This is a multidisciplinary conference that invites scholars to explore how medieval imagination, art, philosophy, and theology engaged with the interaction between the visible and the invisible, examining how imagination and creativity moved across their shifting boundaries and gave form to what eludes perception.

We encourage papers that address the ethical and moral dimensions of such interactions. What did it mean for medieval mystics to trust a vision whose origin could not be verified? What kinds of subjectivity were formed through practices that sought to explore the dynamic interaction of the visible and the invisible? How did encounters with unseen powers test the limits of human agency and moral responsibility? Could seeking knowledge of the hidden be an act of devotion, or did it risk transgressing divine boundaries? What obligations did mystics feel toward the spirits or forces they invoked—and what dangers arose from using them for healing, prophecy, or control? How did mystical experience reshape ideas of virtue, temptation, and sin, when even the purest vision could conceal pride or desire? And how might these medieval debates illuminate our own moral struggles with unseen forces of fate, desire, sickness, aging, and mortality that govern our lives and our bodies?

Papers from all fields will be considered.

For further questions please contact: conatusconference@gmail.com