The Game Cultures Society is pleased to solicit abstracts for our three paper sessions at the 2022 International Congress on Medieval Studies (virtual Kalamazoo). Please submit abstracts to Dr. Sarah J. Sprouse ([email protected]) by September 15, 2021.

Session 1: Playing with Game Theory: Playful Genres (Paper Session): Games were one of the most popular forms of entertainment in the Middle Ages and yet only a handful of studies exist on the importance of games in medieval culture. This session proposes to explore the social and cultural significance of medieval genres of gaming, including debates, legal texts, riddles, carols, hunting manuals, and poems and romances traditionally studied for their literary value rather than their ludonarratological functions. Such papers might consider historical analyses of such functions as well as complicating the modern editing practices of these genres of texts.

Session 2: Global Middle Ages and Game Theory (Paper Session): As medieval studies makes the global turn, cultural game theorists working on medieval texts must also be more critical of the roles that games played beyond the purview of western Europe. We propose a session that creates a dialogue between cultural game studies and recent critical conversations in medieval studies on globalism, critical race theory, and other intentionally diversifying analyses. Possible topics include multilingual and cross-cultural reception of medieval games; critical responses to contemporary uses of medieval and medievalist games, and theoretical inquiries into the role of race, geography, and power in relation to the creation of games.

Session 3: Play and Performance (Paper Session): Games and drama were popular forms of entertainment in the Middle Ages. Only a few studies critically engage with the connections between these two pastimes in medieval culture. We propose a session that explores the social and cultural intersections of medieval games and drama, ranging from actual games represented or recreated in medieval and modern drama to social games like dancing as they manifest in mystery and morality plays. This session considers a variety of theoretical perspectives showcasing the relationship between games, play, and performance.