On the Road: Medieval Travel and Travelers, Indiana University, March 22–23, 2019

Medieval people were often on the move. Whether their travels were driven by commerce, religion, warfare, exploration, exile, or curiosity, travelers were key conduits of cultural knowledge and exchange in the Middle Ages, returning home with artifacts, stories, and myths.

This symposium invites paper proposals that explore the varied geographical, aesthetic, imaginative, and psychological networks of travel in the global Middle Ages. Papers might consider trade routes, pilgrimages, exploration, crusades, imaginative journeys, metaphorical travel, cross-cultural encounters, spiritual journeys, translatio and travel, discoveries of new or fantastic worlds, maps and mapmaking, souvenirs and artifacts, medieval travel in the modern world, and many other related topics.

The symposium will feature a keynote lecture by Suzanne Akbari (University of Toronto).