair: Mary Boyle Yasmin Ibrahim (King’s College London): Eleanor Hammond (1866-1933): A Scribe of Chaucer Wan-Chuan Kao (Washington and Lee University): Anaracialism and Its Situatedness
June 18, 2025 at 9:34 AM
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At MAMO, Rachel Moss (@menysnoweballes.bsky.social) will run the workshop 'Radicalisation: Medievalism and the Extreme Right'. What role does medievalism play in radicalising people into extreme right spaces? What role can we play in the vital work of combatting rising extremism? #MAMOmonth Details👇
Session 3A: Workshop [Room K016] Radicalisation: Medievalism and the Extreme Right Dr Rachel Moss, medievalist and Co-Investigator of the University of Northampton’s Extreme Right Research Network (ERRN), will lead an interactive workshop that asks what role medievalism plays in radicalising people into extreme right spaces, and what role we – as educators and experts in the Middle Ages – can play in the vital work of combatting rising extremism. Rachel will introduce the work ERRN has been doing with practitioners in the charitable and law enforcement sectors to identify and address radicalisation, particularly of young people and online spaces, and we will then use the session to collectively brainstorm strategies and resources for developing our activist potential within our fields of interest.
June 17, 2025 at 10:24 AM
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Our Chaucer focus at MAMO continues with the hybrid panel 'Chaucer: At Home and Abroad (II)'!
With papers from Mary Boyle (@maryrboyle.bsky.social, Cambridge), Hugo Lacoue-Labarthe (Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle), and Candace Barrington (@candacebarrington.bsky.social, Connecticut). 👇 #MAMOmonth
Session 2D: Chaucer: At Home and Abroad (II) [Room K020 – hybrid session] Chair: Helen Brookman Mary Boyle (St Edmund’s College, Cambridge): Dirty Great Literature: The Canterbury Tales in German Hugo Lacoue-Labarthe (Université Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle): Impersonating Chaucer: Pier Paolo Pasolini and J.R.R. Tolkien, aspiring medieval poets in the 20th century? Candace Barrington (Central Connecticut State University): “This false traytour Deeth”: Chaucer in Iran
June 16, 2025 at 11:30 AM
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Medievalism meets Epic in our next MAMO panel for #MAMOmonth!
'Medievalism and the Epic', with Daniel Sawyer (@danielsawyer.bsky.social‬, Oxford), Julio San Román Cazorla (Madrid), and Josephine Spelsberg (KCL). Wednesday 25th June, 1-2:30pm.
Session 2C: Medievalism and the Epic [Room K019] Chair: Ben Parsons Daniel Sawyer (University of Oxford): Early Forms and Modes for Unusual Readerships: A Case Study Julio San Román Cazorla (Complutense University of Madrid): ‘You’re a Girl Dragon!’: The Evolution of Epic Identity in Beowulf from the Anglo-Saxon Poem to Maria Dahvana Headley’s Feminist Adaptation Josephine Spelsberg (King’s College London): Sexist or feminist? A comparison between the fifteenth-century epic Salman und Morolf and the twenty-first-century motion picture Jennifer’s Body
June 16, 2025 at 11:28 AM
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Our final panel in the Middle Ages in Modern Games thread at MAMO is Wednesday's 'Education and Exploration'!
Feat. Josip Mihaljević (Old Church Slavonic Institute), James Worth (@worthjrw.bsky.social, UCL), and Thom Gobbit (@booksoflaw.bsky.social, Graz). 👇 #MAMOmonth
Session 2B: The Middle Ages in Modern Games (IV): Education and Exploration [Room K018] Josip Mihaljević (Old Church Slavonic Institute): Web Games for Learning and Promoting the Glagolitic Script James Worth (University College London): Creating the Age of Apocalypse: Game Mechanics as Pedagogical Tools for imparting a Historiographical Periodisation of West Roman Collapse in Total War: Attila Thom Gobbitt (Karl Franzens Universitat, Graz): Rules Lawyers’ Time: Early Medieval Laws, Plot, and Gamification
June 15, 2025 at 9:57 AM
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MAMO features several panels on uses and misuses of the medieval, including Wednesday’s ‘Institutional Use and Misuse’.
With Gwen Seabourne (@gwenseabourne.bsky.social, Bristol), Eleanor McDonald-Dick (UCL), Alexandra Sterling-Hellenbrand (Appalachian State), & Michael Makin (Michigan). #MAMOmonth
Session 2A: Institutional Use and Misuse [Room K016] Chair: Andrew Elliott Gwen Seabourne (University of Bristol): Legal Medievalisms: appeals to the ‘medieval’ in modern common law sources Eleanor McDonald-Dick (University College London): Anti-Normanism by Omission: Discussions of the Origins of Kyivan Rus’ in English-language news and popular history media following the 2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine Alexandra Sterling-Hellenbrand (Appalachian State University): Working off the Past? Monuments and the Medieval Imaginary in Austria and the American South Michael Makin (University of Michigan) First as Farce, then as Tragedy? The Death, Rebirth, and Subsequent Weaponization of East-Slavic Medievalism in Russia and Ukraine
June 15, 2025 at 9:56 AM
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Wednesday 25th June at MAMO is our Chaucer Day, as the conference this year incorporates the London Chaucer Conference!
First up: 'Chaucer at Home and Abroad (I)', with Helen Brookman (@helenbrookman.bsky.social, KCL), Nancy Warren (Texas A&M), and Ben Parsons (Leicester). 👇 #MAMOmonth #Chaucer
Session 1D: Chaucer: At Home and Abroad (I) [Room K020] Chair: Daniel Sawyer Helen Brookman (King’s College London): At home with the medieval: reading Chaucer with Mary Eliza Haweis and the National Home Reading Union Nancy Warren (Texas A&M University): Chaucer’s Wife of Bath in Colonial Virginia: Aphra Behn’s The Widow Ranter Ben Parsons (University of Leicester): Unmilitary and Perverted: Chaucer in Zululand in the 1870s and 80s
June 13, 2025 at 11:35 AM
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Time for Norse at MAMO! 'Death, Burial, and Strange Survivals: The Norse-Gothic Response and Literary Receptions in Britain'.
Sharon Choe (@sharonchoe.bsky.social, Copenhagen), Maggie Pavleszek (@maggiepavleszek.bsky.social, York) and Hannah Armstrong @hjparmstrong.bsky.social‬, York). 👇 #MAMOmonth
Session 1C: Death, Burial, and Strange Survivals: The Norse-Gothic Response and Literary Receptions in Britain [Room K019] Chair: Josephine Spelsberg Sharon Choe (University of Copenhagen): Loðbrók, Lodbrach, Lodbrog: Revisiting Norse Death in Eighteenth-century Britain Maggie Pavleszek (University of York): “Lost in the wind and the night”: Ship Funerals and Imperial Anxiety in H. Rider Haggard’s Eric Brighteyes (1891) Hannah Armstrong (University of York): Strange Survivals: Sabine Baring-Gould and the Norse-Gothic
June 13, 2025 at 11:33 AM
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Wednesday 25th continues our Middle Ages in Modern Games thread: the focus in this hybrid session is 'Periodisation Beyond the West'.
With Muhammad Abdul Karim, Kristina Wittkamp (Passau), and Hirohito Tsuji @tsujihirohito.bsky.social, UEA)! 👇 #MAMOmonth
Session 1B: The Middle Ages in Modern Games (III): Periodisation Beyond the West [Room K018 – hybrid session] Chair: James Worth Muhammad Abdul Karim: No Middle Ages in Timor: Understanding the concept of Middle Ages in Temukung: Cultivation in Drylands Kristina Wittkamp (University of Passau): Medievalisms in Russian-language computer games – depictions of Rus’ between fantasy and historical simulation Hirohito Tsuji (University of East Anglia): Japanese Stereotypes in Medievalist Games: The Onimusha series
June 12, 2025 at 11:58 AM
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Kicking off our Wednesday roundup for #MAMOmonth is our morning panel on medievalism and ‘Online Use and Misuse’.

With Kenna L. Olsen (Mount Royal), Andrew B. R. Elliott (Independent), and Rachel Moss (@menysnoweballes.bsky.social‬, Northampton). 👇
Session 1A: Online Use and Misuse [Room K016] Chair: Gwen Seabourne Kenna L. Olsen (Mount Royal University): Beyond Medieval Mimicry to Chaucer’s Wicker House: Evoking Medieval English Experientialiality via Immersive Performances of Medieval English Texts Andrew B.R. Elliott (Independent Researcher): Amusing, Awful, and Artificial: AI & Medievalism Rachel Moss (University of Northampton): Medieval chivalry, social media and the emotional drivers of radicalisation into extreme right online cultures
June 12, 2025 at 11:56 AM
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Next up in our #MAMOmonth is our Tuesday panel on Spanish and Portuguese Medievalisms!
Feat. Pedro Martins (NOVA Lisbon), Ana Maria Machado (Coimbra), and Claudia Fernández Estrada (@claudiafdzestrada.bsky.social). Details below 👇 and in our conference programme.
Session 3B: Spanish and Portuguese Medievalisms [Room K018] Pedro Martins (NOVA University Lisbon): “The Cradle of the Nation”? The Medievalist Construction of Guimarães in Modern Portugal (1887-1940) Ana Maria Machado (University of Coimbra): Portuguese Studies in Medievalism. The Humildade gloriosa, by Aquilino Ribeiro Claudia Fernández Estrada: Contemporary Arthurianism: Negotiating the Global and the Local through Exclusion and Identity.
June 11, 2025 at 9:28 AM
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And you can find the full keynote details at the website, including a bio for Prof. Caroline Bergvall. #MAMOmonth themamo.org/keynote-spea...
Caroline Bergvall is Global Professorial Fellow, Queen Mary University, London, and a Henry Moore Artist Fellow 2025. Award-winning writer and interdisciplinary artist who works across languages, media, and artforms. Her work includes books, performances, installations, soundworks, drawings. She often works collaboratively, and explores materials from both contemporary and historical contexts. Her research frequently involves transhistoric approaches to languages. The recipient of many international commissions and fellowships, noted works include the book trilogy Meddle English (2011), Drift (2015), awarded a Cholmondeley Award, and Alisoun Sings (2019). With Dr. Joshua Davies co-edited the collection of essays, Caroline Bergvall’s Medievalist Poetics: Migratory Texts and Transhistorical Methods (2023, Arc Humanities Press). Currrent performances include Nattsong, and the conversational Conference of the Birds. Of French-Norwegian heritage, based in London.
June 10, 2025 at 10:07 AM