Sunday, October 15, 2006

Back from SEMA

As I mentioned in this post, I went to the Southeastern Medieval Association (SEMA) conference to chair two sessions. If I had been paying close attention, I'd have realized that I was scheduled to chair THREE. In addition to the two I mentioned earlier, I also chaired:

Alliterative Traditions: Beginnings and Endings

  • Susan E. Deskis, Northern Illinois University, “The Origins of Some Middle English Alliterative Proverbs”
  • Ordelle Hill, Eastern Kentucky University, “The Alliterative Revival: A New Beginning, an Ending, or a Lateral Move?”
  • John T. Sebastian, Loyola University New Orleans, “Apocalyptic Beginnings and Indeterminate Verdicts: Judgment in Wynnere and Wastoure
I was pleased that all three of my sessions had very good papers; not a stinker in the lot.

I also got to meet William Smith of Weatherford College, who's a regular reader of this space, and even though I didn't get a chance to talk to him about the Wordhoard, I did get to hear his really interesting paper on the Benedictine Reform and private prayer.

My only disappointments were that I didn't really have a chance to chat beyond banalities with Jim Hall or Roy Liuzza (two really nice guys), I didn't get enough time to catch up with my old friend Leslie Lockett, and I didn't even realize that Eileen Joy of In the Middle was going to be there for the BABEL Working Group until after I got back from the conference. I'd like to have met Eileen.

The nice thing about being a medievalist, though, is that even when you miss someone at a conference, there's always the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo!

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:37 AM

    Scott,

    If your mention of me in this post was meant as a test to see whether I really do read the blog regualarly, I hope this comment verifies it. Seriously, I enjoyed getting to meet you as well, though I wish we had gotten to talk at more length. And you definitely should have gone to Leslie's session; her paper was fabulous.

    William Smith

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  2. Leslie is always fabulous -- she seems incapable of being otherwise.

    Sorry for leaving your name the only unlinked one in the post; I couldn't find a good page to link it to.

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  3. Anonymous8:04 PM

    Hey! I'll be on a panel with William Smith on Friday in Dallas. Guess he is doing a similar paper on OE prayers. Hope all is well in Troy. Hopefully I'll see you at K'Zoo this year!
    ~J

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