I want to offer some quick thoughts on the 59th International Congress for Medieval Studies held at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan from May 9-11.
I won’t be reviewing sessions here. Once I reach that point, rather than covering everything I attended I’ll just talk about a few that made an impression on me for one reason or another.
Outside of sessions, there are big ICMS changes this year. Most of them are changes from last year, not just from when I last attended in 2024. The big changes I saw from 2015 were of course that it has been shortened from five days to three and there were fewer exhibitors, which I’ll cover in more detail when I talk about my book buys.
Physical Facilities
There is a significant facility change and it completely altered several aspects of Congress. In August, 2023 Western Michigan University opened a new Student Center. This is located in the area we used to call the western campus or “up the hill.” For those who have attended in the past, the Student Center is located right next to Sangren Hall.
One way things changed is that sessions are now held much more closely together. The vast majority – including each that I attended – are held in Sangren, maybe 100 yards away. The others are held in the Student Center itself, Kanley Chapel, or the Waldo Library, each located nearby. No sessions were held in the Valley area, where the dorms used to be. The exhibits were also located in the Student Center and I’ll get to food in a minute. The only use for Valley buildings were one last year as dorms – they are scheduled to be demolished before the 2025 Congress – and registration was still held in the Fox-Eldridge Lobby, for some reason.
Gone are the days of walking from Valley, past the pond and the geese, up the hill, to sessions on West Campus. Or the reverse. No more mad dashes to cover the distance and make the next session on time, or wait on the shuttle and hope it would get you there. Everything is in one condensed area, as if it was located on a single quad of many campuses – and a small quad at that. Old-timers have a new nostalgia story to tell, the ICMS version of, “When I was a kid we walked to school. In the snow. Barefoot. Up hill. Both ways.”
The one exception was the dorms. The budget-conscious could still stay in the Valley dorms. If you were willing to spend more you could stay at Western Heights. These dorms are much closer to the Student Center than Valley but are still about a half-mile or so walk – at least so my phone tells me, I stayed in the East building. So I managed to get 4-5 miles of walking in each of the 3 days.
The Food
This change is as substantial as the proximity of sessions and is also due to the new Student Center. In the past, on-campus food selections were quite limited. You had the Dining Hall in Valley, but suppose you hiked your way to West Campus in the morning, everything you wanted to attend that day was in Sangren or Bernhard, and you wanted lunch? During the week there was a sandwich shop where they’d hand you something that had been wrapped in plastic ahead of time. On the weekend you had vending machines. Or you could walk back to Valley, then back up the hill for sessions.
Those days are gone. Or, if I may re-phrase that, THOSE DAYS ARE GONE!!! The Student Center has a Dining Hall on the third floor which was quite satisfactory. However you also have a Starbucks, a sandwich shop, a pizza shop – I tried each of these three – and a spot to get Mexican such as tacos and burritos, which I did not eat at. Sangren also has a small shop on the second floor which I walked by a couple of times. There is also a pub which I poked my head into but did not enter.
If we want to use a 1-10 grading scale, IMO food at K’zoo went from somewhere between a 2 and a 3 to the 7-8 range.
So the basic Kalamazoo environment has completely changed. Instead of wandering over hill and over dale past geese to reach sessions (yes, there are still geese around as droppings on sidewalks give evidence for), everything is located in one condensed space and, when the weather cooperates, there is a lot of outdoor seating. The opportunities for social interactions between sessions are greatly enhanced – and of course now you can do it while eating at least decent food.
Next year I won’t buy meal tickets. This is not to criticize Student Center Dining. I found it good with a reasonable variety of selections and a very nice salad bar. But it was more than I needed. I am able to eat using the smaller shops for a lower price.
I’ll note that we were told the other shops would accept the dining hall tickets for payments. The two times I tried they looked at me as if they had no clue what I was talking about. I wasn’t about to argue with them with a line backing up and paid my $10 or so. But if you hear this in the future I’d advise you not to believe it – the sandwich shop at least did not get the memo.
I will change how I do food next year though. This year I bought six meal passes. I thought I’d almost certainly eat two meals a day on campus but that evenings would possibly involve a visit to Bilbo’s or some other restaurant in the city. The dining hall had more food than I wanted. Instead of eating there I would, if I had not bought the tickets, have had breakfast at Starbucks and lunch at the sandwich shop, Re Fresh Market. I ended up giving one meal ticket to the young man on duty at the dorm when I checked out Sunday morning. Brunch didn’t begin until 8 and I was ready to be on the road by a little after 6. Hopefully he or a friend enjoyed a free meal on me. So no meal tickets for me – if I happen to use the dining hall I’ll pay on entering.
If you want a negative on the food side of things, there was no longer a free coffee service. It was pay to play. Unsurprising with a Starbucks on site. This is a minor thing compared with how much of an upgrade food was overall.
And – this is more a note to myself in hopes I read this before 2025 – I need to bring a water bottle. I have quite a number of them. This is one of the most frequent “swag” giveaways at conferences I attended professionally. I am not exaggerating when I say I have dozens (as well as travel coffee mugs). I have no problem with tap water and the amount I spent on $2 bottles of water would likely equal a medium-priced book. Plus there’s all that plastic.
Housing
I’ll be fairly brief here. I stayed in Western Heights this year instead of in the Valley dorms as I had all of my previous Congresses. In the past I have referred to the Valley dorms as “camping with walls.” Yes, you had a roof but the beds and bedding were uncertain, you shared a bathroom with a neighboring room, you had very undependable heating and no cooling and the walls were thin enough to hear everything. However the advantage is that these dorms were next to everything, or almost everything, of significance other than some sessions. Various wine socials? In Valley. The exhibits (books)? Valley. Anything resembling a point to gather at was in or near the Fox-Eldridge lobby.
My main reason for staying in Western Heights this year was my thought that it would have a similar proximity to Congress events as Valley. This was not the case. Where before I could hear social events going on, including, at times, a wine social right outside my window, now everything was located a good distance away. Sure, it was closer to the Student Center than the Valley dorms. However it was not right next to it. After making the walk back and forth the first day I began packing everything I might need for the day to the Student Center rather than make the walk back and forth to collect some item or other.
As for the rooms themselves, they were OK but not a monumental upgrade. They said there is air conditioning but with daily highs in the low 60’s I can’t verify that. Rooms are in pods with group bathrooms. This was not a problem but as my pod had two unisex bathrooms (and two others labeled for women, I do not know if any women were in our pod I only saw men) and each with a single shower, I can see where it could be. The beds were small with a thin foam rubber mattress, towels were hideous and sheets were not fitted without an extra charge. Plus you had to climb up into the bed. I brought my own pillow and a small fan. While I did not need the fan to mask noise as in the past, the room was stuffy and I was glad to have help airing it out. So I did not see where these rooms were appreciably better than those in Valley.
So next year will be a first for me. I’ll be staying in a hotel. I can park much closer to the student center than my dorm and can toss anything I might possibly need in it – umbrella, laptop, heavier coat, etc. – rather than carry it with me. The price for a single in Western Heights was $99 where a hotel room can be had for around $140.
Books
For me, a highlight of Kalamazoo has always been the books. This remains the case however the number of exhibitors has declined from the pre-COVID days. But there were still a substantial number, enough to fill the two rooms reserved for this with additional exhibits in the Student Center hallway. The number of exhibitors is well above what I saw last year at Leeds.
When all is said and done, I will have bought 14 books. I carried 8 home, ordered some while at K’zoo and today will call in one last order using the Conference discount. This is a record low number for me. I believe part of this is I am less susceptible to my book addiction, part is due to some publishers not being there. In the past I have typically visited the Ashgate booth first and reserved a bunch of display copies to pick up on the last day. They were not present. Neither was Routledge and all Harvard had was a flyer offering a 30% discount.
But many of the usual suspects were in attendance; Brill, Cambridge, Manchester, Liverpool, Chicago, Dumbarton Oaks, Brepols, Penn, UPenn; and for used books the Compleat Scholar and Powell’s. Not quite as many books as before but quite a few and more than I was expecting.
Summary
So this was Kalamazoo 2024. I enjoyed it. Good sessions and I cannot overstate how significant the new Student Center is for improving the Congress. I did not do a lot of socialization. I certainly did some but never went with a group to Bilbo’s or hung out with people for an extended period. I believe this is largely due to my 9 year interlude in attending. Most of my previous social circle were not there. I spoke with several people at the Pseudo Session who, if we had met earlier, might have formed such a group. So beyond quick conversations with someone in the Student Center or between sessions, not much of this from me.
I have heard people say they are worried about Kalamazoo and think it may be in trouble. I don’t feel that way. There are definitely fewer attendees than in the past but this is not a shock. Even without COVID, tighter college and University travel budgets and what I call the American disease of adjunctivitis would have caused this to some extent. I don’t know precisely what the attendance was but most of my sessions were well-attended and during socials the Student Center was dominated by crowds looking for free wine and the rather impressive background buzz of conversations. Of course I am not privy to the event budget but Congress looked hale and hearty, if a bit smaller, to me.
Kalamazoo also had much more devoted to the virtual conference than I saw at Leeds. At Leeds every session, I believe, was offered in hybrid format. Those I attended generally had just a couple of virtual attendees and even a plenary session only about 8 IIRC. At Kalamazoo there were few hybrid programs but each time slot had 8-12 sessions offered virtual-only. Obviously I didn’t attend any of these so I have no idea how many participated. But based on how many were offered, there must be a fair number.*
I do wish they’d add back an additional day. I think doing away with the Sunday morning sessions was a sound decision, but I’d love to have one more day to attend sessions, meet people, and wonder why the sandwich shop won’t take my meal ticket. In any case, K’zoo 2025 is scheduled for May 8-10 and I plan to be there.
*If it is not already offered I’d suggest that each Kalamazoo session be recorded so that those only able to attend virtually could view them later. There are some logistics involved but when I was gainfully employed we often had a camera of some sort or other placed in the back of the room (or, at times, a session organizer with an iPad), along with an additional clip-on microphone for the presenter to wear. Obviously, these would need to be hosted someplace and there would be a fair amount of digital storage but in this day and age I wouldn’t think this would be too difficult. Of course maybe this is already present and I haven’t some across it.
Medieval History Geek 