Queer@King’s and the Centre for Late Antique and Medieval Studies (CLAMS) invite applications to participate in a workshop exploring and shaping the future of queer medieval studies. For several decades these two areas have worked together to produce groundbreaking scholarship that has reassessed our relationship with the Middle Ages as well as our understanding of gender and sexuality in the present day. This intellectual exchange has evolved over the years, with developments in each area informing the other. Recently there has been a surge of renewed interest in queer medievalism, with much current doctoral and post-doctoral research taking place in this critical interdisciplinary zone.

We want to harness this opportunity to ask: why is this happening now? What does the queer/medieval collaboration bring to the contemporary political moment? What continuities and ruptures exist between current work at the queer-medieval conjuncture and its earlier iterations? What difference does it make to the modern world to think about the Middle Ages, particularly in relation to today’s debates about minoritised sexualities and gender identities? And crucially, what epistemic opportunities open up for research that brings together the methodologies and conceptual frameworks of historians and literature specialists with those of gender and sexuality scholars?

This workshop will bring together scholars working at this intersection, whether directly or more obliquely, with a focus on sharing research and identifying next steps for the discipline(s). There will be opportunities to present work, to network and collaborate, and to develop future projects.