Femfog at IMC Leeds 2016

by JONATHAN HSY

[UPDATED with location info and thanks to organizers]

Wow, I'm in Düsseldorf for the MLA "Other Europes" Symposium and we are all reeling from the #Brexit vote (no doubt more on that soon).

ANNOUNCEMENT:

The Chronicle of Higher Ed just published an article following up on the #femfog fallout and a festshrift for Frantzen. Read the PDF here.

On this note, there's a last-minute(ish) roundtable session at the International Medieval Congress at Leeds on "Embracing the #femfog" (date: Wednesday July 6 at 1pm; location: Michael Sadler Building: Rupert Beckett Theatre).

Title and abstract are also available at the IMC program link (since this is a last-minute addition to the schedule, you won't find this in the printed paper program).

Embracing the #femfog

Abstract: The misogynist invention 'of femfog' and the racist praise of medieval 'white men' had unintended positive consequences: an online surge of willingness to name and act against abuse and unethical behaviour in medieval studies, not just in Anglo-Saxon studies, not just against women. Continuing these discussions, we want to expose the structures that enabled and enable unethical behaviour in universities, and aim to make medieval studies more fully inclusive, collegial, and ethical. We want to explore ways of working against emotional, verbal, and sexual abuse, gate-keeping, exploitation, and bullying especially of students and younger scholars, racism, homophobia, transphobia, ablism, and misogyny in medieval studies, and affirm the openness, collegiality and inclusivity of our fields.

With David Bowe (Oxford), Liz Herbert McAvoy (Swansea University), Jonathan Hsy (George Washington University), Dorothy Kim (Vassar), Christina Lee (University of Nottingham), Robert Stanton (Boston College), Elaine Treharne (Stanford), and Helen Young (University of Sydney). Chaired by Diane Watt (University of Surrey).

THANKS to Bettina Bildhauer (St Andrews) for all her work organizing this session, and thanks to the IMC Programming Committee for finding a suitable venue for this event.