37th Annual Medieval Studies Student Colloquium (MSSC): Ruptures

The Cornell Medieval Studies Program is pleased to announce the 37th annual Medieval Studies Student Colloquium (MSSC) in person at Cornell University’s A.D. White House on Saturday, March 13, 2027. This year’s theme is “Ruptures.” Abstracts should be 200—300 words and submitted via Google form by December 1st: tinyurl.com/MSSC2027 As Alain Badiou writes: “All resistance is a rupture with what is. And every rupture begins, for those engaged in it, through a rupture with oneself” (Metapolitics, 1998). Does a moment of rupture signal an end or beginning? In the wake of this radical discontinuity, what remains? Through the theme of “Ruptures,” we invite explorations of the breakthroughs and breakdowns of the Middle Ages. Papers are encouraged to prod the ramifications, resolutions, and reifications of rupture as they appear in a vast range of disciplines and perspectives, including but not limited to considerations of ruptures in objects, bodies, time, literary form, social groups, landscapes, technology, and reality. Where does the “rupture with oneself” appear in writing, and where does it extend beyond the self? We also invite proposals that confront the (im)possibility of a reparative approach to rupture, exploring the question: Can and should ruptures be repaired?