Call for Papers: Biennial London Chaucer Conference: Science, Magic and Technology (London, 10-12 July 2015)

Call for Papers:
Biennial London Chaucer Conference: Science, Magic and Technology
London, Senate House, Institute of English Studies, 10-12 July 2015
Deadline: 1 September 2014

Papers are sought on all aspects of ‘Science, Magic and Technology’ in late medieval literature and culture and particularly within Chaucer studies. Approaches might include:

• The presentation of scientific ideas in myth and poetry
• Observation and naturalism in literature and art
• Experiment and experience in science and literature
• The occult sciences (astrology, magic, alchemy) and their relationship to literature
• Technology as magic, magic as a technology
• Scientific literatures and the literariness of science
• Epistemology and taxonomy in late medieval writing
• Technologies of writing, parchment making and codicology
• Concepts of the material and immaterial worlds, the environment, astrology, astronomy and cosmology
• Cartography; deep-sea and space exploration
• The science of the senses, optics, sound or scent
• The representation of medicine in literature or the literary modes of medical writing
• Trade technologies in literature
• Science, magic and technology in medievalism

Papers are welcomed on the work of Geoffrey Chaucer or, more broadly, on late medieval writing and culture.

Please send 250 word abstracts to Dr Isabel Davis; Birkbeck, University of London. i.davis@bbk.ac.uk by 1st September 2014.