CFP: ‘Living with the Otherworldly: Feelings, Journeys, and Dialogues in the British Isles, ca. 1300–1550,’ International Medieval Congress, Leeds 2027 (deadline 18 September 2026)

While the OED defines ‘otherworldly’ as spiritual, unworldly, fictitious, and immaterial, medieval encounters with the otherworldly often took remarkably palpable, mobile, and transmissible forms within material worlds. Beyond this definition, this session invites a more conceptual interpretation, exploring how otherworldly communities interacted with and were imagined within communities of the living in the late medieval British Isles.

Taking feelings, journeys, and dialogues as central modes of encounter, this session looks into the relationships between earthly and otherworldly communities. We ask how boundaries between them were defined, negotiated, or traversed within and beyond institutionalised settings across the British Isles.

We welcome papers that attend to the questions, including but not limited to:

• In what ways was the otherworldly apprehended and articulated through emotions?
• How did physical, spiritual, and imaginative journeys that are present in pilgrim records and (fictional) travelogues connect communities with otherworldly beings and spaces? How did such journeys contribute to the (re)shaping of (other)worldly landscapes?
• What forms of dialogue became visible through prayer, intercession, and ritual practices—among the living, the dead and the saintly, and between humans and supernatural beings? Accordingly, how did those communications conform to or transform the understanding and practice of commemoration and memory?
• How were those encounters materialised in manuscripts, objects, architecture, and performance, making knowledge of and experiences with the otherworldly portable and transmissible?
• How might such encounters reshape our understanding of belonging, social bonds, and communities?

We welcome papers on subjects underrepresented in existing scholarship and contributions that foster cross-disciplinary conversations, including literary studies, liturgical and religious studies, art history, manuscript studies, and material anthropology.

Paper proposals (please use this form) for a 15–20-minute paper should be submitted to the Session Convenors, Se Jin Park (sejin.park@yale.edu) and Hanting Niu (hn367@cam.ac.uk), no later than 18 September 2026. For more information or questions, please contact the Session Convenors.