*Being Imperial in the East: Reading Asian Empires in the European Middle Ages*   *Session at the International Medieval Congress (IMC), Leeds, 7-10 July 2014*   In the framework of the IMC 2014 the strand *Being Imperial in the East: Reading Asian Empires in the European Middle Ages* proposes to examine key elements of non-European empires, whether small, large, centralized, informal, secular or spiritual, across greater Eurasia (from the lands of Islam to the shores of Japan) during the European Middle Ages, a period which for our purposes will be defined as roughly 500-1500 CE.   The IMC, an annual conference running continuously since 1994, is the biggest humanities event in Europe, attracting over 1800 delegates in 2013, and provides a unique forum for sharing and comparing approaches across a wealth of disciplines.   Responding to the 2014 theme ‘Empire’, Being Imperial in the Eastwill offer further opportunities for fruitful exchange between scholars working on concepts of community, authority and exchange ingeographical and cultural contexts beyond Europe’s fuzzy bounds.   Proposals for papers are warmly invited from new and established researchers in the field, and topics may include:   • Being someone? Biographies, groups, networks, marriage and kinship   • Being recognized? Negotiating, reproducing and writing registers and elements of group identities   •  Being in charge? Sources and expressions of authority, coercion, acclamation and resistance   • Being rewarded? Appointments, patronage, gifts, tribute and loot   • Being rich? Trade, tribute, tax and the economics of empire   • Being in touch? Contact, civilization, mission, superiority and Others   • Being mobile? Deployment, travel, displacement and settlement   • Being heavenly? Spirituality, religion, universality and origins   Organised by Geoff Humble (PhD student, University of Birmingham)   If you are interested in offering a 20-minute paper within this session please send a title and a brief abstract of 100 words by 1 September 2013 to Geoff Humble gfh299@bham.ac.uk   Please note: Speakers invited cannot present a paper in another session at the IMC. All speakers will have to pay the appropriate IMC registration fee to attend.   For more information on the IMC see http://www.leeds.ac.uk/ims/imc/, and for the call for papers for the 2014 Congress, see http://www.leeds.ac.uk/ims/imc/imc2014_call.html   The twentieth International Medieval Congress will take place on the University of Leeds campus in Leeds from 7-10 July 2014.