International Society of Anglo-Saxonists
19th Biennial Meeting

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Thanks for the Memories

Group photo of the 2019 ISAS conference participants

Welcome

to the (now legacy) website for the Nineteenth Biennial Meeting of the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists, which took place in Albuquerque, New Mexico, July 29–August 2, 2019. This page will be maintained as a record of the event but will no longer be updated. We hope you enjoyed the conference and we look forward to seeing you at future ISAS events!


ISAS President Timothy Graham, Executive Director Robin Norris, and the entire Advisory Board greatly look forward to seeing members in New Mexico. The theme for the conference is “Anglo-Saxons and Anglo-Saxonists in the Southwest.” The conference will feature three keynote addresses, sixteen panels of papers, and three panels of project reports. All conference sessions will take place in the Student Union Building on the main campus of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. The topics of the keynote addresses are: “How Anglo-Saxon Was the South-West?” to be delivered by John Blair, Professor of Medieval History and Archaeology, University of Oxford; “Myth-making the ‘Anglo-Saxon’: Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy, and Medieval Heritage Politics,” to be delivered by Adam Miyashiro, Associate Professor of English, Stockton University; and “Wayward Tongues: Disciplining Speech in the Anglo-Saxon South-West and Elsewhere,” to be delivered by Katherine O’Brien O’Keeffe, Clyde and Evelyn Slusser Chair in English, University of California, Berkeley. The full program is available here.

The conference schedule includes an opening reception on the evening of Sunday, July 28; a catered luncheon with presentation and an end-of-day reception on Tuesday, July 30; a mid-week excursion on Wednesday, July 31 to Acoma Pueblo, reckoned the oldest continuously inhabited site in North America; a closing banquet on the evening of Friday, August 2; and a two-day post-conference excursion on Saturday, August 3 and Sunday, August 4 to several historic New Mexico locations. The opening reception will be in the shaded garden of the Hotel Albuquerque, located in the city's eighteenth-century Old Town. The Tuesday luncheon presentation, “The Middle Ages in New Mexico: A Perspective from Chaco Canyon,” will be delivered by Patricia A. Crown, the Leslie Spier Distinguished Professor of Archaeology at the University of New Mexico; she will introduce us to the rich and remarkable Pueblo culture that flourished in Chaco Canyon (located some 150 miles north-west of Albuquerque) between about 900 and 1150. Throughout the conference, refreshments will be available between sessions. On Monday, Thursday, and Friday (and on Tuesday for anyone not attending the catered luncheon), participants will be able to purchase their own lunches economically at food outlets in the Student Union Building. The conference registration fee will cover the cost of the two receptions, between-session refreshments throughout the conference, and the catered Tuesday luncheon. Participants attending the mid-week excursion, the closing banquet, and the post-conference excursion will pay separate charges for these, as itemized on the registration form, which will become available in March. Registration rates are as follows:

Registration (regular) $195
Registration (graduate students/early-career scholars not in full-time employment) $95
Wednesday excursion $55
Closing banquet $75
Post-conference excursion $325

Pre-conference Graduate Student Workshop

A pre-conference workshop for graduate students on the theme “Interacting with Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts” is scheduled for Saturday, July 27 and Sunday, July 28. The workshop will be facilitated by Claire Breay, Head of Ancient, Medieval and Early Modern Manuscripts, The British Library; Bernard Meehan, former Keeper of Manuscripts, Trinity College Dublin; and Timothy Graham, Director, Institute for Medieval Studies, University of New Mexico. It will take place in Mesa Vista Hall, adjacent to the Student Union Building on the UNM campus. There will be places for around a dozen students. There is no charge for the workshop, and participants will receive a waiver of the conference registration fee as well as free on-campus housing during the workshop and conference. The application deadline for the workshop is Friday, March 29. Acceptance notifications will be sent out by April 15. For further details, see here.

Housing

Conference participants may select housing either in one of Albuquerque’s hotels, or on campus. For those who prefer hotel accommodation, we recommend two hotels in Albuquerque’s Old Town and one on Central Avenue, between Old Town and the UNM campus. A UNM shuttle bus will transport participants between these hotels and campus on each day of the conference; there will be no charge for the shuttle service. We recommend reserving hotel rooms as early as possible; Hotel Albuquerque, in particular, is often booked up far in advance. The recommended hotels are:

Hotel Albuquerque at Old Town, 800 Rio Grande Blvd. NW (website at www.hotelabq.com). Hotel Albuquerque will be the venue for the conference opening reception on the evening of Sunday, July 28. Built in the Southwestern style, it is located on the north side of Old Town, about three and a half miles to the west of the UNM campus. The room rate is currently $184 + tax per night but may vary depending upon demand. Reservations can be made via this link.

Best Western Plus Rio Grande Inn, 1015 Rio Grande Blvd. NW (website at www.riograndeinn.com). The Best Western is also located on the north side of Old Town, on the opposite side of Rio Grande Blvd. from Hotel Albuquerque. The conference room rate is $93 plus tax per night. Reservations can be made by calling the hotel at (800) 959-4726 and quoting “ISAS Group Rate” or via this link.

Hotel Parq Central, 806 Central Ave. SE (website at www.hotelparqcentral.com). The Parq Central is located about a mile and a half to the west of the UNM campus, on the old Route 66. The conference room rate is $125 plus tax per night for a room with one king bed or $145 plus tax per night for a room with two double beds. Reservations can be made by calling the hotel at (505) 242-0040 or by writing to Director of Sales Noelle Wallace at nwallace@hotelparqcentral.com; when making your reservation, mention “ISAS Conference.”

(This paragraph updated 5/16/2019.) On-campus housing is available for anyone who would like it in one of the University of New Mexico’s residence facilities. As of May 15, 2019, we have filled the number of rooms allocated to us in the newest facility, Casas del Rio. Anyone registering for on-campus housing after May 15 will be housed in the UNM Residence Life facility, adjacent to Casas del Rio and about a five-minute walk from the Student Union Building where conference sessions will take place. Please note that there are no elevators in the Residence Life facility; but a ground-floor room can be requested by writing to ISAS President Timothy Graham a tgraham@unm.edu. Every room is air conditioned and a lockable bathroom is shared between two or three rooms. There are communal laundry and kitchen facilities. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner can be purchased economically in the adjacent La Posada Hall (breakfast, $7.50 + sales tax; lunch, $9.50 + sales tax; dinner, $9.75 plus sales tax). Rooms in Residence Life are available at the rate of $37.50 per night and can be reserved via the conference registration form.

Mid-week Excursion

The mid-week excursion on Wednesday, July 31, will be to Acoma Pueblo, located about sixty-five miles west of Albuquerque. Situated on top of a 367-foot mesa, Acoma Pueblo is reputed to be the oldest continuously inhabited site in North America, dating from the twelfth century. It is one of New Mexico’s nineteen sovereign Native American Pueblos; its Keresan-speaking inhabitants perpetuate a celebrated, centuries-old tradition of indigenous polychrome ceramics. The excursion will include admission to Acoma’s Sky City Cultural Center and Ha’aku Museum, and a docent-led walking tour of the Pueblo. The cost of the excursion, covering transportation and admission to the Museum and Pueblo, is $55 per person. Those wishing to take photographs of the Pueblo may purchase a photography permit at the museum admission desk for $8; photography is not otherwise permitted.

Closing Banquet

There will be a closing banquet at Seasons Rotisserie and Grill in Albuquerque’s Old Town on Friday, August 2. The cost of the banquet is $75 per person.

Post-conference Excursion

There will be a two-day post-conference excursion to several of New Mexico’s most historic and attractive sites, including Santa Fe and Chimayó (day 1) and Los Alamos and Bandelier National Monument (day 2). Founded in 1610, Santa Fe is the oldest state capital in the United States, celebrated for its Pueblo Revival style of architecture and its cultural life. The village of Chimayó, nestling at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo mountains, is home to El Santuario de Nuestro Señor de Esquipulas, a center of pilgrimage associated with healing since the early nineteenth century; Chimayó is also renowned for its tradition of weaving and its heirloom chile. Dinner on Saturday evening will be in El Rancho de Chimayó, a restaurant located just outside the village that serves traditional New Mexican cuisine. Excursion participants will spend the night in the Comfort Inn in Los Alamos; the town is situated against a stunning mountain background and was the home, from 1942 to 1946, of the Manhattan Project. Following a visit to the Los Alamos History Museum on Sunday morning, the afternoon will be spent at Bandelier National Monument, a 50-square-mile site that was home to historic Pueblo cultures that flourished between about 1150 and 1600; participants will have the opportunity to conduct a walking tour that will take them to some of the most remarkable of the surviving structures. Return to Albuquerque will be through the spectacular red-rock country of the Jémez Mountains. The cost of the excursion will be $325 per person, which will cover transportation, Saturday evening dinner, hotel room, and entrance to the Los Alamos History Museum and Bandelier National Monument.