Call for Papers
55th International Congress on Medieval Studies
Kalamazoo, MI
May 7 - May 10, 2020
Deadline: September 15, 2019
A Cook’s Apprenticeship: Hands-on Workshop on Experiential Learning with
Medieval Food -- Practical Challenges and Classroom Management
Mens et Mensa has in recent years sponsored several sessions demonstrating how
scholars have incorporated experiential learning with food and foodways into
medieval studies courses. While many attendees have been excited by the possibilities,
they have also hesitated when considering the practical and classroom management aspects
of practice. For this workshop, Mens et Mensa is recruiting instructors who have
already used experiential learning with food in the classroom to lead teams of session
attendees through the design and execution of a hands-on activity creating one element
of a medieval meal. At the conclusion of the exercise, team leaders and participants
will re-convene to sample the results, but also -- and most important – to discuss
what they learned about managing such an expereintial activity in their classroom.
Because we intend the workshop to help instructors overcome lingering inhibitions
and add experiential learning with food to their teaching toolkit, we will survey
participants at the start of the workshop and follow up with them one year later.
A Mirror to the Middle Ages: Using Food and Foodways to Raise Engagement with Medieval Studies
Medievalists as instructors have learned the value of engaging students through the use in the classroom
of examples relevant to their lives. Food and foodways, a basic element of survival, but also a theatre
of cultural practice and status display, represent a rich domain from which to draw relevant examples:
trade, manners, literature, morality (theology), law and many other areas of human activity manage or
comment on foodways, medieval and modern. For this paper session, Mens et Mensa seeks papers that
discuss how instructors have used medieval food and foodways in learning activities that exploit the
relevance of the material to students’ lives in order to increase their engagement. Because we intend
the session to provide examples of the range of ways in which food and foodways enter medieval studies,
we especially encourage submissions that go beyond literature and theology. If we end up with 5 or 6
submissions of sufficient breadth, we will convert the session to a round table.
Submit an abstract, CV and the completed
Congress Participant Information Form
by September 15, 2019, to: John A. Bollweg,
admin@mensetmensa.org