IMC 2011 - The eighteenth International Medieval Congress

IMC 2011 Call for Papers
The eighteenth International Medieval Congress will take place in Leeds, from 11-14 July 2011.

If you would like to submit a session or paper proposal for the IMC 2011 complete the IMC Online Proposal Form below.

Please read the guidelines carefully before completing the IMC 2011 Proposal Form.

Session Proposal

Paper Proposal

Round Table Proposal

Paper proposals must be submitted by 31 August 2010; session proposals must be submitted by 30 September 2010. Hard copies of the proposal forms are available on request after 16 July 2010.

If you would like to apply for an IMC bursary, to help with the cost of the Registration and Programming Fee, accommodation and meals at the IMC, please see the link below. You should submit your Bursary application at the same time as your paper or session proposal.

Bursary Application Form

Call for Papers/Sessions - International Medieval Congress 2011
As the global economy attempts to recover from the recent staggering economic downturn, and scholars and journalists describe the enormously uneven concentrations of wealth that took place in the decade preceding that downturn, it seems only natural to turn our scholarly gaze to issues of wealth and poverty in the Middle Ages. For that reason, the IMC has chosen for 2011 the special thematic focus:

Poor...Rich

How uneven was the distribution of wealth in medieval communities and polities? How was the distribution of wealth affected by environmental and commercial cycles of paucity and plenty? How was wealth amassed and then redistributed? What were the topographies of wealth and poverty? How permeable were the physical and symbolic boundaries between rich and poor? In what ways did both church and secular authorities attempt to deal with the moral and practical problems arising from poverty and the uneven distribution of wealth?

Areas of discussion could include:

charity, macro- and micro-economic studies
archaeological evidence for different economic strata, nutrition, social structures and social mobility
vagrancy and homelessness
the rich and the poor in literature
concepts of 'expensive' and 'cheap'
rural v. urban poverty
involuntary and voluntary poverty
religions and religious orders and their approach to poverty and wealth
tax structures and their affects on the distribution of wealth
social value of (manual) labour/work
spiritual poverty
concepts or perceptions of relative wealth or poverty
luxury, conspicuous consumption and magnificence
sumptuary laws, health and treatment of the sick
moral attitudes towards individualism
excessive living, gluttony, avarice, envy, and begging.