#Fissures2026

This is the last week to submit abstracts for Fissures: Gender and Political Crisis! #Fissures2026 #medievalsky

CFP: Fissures: Gender and Political Crisis. Pembroke College, Cambridge, 17–18 Sept 2026. Abstracts due 16 Jan 2026.

One month left to submit your abstracts for Fissures: Gender and Political Crisis, @pembroke1347.bsky.social (17–18 Sept 2026).

See the full #CFP below.

#Fissures2026 #medievalsky #skystorians #medieval #GenderHistory #PoliticalHistory

Very excited to announce this CfP! Please share widely with anyone who might be interested! #medievalsky #skystorians #cfp #histmed #Fissures2026

Fissures: Gender and Political Crisis 17-18 September 2026 Pembroke College, University of Cambridge Gendered work on medieval popular politics has tended to revolve around the exceptional. This workshop explores how studies of gender can reconfigure discourses of medieval political community. We ask how attending to gendered bodies and identities might help us better understand the fissures in political culture in medieval Europe. Marking, for example, women’s participation as either absent or rare confines their involvement to the historical margins. How did literary as well as non-literary texts from various genres, ranging from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries, engage with gendered political action? How did ideas of gender stabilise or destabilise political performances? We invite abstracts for 25-minute papers, as well as expressions of interest for participation. We welcome papers with a historical, literary, or interdisciplinary focus. Potential topics could include but are not limited to: • Frameworks for understanding non-normative gender expressions in political spaces. • Studies of politics at the intersection of gendered, queer, or trans methodologies. • Histories of masculinities in political community. • Emotion and/or Affect • Weaponized/defensive gender • Manoeuvring bodies through political crisis • Inclusion and exclusion • Different sites of political discourse, such as domestic and non-violent conflict. Collectively, the papers will interrogate the role of gender in political discourse. Selected papers may be considered for inclusion in an edited volume. Means-based bursaries for speakers may be available by further application. Please submit a title and abstract of no more than 200 words to Alice Raw (ar889@cam.ac.uk) and Abbie Fray (abigail.fray@unibe.ch) by 16 January 2026.

Call for Papers! Fissures: Gender and Political Crisis #medievalsky #Fissures2026