Mediaeval Studies, the multidisciplinary study of the European Middle Ages, is a discipline integral to the University of Toronto. The seeds of the enterprise were planted almost a hundred years ago on the campus of St Michael’s College. On that same campus, those seeds eventually flowered into the renowned Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies. The enterprise was extended and enriched by various departments of the University of Toronto through the establishment of the Centre for Medieval Studies in the 1960s. Both these institutions were dedicated to the graduate dimension of Mediaeval Studies. The establishment of an undergraduate program in Mediaeval Studies was an afterthought, eventually established at St Mike’s, where it profited from the presence of a large concentration of medievalists and the resources of the PIMS Library. The three programs offered at various levels of study on the University campus have consistently attracted respectable numbers of very good students, with many alumni proceeding to either graduate studies in the Centre and elsewhere, or to key positions in the field in North America, Europe, and Australia.
The history of this enterprise has yet to be written, and its future staked out. For this reasons we are organizing a symposium to take place right were Mediaeval Studies was born, at the University of St Michael’s College in the University of Toronto. We envision this symposium as an opportunity to begin discussions of the past, present, and future of Mediaeval Studies at St Michael’s College and in the wider world. The Symposium is organized by the University of St Michael’s College in collaboration with the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies.
The organizing committee welcomes submissions on any subject related to the overarching theme of the Symposium, “Mediaeval Studies at the University of St Michael’s College: Past, Present, and Future,” and to its concomitant questions. We expect papers to be around 20 minutes long and will allow plenty of time for discussion. The proceedings of the Symposium will be edited and published in a conference volume. Please send your proposal, alongside a brief CV, to Alexander Andrée, by May 31, 2018:
Dr Alexander Andrée
Coordinator, Mediaeval Studies
University of St Michael’s College
81 St Mary Street
Toronto, Ontario
Canada M5S 1J4
E-mail: alexander.andree@utoronto.ca