CFP: Weather Saints (International Medieval Congress 2021), deadline 10 September 2020

Call for Papers for Session Proposal at the International Medieval Congress (IMC 2021), July 5 – 8, 2021, University of Leeds. Thematic focus: Climates

This session seeks to explore the interaction between human beings and the meteorological manifestations of the weather. It focuses on the intervention of saints who either function as divine intercessors or whose meteorological powers control and influence the weather in order to reassure and reestablish the prosperity/security/protection of a given community.

Suggested topics, on any geographic area, may include, but are not limited to:

• use and reuse of Biblical patterns in the constructions of saintly lives: miracles, control, and influence over the weather;
• miraculous interventions of saints: growths of crops, fruits, and vegetation; engaging with the weather; miraculous protection;
• invocations (of a given saint) against/for: bad weather, cold weather, harvests, crops, disasters, drought, fire, floods, freezing, good weather, hail, rain, storms, tempests, water;
• feasts/celebrations/relics/shrines/cures of weather saints;
• intercession(s) and divine control over the weather by sending: rain, snow, hail, frost, wind, sunshine;
• manifestations of meteorological powers: calming the sea, calming the wind;
• disasters: crop disruption, periods of drought, floods;
• punishment for transgressions: storms, floods, thunder, and fire;
• intersection of weather and geography or agriculture and the protection of saints;

Submissions from a variety of disciplines are accepted including but not limited to: history, art history, visual culture, social history, cultural history, hagiography, religious studies, textual studies in a transdisciplinary perspective.

Please submit a 250-word proposal for a 15-20 minute paper. Proposals should have an abstract format and be accompanied by a short CV, of no more than 800 words, including e-mail, current affiliation, and position.  Please submit all relevant documents, as PDF or Word.doc, by 10 September, 2020, to the e-mail address: andrea.znorovszky@unive.it

Contact information:

Andrea-Bianka Znorovszky, Ca’ Foscari University, Venice, Italy (andrea.znorovszky@unive.it)