Below is a brief summary by Erin Benton, who – alongside Maryann Pierse, Avery DeMarco, and Cameron Flint – organised the inaugural Aberdeen Medieval and Early Modern Conference (31 May – 1 June 2025).

What can we learn from the margins, the peripheries, the ‘between’ places? We attempted to answer this question at our first Medieval and Early Modern Conference, held at the University of Aberdeen. This theme was chosen as Aberdeen itself can feel on the fringes of research, and the conference committee wanted to further explore and challenge this perception. This conference marks the beginning of what we hope will be a longer tradition here in Aberdeen. It was especially well attended considering that this was its first year running, and we had over forty people attending throughout the two days, both in-person and online. We had postgraduate and early career researchers from around the world presenting, with topics ranging from Old Norse eco-criticisms, marginal bodies on the stage and texts, early modern military marginalities, and more. Our keynote speaker, Dr Charlotta Hillerdal, presented on Scotland’s own marginal Viking-Age history.

With the support of the Scottish Society for Northern Studies, we were able to ensure that we could host a free conference, allowing our postgraduate and early career delegates to attend without further costs to themselves. This allowed for enlightening in-person discussion and networking across the thematic and field divisions. Without this grant, this conference would not have been the success that it was, and we are very thankful. We hope that this will be the beginning of a new tradition, but for now, we gained greater understandings of how to read marginality in the medieval and early modern north, and made connections between our own peripheral fields.

• Erin Benton (University of Aberdeen), June 2025