Creating New Identities: Rites of Passage for Medieval Vowed Religious

CALL FOR PAPERS for the 2027 MAA Annual Meeting

Toronto, 15–17 April 2027

Consecration, benediction, profession, installation, burial: Such rites of passage punctuated the lives of vowed religious. They marked moments of profound change, as a novice became a fully professed religious, a nun became an abbess, a monk an abbot. These rites are thus also sites of intense formation, as both individual and collective identities are shaped through the liturgical performance of the rituals. What role do geography, age, and religious order play in constructing religious identity? How do monastic burial rituals bookend the life of a vowed religious? What kinds of manuscripts and other liturgical objects are used to enact these rites? Do rites of passage function differently for male and female religious? How do space and place affect their liturgical performance?

Submission information and important dates

This panel invites twenty-minute papers on religious rites of passage in medieval Europe, and will be submitted to the 2027 MAA Annual Meeting. Please submit a title and an abstract of 250 words, along with your name, affiliation, and contact information, to Olivia Caroline Geraci (ogeraci@nd.edu) and Emma Gabe (emma.gabe@utoronto.ca) by April 15, 2026.