Join Kathy Lavezzo, professor of English, and William Rhodes, associate professor of English, for an evening exploring the enduring influence of the medieval world through their newest books. After the reading, Sarah Bond, associate professor of history, will moderate a conversation exploring the books' shared in medievalism’s lasting influence on later history and culture. This event is free and open to the public.

Lavezzo will read from her new book, Bad Medievalism and the Modernity Problem, which examines how the perceived divide between the medieval and the modern has shaped ideas about history, identity, and race. Drawing on literature, history, and cultural theory, she explores how this imagined boundary continues to influence contemporary thought.

Kathy Lavezzo's Bad Medievalism is an utterly compelling intervention into medieval studies…Rich with insight and brilliantly conceived, the book will inspire discussions about the past, present, and future of medievalism for years to come.
—Bruce Holsinger, Linden Kent Memorial Professor of English, University of Virginia

Rhodes will read from his book, The Work of Reform, which explores how medieval ideas about land and labor influenced later thinking about agriculture, environmental change, and colonialism in Britain and Ireland. The book brings together literature, history, and ecology to trace these connections across the medieval and early modern periods.

The Work of Reform advances a commanding and ambitious argument about Piers Plowman and its influence on how later writers envisioned the management of agrarian estates as the key to enforcing labor and maintaining social hierarchies.

—Rebecca Davis, author of "Piers Plowman" and the Books of Nature

Book Matters is co-sponsored by Prairie Lights. Light refreshments will follow the event.