We’re back at the International Medieval Congress at the University of Leeds next week with a range of papers and a roundtable. If you’re attending the event, come and find us in room 1.06 of the Maurice Keyworth Building on Monday 6 July and in room 1.01 in the Clarendon Building on Tuesday 7 July.
You can find the programmes from our previous strands here.
Full programme for 2025 below.
Monday 6 July – Maurice Keyworth Building 1.06
136: Fantasy Medievalism in Modern Games, I: Potions, Drag, and Tentacles – Exploring Marginalised Groups in Fantasy Games (11:15-12:45)
•’Experience the daily life of a witch’: Medievalism and Witchcraft in Cosy Games – Tess Watterson, Adelaide University
• ‘Unburying your gays’: Queer Eucatastrophes and Utopian Horizons in Sir Orfeo and Dungeons and Drag Queens – Lars Johnson, Cornell University
• ‘Is that a tentacle in your pants, or are you just happy to see me?’: Queer Chronologies and Alternative Timelines in Baldur’s Gate 3 – Blair Apgar, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania
236: Fantasy Medievalism in Modern Games, II: Unreal Chronologies – Organising Time in Medievalist Roleplaying Games (14:15-15:45)
•Between Fantasy Classicism and Fantasy Early Modernity: Periodisation in Medievalist Fantasy Games – Robert Houghton, University of Winchester
•Marking the Years in Dungeons and Dragons or ‘The History of the Entire Faerûn (I Guess)’ – Jakub Ivanecky, University of Glasgow
336: Fantasy Medievalism in Modern Games, III: Making Fantasy Medieval – Authenticity in Game Design and Modding (16:30-18:00)
•How Medieval Are These RPGs, Anyway? – Philip Wallinder, Independent Scholar
•Modding Medieval Realism in Skyrim – Andrew Griffiths, Bethesda Game Studios
436: Fantasy Medievalism in Modern Games, IV: Fitting Fantasy with Medievalism – A Round Table Discussion (19:00-20:00)
•Blair Apgar
•James Baillie
Tuesday 7 July – Clarendon Building 1.01
540 – The Middle Ages in Modern Games, I: Performing the Past – Authenticity and Temporalities in Medievalist Games (9:00-10:30)
• Crucial Temporalities: Chronotopes and Heterotopias in Russian-Language Computer Games Depicting Medieval Rus’ – Kristina Wittkamp, Universität Passau
•Castle-Building within The Sims 4: Negotiating Authenticity and Heritage within Online Gaming Spaces – Emma Fearon, Nottingham Trent University
640 – The Middle Ages in Modern Games, II: Mediating Medieval Worlds – Designing Sound, Space, and Time (11:15-12:45)
• Overcoming Determinism as Design in Medieval Grand Strategy – James Currie, Royal Holloway, University of London
• Swords, Sighs, and Silences: The Sounds of Conflict in Medievalist Games – Mariana Lopez, University of York
•Enviro-Temporal Bias and Opportunity in Godot Engine and Late Medieval English Texts – Z. N. Dylan Jackson, University of British Columbia
740 – The Middle Ages in Modern Games, III: Bending Time, Shaping Myth: Representations of Historical Groups in Video Games (14:15-15:45)
• Critical Vikingisms: Asynchronous Representation of Gender and Everyday Life in Digital Games Set in the Viking and Middle Ages – Ylva Grufstedt, Malmö universitet
• A Leap of Faith through the Ages: Remediation of the Assassin Myth from the High Middle Ages to Digital Games – Ron Heckler, Deutsche Gesellschaft e.V., Berlin
• Assassins before Ismā’īli Shi’ism?: Anachronism, Islam(s), and the Assassin’s Creed Universe – Leone Pecorini-Goodall, Universiteit Leiden
840 – The Middle Ages in Modern Games, IV: The Middle Ages in Modern Games, IV: Chronologies as Stories and Mechanics (16:30-18:00)
• From Canonical Hours to Mechanical Clocks: The Transformation of Temporalities as a Metaphor in Pentiment – Hanjun Shi, University of the Arts London
• Objects out of Time: Medieval Relics and Relic Discourse in Modern Games – Ron Heckler, Deutsche Gesellschaft e.V., Berlin
• Aliens Need Something Medieval, Too: The Long Shadows of the Past in the Lore and Gameplay of StarCraft – Brian Egede-Pedersen, Independent Scholar
• Narrative Fragmentation and Audience Agency: A Cross-Media Analysis of Medieval and Digital Texts – Mesut Kala, Erciyes Üniversitesi