The campus of Western Michigan University will be crowded for the next few days. That’s because the 58thInternational Congress on Medieval Studies is back in-person this year.
Organizers estimate that 1,600 people will attend in person and hundreds more will attend online. The people who made the trip are happy to be back.
“We're medievalists, we're a small tribe. This is the only place I can go where people know what the hell I'm talking about,” said Ken Mondschein, a historian and fencing master from Massachusetts.
“I think medievalists are kind, by and large. It's a good bunch of scholars. I wouldn't want to be in the Renaissance,” joked Gail Berlin, from Indiana, Pennsylvania.
“People in the Renaissance think they're in Queen Elizabeth’s court but medievalists think they're all on a pilgrimage together,” added Berlin’s friend medievalist Beth Bryan of Providence, Rhode Island, who was quoting a graduate school friend of theirs.
All three say they’ve attended the Medieval Congress for decades. Bryan and Berlin said they’ve been meeting here every year since 1986 or 1987. They said they were devastated when the Congress was cancelled in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Both are educators who taught medieval studies. They say the Congress inspires and facilitates an exchange of ideas.
“For example, in the early 90s, Medieval feminist criticism blossomed at this place,” Bryan said. “And a lot of people like Gail and I and others, met other likeminded people and learned a lot from each other. Every year now, there's a medieval feminist forum group that is developing feminist scholarship in Medieval studies.”
This year there are 462 sessions. Most are in person, others are online, and some are hybrid. It’s new for the Congress which has been sponsored by the Medieval Institute at Western Michigan University since 1962.
Mondschein is presenting one of those 462 sessions this week. It’s a comparative demonstration of medieval and modern fencing. Mondschein said he’s been coming to the Congress since the early 2000s. He called it one of the largest medieval conferences anywhere.
“It draws people from all over. This year, because we're hybrid, there are fewer people on campus, but, you know, before the pandemic, certainly this place was jam packed with medieval nerds of all stripes and colors.”
The Congress runs through Saturday. Kalamazoo residents can attend as many of the sessions as they like for $10 by registering online.
