Affective Experience Lab lead Corinne Saunders attended the New Chaucer Society’s biennial congress, held in Pasadena in July. Her paper, ‘Thinking Beyond: Chaucer’s Moments of Vision’, contributed to a 2-panel session exploring Eternity and Transcendence, organised by scholars at Baylor and Oxford Universities. Drawing on the work of the Hearing the Voice project and of the Affective Experience Lab, and bringing together medieval and modern theories, she explored the role of sensory and imaginative processes in Chaucer’s representation of visionary experience.
The New Chaucer Society Congress is one of the main international congresses for medieval literary studies, and saw c.500 attending in person, as well as an online audience. Californian sunshine and hospitality provided a wonderful opportunity to connect with colleagues and pursue research interests, hear about new directions of research, and promote the Affective Experience Lab and the work of Institute for Medical Humanities. Corinne also enjoyed the opportunity to see the extraordinary collections of the Huntington Library and Getty Centre.
The Affective Experience Lab will host a major international conference on ‘Mysticism and the Medical Humanities’ in Autumn 2025. To register your interest, please email affectiveexperience.lab@durham.ac.uk.
