Medieval-Renaissance Conference

The Center for Medieval-Renaissance Studies of the University of Virginia’s College at Wise is pleased to announce Medieval-Renaissance Conference XXXVIII, September 18-20, 2025

Founded in 1986 by Professors Richard H. Peake and the late Jack Mahony, both of the Department of Language and Literature, the Medieval-Renaissance Conference began as a way of promoting scholarly activity on campus and providing visibility for the College in the larger academic community. The first conference was a success, hosting twelve speakers from mainly area colleges. Welcoming papers on all areas of medieval and renaissance studies, including literature, history, philosophy, art and music, the conference has enjoyed steady growth and increased national presence, with speakers representing institutions across the country – and the occasional international speaker. By the late 1990s it had grown to a gathering of thirty or forty presentations per year, growth that continues the legacy of Professors Peake and Mahony and confirms the value of an academic conference at the College. In spite of this growth, the conference remains small enough to foster a sense of academic community, generating lively discussions and feedback not always achievable at larger conferences. We also work to maintain an open, informal and friendly setting for participants. Many younger scholars, presenting their first academic paper, find their experience with the conference encouraging and helpful to their academic growth.

Sponsored by the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, the University of Virginia’s College at Wise Medieval-Renaissance Conference promotes scholarly discussion in all disciplines of Medieval and Renaissance studies. The conference welcomes proposals for papers and panels on Medieval or Renaissance literature, language, history, philosophy, science, pedagogy, and the arts.  Abstracts for papers should be 300 or fewer words.  Proposals for panels should include: a) title of the panel; b) names and institutional affiliations of the chair and all panelists; c) a 200-250 word description of the panel).  A branch campus of the University of Virginia, the University of Virginia’s College at Wise is a public four-year liberal arts college located in the scenic Appalachian Mountains of Southwest Virginia. 

Keynote Address

Frederick de Armas, University of Chicago
Cervantes’ Architectures: Windows, Holes, Corners and Fissures

Professor de Armas’ keynote address arises out of his study of the architectures in Cervantes’ works, especially depictions of smaller architectural elements such as rooms in the attic, shuttered windows and even keyholes. Professor de Armas will investigate other holes, along with corners and fissures, conjugating the apparent insignificance of some architectural features or flaws, with their inordinate consequences. Specifically, his address will discuss the three moments in the Don Quixote in which the story of Pyramus and Thisbe come into play and show how its cracks and fissures are spaces for innovation in Cervantes’ novel. 

Frederick De Armas received his PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (1969) and was awarded a doctorate Honoris Causa by the Université de Neuchatel (Switzerland) in 2018. He also received the Norman Maclean Faculty Award in 2023. Professor De Armas has taught at Louisiana State University, Duke University and Pennsylvania State University. He has been Andrew W. Mellon Professor and then Robert O. Anderson Distinguished Service Professor in Romance Languages and Comparative Literature at the University of Chicago (2000-2024). At Chicago, he has served as Chair of the Department of RLL and Director of Graduate Studies. He has been President of the Cervantes Society of America and President of AISO (Asociación Internacional Siglo de Oro). He is now Honorary President of AISO and of EMIT: Early Modern Image and Text Society.  He has been awarded several NEH Fellowships and has directed several NEH Seminars.

His interests include the politics of astrology; ekphrasis; the uses of architecture in early modern prose fiction; the relations between the verbal and the visual particularly between Spanish literature and Italian art; and the interconnections between myth and empire during the rule of the Habsburgs. He is the author of numerous books and edited volumes. Some of the more recent ones: 

Writing for the Eyes in the Spanish Golden Age (Bucknell UP2004);
Ekphrasis in the Age of Cervantes (Bucknell UP 2005);
Quixotic Frescoes: Cervantes and Italian Renaissance Art (Toronto 2006);
Ovid in the Age of Cervantes (Toronto UP 2010);
Don Quixote among the Saracens: Clashes of Civilizations and Literary Genres (Toronto UP 2011);
El retorno de Astrea: astrología, mito e imperio en Calderón (Iberoamericana 2016);
Women Warriors in Early Modern Spain (U of Delaware P, 2019):
Cervantes’ Architectures: The Dangers Outside (Toronto UP, 2022).

He is also the author of several short stories and has published two novels: El abra del Yumurí (2016) and Sinfonía Salvaje (2019), both set in Cuba in the late 1950’s.

Submissions for Papers and Panels

The University of Virginia’s College at Wise Medieval-Renaissance Conference promotes scholarly discussion in all disciplines of Medieval and Renaissance studies. The conference welcomes proposals for graduate and undergraduate papers and panels on Medieval or Renaissance literature, language, history, philosophy, science, pedagogy, and the arts.  Abstracts for papers should be 300 or fewer words; undergraduate proposals should include the name of a faculty mentor.  Proposals for panels should include: a) title of the panel; b) names and institutional affiliations of the chair and all panelists; c) abstracts for papers to be presented (300 or fewer words).  A branch campus of the University of Virginia, the University of Virginia’s College at Wise is a public four-year liberal arts college located in the scenic Appalachian Mountains of Southwest Virginia.

Please submit abstracts of up to 300 words by June 23, 2025.