Imbas 2012: Diversity in the Middle Ages: Political, Social, and Cultural

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 23rd

2:00-4:30 – Registration and Tea

4:30-6:00 – Panel 1: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern: Mythology in Transition

Chair: Dr. PÌÁdraic Moran

Peter Kelly

NUI, Galway

Look but Do Not Touch: Trees and Transformation in Ovid and Beyond

Sandra Hartl

University of Bamberg

Diverse Arthurian Sources of Inspiration in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Works

Jennifer Farrell

University College Dublin

From Diana to Merlin: Dramatic Unity and the Art of Suspense in Historia Regum Britanniae

6:00-7:00 – Wine Reception

7:00-8:00 – Keynote lecture: Dr. Clare Stancliffe

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 24th

10:00-11:30 – Panel 2: Power Struggles: Kings, Warlords, and Tyrants

Chair: Dr. Mark Stansbury

John Latham

University of Leeds

‘For Assur Comes with them’: Reassessing the Alan Presence in Hispania, 409-418

Simon Egan

University College Cork

The Struggle for the Scottish Crown and the Politics of the Wider Gaelic World, c. 1400-1437

Chris Doyle

NUI, Galway

The War Within: Diverse Loyalties in the Later Roman Empire AD 395-423

11:30-12:00 – Tea & coffee break

12:00-1:30 – Panel 3: Ritual and its Purpose in Medieval Ireland

Chair: Prof MÌÁirÌ_n NÌ_ Dhonnchadha

Eoin ÌÒ Donnchadha

University College Dublin

Ridicule and Rituals: An Examination of the Diverse Supernatural Abilities Attributed to Filid in Sanas Cormaic

David Burke

University of Durham

“What did it avail him to live virtuously?”: Penance, Bloodshed, and the Monastery of Tallaght

Elaine Farrell

University College Dublin

Food Taboos in Early Medieval Ireland

1:30-3:00 – Lunch provided by Imbas

3:00-4:30 Panel 4: Symbol and Significance: Exegesis in the Middle Ages

Chair: Dr. Jacopo Bisagni

Sarah Corrigan

NUI, Galway

Are delphines always dolphins?: ambiguous sea creatures and their terminology in the Hisperica famina

Nathan Millin

University College Dublin

Stairway to Heaven: Jacob’s Ladder as Moral and Religious Instruction in Early Christian Ireland

Christa Mannen

Recipient of Western Michigan University – NUI, Galway Conference Exchange Grant in Medieval Studies

Journey to the Center of the Ark: Noah as a Bridge through Space and Time in the Holkham Bible Picture Book

4:30-5:00 – Tea & coffee break

5:00-6:30 – Panel 5: Bede: Miracles, Gender, and Education

Chair: Prof DÌÁibhÌ_ ÌÒ CrÌ_inÌ_n

Jenny Coughlan

University College Cork

Persuading Pagan Partners: Engendering Conversion in the Histories of Bede and Gregory of Tours

David O’Mahony

University College Cork

Moving Gradually Toward Perfection: Bede and the Need for Different Teaching Methods

Eoghan Ahern

University of Cambridge

Primitivism and Eschatology in the Miracles of Bede

8:30 Dinner at the House Hotel

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25th

10:00-11:30 – Panel 6: Literary Representations of Social Change in Medieval England

Chair: Dr. Frances McCormack

Sarah Nangle

University College Dublin

Harmonizing Dissonance: Music and Politics in Chaucer’s Parliament of Fowls

Edel Mulcahy

University College Cork

‘Vowed in Diuerse Pilgrimages’: The Role of Pilgrimage in Middle English Courtesy Literature and Exemplary Narratives

11:30-12:00 – Tea & coffee break in Smokey’s

12:15 Bus for Claregalway Castle departs from Quadrangle