Early Medieval Studies on the Islands of the North Atlantic: Transformative Networks, Skills, Theories, and Methods for the Future of the Field SimonFraserUniversityVancouver,BCApril10-132019

(Photo: Bardsey Island, Gwynedd, Wales and detail from Book of Kells)

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Sponsors IONA Vancouver would not be possible without a Canadian Social Sciences Humanities Research Council Connections Grant, and the generous support of the following Simon Fraser University units: Department of English, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, the Office of the Vice President-Academic, Department of Humanities, Institute for the Humanities, Department of History, and Department of World Literature. From outside SFU we received support from the University of Denver, University of British Columbia Department of English, University of British Columbia-Okanagan Faculty of Critical and Creative Studies, and University of Toronto Department of English. Thanks very much to them all.

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Table of Contents Sponsors……………………………………………………………… 2 Contents……………………………………………………………… 3 Welcome……………………………………………………………… 4 Territorial Acknowledgement………………………………………… 4 Acknowledgements…………………………………………………… 5 Inclusivity Statement…………………………………………………. 5 Social Media Policy…………………………………………………… 5 Venue Information……………………………………………………. 6 Maps…………………………………………………………………… 7-8 Wifi Information………………………………………………………. 9 IONA website…………………………………………………………. 10 The Future…………………………………………………………….. 10 Talks and Sessions……………………………………………………. 11-30 Local Recommendations……………………………………………… 31-32

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Welcome to IONA: Islands of the North Atlantic at Simon Fraser University. We look forward to the three days of creativity, collaboration, thinking, and listening to imagine and build new methods, approaches, and networks for the study of the early medieval cultures of the North Atlantic (and beyond). The IONA model and aims were pioneered by Donna Beth Ellard and Dan Remein at the Seafaring conference at the University of Denver, November 3-5, 2016. The conference is designed non-traditionally as a workspace where students, artists, critics, and scholars of the early medieval North Atlantic can work cooperatively, comparatively, and interdisciplinarily, challenging the boundaries that traditionally encircle the academy. Seminars explore a topic across three days, often with precirculated readings, allowing for a deeper, more holistic engagement in peer research than is typically offered by the traditional conference format. Labs try out an idea or method, aiming to test a new approach collaboratively and in a creative environment. Workshops seek to teach and develop skills, often with hands-on practice, offering participants opportunities to study topics unavailable at their home institutions due to lack of time or access. All registered conference attendees may take part in any of the sessions, and each session is run at the direction of the session organizers. We encourage you to sample seminars, labs, and workshops outside your main interests. Each day is capped by a keynote speaker on one of the conference’s primary themes. We are fortunate to have Eldon Yellowhorn, Elaine Treharne, Nicola Griffith, and Abraham Anghik Ruben as keynote speakers. This iteration of IONA draws together three main threads, all engaging the decolonization of early medieval studies in the university and in popular culture: denationalization, deperiodization and indigenization. And all the sessions seek to develop skills, test limits, and make new connections. The sessions that comprise IONA Vancouver were all generated by you; from the proposal stage to the individual sessions themselves, the organizers and participants (you!) have made this happen, so our thanks go out to all of you here. We hope it is productive, useful, challenging, and energizing for all. -Matthew T. Hussey, Donna Beth Ellard, and Georgia Henley

Territorial Acknowledgement We respectfully acknowledge the Squamish (Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw), Tsleil-Waututh (səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ), and Musqueam (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm) Nations on whose shared and unceded traditional territories SFU’s downtown Vancouver campus stands.

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Thanks also to Laura Walker, secretary to the chair, SFU-English; Maureen Curtin, Manager, SFU-English; and Beverly Neufeld, Research Grant Facilitator, SFU-Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. We could not have done this without them. Thanks to Judith Steedman and Evelyn Bartlett Hussey for graphic design. And special thanks to the graduate student RAs: Marie Horgan was instrumental at the grant and conference planning stages, and she, Alexander Cline and Elmira Bahrami Majd have been crucial through the preparations and conference itself.

Inclusivity Statement IONA is committed to the presence and participation of all persons with respect to age, bodies, abilities, ethnicities, sex, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientations, status, nationality, race, religion, socioeconomic condition, or any other characteristic. Bias, discrimination, and exclusion only serve to harm people, and also to narrow and diminish medieval studies. We welcome diverse participants and support the visibility of such diversity, because we seek a more inclusive future for the field, the academy, and our communities. This conference prioritizes a safe and accountable space for all.

Social Media Policy Please use #IONAVancouver. Respect presenters’ and presiders’ wishes in regards to all social media dissemination. Do not take photos or record video or audio without express permission from presenters and presiders. Be accurate in attributing words to presenters and faithful in reporting those words. Be sure to distinguish your own comments about a topic from those of a speaker or other participant. Tweet about others as you would have others tweet about you. Be respectful, generous, kind, constructive. We are hoping to archive the social media posts on IONA, so your input, ideas, and cooperation are very much appreciated.

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Venue The conference is taking place at the Simon Fraser University campus at Harbour Centre in downtown Vancouver. The registration desk will be in the main entrance hall of Harbour Centre and the seminars, workshops, and labs will be held in five break-out rooms. Two of these rooms are on the main floor: 1510 (Tree Island Industries Conference Room) and 1520 (Barrick Gold Lecture Room); three more are upstairs 2050 (Alan and Margaret Eyre Boardroom), 2200 (RBC Dominion Securities Executive Meeting Room), and 2250 (Westcoast Energy Executive Meeting Room). Escalator at the centre of the main floor, and elevator to the right (if facing the escalator), down corridor between registrar and computer lab. The plenaries will be held in 1900, the Fletcher Challenge Theatre. Opening reception is in the Wosk Centre for Dialogue, downstairs in the ICBC salons, across the street and next door to the conference hotel, the Delta. Harbour Centre has gender-labeled washrooms left down the hall, left (if facing the escalator). There are universal gender washrooms (single stall) down the hall past the elevator. There is a child changing and feeding room on the second floor just down the hall from the elevator (room 2180). There is a small branch of the SFU University library at Harbour Centre, as well as Printing and Copying services next door. All conference rooms are equipped for AV presentations. Security stand near base of escalator, across from registration desk.

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IONA website IONA has a new (and beautiful) website, put together by Donna Beth Ellard, with special thanks to the University of Denver. There you will find information about IONA’s activities, as well as published IONA-related documents and an archive of several of the workshops and talks held here in Vancouver. Content will be added and news posted. Please go to: ionaassociation.org

The Future We are so very pleased to announce that this is not over. Josh Davies and Clare Lees, co-sponsored by King's College London and the Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London, will be organizing and hosting IONA in November of 2021 in London. The work that began at Seafaring will continue. Please check the new website for information.

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Wednesday, April 10th Opening Talk and Reception 5:30-7:30pm Joseph and Rosalie Wosk Centre for Dialogue, ICBC Salons Simon Fraser University 580 West Hastings, Vancouver BC Matthew Hussey, English, Simon Fraser University Welcome and Introduction Eldon Yellowhorn (Archaeology & First Nations Studies, Simon Fraser University), “Understanding Blackfoot Antiquity on the Northern Plains of North America during the Medieval Period"

My research on the roots of Blackfoot culture on the northern plains disagrees fundamentally with narratives put forward by historians, whose accounts rely on the journals and diaries from the early fur trade era. My research also diverges from the discourse of plains archaeologists whose emphasis on material culture introduces the bias contained in their taxonomies of prehistoric cultures. While I have read and contributed to the documentary record of the fur trade and while I am an archaeologist, nevertheless my internalist perspective is my guide for my work. My research on northern plains antiquity synthesizes information from the archaeological record, oral narratives and archaeoastronomy to provide a clearer

understanding of the roots on Blackfoot culture. In this paper I discuss the oral narratives that shaped Blackfoot ideology and religious thought during the Medieval Warm Spell (c.900-1300 AD), which is a recognized climatic phenomenon defined by a global warming event. I consider the archaeological signature of stories associated with Blackfoot culture to demonstrate their presence on the northern plains in the early Medieval Period (c.500 AD) and earlier.

Thursday, April 11th Registration and Coffee 8:00 - 9:00am Sessions 8:30 - 10:30am The Contemporary Medieval: Critical and Creative Methods, Practices, and Environments 1 (Seminar) Harbour Centre 1520 Organizers: Joshua Davies (King's College London), Clare A. Lees (School of Advanced Studies, University of London), Gillian R. Overing (Wake Forest

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University) We want these sessions to constitute a sustaining and inclusive, reflective and exciting seminar that enables all core participants to explore our current work-in-progress and to develop ideas about the contemporary medieval.

We think the best way to achieve this is to take collective responsibility for our work over the three days that we meet, thereby avoiding the pitfalls of the three papers/proposals per session and chair of more usual seminar and conference structures. As we are scheduled to meet 8:30-10:30 each morning, this is perhaps just as well! We would, in short, like this to be a properly shared seminar and we are not convinced we need chairs to help us do this. So we list all core participants for each seminar.

In order to facilitate our working over the three days, each core participant will prepare a short position paper, set of questions, quotations or extracts from a text or texts, image/images (max 500 words, could be less) in advance of our seminar that speaks both to our individual work and to the contemporary medieval. We will circulate these in advance of IONA. Over the course of the seminar participants are invited to speak to the subject of their submitted paper and respond to our evolving discussions.

We will do the same thing and we will use our three contributions in the first meeting to set up the seminar, clarify expectations and aims, and set out issues.

We ask that anyone who wishes to attend these seminars email Josh Davies (Joshua.davies@kcl.ac.uk) at the earliest opportunity. Clare, Gillian and Josh Day 1: Performance, Race and Environment Josh Davies, ‘Anglo-Saxon Environments’ Clare Lees, ‘Communities of Attention: Practice, Audience, Gender’ Gillian Overing, ‘American/Medieval: Emergence, Divergence, Collaboration’ James L. Smith (Trinity College, Dublin) From Fibre to Decorated Textiles in the Early North Atlantic: Making, Methods, Meanings 1 (Workshop/Seminar) Harbour Centre 1510 Organizer: Alexandra Makin (Independent Scholar) From fibre to decorated textiles in the Early North Atlantic: making, methods, and meanings is a unique interdisciplinary and experimental session that will run throughout the IONA conference. The first slot brings together teachers, artists and researchers who make and decorate textiles using early medieval techniques. Participants will have an opportunity to take part in two 45-minute taster or show-and-tell sessions, covering skills from weaving and embroidery to making fish leather. The second and third sessions will bring together papers from practitioners, students and established scholars. Their focus is the interpretation of early medieval textiles and identity in the North Atlantic from archaeological evidence, experimental work and literary sources. A second strand will explore how surviving practical skills can be kept alive and passed on to others. The final session will close with a round table discussion where participants are invited to contribute their insights of making through practice and research, and how these can work in tandem to influence future studies and interpretation.

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Workshops Ann Asplund (Independent Scholar), “Tablet-Weaving” Carol James (Independent Scholar), “Sprang” Liselotte Öhrling (Lödöse Museum) and Anna Josefsson (Teacher & Artist), “Needle-binding” Barbara Klessig (Humboldt State University), “Weaving with spinning and carding” Lotta Rahme (Independent Scholar), “Fish leather – demonstration” Ann Asplund, “Bayeux Tapestry Embroidery” Inclusive Pedagogies in Medieval Studies 1 (Seminar) Harbour Centre 2050 Organizers: Courtney Barajas (Whitworth University), Marjorie Housley (University of Notre Dame) While the racist, sexist, and heterocentric foundations of medieval studies have been critiqued by scholars for decades, only in recent years have they been discussed in broad contexts across the field. Early medieval studies in particular has institutional foundations in nationalist and colonialist rhetorics of the nineteenth century. Much early scholarship on the medieval North Atlantic - and thus much of the work that developed from it – was limited by nineteenth-century approaches to race, gender, and identity. At the same time, contemporary white nationalist rhetoric in North America and Europe draws extensively on medieval and medievalist symbols, concepts, and imagery, making it clear that teachers of medieval studies must consider these (mis)appropriations and ideologies in their classrooms. As recent scholarship, such as Geraldine Heng’s The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages and Dorothy Kim’s Digital Whiteness and Medieval Studies, has begun to question these assumptions, an intertwined discussion has emerged about how to approach teaching. What resources incorporate discourses on race and ethnicity in medieval studies courses? How can medieval studies classrooms create environments that welcome students of colour, queer students, and others who are traditionally underrepresented in medieval studies? How can teachers - often teaching high courseloads with large classes, low pay, and less support - develop courses that effectively engage with these topics when they often have no training in these critical approaches? One strand of this seminar focuses on theoretically-focused discussions of medievalist pedagogy; others focus on specific courses, class projects, and inclusive teaching tools. Nicholas Hoffman (Ohio State University), “The Queer and Trans Medievalisms Syllabus” Leanne MacDonald (University of Notre Dame), “Towards Decolonizing the Classroom Through Two-Spirit Critique” Kathryn Maude (American University of Beirut), “Teaching women and queerness, but without interrogating whiteness” Jennifer Knight (University of South Florida), “Making Boudicca a ‘Global Citizen’: Teaching Sexual Violence and Exploitative Colonization through a Celtic Warrior Queen” Unexpected Islands 1 (Lab) Harbour Centre 2250 Organizer: Jeremy DeAngelo (Independent Scholar) “Island” appears to be a straightforward concept, and for many mainland commentators relatively

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distant to their own experiences. Once you look for them, however, islands are anywhere, and in some surprising places. The lab “Unexpected Islands” opens our eyes to the ubiquity of islands by offering introductory readings on island and archipelagic theory in the course of two sessions over the first two days of the conference. The first session will be a seminar on selected readings, while the second will be geared towards participants’ own projects and their intersections with island theory. James L. Smith (Trinity College Dublin), “Deep Mapping the Spiritual Waterscape of Ireland’s Lakes: The Case of Lough Derg, Donegal” Craig Lyons (Cornell University), “Strange Sea Kings: The Emergence of Hiberno-Norse Political Culture” Bruce Gilchrist (John Abbott College), “Unexpected Islands: The Anti-Colonial Cartography of Le Guin's Earthsea Cycle” Jessica Hope Roberts, University of Georgia Break 10:30 - 10:45am Sessions 10:45am - 12:45pm (Re)constructing History through Landscape and Practice 1 (Seminar) Harbour Centre 1510 Organizers: Pamela O’Neill (University of Sydney), Jay Johnston (University of Sydney) This seminar draws together academics and practitioners to investigate how we experience, represent and ultimately construct history. It considers the creative processes that are triggered when the subject is physically immersed in the landscape: archaeologists who seek to authentically reproduce artefacts and sites, historians and toponymists who travel hypothesized early routeways, folklorists who seek to replicate encounters with the otherworld, artists who create through physical immersion in landscape, religious practitioners who (re)enact pilgrimage, heritage bodies who curate historic sites, writers who publish or blog their travel experiences. This panel aims to explore multiple questions regarding the relationship between discursive academic and creative modes of enquiry, such as: in what ways do we create historical, artistic and other narratives in response to immersion in landscape? In what ways do such narratives differ from those created in a disengaged, physically separate context traditionally espoused by scholarship? Of what value are such narratives to historians and other scholars working in the traditional mode? What does a close physical experience of landscape add to scholarly understanding? What could be the ultimate effect of a physically immersive model of scholarship being integrated into the academic endeavour? What could such scholarship contribute to the understandings and experiences of the general public? Sally M. Foster (University of Stirling) and Siân Jones (University of Stirling), “My Life as a Replica: St. Johns' Cross, Iona” Norman Shaw (Independent Artist, Scotland), “Other Highlands” Carla McNamara (University of Glasgow), “Close Physical Experiences of Landscape” Discussion lead by Jay Johnston

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We’re All Migrants: What Now? Borders and Indigeneity in the Early Middle Ages and Today 1 (Seminar) Harbour Centre 1520 Organizers: Dongwon Esther Kim (University of Toronto), Kathryn Maude (American University of Beirut) This two-part workshop considers the ways in which concepts of the early medieval are used in the contemporary imaginary to solidify, soften, construct, maintain, and blue borders of nations, i/Indigeneity, and identities. We will build on recent efforts in medieval studies to reckon with postcolonial criticisms of medieval studies, research and teaching. We also hope to establish a network of postgraduate students, researchers, administrators, and faculty who can support and hold each other accountable in our practice. In the first of two sessions, we will share and discuss how our own research intersects with borders and indigeneity. In the second session, we will collaborate to build a toolkit of methods and resources for communicating our research: ways to learn, teach, and create with careful attention to the way we refer to borders and indigeneity in our practice. Tarren Andrews (University of Colorado Boulder) Adam Miyashiro (Stockton University) Catherine Karkov (University of Leeds) Caitlin Gordon-Walker (University of British Columbia) Megan Henvey (University of York) Joseph Grossi (University of Victoria) Marica Cassis (Memorial University of Newfoundland) John R. Black (Moravian College) Revisiting Archives 1 (Seminar) Harbour Centre 2250 Organizers: Mary Kate Hurley (Ohio University), Jordan Zweck (University of Wisconsin-Madison) What is an archive? In “Revisiting Archives,” scholars from a broad range of fields explore both how medieval peoples imagined and preserved their own pasts and how we as modern scholars create and recreate the medieval archives with which we work. We confront the peculiar nostalgia for archives that drive racist, homophobic, classist, and ableist aims, and ask how the archives of the past shape our present scholarly encounters. Francesca Brooks (University College London), “The Unarchived Archive: Nicolete Gray, Public Pedagogy and Insular Manuscripts” Bre Leake (University of Connecticut), “Memory on the Margins: The Political Archive of Medieval Studies” Erica Weaver (University of California, Los Angeles), “Archives of Distraction” New Materalism, Old English (Lab) Harbour Centre 2200 Organizer: Jacqueline Fay (University of Texas at Arlington) This lab will explore the potential for Anglo-Saxon studies of the material turn, or the wide-reaching

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recognition that matter has agency that interacts with, disrupts, engages and is engaged by the discursive and ideational realm of texts and representations. In what ways can we, as scholars of early medieval Britain, absorb a theoretical model developed largely in response to the chemically-laden, industrialized, capitalist contemporary world? What can we take away from this model that is useful for understanding early medieval texts and lives, and how can we extract it without dissolving the integrity of the theory itself? And how do we talk back to, or get into, the material conversation more generally? Each participant will present a brief overview of an ongoing scholarly project that engages with these issues, with the remainder of the time dedicated to open discussion and workshopping. Jacqueline Fay (University of Texas at Arlington), “Following Worm Tracks in Anglo-Saxon England” Heather Maring (Arizona State University), “Intangible Cultural Heritage and Medieval Studies” Renée R. Trilling (University of Illinois), “Mind and Matter in Anglo-Saxon Medical Texts” Celtic Pedagogies (Workshop) Harbour Centre 2050 Organizer: Matthieu Boyd (Fairleigh Dickinson University) The early literature in Celtic languages has been stereotyped as weird - colourful, exuberant, otherworldly, but also more or less nonsensical and cryptic. Not everyone has the specialist background to make it make sense. As texts like the Irish Táin bó Cúailnge and the Welsh Mabinogi become standard in classrooms across North America, this is a pressing issue – and an unprecedented opportunity. If you've been struggling to bring Celtic texts more fully into your teaching of traditional “Brit Lit,” or you're wondering why one would even do that, this workshop is for you. If you already work in Celtic Studies and have been missing the kind of conversation about teaching that we see in other areas - this workshop is for you. We’ll work closely with examples where a specialist understanding completely transforms the reading of a text, and open them up to all the other ways they might be read in the twenty-first century. Expect some hands-on interaction, not a lecture. This workshop is led by Matthieu Boyd, a graduate and longtime associate of the Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures at Harvard University (now chair of the Department of Literature, Language, Writing, and Philosophy at Fairleigh Dickinson University), who has been translating Celtic texts for student audiences in association with Broadview Press. Some readings will be recommended in advance, to include the early Irish saga The Destruction of Da Derga's Hostel and poems by Dafydd ap Gwilym and others. Please email mwboyd@fdu.edu to be copied on the list of recommendations. Lunch 12:45 - 1:45pm Sessions 1:45 - 3:45pm Decolonizing Early Medieval Sovereignties 1 (Seminar) Harbour Centre 2050 Organizers: Mo Pareles (University of British Columbia), Robert Rouse (University of

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British Columbia), Wallace Cleaves (University of California, Riverside) This seminar examines early medieval (pre-1290) British archipelagic sovereignties and their colonial afterlives in conversation with indigenous and postcolonial/decolonial scholarship, particularly Linda Tuhiwai Smith’s groundbreaking Decolonizing Methodologies. Robert Rouse, “Whose Voices Do We Read? Hybridity and Indigeneity in the Medieval North Atlantic” Shamma Boyarin (University of Victoria), “A Great Evil that Took Place in the Islands of the Sea” Sarah Nelle-Jackson (University of British Columbia), “Consorting with Stone: Occult Bonds and Sovereign Occlusion in Three Insular Texts” Wallace Cleaves (University of California, Riverside), “From Monmouth to Madoc to Māori: The Myth of Medieval Colonization and an Indigenous Alternative” Moving the North Atlantic Beyond IONA 1 (Seminar) Harbour Centre 1520 Organizers: Mary Rambaran-Olm (Independent Scholar), Nahir Otaño-Gracia (Beloit College),Valerie M. Wilhite (Independent Scholar) Medievalists of Colour sponsors this seminar. When we think of the medieval North Atlantic, we tend to think within Anglo- or Euro-centric parameters, much to the detriment of our understanding of the entire region, its history and development. So much is lost in our discussions of the medieval past by excluding regions within or beyond the north. This session explores medieval subjects that expand our understanding of the early medieval North Atlantic. Discussions may include medieval Iberia, Africa, and as far north as the Canadian archipelagos to the far reaches of the Canary Islands. This session will challenge our understanding of the medieval North Atlantic and encourage thinking beyond the norm. Jonas Wellendorf (University of California-Berkeley), “The Stranger King in the Land of Whites” Dorothy Kim (Brandeis University), “A Tale of Two Miracles of the Virgin: England and Ethiopia” Carla Thomas (Florida Atlantic University), “The Influence of the Global Chaucers Project: Multilingual Translation, Early English Literature, and the College Classroom” Presider: Mary Rambaran-Olm

Theorizing Bodies and Minds 1 (Seminar) Harbour Centre 2250 Organizers: Rachel Anderson (Grand Valley State University), Marjorie Housley (University of Notre Dame), Kristen Mills (University of Oslo), Erin Sweany (Vassar College) This seminar solicits the work of scholars who are studying early medieval bodies and embodiment, especially as legible through the theories and methodologies of the sciences and social sciences such as (but not limited to) Actor-Network Theory, New Materialisms, Medical Humanities, and Systems Theory. The questions that this seminar will seek to answer around scholarship, methodology, and perspective include: How do we value textual bodies, and do we place too much emphasis on the category of "literary" bodies, given the problems of that label the early medieval period? How can we employ extrahumanities methodologies in the humanities without overshadowing them? Does studying texts through embodiment and/or through social/science methodologies come with

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limitations that we as scholars need to acknowledge and account for? As scholars reading the bodies and wellness of early medieval individuals in hagiographies and medical texts, we ourselves rely on theories about and in the realms of biology, modern medicine, physics, and sociology (Bruno Latour, Annemarie Mol, Karen Barad, and Niklas Luhmann). But we are also wrestling with the place of those theories within scholarship on early medieval texts and alongside more familiar critical theories (Elaine Scarry, Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, et alia). Thus, this seminar will further seek to grapple with metaquestions about the validity and value of applying methodologies arising from modern science to premodern sources. How can an early medieval focus, in particular, expand the scope and applicability of these STEM-based methodologies, perhaps even beyond limitations imposed by their interlocutors? Should we care about drawing divisions between the humanities, sciences, and social sciences? Should we strive to erase the divisions that we come across, reinforce them, or perhaps bridge them? Marjorie Housley, “Remembering the Future: Grave and Affect in Medieval Literature” Emma Styles-Swaim (Columbia University), “Anglo-Saxon Eye (Ear) and Mind: Experiencing Inscription in Exeter Book Riddles 48 and 59” Una Creedon-Carey (University of Toronto), “Constructed Gender, Material Gender in Ælfric's ‘Life of St. Eugenia’” Re-voicing the Cross-Cultural Networks of the North Atlantic Archipelagos: Modern and Contemporary Women's Perspectives (Lab) Harbour Centre 2200 Organizers: Francesca Allfrey (King's College London), Francesca Brooks (University College London), Bethany Whalley (King's College London) In recent decades, there has been an influx of new scholarship on literary ‘medievalisms’ in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, attesting to a recognition that the early medieval past offers a rich resource for modern and contemporary artists. For the most part, however, this remains a reconstructed history of male writers and poets reworking the early medieval past; there is a wealth of modern and contemporary women’s creative work that we, as medievalists, are only just beginning to explore. This lab brings together researchers and practitioners with a view to enriching critical engagement with the underexplored voices of women poets, writers and artists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Together, we hope to rethink the role of women in remaking the early medieval past, and develop new methodologies for cooperative, interdisciplinary and innovative scholarship. The lab session will be led by each of our speakers in turn: Dayanna Knight (Independent Scholar and illustrator of The Viking Coloring Book (2016)) Rowan Evans (poet/sound artist) and Maisie Newman (director/choreographer of WULF, a dark feminist adaptation of ‘Wulf and Eadwacer’) Meg Boulton (University of York) Each will be sharing current work-in-progress and posing key questions related to women's creative re-makings of the medieval past. This will be followed by 40 minutes of discussion and reflections, chaired by the panel organisers.

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We will be pre-circulating short examples of our speakers' research or practice, alongside a selection of core published writings by women scholars and artists; materials for the lab can be accessed from Friday 15 March at https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ZtL3-oKxrKG0HPFluJJ3MUpSDrwwOI6q. Introductory Masterclass on Old and Middle Irish for Beginners (Workshop) Harbour Centre 1510 Organizers: Joey McMullen (Centenary University), Georgia Henley (Saint Anselm College) Old Irish is widely regarded as one of the most difficult Indo-European languages, famous for its (absurdly) complicated verbal system - this workshop will serve as a very basic introduction to Old and Middle Irish, with a focus on pronunciation and word recognition. We will begin with the essentials of pronunciation, including the effects of initial mutations (lenition, nasalization), with a focus on personal names from well-known prose tales and concept words (dindshenchas, óenach, fír flathemon, immram, etc.) important for teaching. We will then provide a basic overview of grammatical features, ultimately with the goal that one will come away from the seminar with enough knowledge to identify a passage in an edited text for quotation and, ideally, with a head start toward looking up lexical items in eDil (or another dictionary). If time permits, we will begin to translate a poem (eg., “Messe ocus Pangur Bán” - the famous poem about a scholar and his cat) at the end of the workshop. We will also offer a suggested “syllabus” and other beginner-level resources to continue learning Old Irish at home, on your own. Break 3:45 - 4:00pm Plenary 4:00 - 5:30pm Harbour Centre 1900, Fletcher Challenge Theatre Siân Echard (University of British Columbia), Introduction Elaine Treharne (Department of English, Stanford University) “‘Yn ol cynefin gynt’: What does it mean to 'belong' in Medieval Studies?”

This plenary paper will consider a broad range of issues contained within the Welsh term ‘cynefin’, an untranslatable word meaning something like ‘belonging’, ‘custom’, ‘habitat’, ‘of being from, or acquainted with a space that is familiar’. What would it take to translate the medieval fields in which we work into something welcoming to all? To whom do literatures, languages, cultures, and histories belong? The talk will range from the historical and philological to the contemporary and political to examine how a medieval Welsh concept unsettles and shapes contemporary identities.

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Friday, April 12th Registration and Coffee 8:00 - 9:00am Sessions 8:30 - 10:30am The Contemporary Medieval: Critical and Creative Methods, Practices, and Environments 2 (Seminar) Harbour Centre 1520 Organizers: Joshua Davies, Clare A. Lees, Gillian R. Overing Discussion Leaders: 'Practice, Audience, Gender' Denis Ferhatović (Connecticut College) Jennifer Knight (University of South Florida) Haruko Momma (University of Toronto) Sharon Morris (University College London) Max Stevenson (University of California, Berkeley) From Fibre to Decorated Textiles in the Early North Atlantic: Making, Methods, Meanings 2 (Workshop/Seminar) Harbour Centre 1510 Organizer: Alexandra Makin Barbara Klessig, “Textile Tools from Viking Age Graves: Ritual burial items or everyday tools?” Mary A. Valante (Appalachian State University), “Women's Work and Women's Identities in Viking-Age Ireland” Rachel Evans (University of Leicester), “The Literary Function of Cloaks in the Íslendinga sögur” Alexandra Makin, “Sensory Encounters with Viking Age Textiles and Textile-Making” Inclusive Pedagogies in Medieval Studies 2 (Seminar) Harbour Centre 2050 Organizers: Courtney Barajas, Marjorie Housley Melissa Heide (University of Texas at Austin), “Native Medievalisms and the Graduate Experience” Jay Gates (John Jay College of Criminal Justice), “Making it Our Own: The Colonizers' Corpus in the HSI/MMI Classroom” John R. Black (Moravian College), “Confronting Misappropriation of the Medieval Past by Teaching the Complexity of the Middle Ages”

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Leila K. Norako (University of Washington), “Teaching The Canterbury Tales in the Age of Trump” The Affordances of Seascapes: (Re)situating Island Monasteries 1 (Lab) Harbour Centre 2250 Organizers: Ryan Lash (Northwestern University), Adrián Maldonado (University of Glasgow) As focal points of settlement, worship, and imagination, islands played a crucial role in the early medieval North Atlantic world. Iona, Lindisfarne, Inishmurray, Skellig Michael and a host of other lesser-known islands were home to early Christian communities varying in size and status. Emphasizing parallels between the Egyptian desert and perilous ocean waters, modern narratives often characterize these sites as remote eremitical communities fundamentally defined by their isolation. This session proposes to resituate these islands both physically and conceptually. Encircled by water that could connect as well as divide, islands were embedded within networks of knowledge, power and materiality with strong links to the mainland and archipelagic seascapes inhabited by both lay and religious communities. This session welcomes contributions from scholars working within archaeology, history and other disciplines to explore how these networks might be identified and analyzed through a range of lenses. In particular, we encourage participants to examine islands as distinctive material and ecological environments that enabled particular forms of devotion and settlement that encouraged the movement of ideas, objects, and people, such as: the production and circulation of physical resources (food; prestige items; lithic materials), pilgrimage as a vector of exchange and interaction between lay and religious communities, and novel theoretical and methodological approaches (new materialism, taskscape, paleoecology) to maritime cultural landscapes. Ryan Lash (Northwestern University) Adrián Maldonado (University of Glasgow) Candice Bogdanski (York University) Anouk Busset (University of Glasgow) Andrew Johnson Break 10:30 - 10:45am Sessions 10:45am - 12:45pm (Re)constructing History through Landscape and Practice 2 (Seminar) Harbour Centre 1510 Organizers: Pamela O'Neill, Jay Johnston Francesca Allfrey, “Understanding Sutton Hoo” John R. Black, “Landscape in Hagiography” “IONA Futures: Landscape & Knowing discussion” Discussion led by Pamela O'Neill We're All Migrants: What Now? Borders and Indigeneity in the Early Middle

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Ages and Today 2 (Seminar) Harbour Centre 1520 Organizers: D. Esther Kim, Kathryn Maude Revisiting Archives 2 (Seminar) Harbour Centre 2250 Organizers: Mary Kate Hurley (Ohio University), Jordan Zweck (University of Wisconsin-Madison) Jill Hamilton Clements (University of Alabama at Birmingham), “Archiving Bodies, Inscribing Names and Labelling Relics in Anglo-Saxon England” Coral Lumbley (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), “Activist Archives: A Case Study for Medieval Refugees”

Unexpected Islands 2 (Lab) Harbour Centre 2200 Organizer: Jeremy DeAngelo Decentering Whiteness in Medieval Texts, in the Field and the Classroom 1 (Workshop) Harbour Centre 2050 Organizers: Mary Rambaran-Olm (Independent Scholar), Nahir Otaño-Gracia (Beloit College), Valerie M. Wilhite (Independent Scholar) Representatives of the Medievalists of Colour group are sponsoring a unit of cohesive sessions with the intent of broadening the discussion of Medieval Studies through an as-yet less popular theoretical framework - that of Critical Race Theory. This is a theory that can give its readers and engaged actors fresh perspectives on not only their objects of study, but their inscription (engagement or practice) in the field, and of great importance, their practice on campus and in the classroom. The purpose of this workshop is to encourage participants to seek out texts, themes and branches of medieval studies beyond white, Anglo-centric literature, themes and ideas. Participants interested in coming to the workshop should be prepared to read a number of brief critical race theory texts in advance of the conference. The workshop will not be a session of papers. Instead, participants will engage with the materials and the others in the room with interactive activities that promise to inspire a delight in and commitment to the peoples, objects, and happenings beyond the white, Anglo North Atlantic. While we often focus on the past, as our object of study, the workshop will encourage considering our own position in the present and its influence on how we understand what we see as well as how what we say, write, and do as teachers, colleagues, writers, artists, and actors shapes the future idea of the Middle Ages and impressions of the field. One major feature of the workshop will include a session on 'how to be a better ally,' which will allow participants to engage in discussion on what ally-ship means and how one can strengthen ally-ship in the workplace and classroom. A number of medievalists of colour will present their work and/or individual stories to challenge participants to consider/reconsider what it means to be an ally. A series of paper sessions will introduce texts and themes outside the traditional Canon despite falling squarely within the 'materia,' the history, of the North Atlantic. Papers will study issues of translation, paths of interchange and flux, notions of

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whiteness, regulating relationships between entities within the North Atlantic and without as well as how these sorts of studies are received by the field, the public, and students in the classroom. Eileen Fradenburg-Joy (Punctum Books), “What Makes the Desert Beautiful is that Somewhere it Hides a Well: On the Importance of the Politics of Friendship & Allyship in Medieval Studies” Eduardo Ramos (Penn State University), “Looking Back and Looking Forward in the Medieval Studies Classroom” Shannon Lewis-Simpson (Memorial University of Newfoundland), “Decolonizing Vinland” Lunch 12:45 - 1:45pm Sessions 1:45 - 3:45pm Decolonizing Early Medieval Sovereignties 2 (Seminar) Harbour Centre 2050 Organizers: Mo Pareles, Robert Rouse, Wallace Cleaves Anna Klosowska (Miami University), “Globalizing the British Archipelago: The Impact of the Colonies in Eastern Mediterranean in the 1200s” Cory Rushton (St. Francis Xavier University), “A Galfridian Framework for Indigenous Erasure” Tarren Andrews (University of Colorado Boulder), “Centering Indigenous Futures in the Palimpsest of Medieval Sovereignty” Coll Thrush (University of British Columbia), “Bertha's Shadow: Imagining Colonial Legacies at the Oldest Church in he English-Speaking World” Moving the North Atlantic Beyond IONA 2 (Seminar) Harbour Centre 1520 Organizers: Mary Rambaran-Olm, Nahir Otaño-Gracia, Valerie M. Wilhite Shamma Boyarin (University of Victoria), “Everything is Porous: Exploring Berachia HaNakdan and Adelard of Bath's Material Connections” Nicole Lopez-Jantzen (CUNY - Borough of Manhattan Community College), “The view from beyond IONA: Connections between the British Isles and Lombard Italy” Alice Toso (University of York), “Foodways along the Atlantic coast: an isotopic study of Islamic and Christian diet in Medieval Portugal (8th-15th centuries)” Presider: Nahir Otaño-Gracia Theorizing Bodies and Minds 2 (Seminar) Harbour Centre 2250 Organizers: Rachel Anderson, Marjorie Housley, Kristen Mills, Erin Sweany Nicholas Hoffman (Ohio State University), “Exhuming Queer Bodies: Methodology and Sexual Identity”

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Joanne Findon (Trent University), “The Otherworld Body” Introductory Masterclass on Middle Welsh for Beginners (Workshop) Harbour Centre 1510 Organizers: Georgia Henley, Joey McMullen This workshop offers an introduction to the study of Middle Welsh. No knowledge of Celtic languages is presupposed, though participants with experience studying inflected languages may have an easier time. While Celtic languages are widely regarded as difficult, this workshop is intended to de-mystify Middle Welsh, giving participants an introduction to pronunciation, orthography, basic syntactical structures, and grammatical features, such as mutation, that are specific to Celtic languages. It is hoped that participants will become comfortable with identifying parts of speech, and looking up words in a Welsh dictionary, to facilitate the translation of texts. Following this, we will also provide an overview of the extant texts in Middle Welsh, which include a vast array of historical prose, narrative tales, bardic poetry, saints' lives, wisdom literature, and apocrypha. We will also discuss some of the manuscripts in which these texts are contained. Participants should come away from the workshop comfortable with pronouncing Welsh, able to identify parts of speech when translating, and familiar with resources for studying and engaging with this language on their own. Teaching the Middle Ages of the North Atlantic Outside the R1 (Lab) Harbour Centre 2200 Organizers: Jay Gates (CUNY), Brian T. O'Camb (Indiana University Northwest) Presenters in this lab will share materials and approaches to teaching the Middle Ages of the North Atlantic (MANA) - especially Old English - outside of research institutions. Subsequent to the formal presentations in the lab, we will open the session to workshop and discussion of materials. Therefore, the presenters and conveners invite those with experience teaching outside of research institutions, those who are currently in such positions, or those interested in thinking more about the realities of teaching outside of research institutions to share syllabi or assignments for workshop and discussion in a lab environment. No materials are required for participation; however, if you choose to workshop materials, we ask that you bring 5-10 copies. Jay Gates Brian T. O'Camb Shannon Godlove (Columbus State University) Chelsea Shields-Más (SUNY Old Westbury) Dana Oswald (University of Wisconsin – Parkside) Break 3:45 - 4:00pm

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Plenary 4:00 - 5:30pm Harbour Centre 1900, Fletcher Challenge Theatre Clare Lees (School of Advanced Study, University of London), Introduction Nicola Griffith (author of seven novels including Hild (2013), Winner of the Lambda Award, Tiptree Award, Nebula Award) “The Personal is Political and Scholarly and Creative”

This plenary presentation discusses how Griffith's most recent novel, Hild (2013), operates as a second-order discourse on the illusory nature of history's immutability: how the novel deconstructs the intersectional development of oppressive discourse on gender, sexual orientation, race, and (with forthcoming Hild sequel Menewood) disability. Central to Griffith's address is why chose a queer female protagonist for these novels set in seventh-century Britain, an era of ethnogenesis and cultural change. In doing so, Griffith focuses on the embodiment of the novel, protagonist, and author to argue for the urgent necessity of acknowledging and incorporating one’s understanding of embodiment - and, therefore, identity - into not

only the creative arts but scholarly enquiry.

Saturday, April 13th Registration and Coffee 8:00 - 9:00am Sessions 8:30 - 10:30am The Contemporary Medieval: Critical and Creative Methods, Practices, and Environments 3 (Seminar) Harbour Centre 1520 Organizers: Joshua Davies, Clare A. Lees, Gillian R. Overing Discussion Leaders: 'American/Medieval' Donna Beth Ellard (University of Denver) Mary Kate Hurley (Ohio University) Sharon Rowley (Christopher Newport University) Renée R. Trilling (University of Illinois) Ulrike Wiethaus (Wake Forest University)

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From Fibre to Decorated Textiles in the Early North Atlantic: Making, Methods, Meanings 3 (Workshop/Seminar) Harbour Centre 1510 Organizer: Alexandra Makin Elisa Palomino (Fashion Print pathway leader, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts, London), “Preservation of Early Medieval Fish Leather Tradition through Higher Education” Stephanie Bunn (University of St. Andrews), “Woven Communities: Scottish Vernacular Basketry” Liselotte Öhrling & Anna Josefsson (Lödöse Museum), “Approaches to Teaching and Learning about Nalbinding in Early Medieval Lödöse, Sweden” Liselotte Öhrling, “Early Medieval Textiles from Lödöse, Sweden” Roundtable Discussion Inclusive Pedagogies in Medieval Studies 3 (Seminar) Harbour Centre 2050 Organizers: Courtney Barajas, Marjorie Housley Following from the previous two days of presentations, this third day will be a workshop on resource collection and syllabus building for participants The Affordances of Seascapes: (Re)situating Island Monasteries 2 (Lab) Harbour Centre 2250 Organizers: Ryan Lash, Adrián Maldonado Inscription and Textual Objects (Workshop) Harbour Centre 2200 Organizer: Elaine Treharne This workshop will combine epigraphy, palaeography, and materialist approaches to consider the importance of metal, stone, rock, wood, fabric, and skin objects to textual studies. We'll work through introductory methodologies for identifying and interpreting various artefacts dating from c.200 - c.1400 that are inscribed in Latin, Ogham, Welsh, English, and Old Norse. Our objects will include bracteates, runestones, ecclesiastical inscriptions and garments, sculpture, gravemarkers, jewelry, coins, manuscripts and tablets. Participants will have the opportunity to handle various materials to think through the significance of substrate and form in any attempt to gain the fullest interpretation possible of the extant medieval textual corpus.

Break 10:30 - 10:45am Sessions 10:45am - 12:45pm (Re)constructing History through Landscape and Practice 3 (Seminar)

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Harbour Centre 1510 Organizers: Pamela O'Neill, Jay Johnston Pamela O'Neill, “Experiences of Landscape and Ways of Knowing” Martin Goldberg (National Museums Scotland), “Creative Spirit: Recreating Lost Artefacts” Jay Johnston, “Suspect Journeys: Epistemological Pluralism, Materiality and Academic Practice” Revisiting Archives 3 (Seminar) Harbour Centre 2250 Organizers: Mary Kate Hurley (Ohio University), Jordan Zweck (University of Wisconsin-Madison) Chelsea Shields-Más, “Beyond the Traditional Archive: Using Domesday as an Archive to Construct the Figure of the Reeve, 1066-1100” Courtnay Konshuh (St. Thomas More College, University of Saskatchewan), “Anglo-Saxon Chronicles as Archives” Brian T. O'Camb, “Archiving Medieval English Proverbs in John Heywood's A Dialogue of Proverbs (1546)” Jordan Zweck and Mary Kate Hurley, “Archival Reflections” Decentering Whiteness in Medieval Texts, in the Field and the Classroom 2 (Workshop) Harbour Centre 2050 Organizers: Mary Rambaran-Olm, Nahir Otaño-Gracia, Valerie M. Wilhite Roundtable: Nahir Otaño-Gracia, Nicole Lopez-Jantzen (CUNY - Borough of Manhatten Community College) John R. Black Northern Osmosis: Literary Viscosity as Material Solidarity (Lab) Harbour Centre 1520 Organizers: Sarah-Nelle Jackson (University of British Columbia), C. Elizabeth Rosch (University of British Columbia), Scott Russell (University of British Columbia) Viscous literary critique affirms, rather than dissolves, difference, even as it tests conventional boundaries between subject and non-subject. Together, we experiment with viscosity as a literary method for reimagining bodily relations. Lab participants, including the audience, begin with the Exeter Book riddles, whose objects invite viscous reading in the playful elusiveness of their subjective identities. Turning to presenters' explorations of critical viscosity, we depart from isle and manuscript to Hollywood horror and queer neomedievalism before returning to the fens of Old English literature. Finally, we invite presenters and audience alike to speculate on the critical and practical futures of viscosity. Tamara Browne (University of Edinburgh), “Environmental Alchemy: A Reading of John Carpenter’s The Fog”

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Bethany Whalley, “Women, Wetlands, and Viscous Pre/modernities” Inés G. Labarta (Lancaster University), “Viscosity in The Book of the Cow" Lisa Weston (California State University, Fresno), “Viscous Literacy in Exeter Riddle 60, The Husband’s Message, and Wulf and Eadwacer” Lunch 12:45 - 1:45pm Sessions 1:45 - 3:45pm Decolonizing Early Medieval Sovereignties 3 (Seminar) Harbour Centre 2050 Organizers: Mo Pareles, Robert Rouse, Wallace Cleaves Mo Pareles, “Like Dogs Who Don't Care for Filth: Figuring Sexual Violence” Audrey Walton, “The Celtic Hypothesis: Decolonizing the Origins of the English Language” Shela Raman (University of Notre Dame), “Hybrid Sovereignties: Decolonizing the Old English Life of St. Christopher” Haruko Momma (University of Toronto), “Alfred the Great: Sovereignty, Apotheosis, Totemism” Moving the North Atlantic Beyond IONA 3 (Seminar) Harbour Centre 1520 Organizers: Mary Rambaran-Olm, Nahir Otaño-Gracia, Valerie M. Wilhite Chihiro Tsukamoto (Yale University), “How White was Heimdallr?” Erin McGuire (University of Victoria), “Beyond Indiana Jones: Fighting Nazis and Teaching Medieval Archaeology” Nahir Otaño-Gracia, “Translation as Manipulation: The case of Old Norse-Icelandic translations to English” Presider: Valerie M. Wilhite Theorizing Bodies and Minds 3 (Seminar) Harbour Centre 2250 Organizers: Rachel Anderson, Marjorie Housley, Kristen Mills, Erin Sweany Erin Sweany, “Cause We are Living in a Material World: Anglo-Saxon Medicine and Science Studies" Sarah Baccianti (Queen’s University Belfast), “Saintly Bodies: Surgery and Religion in Early Scandinavia” What are the Best Practices for the Evolving, 21st Century Job Market? (Workshop) Harbour Centre 1510 Organizers: Georgia Henley, Joey McMullen The difficulties inherent in the 21st-century academic job search are well-known, perhaps even

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notorious. There is little that individual search committees can do about the paucity of academic jobs or the movement of university-level hiring away from tenure-track positions. That said, there are small steps that can be taken by search committees to make the process more humane and easier on candidates, such as sending confirmation of materials received, allowing for a Skype interview option at the initial interview stage, and notifying candidates of rejection in a timely manner. Through collegial, respectful, and open discussion, this workshop brainstorms small but significant ways that search committees can ease the stress of the job market by acting with increased transparency and speed. The discussion will also tackle issues of unconscious bias and "fit." This workshop will jointly consider the issues facing humanities PhDs on the academic job market through 1) group discussion and 2) data gathered from outside the workshop, as well as producing a set of actionable guidelines for search committees that, once published, will be circulated among scholarly organizations especially those committed to advocacy for the marginalized. The goal of this set of guidelines is to facilitate a more equitable, humane, and transparent search process for humanities job candidates, particularly those in medieval studies, but also further afield. In the spirit of inclusivity, we will incorporate anonymized comments from academics who cannot be at the conference or do not feel comfortable speaking openly. The discussion will be led by people who have recently been on the market as well as people who have recently been on search committees in order to ensure an equitable discussion. Insular Latin Paleography (Workshop) Harbour Centre 2200 Organizer: Lane Springer (University of Toronto) This workshop offers an introduction to insular paleography and is aimed at graduate students who wish to be trained to read and research early medieval manuscripts written in an insular script or that may have insular influences. The early Latin scripts developed in Ireland and England and transmitted to the Continent are the focus of this workshop. Some knowledge of Latin will be helpful, but a full reading fluency is not required. Participants will learn how to identify the distinctive insular scripts, letterforms, abbreviations, and codicological features through practical exercises in reading and examining digitized images of manuscripts. There will be discussions on the historical background of these scripts, the corpus of medieval insular manuscripts, resources for paleographical learning and research, current manuscript research projects, digital initiatives, and problems a researcher might encounter when examining a manuscript. Examples of texts will be offered from a variety of subjects, such as medicine, poetry, hagiography, historical sources, and religious texts, which provides an opportunity for students to broaden their experience beyond their own subject area. Upon completion, participants should be able to recognize different aspects of insular Latin paleography and should be familiarized with the resources and current scholarly initiatives surrounding this topic. This workshop is open to all participants and early registration is not required. Break 3:45 - 4:00pm

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Plenary 4:00 - 5:30pm Harbour Centre 1900, Fletcher Challenge Theatre Deanna Reader (First Nations Studies and Department of English, Simon Fraser University), Introduction Abraham Anghik Ruben (Order of Canada, sculptor in stone and bronze reflecting stories, myths, and legends of Western Arctic culture) “Ancient Inuit and Norse: Myths, Shamanism, and Consequences of Contact”

The talk begins with a creation myth of the Inuit, reflecting on how this story reflects changes across geological time from the retreat of the ice to the beginnings of people, who recognize the spark of life or soul in fellow creatures as well as in the landscape itself. This shared spirit lies at the centre of Inuit shamanistic practices and, in some ways, is intimately related to Scandinavian shamanistic practices too. These peoples of the North, Inuit and Norse, though very different in traditions, interacted and exchanged not only goods and resources, but shamanistic rituals and spiritual beliefs. Ruben’s artwork is forged at the nexus of these traditions, exploring the stories of the

Norse and Inuit, the legacies of contact, and the living force of these ways of being now.

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Recommendations I have lived in Vancouver for fourteen years and I know very little about the food scene, for all the usual tedious reasons (kids, work, ‘povre scoler’), but sometimes it’s fun to go pretend I’m hip and flush, and have a drink or food at a luxe place. There are those kinds of places in this brief and incomplete rundown, but there are also good, fast, cheap places to eat too. Plus drinks places and extracurricular stuff, should you be inclined to skive off a session (how dare you!). Vancouver has lots of good food and drink options. You probably already have some picked out. The hotel and venue is nestled between Downtown, Coal Harbour, and Gastown. Coal Harbour is relatively new, with lots of glass and steel condos and places facing the water. Views can be amazing. Miku is high-end Japanese food; 6 Degrees faces the water and has good coffee and breakfasts (it’s really about the view); Botanist is in the Fairmont hotel and has esteemed cocktails and fancy West Coast dining (very posh). Flower and Horse in Spring makes Yunan noodle bowls that are tasty. Downtown is busy, with a mix of tourists and locals. Three spendy but delicious places not too far away would be Forage with a focus on local foods (swerves into hipster, but in a good way) and two Vancouver classics: the Belgian-Moroccan Chambar and the very upscale Hawksworth, which does Pacific coast cuisine. Both super good but quite expensive. Gastown is older Vancouver, with alleys and docks and Gassy Jack (don’t ask), a bit more atmospheric. Three swank options: St. Lawrence has Quebecois cuisine; L’Abattoir is pacific northwest French (trés industrial chic, like many Vancouver places, but they did it early); Pidgin is pan-Asian French. Nearby is Tacofino, which does west coast Mexican. If you want to venture a bit away from the venue, Chinatown is amazing these days: Bao Bei does creative cocktails and nouveau Chinese (amazing); its sister is Kissa Tanto serving Italian-Japanese (seriously, and seriously good); for gin cocktails and fancy food try Juniper; and the Chinatown apothecary-inspired bar and small plates Keefer Bar is fun. Phnom Penh does Cambodian and Vietnamese and is a bit easier on the budget.

There are really good cheap eats to be had, even downtown. Pretty good banh mi at Viet Sub on Robson; Heritage Asian always has some good Asian comfort food; SMAK Healthy Fast is good for bright clean (and mostly gluten free) lunches and breakfasts. For grab and go Japanese, Fujiya is super reliable and cheap (we are Fujiya regulars). The food trucks are also always around, and cheapish too: Le Tigre has Chinese street food with a west coast bent; Chickpea does killer vegan (my daughter is a Chickpea fiend); Mr. Bannock has indigenous cuisine with some fusiony elements (my son LOVES the bannock waffle); and Japadog serves Japanese-style street hotdogs (it’s a thing). Food trucks are trucks, so they mostly move around: you can find them at roaminghunger.com/food-trucks/bc/vancouver/ or streetfoodapp.com/vancouver. Most circulate through downtown.

If you are venturing further afield there are a few Vancouver legends: Vij’s on Cambie is unbelievable Indian, but the chatty, boozy, snacky wait is long; two Kitsilano places make this old school list: The Naam for low key but chowin’ vegetarian and Sophie’s Cosmic for hippy-dippy breakfast and brunch (and I mean it with love). And West will cost you an arm and a leg, but it is sublime. Outside of downtown, Railtown, east of Gastown, can be seedy, but Dosanko does badass Japanese Yoshoku dishes and Le Wagon Rouge makes really good French food for not crazy amounts of money. The Main Street neighborhood is lively: astounding gourmet vegetarian at Acorn, hefty delights at Fable Diner, and for your phở, pizza, and craft beer needs, the brand new Sing Sing.

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Drinks: loads of coffee places near the venue, but I’m a big fan of Artigiano and the very trendy Revolver (try a flight and feel your heart rate soar to EDM BPM). For cocktails, lots of the places above have crafty delicious drinks (Botanist, Juniper, Bao Bei, Keefer, Chambar etc.), but also check out the plush depths of Prohibition, antique classics at Pourhouse, the artisanal shimmer of Grapes and Soda (next to a good food place Farmer’s Apprentice), and no cocktail recommendation list for Vancouver would be incomplete without The Lobby Lounge (in the Fairmont Pacific Rim), where old Vancouver luxury meets new Vancouver indulgence (plus a raw bar and celebrity sightings). Craft beer finally arrived in Vancouver: you will find it all over. Near the venue you could try the Lamplighter, the Railway Club (Vancouver’s oldest continually running club), Black Frog, or Six Acres. And if you ask, I’ll tell you about my favorite. Crazy fresh and restorative juices can be had at Melu Juice and Health down on Pender, Sina Pharmacy and Organics. There’s a really good truck that does juice too, inventively named The Juice Truck, usually on 5th, and they make a mind-bogglingly trendy avocado and barbecued jackfruit toast. Obviously, you will mostly busy having your mind blown at the awesome sessions, and blowing minds with your own work, but if you have some down time, some recommendations. Stanley Park is lovely, with a path all the way around it along English Bay (called the sea wall) and forest and field within. The aquarium is in the park, and there are totem poles at Brockton Point, and though these are on Salish territory, the poles are from all over BC, including Haida, Salish, Kwakwaka’wakw, Nisga’a, and Nuu-chah-nulth designs. If you make your way to False Creek, you can take the False Creek Ferries to Granville Island, which is a shopping, food, and arts complex. The tiny boats go as far west as the Maritime Museum near Kits Beach. The Vancouver Art Gallery is right downtown, and has a number of interesting exhibitions up. McLeod’s Books and The Paper Hound are pretty close to the conference, both are fun places to browse. If you have extra time, the UBC Museum of Anthropology is amazing; they have profound collections of indigenous art and artifacts, and being out at Point Grey is really beautiful; take a SkyTrain to Cambie and Broadway and then the 99 out to UBC. Walking Main Street is cool, from about 7th Avenue (near Brassneck Brewery and Pulp Fiction books) south there are loads of shops, cafes, and craziness. I like the bibliographophilic Regional Assembly of Text, the Neptoon and Redcat record stores, and the funky art shop for kids, Collage Collage. If you are super adventurous, you can take the SeaBus to the North Shore and get the 236 bus up to Grouse Mountain, where you can take a gondola into the alpine snow. From there you can look across Vancouver, the Gulf Islands, Salish Sea, and the Pacific Ocean and think about Seafaring.