Medievalists on the Move: The Vagantes Conference Wanders to the Triangle
This past April, roughly forty graduate students from all over the world gathered on Duke’s campus at the 24th annual Vagantes Conference on Medieval Studies. Co-hosted with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, graduate organizers Brogan Hannon (Duke, Religious Studies), Izzy Howard (UNC, English), Emily Gebhardt (Duke, History), and Emily Youree (UNC, English) spent twenty months planning and fundraising over $20,000 to ensure an entirely cost-free and inclusive program for all attendees.
Vagantes is an entirely graduate student-facilitated conference. One of the major goals of Vagantes is to provide junior medievalists with a framework for presenting their work at a national academic venue that is not affiliated with just one institution. Changing its host location each year, Vagantes is structured to be inherently interdisciplinary in nature, encouraging conversations between historians, anthropologists, classicists, scholars of religion, literature, and comparative studies, manuscript and book historians, philosophers, and poets.
UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke form a significant center for medieval study in the Southeast and have a long history of successful collaboration. Both universities host inter-institutional programs and working groups that foster scholastic exchange, including the Triangle Medieval Studies Seminar, the UNC Medieval and Early Modern Studies (MEMS) Program, and the Duke Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (CMRS).
In addition to a riveting series of daily panels, highlights of this year’s Vagantes Conference include a publishing roundtable with Michael Cornett (Duke, Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies), Erik Maloney (UNC, Studies in Philology), and Taylor McCall (Medieval Academy of America, Speculum). The first evening’s keynote lecture, “Beatrice’s Smile in a Secular Age: Modern Misunderstandings of Love, Theology, and Politics in Dante’s Paradiso,” was delivered by Dr. Martin Eisner (Duke, Romance Studies), who engaged the audience with a thoughtful and well-crafted presentation. Eisner’s exposition was followed by a celebratory welcome reception hosted by Duke’s CMRS.
On the second day of the conference, graduate attendees were treated to a special behind-the-scenes tour at Duke’s Nasher Museum. With the guidance and expertise of art historian and Associate Curator Dr. Kate Werwie, those who joined were given a glimpse at some of the museum’s more precious collection items not currently on exhibit. A social lunch at the Nasher Café followed, made possible by Duke’s CMRS. Vagantes board members and co-host organizers got together later for an evening of fun at Emmy Squared, where they enjoyed delicious Detroit-style pizza, generously funded by Duke’s History Department.
The final day of the conference witnessed a compelling dual presentation concerning the archives at both UNC and Duke. In her remarks, Eileen Dewitya, Interim Curator of Rare Books at UNC’s Wilson Library, showcased the library’s welcoming and accessible archives for researchers. Dr. Andrew Griebeler (Duke, AAHVS) shared his own recent research, which explores how premodern botanical illustrations generated ideas concerning the natural world. Formal conference activities finished with a closing keynote lecture given by Dr. Laura Ackerman Smoller (University of Rochester, History). Smoller’s address, titled “My Life with Pierre d’Ailly: Astrology and Apocalypse, 1985-2025,” explored d’Ailly’s cosmological apocalypticism and kept the audience on their intellectual toes. The conference concluded with a festive banquet at Geer Street Garden (with thanks to Chef Andrew Magowan) in downtown Durham, funded by a substantial Medieval Academy of America Centennial Grant.
Vagantes 2026 is being held at the University of Rochester from April 9-11, and a call for papers is expected to circulate this fall semester. In addition, Vagantes is officially accepting applications for the 2027 Call for Future Host Institution. Applications for the 2027 Vagantes Conference are due September 8, 2025, to vagantesboard@gmail.com.
