Thursday

43. Making a Case for the Humanities: Advocacy and Audience

1:45–3:00 p.m., 612, WSCC

Program arranged by the MLA Delegate Assembly Organizing Committee. Presiding: Teresa

Mangum, Univ. of Iowa

Speakers: Barbara McFadden Allen, Committee on Institutional Cooperation; Gage Averill, Univ. of British Columbia; Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed; Susan E. Jefords, Univ. of Washington, Seattle; Esther Mackintosh, Federation of State Humanities Councils

Administrators, funding agencies, legislators, taxpayers, donors, parents, students, and colleagues in science, business, engineering, and medicine: how can we address these diverse audiences on their terms? Given these groups’ priorities and obligations, what compelling reasons can we offer that it is in their interest to become advocates for the study of literature and languages? Our distinguished panelists share insight, advice, and experiences

162. Comparative Conversion

7:00–8:15 p.m., Jefferson, Sheraton

Program arranged by the Division on Comparative Studies in Medieval Literature. Presiding:

Steven F. Kruger, Queens Coll., City Univ. of New York

1. “Religious Selves, Racial Others: Comparative Conversions in Mandeville’s Travels and the Islamic Malay Alexander Romance,” Su Fang Ng,Univ. of Oklahoma

2. “Resistance Is Futile, You Will Be Assimilated: Exploring Conversionary Fantasies in The Travels of Sir John Mandeville,” Leila Norako, Univ. of Rochester

3. “Aging as Conversion in Le roman de Silence, The Prioress’s Tale, and The Physician’s Tale,” Daniel T. Kline, Univ. of Alaska, Anchorage

Friday

300. Karen Sullivan’s The Inner Lives of Medieval Inquisitors

1:45–3:00 p.m., Seneca, Sheraton

Program arranged by the Division on French Medieval Language and Literature. Presiding: Cary

Howie, Cornell Univ.

Speakers: Karen Elizabeth Gross, Lewis and Clark Coll.; Anna Klosowska, Miami Univ., Oxford; Karmen MacKendrick, LeMoyne Coll.; Bonnie Wheeler, Southern Methodist Univ.

Respondent: Karen Sullivan, Bard Coll.

Discussion of Karen Sullivan’s recently published The Inner Lives of Medieval Inquisitors, which considers inquisitors’ often difficult choices. Panelists will address the literary, philosophical, erotic, and historical implications of the Inquisition—including interiority, interrogation, admonition, and conversion—which, rooted in medieval France and Iberia, extend well into the rest of the medieval and arguably the modern world.

321. Chaucer’s Futures

3:30–4:45 p.m., 619, WSCC

Program arranged by the Division on Chaucer.

Presiding: Kellie Robertson, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison

Speakers: Christopher C. Baswell, Barnard Coll.; Heather Blatt, Fordham Univ., Bronx; Holly Crocker, Univ. of South Carolina, Columbia; Darryl Ellison, Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick

What will it mean to study Chaucer in the twenty-first century?

345. Animals, Machines, Forces of Nature: Alternative Agencies in Arthurian Literature Friday 5:15

5:15–6:30 p.m., 308, WSCC

Program arranged by the Discussion Group on Arthurian Literature. Presiding: Will Hasty, Univ.

of Florida

1. “Guardians of the Past or Portents of the Future? Sepulchral Automata in the Prose Lancelot and Earlier Romances,” Naomi Howell, Univ. of Exeter

2. “Natural Color: Nature and Hybridity in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” Ann Martinez, Univ. of Kansas

3. “Malory’s Questing Beast and the Geography of the Arthurian World,” Dorsey Armstrong, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette

Saturday

649. Chaucer and Belief

8:30–9:45 a.m., 611, WSCC

Program arranged by the Division on Chaucer.

Presiding: Kathy M. Lavezzo, Univ. of Iowa

1. “‘Withouten Moore Avys’: Belief and National Identity in The Canterbury Tales,” Susan M. Nakley, Saint Joseph’s Coll., Long Island Campus

2. “Zombie Hagiography: Who Believes What about Whom in The Prioress’s Tale,” Daniel T. Kline, Univ. of Alaska, Anchorage

3. “Seeing as Believing: Religion, Magic, and Spectacle in The Canterbury Tales,” Tara Williams, Oregon State Univ.

Respondent: Steven F. Kruger

680. Medieval Drama and Performative Theology

10:15–11:30 a.m., 617, WSCC

Program arranged by the Division on Middle English Language and Literature, Excluding Chaucer.

Presiding: Eve Salisbury, Western Michigan Univ.

1. “Performing Christians Performing Jews,” Sylvia Tomasch, Hunter Coll., City Univ. of New York

2. “The Word Made Flesh’: A Barieldian Analysis of Ritual Creation in the York Cycle,” Jefferey H. Taylor, Metropolitan State Coll. of Denver

3. “Performing Justice: Law and Theology in the York Plays,” Emma E. Lipton, Univ. of Missouri, Columbia

4. “‘Be Ye Thus Trowing’: Medieval Drama and Make- Believe,” Garrett P. J. Epp, Univ. of Alberta