Paper and panel proposals will be reviewed for their quality, the significance of their topics, and their relevance to the conference themes. The Program Committee will evaluate proposals during the summer of 2020 and the Committee will inform all successful and unsuccessful proposers by 1 September 2020.

Individuals may propose to offer a paper in one of the themes below, a full panel of papers and speakers for a listed theme, a full panel of papers and speakers for a session they wish to create, or a single paper not designated for a specific theme. Sessions usually consist of three 25-minute papers, and proposals should be geared to that length, although the committee is interested in other formats as well (poster sessions, digital experiences, etc). The Program Committee may choose a different format for some sessions after the proposals have been reviewed.

All proposals will be submitted online, and will require the following pieces of information.

• Proposer's name (in format for the program)
• Statement of Medieval Academy membership (or statement that the individual’s specialty would not normally involve membership in the Academy)
• professional status/affilliation (in format for the program)
• email address
• postal address
• telephone number(s)
• paper title
• theme for which the paper should be considered (or "general session")
• abstract (max 250-words)
• audio-visual equipment requirements

If a full panel is being proposed, the above information will be required for each paper, as well as for the session as a whole. For alternative format session proposal submissions, also a description of the alternative format (max. 300 words). 

Important Regarding Evaluation: Since all submitted proposals will undergo blind review, any identifying information inadvertently left in proposals will be removed before the review process begins. Please help us by ensuring that your abstract is free of all references to your name, your institution, and your publications.

Rather than a single overarching theme, the 2021 Program Committee has put together a set of themes (listed below), and hopes to put in conversation papers that approach each theme from diverse chronological, geographical, methodological, and disciplinary perspectives. We also welcome innovative sessions that cross traditional disciplinary boundaries or that use various disciplinary approaches to examine an individual topic. The themes listed below have been proposed by the Program Committee but the list is not meant to be exhaustive or exclusive.

• After Dante, 1321-2021
• Approaching the Middle Ages with Modern Science
• Appropriation of the Middle Ages
• Commemoration
• Connections and Networks in Medieval Social Life
• Digital Humanities
• Form and Genre
• Humans and the Natural Environment
• Identity, Race, and Ethnicity
• Manuscripts and Book History
• Migration, Immigration, and Exile
• Moments of Intercultural Interaction
• Multilingualism and Diglossia
• Natural Philosophy and its Applications
• Objects and Material Culture
• Performance from Sacred to Secular
• Playfulness

Founded in 1820, Indiana University Bloomington welcomes more than 48,000 students from Indiana and all 50 states, as well as from 165 foreign nations. Of particular note for medievalists is the Lilly Library, which holds a large collection of medieval manuscript books and fragments, especially from the 14th and 15th centuries. All sessions and events will be held in the Biddle Hotel and Conference Center in the Indiana Memorial Union, located at the center of campus; other hotel and dining options are located a short walk away in Bloomington's downtown.