We are delighted to announce that the medievalist graduate students in the Department of Art History and Art and the Department of Music will jointly host the annual Vagantes Conference on Medieval Studies in the spring of 2022 at Case Western Reserve University. Art history doctoral students Russell David Green, Alexandra Kaczenski, Reed O’Mara, and Sam Truman, along with music master’s student Anna O’Connell, spearheaded the application and will form the core of the organizing committee. Russell and Anna will also begin their three-year tenures on the Vagantes Board of Directors as Co-Host Institution Representatives. Professor Elina Gertsman will serve as a faculty advisor to the conference organizers.

The Vagantes Conference on Medieval Studies was founded in 2002 and has since nurtured a lively and interdisciplinary community of graduate students and junior scholars. Every conference features thirty papers on various topics related to the Middle Ages, allowing for exciting dialogue and the creation of new professional relationships among future colleagues. Vagantes travels to a new university every year, highlighting the unique resources of the host institution through keynote lectures, exhibitions, and special events.

The very first Vagantes conference was convened at Harvard University. See if you can recognize one of its speakers in this photo!