Kazoo Review 2024

Today I emptied my backpack of folders and papers and came across the presentation handouts I received at various sessions at Kalamazoo this year, so I decided to do a brief Kazoo Review 2024. For the uninitiated, Kazoo is the nickname of the annual International Congress on Medieval Studies held on the fine campus of Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It's one of the largest annual gatherings of medievalists in the world. I attended and presented this year for the first time since before the pandemic, so it was interesting to see how the congress and the campus have changed. It is definitely smaller, I estimate about 2/3 of pre-pandemic attendance, but I think much of that has simply moved online, which is probably a good thing for several, including environmental, reasons. I’m not sure how or if the session topics have changed -I should mention that my discipline is more medieval-adjacent, so I don’t have the eye that some might have for such things.

My session was well-run and included papers on quite complex manuscript issues from late antique texts, so I wasn’t able to follow them entirely, but the audience seemed to receive them well. My paper -much more allusive and literary- made it painfully clear that I’m not as learned a paleographer, but I felt well-received as well. I would write about the sessions I attended, but it is now a few weeks past and I don’t remember any of them well enough to do the presenters justice. Overall, though, the papers seemed well-researched and were well-presented, as has been my usual experience at Kazoo.

Every day of Kazoo there is a day-long “book fair” of scholarly publishers, rare and used booksellers, etc., as well as antiquity dealers and craftspeople who work in medieval styles and materials. It didn't seem to be as large as usual, but this might be a consequence of it being spread across several conference rooms instead of one large room like in past years. You can find some really interesting things there, and “going broke at the Kazoo book fair” is a common refrain among medievalists, but alas souvenirs were not in the budget for me. I did look at some early printed books that cost hundreds of dollars though.

Spine of a small leather-bound book. Its title reads Meditationes S. Augustini S. Anselmi S. Bernardi S. . . rest is illegible

Title page of the above book. The paper is discolored from age and printed in Latin. At center is an image of a griffon standing on a platform. The date at bottom is 1592.

The most visible change was the campus of Western Michigan University. I don’t remember exactly what it looked like before, but they’ve at least renovated several buildings and built a completely new student center, where most attendees would go for lunch and wine hour. Yes, we have a daily wine hour. I say it affectionately, but historians are a bunch of drunks. Anyway, the student center is very modern and open-space, which was nice. The new Sangren Hall also has a new, bright, open-air feel. Most impressive to me was the landscaping between the buildings, which made for a great picture when it finally stopped raining. WMU campus is very wildlife friendly in general -I was fortunate enough to see some deer between the dorm buildings a few years ago.

Large, angular pools of water flowing downward from one pool to another, surrounded by green plants, flowers and university buildings. The sky is overcast.

Unfortunately I was only able to stay for the first one and a half days, but I enjoyed what I did see. It was nice to be in person among colleagues again and to see what’s happening in the field.