Periodization I: Do We Need It? (A Roundtable)

Sponsoring Organization(s)

Special Session

Organizer Name

Katherine C. Little

Organizer Affiliation

Univ. of Colorado-Boulder

Presider Name

Katherine C. Little

Paper Title 1

Marxist Periodization

Presenter 1 Name

Andrew Cole

Presenter 1 Affiliation

Princeton Univ.

Paper Title 2

Medieval Americas

Presenter 2 Name

Nancy Bradley Warren

Presenter 2 Affiliation

Texas A&M Univ.

Paper Title 3

Listening for Indigenous Time

Presenter 3 Name

Luke Fidler

Presenter 3 Affiliation

Univ. of Chicago

Paper Title 4

Colonizing History: Why History (and Periodization) Starts with Our Own Stand-Point

Presenter 4 Name

Robey Clark Patrick

Presenter 4 Affiliation

Ashland Univ.

Paper Title 5

Medievalearlymodern

Presenter 5 Name

Kellie Robertson

Presenter 5 Affiliation

Univ. of Maryland

Paper Title 6

Disposing of Philosophy's Stillborn Renaissance

Presenter 6 Name

Robert Pasnau

Presenter 6 Affiliation

Univ. of Colorado-Boulder

Start Date

9-5-2019 1:30 PM

Session Location

Fetzer 2020

Description

The traditional periodization of the Middle Ages no longer seems as helpful as it once was. In recent years, medievalists have begun to question and to chip away at some of the concepts that have shaped this period: the implied modernity and superiority of the Renaissance, a sense of homogeneity (religious, economic, and cultural), and Eurocentrism. At the same time, the growing marginalization of medieval studies and the humanities more generally at the institutional level have made questions about the identity of the medieval period all the more pressing. This roundtable will take up the question -- do we need periodization? -- from a number of different disciplinary perspectives. Katie Little