Wofford College will be well-represented when it hosts the 2021 Southeastern Medieval Association Conference in November.
Dr. Timothy Schmitz, Dr. Laine Doggett ’88, Dr. Daniel Bennett ’14 and Sam English ’22 all will present papers at the conference, which is scheduled for Nov. 11-13.
“It’s quite unusual to have four Wofford participants,” says Dr. Natalie Grinnell, Reeves Family Professor in Humanities. “Actually, it’s pretty remarkable considering we don’t have a medieval studies program at Wofford.”
Schmitz, professor of history and interim provost, will present a paper titled “No Rest for the Dead: Miracles Attributed to Hernando de Talavera, First Archbishop of Granada.”
Doggett, professor of French and co-chair of the Department of International Languages and Cultures at St. Mary's College of Maryland, is returning to Wofford for the first time since 2007, when the college last hosted the SEMA conference. Her conference paper is titled, “What's Love Got to Do with It? Adam de la Halle's Le Jeu de la feuillée.”
“SEMA is a wonderful, supportive, collegial conference that has become a highlight for me each fall,” Doggett says. “I am grateful that Wofford can host it again under the capable guidance of Dr. Natalie Grinnell, who is a long-time medievalist colleague.”
Bennett, adjunct instructor of history and humanities at Wofford, focuses his medievalist research on the development of medieval epistemology at universities and the influence of the church on the knightly class. His presentation is titled “The Normanization of King Arthur in the Context of Church Reform.”
“I am humbled to have the opportunity to present at Wofford now as a faculty member with other faculty and alumni,” Bennett says. “The presence of all three of us at SEMA at Wofford, I hope, will increase Wofford’s reputation as a college for medieval studies.”
English, an English major from Charleston, S.C., focused his paper on perspectives on class and pessimism about government in Mark Twain’s “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.” He will be one of the youngest presenters at the conference.
Grinnell made the proposal for Wofford to host the conference in 2018, hoping to land the 2020 event. The COVID-19 pandemic delayed the conference for a year. She expects to have about 150 attendees.
Dr. Wan-Chuan Kao, associate professor of English at Washington and Lee University, and Dr. Michelle M. Sauer, Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor of English at the University of North Dakota, will be the plenary speakers. Kao’s topic is “Custance in the Hold: Premodern Desire and Racial Capitalism in Chaucer's Man of Law's Tale," while Sauer will speak on “Divine Intercourses: The Eremitic and Anchoritic Traditions.”
“We are very fortunate to get these very talented speakers,” Grinnell says. “They are both giving remarkable and innovative talks.”
by Robert W. Dalton