The 61st annual International Congress on Medieval Studies is underway at Western Michigan University.
The conference is an academic one, but also features vendors selling items from books to knives and events of interest to laypeople and enthusiasts.
Professors, craftspeople, hobbyists and vendors mingled at Western Michigan University’s student center Thursday. Participants bought books, discussed history and caught up on their Latin literacy.
Meg Cotter-Lynch is a professor of English at Southeastern Oklahoma State University. She says the wide range of offerings helps bring in people from all walks of life.
“So, there's those of us who are like academics who are teaching and doing research. There are also people who are just kind of like generally interested in the Middle Ages. There's reenactors who are here," she said.
Lynch added that events like this are especially important during a time when humanities, like Medieval studies, are facing funding cuts and reduced enrollment, with the Congress allowing for increased exposure and interest in the field.
Vendors
Donald Sprague is with Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers. His booth specializes in both Greek and Latin literature, ranging from the classics to translations of kids' books.
"We have '[How] the Grinch Stole Christmas' in Latin. We have 'The Giving Tree' in Latin and 'Where the Wild Things Are in Latin,'" he said.
Sprague said he doesn't run into many fluent Latin speakers.
"Not as many as there used to be, but for people who are medievalists, their primary texts are often in Latin. Not so much in Greek, but some in Greek as well."
But maybe you want your reading materials to look more historical. For that, the conference has Facsimile Finders.
Giovanni Scorcioni is the cofounder of the company, which had a number of replicas of texts from the Middle Ages and other historical periods on display.
"We have literary texts like the Christine de Pisan manuscript over there, very interesting treatises on fighting here with arms and armors and pictures, an alchemical manuscript over there."
And these books aren’t just scans; they're recreations with the feel and look of the copied text.
“The point here is to show you the physicality and the presence of the book to kind of help you imagine how our medieval ancestor used the books in their life.”
Scorcioni came to the conference from the Republic of San Marino, a small, independent nation in north-central Italy.
He said the Kalamazoo event is an important one for his business.
"Thirteen years we are coming to Kalamazoo and that says a lot about the importance for our company," Scorcioni said.
"This is probably the largest conference we visit during our business year. And it's where we really meet tens if not hundreds of customers, scholars, students, future customers."
Just a stone's throw away from the facsimiles was Eric Joseph, a Kalamazoo County-based artist who sells wide range of pieces.
"I do architectural ornament in cast cement, and I am sculpting and making molds to create these pieces. I also do a little bit of jewelry, artifacts, objects from history," Joseph said.
"I'm doing drinking horns, I make mugs, and I make knives, and my most recent piece is this early medieval Germanic lyre."
The "fun conference"
Attendee Coral Lumbley is from Princeton, New Jersey.
She's a literature historian, and she said among academics, the Kalamazoo event is known as the "fun conference."
"It's really known for being fun, for being welcoming to graduate students, even to undergrads," Lumbley said.
"So people do feel like they can do business, they can do scholarship, but they can also relax, reunite with friends from college or graduate school and have a nice time."
Lumbley added that one especially fun part of the conference happens on the final day.
"So, every Saturday night at the conference, there's a dance, there's a lot of disco, people let loose, have a drink or two, and just kind of let loose together."
Michael Symonds reports for WMUK through the Report for America national service program.
