Happy Pride 2023!

During the month of June, MIP will be featuring works in our New Queer Medievalisms and Premodern Transgressive Literatures series that explore what it has meant to be queer through the ages. Happy Pride!

The first book in MIP's New Queer Medievalisms series, "Medieval Futurity: Essays for the Future of a Queer Medieval Studies" asks contributors to take the capaciousness of the word "queer" to heart in order to think about what medieval queers would have looked like and how they may have existed on the margins and borders of dominant, normative sexuality and desire. The contributors work with recent trends in queer medieval studies, moving away from imposing modern concepts of sexuality and desire onto the Middle Ages, and instead mapping the queer configurations of eroticism, desire, and materiality as they might have existed for medieval audiences.

Will Rogers and Christopher Michael Roman write in their introduction:

"What did it mean to be queer in the Middle Ages? It is no secret that this is a political move. Queer medievalists, seeing ways in which the queer has been repressed in contemporary academia, as well as historically, reach back, in the memorable words of Carolyn Dinshaw, 'for partial, affective connection, for community, for even a touch across time.' ... These essays are a testament to the capacious qualities of queerness in the Middle Ages. Singularly they point to the local and contingent medieval queer—embodied, open, multivalent, powerful. Together, as a richness, these essays point to a queer medieval future, one in which the past is never finished with us, new bonds are formed in surprising ways, and knowledge is shared in the spirit of love, visibility, and affirmation."

To celebrate Pride Month 2023, we want to share our publications in queer studies with all of you in that spirit of love, visibility, and affirmation—to spread the word about our series that provide a home for important work in queer medieval studies; to share fascinating blog posts, podcasts, and open access resources related to these works; and to support the work of our authors and welcome new authors to publish with us.

"Medieval Futurity" is featured in De Gruyter's "Pride Month 2023" curated collection of books, journal articles, and blog posts that showcase current research and discussions that have raised awareness of LGBTQIA+ issues, past and present. The introduction of "Medieval Futurity" has been made open access and will be available to read for free until July 10!

 explores new directions in the study of queer, gay, lesbian, transgender, intersex and asexual medieval identities and simultaneously expands the work of the queer Middle Ages beyond early English and continental studies. This series extends the important work of investigating the intersection of queer theory with the study of the Middle Ages by expanding the conception of queerness and queer identity. Almost every area of Medieval Studies has a dedicated group of scholars interrogating the connections between medieval topics and Queer Studies. This series will provide these scholars with a new venue dedicated to their work while also bringing new scholarly and geographic specialties into the conversation.

Keywords: Queer, gender, medieval, medievalism, transgender, sexuality, religion, history.

Geographical Scope: Global

Chronological Scope: 400-1500 CE