The session was one of three co-organized by Evan A. Gatti, associate professor of art history, for Episcopus, an interdisciplinary, scholarly society.
Evan A. Gatti, associate professor of art history, co-organized three sessions for Episcopus, an interdisciplinary, scholarly society devoted to fostering the exchange of information and research about the medieval episcopate and secular clergy, at the International Congress on Medieval Studies held May 10-18 at Western Michigan University.
The three panels were co-organized with Michael Burger (Auburn University –Montgomery), Kalani Craig (Indiana University–Bloomington) and John S. Ott (Portland State University) and include papers from scholars across the globe. Each session is organized around the theme “Start-Ups and Flops” and considers the variety of tasks involved in maintaining institutions or practices performed by bishops and the secular clergy in the Middle Ages.
“Pastors and Disasters,” presided over by Gatti, is the second of the three sessions and is focused on the ways bishops or other secular clergy responding to setbacks or even catastrophes, from plague to invasion to simply resistance to their programs.
The last of the three sessions, Start-Ups and (We Hope Not) Flops III” is modeled on successful sessions at the American Historical Association. Up to 10 scholars will have three minutes to present a current research idea. The audience and session participants will then respond with suggestions about where to take the ideas. The goal of this session is to foster research in its very early stages and to generate paper proposals for the International Congress on Medieval Studies in 2019.
For more information about Episcopus, visit http://www.episcopus.org/.