Please share the following Call For Papers with interested colleagues:

Three sessions will honor Professor James J. Paxson at the 47th International Congress on Medieval Studies, University of Western Michigan, Kalamazoo, MI, May 10-13, 2012.

The University of Florida, and the medieval community as a whole, lost Professor James J. Paxson this year, who died in February. A fine teacher, mentor, and scholar, he focused primarily on Middle English literature and literary theory, as well as science in literature. His publications include: The Poetics of Personification (Cambridge, 1994); (ed.) Desiring Discourse: The Literature of Love, Ovid through Chaucer (Susquehanna/AUP, 1998); (ed.) The Performance of Middle English Culture (Brewer, 1998); as well as his associate editorship of Exemplaria: A Journal of Theory in Medieval and Renaissance Studies.

In three sessions, we celebrate his contribution to the medieval and academic community. He was an enthusiastic supporter of ICMS, encouraging his students to participate and attend. We invite submissions for 15-20 minute papers from friends and former students of Professor Paxson as well as from scholars whose work engages with and develops his scholarship and fields of interest. These areas include but are not limited to: Allegory, Science in Literature, Levinas, Chaucer, Piers Plowman. Please indicate if you knew Professor Paxson personally.


Please e-mail a one-page abstract (300 words max) to Emerson Richards (Dept. English, University of Florida) at (EmersonStormFillmanRichards@gmail.com) and Valerie Allen (Dept. English, John Jay College, CUNY) at (vallen@jjay.cuny.edu) by or before September 15, 2011. Feel free to contact either with questions about the sessions.

For general information about the 2012 Medieval Congress, visit: http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/