34th Annual Medieval and Renaissance Forum
Plymouth State University
“Travel, Contact, Exchange”
Friday and Saturday, April 19-20, 2013
FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 2013
Registration opens at 8:15 a.m. and will be available throughout the conference.
Rounds Hall First Floor
Opening Ceremonies: Convene in front of Rounds Hall
Procession begins at 9 a.m. from Rounds Hall to the Hartman Union Building (HUB) Fireplace Lounge
Bagpipe accompaniment by Eleanor Mardin
 Reading from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Ruby Lonergan, Campton Elementary School
 Welcome poem by Ivy Page, Forum Assistant Director
 Opening Remarks, Jini Rae Sparkman, Interim Forum Director, Plymouth State University
 Welcome from Sara Jayne Steen, President of Plymouth State University
 Join us in the first verse of Gaudeamus Igitur, with the Plymouth State University Chamber
Singers
Friday Session 1: 9:30-10:50
Enacting Power: Practical Tools of Government in Medieval Europe
Moderator: Jonathan Couser, Plymouth State University
Rounds Hall 203
The Many Dimensions of the name Mora, the flagship of William the Conqueror, Elisabeth P.
Waugaman, Washington Center for Psychoanalysis
Couriers and Government Communication in Late Medieval Valencia, Adam Franklin-Lyons,
Marlboro College
Contact and Exchange: Gómez Manrique and the Catholic Monarchs, Carl Atlee, Independent
Scholar
Controlling the Terms of Exchange: Cultural Contacts, Political Strife, and the Shaping Role of
the Duchesses of Burgundy Isabel of Portugal and Margaret of York, Francesca Canadé Sautman,
Hunter College and the Graduate Center of CUNY
Undergraduate Panel: Perspectives on Malory
Moderator: Peter Schwartz, Elmira College
Rounds Hall 107
Malory's Arthur: Fortune's Fool, Penny Landon, Elmira College
Malory's Launcelot and the Conflict Between Chivalry and Courtly Love, Elizabeth Forrest,
Elmira College
Malory's Camelot: A Noble but Failed Ideal, Kelsey Donnelly, Elmira College
Arthur's Chivalric Code: Arthur's Gospel, Danielle Raymond, Elmira College
Malory's Launcelot: A Life of Bad Choices, Cletus Jacobs, Elmira College
The Power of the Written Word: Names, Words, and Books in Medieval Europe
Moderator: Geneviève Pigeon, University of Québec, Montreal
Rounds Hall 204
"After mi name Albion": Speech and Conquest in The Tale of Albin, Kristi J Castleberry,
University of Rochester
Letter Exchange and Culture Shock in Alexander and Dindimus, Kara L. McShane, University of
Rochester
Bessarion’s Gift to Venice: A Plea on Behalf of Byzantium, Maureen McGuire, Independent
Scholar
Reflecting on Nature in Medieval and Early Modern Europe
Moderator: Donald Hochstetler, Menno Simons Research Institute
Rounds Hall 303
The Practicality of the Herbal in Conrad of Megenberg’s Buch der Natur, Madeline Ross,
University of Oklahoma
Nature and Knowledge in Paradise Lost and An Apology for Raymond Sebond, Amanda Barnett,
Seton Hall University
“The relish of a pine-apple”: Early Modern Botanical Collecting and the Quest for Exotica,
Christine E. Griffiths, Bard Graduate Center
Friday Session 2: 11:05-12:25
New Approaches to Chaucer
Moderator: Thomas J. Napierkowski, University of Colorado
Rounds Hall 204
Comedy of Delight and Comedy of Scorn: a Chaucerian Crisis Poignancy, Philip F. O’Mara,
Independent Scholar
Walking with an Astrolabe: Measuring Time on Chaucer’s Pilgrimage, Josephine Bloomfield,
Ohio University
“A berd! A berd!”: Gender Roles in Chaucer’s Miller’s Tale, Jessica Tefft, Eastern Connecticut
State University
On Being Christian in Medieval Europe
Moderator: Donald Hochstetler, Menno Simons Research Institute
Rounds Hall 203
Frankenpagan the Assimilation of Christianity into The Saga of the People of Laxardal, Rachael
Warmington, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Hildegard von Bingen & Concentric Contemplation, Michael C. Gardiner, University of
Pittsburgh
Dante’s Religious and Theological Pilgrimage through the Three Realms of the After-life, ClaireMarie Hart, North Shore Community College
Foreign Spaces and Spiritual Journeys
Moderator: Rachel Tanski, Seton Hall University
Rounds Hall 303
Josephus, the Bellum Judaicum, and the Holy Landscape at the time of the First Crusade,
Christopher Freeman, University of Wisconsin, Stout
Bogomils or Vita Apostolica? Travel as a Stimulant to Heresy in the Eleventh Century, Nathan
Morse, Community College of Vermont
Close Encounters: When Christians Marry Pagans in Medieval Literature, Angela Jane Weisl,
Seton Hall University
Looking East: Early Cultural Exchanges
Moderator: A. Joan Bowers, Plymouth State University
Rounds Hall 322
Echoes of Byzantium: Artistic Exchange between Ireland and the Mediterranean in the 5th to 8th
Centuries as Evidenced in the Christ Enthroned page of the Book of Kells, Laura McCloskey
Wolfe, George Mason University
Islamic Mirror for Princes: Greco-Persian Political Wisdom and the Rise of Islamic Political
Thought, Najm al-Din Yousefi, California State University, Chico
Distance, Myth, and Marvel: Perceptions of Otherness in the Old English Wonders of the East,
Suzanne Wimberly, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth
Chainmaille Workshop
Rounds Hall 107
Medieval Society Student Organization
Materials Supplied
LUNCH
12:45-1:45
Prospect Hall
(Tickets Required)
1:30-2:30 Human Chess Match
Hartman Union Building/Alumni Green
Medieval Society Student Organization
Friday Session 3: 2:25-3:45
Medieval German Literature
Moderator: Donald Hochstetler, Menno Simons Research Institute
Rounds Hall 107
“Hagene, der vil ungetriuwen Man"? Conflicting Definitions of Loyalty and the Figure of Hagen
in the Nibelungenlied, Katherine DeVane Brown, UMASS-Amherst
The Interrupted Text: Sources for Vernacular Modes of Narration in German, Robert G.
Sullivan, UMASS-Amherst
A Knight in Shining Armor? Parzival’s Exchanges of Weapons, Horses, and Armor, Geraldine
Poppke Suter, James Madison University/University of Virginia
Understanding Literary Form: Inspiration and Rhetoric
Moderator: John Achorn, New England College
Rounds Hall 203
Dialogue in Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde, Thomas J. Napierkowski, University of Colorado –
Colorado Springs
“On the Same”: Colasterion and Tetrachordon as Twin Texts, Madeline Lesser, Dartmouth
College
Undergraduate Panel: Boethius and Chaucer
Moderator: Josephine Bloomfield, Ohio University
Rounds Hall 204
Bound by Time: Boethius and the Limits of Temporal Transcendence, Taylor Reinhart, Ohio
University
Emeraude: Medieval Gem Lore and the Curious Contradictions of Chaucer’s Prioress, Bethany
Lopreste, Ohio University
Dialogues with the Devil: Hidden Moral Agents in The Canterbury Tales, William Lavelle, Ohio
University
Religion and Subversion in the British Isles
Moderator: Roberta Staples, Sacred Heart University
Rounds Hall 303
The Subversive Power of St. David's: Gerald of Wales and the Dominion of Canterbury, Sarah
Sprouse, George Mason University
Restored by Sin: Sir Gawain’s Initiation into Sin and its Revitalization of Camelot, Benjamin
Bradley, Catholic University of America
Masculine Anxiety and Supernatural Women in the Alliterative Tradition: Sir Gawain and the
Green Knight, Pearl, and Awntyrs off Arthur, Jason D. Lubinski, University of Oklahoma
Encountering the Other and Re-inventing Oneself
Moderator: Ruth M.E. Oldman, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Rounds Hall 304
William of Rubruck’s Contact with Christians in the Mongol Empire, Elizabeth Williamsen, Kent
State University at Stark
A Heretic, he made himself Catholic and [...] left his homeland": Virtual Pilgrimage and the
Symbolic Trajectories of Early Modern Convert Diaspora Artists, Ruth S. Noyes, University of
Massachusetts-Amherst
“Atheism” and the Exploration of Medieval European Travelers, Margaret Kim, National Tsing
Hua University
KEYNOTE ADDRESS
Friday April 19th 4 p.m.
Hartman Union Building
Hage Room
"The Anecdotal Way to Santiago de Compostela"
Dr. David L. Simon, Colby College | Ellerton and Edith Jetté Professor of Art
PRESIDENT’S RECEPTION
5:30-6:30 p.m.
Center Lodge
The Bradford Room
DINNER
6:45 p.m.
Prospect Hall
(Tickets Required)
MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL
7:45 p.m.
Flying Monkey Movie House and Performance Center
SATURDAY, APRIL 20, 2013
Saturday Session 4: 9:00-10:20
Self and Society in Medieval and Early Modern Europe
Moderator: Jonathan Couser, Plymouth State University
Rounds Hall 204
Wulfstan and the Three Orders in Anglo-Saxon England, Nicholas Schwartz, University of New
Mexico
Unstable Identities in La española inglesa, Emily Colbert Cairns, Salve Regina University
Holding Identity Captive: Reorienting Race, Gender and Religion in Antonio de Sosa, Christina I.
McCoy, The University of Texas at Austin
Shakespeare
Moderator: Ivy Page, Plymouth State University
Rounds Hall 107
“‘Let her come in’”: An Examination of Ophelia’s Euphemistic “Going Out,” Janine Quimby,
Drew University
Twelfth Night and the Return of Magna Mater, John Achorn, New England College
Family Matters: Parents and Children in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, Roberta Lynne
Staples, Sacred Heart University
Re-Imagining Oneself and Others
Moderator: Whitney Howarth, Plymouth State University
Rounds Hall 203
Saints' Lives: The Power of the Deceased in Ireland and Anglo-Saxon England, Kiley Malone,
University of Sydney
More’s Utopia in Colonial New England, Kaitlin Tonti, Seton Hall University
Lady Gaga: A Modern-Day Mélusine, Joseph C. Stewart V, Seton Hall University
Saturday Session 5: 10:35-11:55
Twelfth-Century French Literature
Moderator: Katharine Harrington, Plymouth State University
Rounds Hall 107
Masquerades of Liberation: Female Agency in Marie de France’s Yonec, Jessica Auz, Seton Hall
University
The Mapping of Narrative Authority and Textual Truth: The Writer and Reader as Cartographer
in the Romances of Chrétien de Troyes, Philip Schochet, Seton Hall University
The Narrative Voice in Le Pèlerinage de Renart, Brian R. Campbell, Independent Scholar
Malory and the Holy Grail
Moderator: Forrest Helvie, Norwalk Community College
Rounds Hall 322
The Demotion of Perceval: Asking the Question, Jim Slocombe, Champlain College/Bishop’s
University
Percivale's Demotion: Second to Galahad, Peter Schwartz, Elmira College
Last Call: Forsaking Camelot for the Sangreal, Gary Lapointe
Travel and the Other in Medieval and Early Modern Literature
Moderator: Ann McClellan, Plymouth State University
Rounds Hall 304
Transformative Sea Travel Mystic Barges and Chivalric Cargo in Medieval Tales, Paul Dingman,
University of Rochester/Alfred University
Palomides, the Medieval Ripley, Meriem Pagès, Keene State College
The Early Spanish Contact with China: The Embassy of Philip II to Wanli of the Ming Dynasty,
Carmen Hsu, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
History as a Narrative in Medieval and Early Modern Europe
Moderator: Marsi Wisniewski, Plymouth State University
Rounds Hall 203
When Two Worlds Collide : Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Account of Brutus’ Conquest of Britain,
Geneviève Pigeon, Université du Québec à Montréal
For the Increase of Divine Praise: Comparing Structure and Kingship in William of Chartres and
Geoffrey of Beaulieu’s Lives of Louis IX, Dianne LaBerge, University of Vermont
“Nor am I not where…”: Thomas Wyatt’s Broken Homes, Carl G. Martin, Norwich University
Travel in Early Medieval Europe
Moderator: Charles Pierce, Tidewater Community College
Rounds Hall 204
“The journey away of my lord afflicted me greatly here”: Trauma of Travel in Old English
Elegies, Ruth M.E. Oldman, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
“There’s No Place Like Home:” Carolingian Laments about Travel, June-Ann Greeley, Sacred
Heart University
Power and Prerogatives: Royal and Religious Travel in Late Saxon Wessex Jennifer MacDonald,
Acadia University
LUNCH
12:00-1:00
Prospect Hall
(Tickets Required)
Saturday Session 6: 1:30-2:50
Roundtable on Senior and Capstone Projects in Medieval Studies
Moderator: Adam Franklin-Lyons, Marlboro College
Rounds Hall 203
Adam Franklin-Lyons - Marlboro College
Henry White - Marlboro College
Alexandra Ciampoli - Marlboro College
Angela Weisl - Seton Hall University
Elizabeth Centanni, Seton Hall University
Milton on Gender and Women
Moderator: A. Robin Bowers, Plymouth State University
Rounds Hall 204
“Sufficient to have stood”? God’s Fruitless Warning, Lucretia Witte, Dartmouth College
Angel Sex: How Milton Separates Gender from Genitalia, Laura Bryn Sisson, Dartmouth College
The Female Pastoral Guide ‘Sallies Out and Sees Her Adversary’: Lady as Guide in Training in
Milton’s A Mask Presented at Ludlow Castle, Comus, Sharon R. Yang, Worcester State
University
Of Small Things Not Quite Forgotten: Re-Examining Practical Objects
Moderator: Karolyn Kinane, Plymouth State University
Rounds Hall 303
The Cloisters’ Pack of Playing Cards: Between a Utopian Representation of the World and a
Symbol of Power, Paulina Pardo, SUNY-Stony Brook University
‘From every shires ende’: Deviations of Intent in Medieval Pilgrim Badges and their Wearers,
Tanya Anderson Hooper, University of North Texas
A Global Heaven: The Celestial Iconography of “Veneto-Saracenic” Spherical Incense Burners,
Lora Webb, Tufts University
Undergraduate Panel: Medieval Sources and Modern Texts
Moderator: Meriem Pagès, Keene State College
Rounds Hall 303
Merlin and Gandalf, Megan Briggs, Keene State College
The Hero and the King: Aragorn as Depicted by Tolkien and Jackson, Lisa Gaidosz, Keene State
College
Robin Hood and the Outlaw Hero, Sean St Germain, Keene State College
Chainmaille Workshop
Rounds Hall 107
Medieval Society Student Organization
Materials Supplied
Saturday Session 7: 3:00-4:20
Journeys and Trials in Dante and Chaucer
Moderator: Claire-Marie Hart, North Shore Community College
Rounds Hall 107
‘Tis But a Flesh Wound: Observations of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in The Canterbury
Tales, Morgan Rose, Eastern Connecticut State University
Dante’s Purgatory: Still a Meaningful Crucible of Lust and Natural Desire, Dena Arguelles,
Seton Hall University
“I am a feend; my dwellyng is in helle”: The Mythological Influences of Chaucer’s devil in The
Friar’s Tale and the Reeve’s portrait, Aurora Schurman, Eastern Connecticut State University
Sex and Gender in Medieval Religious Women’s Writings
Moderator: June-Ann Greeley, Sacred Heart University
Rounds Hall 203
“Confusyd in hirself and hir owyn unstabylnes:” Plurality, Bricolage, and Infinite Regress in The
Book of Margery Kempe, Meredith Clermont-Ferrand, Eastern Connecticut State University
Visions and Re-Visions: Margery Kempe as Regina Coeli, Cathryn McCarthy Donahue, College
of Mount Saint Vincent
In a Nutshell: The Physical, Emotional, and Female Sanctity in the Later Middle Ages, Hillary
O’Brien, Keene State College
Changing Spiritual Identities in Medieval and Early Modern Europe
Moderator: Kathy Tardif, Plymouth State University
Rounds Hall 204
The Changing Role of the Martyr in Medieval Judaism, Mith Barnes, Bellarmine University
Dutch Death Trip: Anabaptist Pilgrimages to the Earthly New Jerusalem 1530-1535, Donald
Hochstetler, Independent Scholar
Sins of the Body and Sins of the Flesh in Hrotsvit of Gandersheim’s The Conversion of the Harlot
Thais (or Pafnutius), Rachel Tanski, Seton Hall University
Being Medieval: Visual Representations of the Middle Ages Today
Moderator: Suzanne Wimberly, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth
Rounds Hall 303
When the Present Makes Contact with the Past: Comic Adaptations and Translations of Medieval
and Early Modern Sources, Forrest C. Helvie, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Placing a Poker in a Bowl: The Gender Battle Underneath Arthur’s Claim for His Sword,
Elizabeth Centanni, Seton Hall University
(continued)
(Time) Travel to the Middle Ages, Carl James Grindley, The City University of New York
Educating the Young: Pedagogy Then and Now
Moderator: Karolyn Kinane, Plymouth State University
Rounds Hall 304
Does Education Destroy the English Gentleman? The Effect of Travel on Ascham’s The
Schoolmaster, Sean Richmond, Eastern Connecticut State University
Walter Pater’s Renaissance, Paulette E. Barton, University of Maine
Spring Break in England: A Model for an Embedded, Faculty-Led Travel Course, Rebecca
Powell Lartigue, Springfield College
MEDIEVAL FEAST
Heritage Hall
Doors Open 5 p.m.
Tickets Required
5:30-8:30 p.m. Cash bar
6 p.m. Hand-washing Ceremony
Feasting, singing, and bawdy entertainment by:
The Corr Thieves
www.corrthieves.com
SUNDAY, APRIL 21, 2013
Prince John’s Medieval Festival
11 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Hartman Union Building/Alumni Green
Featuring demonstrations and displays by the local branch of the SCA, The Guild of Saint Moritz, and
Daniel Greenwolf, magician and entertainer.
Free and open to the public.
Hosted by the Medieval Society Student Organization
Save the Date!
"Artists, Authors, Audiences"
Friday and Saturday April 25-26, 2014
Plymouth State University’s
35th Medieval and Renaissance Forum
Keynote Address: Dr. Rebecca Krug, University of Minnesota