A Sensory History of Devotion in the Late Medieval Mediterranean World.

61st International Congress on Medieval Studies

This panel invites papers on Christian devotional practices in the late medieval Mediterranean that foreground the senses. How did touch, sight, sound, smell, and taste shape how people encountered the divine? We welcome papers on themes such as material culture, gendered piety, cross-cultural devotional exchange, institutional attempts to regulate sensory worship, and the politics of embodied spirituality. Scholars working with diverse Christian communities and sources—from relics to processions, from tears to incense—are encouraged to apply. Together, we aim to explore how sensory experience made the sacred tangible between 1300 and 1550.

Keywords: sensory, embodiment, art, materiality, mediterranean, devotion

A Sensory History of Devotion in the Late Medieval Mediterranean World (ID: 7419)
by Claire Becker, Emmarae Stein, Vittoria Magnoler
Sponsored by Hagiography Society
Hybrid session
Deadline: September 15, 2025

Anyone who wishes to present a paper will need to submit a proposal via the Confex system in order to be considered. Organizers will not be able to add abstracts to their sessions manually. If you have any technical questions about using Confex, please contact icmsconfex.com.

Submission form here: https://icms.confex.com/icms/2026/paper/papers
/index.cgi?sessionid=7419&stepsonly=1&username=31156&password=833818
Quick guide for paper proposal here: https://files.wmich.edu/s3fs-public/attachments/u3004/2024/PaperProposalGuide%202024-05-21.pdf