Fifteenth International Congress
of the New Chaucer Society
July 27-31, 2006, in New York City

Downloadable Registration Form

The Fifteenth International Congress of the New Chaucer Society reflects the scale, diversity, and dynamism of Chaucer studies as a whole. The Program Committee has arranged linked sessions on methods of reading Chaucer, textual scholarship and manuscript culture, ethics, emotions, and the multiple contexts of Chaucerian reception and interpretation. Individual sessions will focus on Chaucer’s contemporaries and disciples—Gower, Langland, Usk, Julian of Norwich, Lydgate, and fifteenth-century humanists—and on Chaucer’s English, late-medieval religious cultures, and the Bible. Others will examine contemporary developments in medieval studies and theory and new understandings of literary forms such as the dream vision, fabliau, romance, and exemplary narrative. A new feature at this fifteenth congress will be a series of sessions providing the opportunity for NCS members to meet and confer with secondary school teachers who regularly teach Chaucer. 

Besides the focused exchanges of the paper sessions and panels, the Congress will include occasions when we can gather as a society. David Wallace will give the Presidential address and Susan Crane the Biennial lecture. In plenary sessions, eminent historians (Judith Bennett, Paul Freedman, and James C. Scott) will address the role of peasants in medieval culture, and curators from the Morgan Library and the Metropolitan Museum of Art will discuss the resources for medieval studies in the great institutions of New York City. We will end the Congress with an open session at which members can speak to future directions for the Society and recommendations for the next Congress. 
 
The Local Arrangements Committee for the Congress will offer special tours of the Metropolitan Museum and the J. P. Morgan Library, as well as a web guide to New York events of interest to medievalists and their families. The Medieval Guild at Columbia University will host a late evening party for graduate students. A Friday evening event will focus on how contemporary poets, writers and artists respond to Chaucer. The Congress banquet will be a dinner and dancing cruise around Manhattan on the World Yacht Princess.
 
All sessions and afternoon receptions will take place at Fordham's main building at Lincoln Center. Adjoining Residence Hall rooms (shared baths) will be available at low cost to graduate students and recent Ph.Ds.  Financial support from the participating universities has subvened a reduced registration fee for all participants, with a still lower fee for graduate students.  
 
We look forward to welcoming you to New York for this exceptional congress.