Bad Behaviour in Medieval & Early Modern Europe

AHRC funded, Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Colloquium
Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, University of Kent, Canterbury
Thursday, 3rd December, 2009

This is an excitingly different one day inter-disciplinary postgraduate Colloquium supported by the AHRC Beyond Text Programme. Our definition of bad behaviour has been chosen to cover the widest parameters of the transgressive: all aspects of the bad from ludic, mischievous or disruptive to the violently anti-social, sexual, tabooed and/or criminal. Beyond these aims, we will explore transgression through transmission and memory, and ask how and why bad behaviour is remembered and fore-grounded. Tensions and ambiguous interactions between those 'acting' or 'being bad' with those who denounced such behaviour will be addressed, as our comprehension of bad behaviour in the past shapes our understanding of crime now, new perspectives of understanding will be created. Contextualizing different perspectives and approaches on transgressive behaviours, and engaging them in a dialogue, permits a fruitful questioning and challenging of our preconceptions.

We are calling for papers from postgraduates which will forge new relevant research. We offer:
- Personal business cards for speed networking event and a Colloquium Handbook of Bad Behaviour or 'Manuel des Pecchiez'
- Practical archival training session using unique documentary evidence from Canterbury archives
- Evening exhibition on Bad Behaviour at Canterbury Cathedral Archives
- Night Tour of Canterbury Cathedral Crypt with spoken performances
- British Cartoon Archive Collaborative Exhibition launch and interactive website linking early modern and medieval transgression to modern images of bad behaviour
- Selected papers published in the on-line peer-reviewed postgraduate journal /Skepsi//
/- some limited transport and accommodation bursaries available
Please see our website for full details:
http://www.kent.ac.uk/mems/ research/conferences/badbehaviour.html and submit your 250 word abstract to bad-behaviour@kent.ac.uk by 30th September, 2009.

http://www.beyondtext.ac.uk/