What is MEMS?
At UMBC, the study of the medieval and early modern world encompasses a chronology from late antiquity to the eighteenth century and pushes beyond the borders of Europe. Incorporating the Islamicate world, the Atlantic World, Africa and East Asia, as well as Europe, our understanding of the premodern attends to the movement of people, ideas, material cultures, literatures and languages across the globe. The minor draws on courses offered in English, History, Ancient Studies, Music, Africana Studies, East Asian Studies, and Visual Arts, and is thus truly interdisciplinary at its core.
Contact mems@umbc.edu for more information!
Meeting in the Middle
Trailblazers: Visualizing the Pre-Modern World
UMBC MEMS Undergraduate Conference, April 10-12, 2026
Call for Papers:
UMBC’s new Undergraduate Conference will bring together students from institutions across the country to share and showcase their research in medieval and early modern topics, with a focus on the visual and performing arts and humanities. This builds on past conferences at Longwood University in Virginia that have been discontinued. Those conferences showcased the diversity and richness of these fields, were well-attended, and widely well-received, and so we again invite students and faculty from the many different disciplines in late antique, medieval, Renaissance, and early modern studies to the literal “middle” Atlantic region, where we will again find common ground.
Students may present a 20-minute paper on history, literature, art history, drama, music, philosophy, religion, or any other discipline dealing with the late antiquity through early modern eras. Students may also elect to submit proposals for performance or lecture-recitals up to 45 minutes in length in theater, dance, music, or a combination.
This conference includes a distinguished plenary speaker: Dr. Vicky McAlister, Associate Professor of history at Towson University and Fellow at the National Humanities Center 2021-2022, who specializes in digital investigations of medieval Irish castles and landscape archaeology.
Also part of the conference, with generous funding from UMBC’s Arts+ initiative, will be an immersive Medieval Performance Banquet, free to presenting students.
Please submit abstracts of 250 words, including your name, university, and presentation title to Dr. Kat Tracy at mems@umbc.edu. Deadline for proposals is Jan. 10, 2026.