What reconfigurations of gender identities do mutilations and, more broadly, the failings of the male body, give rise to? This is the question that the conference, which will take place on January 28 and 29, 2027, at the German Historical Institute in Paris, intends to address. By focusing on the Latin West and its peripheries, we will examine continuities and ruptures, as well as the circulation of models of masculinity between Late Antiquity and the late Middle Ages.
Historiography has highlighted the importance placed on the body in the practices and discourses produced by medieval societies regarding masculinity. Numerous expectations are thus placed on the body, for example among lay people (physical strength, active sexuality, hairiness). From these physical criteria stems a set of representations that shape the socially gendered roles and behaviours attributed to men. Yet men’s bodies are vulnerable to accidents. The repercussions of war, illness, or disability can impair an individual’s physical abilities, just as natural aging can diminish them. Certain bodily injuries may be inflicted voluntarily following a judgment, result from a criminal act, or be the consequence of violent conflict. Lastly, other voluntary amputations may result from a medical procedure, or, more rarely, from self-inflicted mutilation. These reflections have been revisited in recent years within the field of disability studies, which offer new frameworks for interpreting medieval bodies.
These attacks on male bodies lead to a reconfiguration between hegemonic masculinities and other forms of masculinity. In some cases, the diminished or mutilated body can contribute to challenging masculinity, or even, voluntarily, to publicly degrading it. However, the consequences of these physical impairments should not always be thought of as negative. They can also be viewed by those involved as a desirable event: the voluntary castrations of certain clergymen are a means of freeing oneself from the torments of the body.
In order to understand the relationship between bodies and masculinities, a wide range of textual, archaeological, and iconographic sources will be drawn upon. The proposed chronological scope spans from Late Antiquity – when Christianity became the dominant faith and changed the way bodies were perceived – to the end of the Middle Ages, a period marked by a strengthening of gender polarity and a harsher condemnation of deviance and difference. Papers may address one or more of the following themes, which are not exclusive.
A first focus concerns gender and bodily care: injured or failing bodies require specific care. The failure of the male body implies an adjustment for the person and those around them, and these measures constitute gendered arrangements that would be worth highlighting, by linking them to a history of bodies and gender.
A second theme will focus on the link between afflicted bodies and the legitimacy to exercise power. We will examine how physical injuries or disability, by undermining masculinity, might have contributed to weakening the political authority of princes. Attacks on markers of masculinity thus prove to be effective weapons in political conflicts. It will also be important to examine how discourses on the body reflect social and political practices as much as they serve discursive purposes designed to legitimise or challenge the authority of the powerful.
Finally, a third approach will examine the various forms of masculinity – which, in the medieval period, often corresponded to different social groups – and the demands they placed on the body. We might first consider this in relation to laypeople. Among the elite, masculinity was largely expressed through military exploits. But what of the inermes, who do not bear arms and whose bodies may be worn down by labour? As for members of the clergy, they must maintain a form of bodily purity in contrast to a secular masculinity defined by reproductive sexuality. In this regard, the 11th and 12th centuries provided an opportunity for the Church to promote a new model of clerical masculinity.
Submission Guidelines
Paper proposals, limited to one page, must include a working title and a short biography. They must be submitted by email no later than July 1st, 2026, to all three members of the organizing committee, using the following addresses: jaudebrand@dhi-paris.fr ; margot.laprade@univ-paris1.fr ; valentine.ferreira@sorbonne-universite.fr. Presentations, lasting 25 minutes, may be delivered in French, English, or German. A publication is being considered.
Organizing committee
Justine Audebrand (GHIP)
Valentine Ferreira (Centre Roland Mousnier - Sorbonne Université)
Margot Laprade (Laboratoire de médiévistique occidentale de Paris (LaMOP) – univ. Caen-Normandie)
