Medieval Libraries of Great Britain Project Researcher

Full-time, fixed-term postdoc position for 6 months to work with Andrew Dunning on redeveloping the Medieval Libraries of Great Britain project as a sustainable, open-access digital resource for manuscript studies. Apply by 14 July 2025
Full job advert and Further Particulars

The Bodleian Libraries are seeking to appoint a researcher to join the Medieval Libraries of Great Britain project, funded by the British Academy.Based in Bodleian Special Collections at the Weston Library, the successful applicant will contribute to the redevelopment of MLGB as a sustainable, open-access digital resource for manuscript studies. This is an exceptional opportunity to work with a leading team in historical bibliography, digital humanities, and medieval library history.You will take a leading role in the reconciliation, enhancement, and integration of the MLGB dataset, working with legacy print, manuscript, and digital sources. You will apply and adapt digital methods (especially TEI XML), analyse provenance data, disambiguate historical agents, and contribute to collaborative scholarly outputs. You will present your findings at conferences and help shape the project’s intellectual direction and future development.

This is a full-time, fixed-term post for 6 months. The role is based in the Weston Library, Oxford, with up to two days of remote working per week by agreement with the line manager. The Chair of this recruitment panel will be Dr Andrew Dunning, R.W. Hunt Curator of Medieval Manuscripts, who can be contacted with enquiries relating to the role (andrew.dunning@bodleian.ox.ac.uk).

About You You will have a PhD/DPhil (or have submitted a thesis) in a field such as medieval studies, book history, or digital humanities. You will have excellent reading knowledge of Latin and expertise in manuscript studies, including palaeographical and codicological skills. You will be able to manage your own research activities independently and will have contributed to academic publications or digital research outputs. You will have excellent communication skills and be able to work collaboratively in a research team.

What We Offer: As an employee of the University of Oxford, you will enjoy a wide range of benefits, including 38 days’ paid annual leave, membership of a generous pension scheme, family-friendly policies, access to childcare services, and opportunities for flexible and hybrid working. You will have access to the University Club and sports facilities, professional development through the Researcher Hub, and a vibrant academic and cultural environment in central Oxford. More information is available at  https://hr.admin.ox.ac.uk/staff-benefits 

Diversity: Our staff and students come from all over the world, and we proudly promote a friendly and inclusive culture. Diversity is positively encouraged through diverse groups and champions, as well as a number of family-friendly policies, such as the right to apply for flexible working and support for staff returning from periods of extended absence, for example, shared parental leave.We are committed to ensuring that our recruitment processes are inclusive and accessible. If you require the job description or any other materials in an alternative format, or if you would like to request any adjustments to support you through the application or interview process, please contact the recruitment team at  recruitment@glam.ox.ac.uk.How to applyYou will be required to upload your CV and a supporting statement. Your supporting statement should list each of the essential and desirable selection criteria, as listed in the job description, and explain how you meet each one. Both documents must be submitted to be considered.We aim to provide a supportive working environment and are happy to discuss training and professional development opportunities.

Only applications received online before 12:00 midday (BST) on Monday 14 July 2025 can be considered. Interviews are expected to take place during the week commencing 28 July 2025.

Contact Person : GLAM Recruitment, Vacancy ID : 180432
Closing Date & Time : 14-Jul-2025 12:00
Pay Scale : RESEARCH GRADE 6
Contact Email : recruitment@glam.ox.ac.uk
Salary (£) : £34,982 – £40,855 per annum

180432 Job Description and Selection Criteria.pdf

On the background of the project

Consult the Holding page: Medieval Libraries of Great Britain. The Bodleian Libraries write: In October 2024, we had to take a number of specialist digital resources offline. This was a precautionary step in line with University guidance to ensure we were protected from a hostile cyber-attack.

Alternative ways to access the material

Digitised copies of the print catalogue can be found on HathiTrust:

1964 edition: https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uva.x000937945

1987 supplement: https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015021966216

[1941 edition:] https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uiug.30112113075359

An archived static version of the site is available at the Internet Archive, which allows you to browser the records. Date when website was withdrawn: 24 October 2024

Medieval Matters, The Long Vac

Dear all,

Weekly emails will stop over the long vac, but it is worth drawing to your attention a number of opportunities that take place before term starts up again. It is never too early to send in events for the booklet and / or the calendar – we will keep posting events on the OMS calendar as soon as you send them in.

Two more things OMS is looking for:
1) We are still seeking information on your publications for the production of an impact document – please send information of any monographs/edited volumes etc with a short blurb to this email address ASAP.
2) The social media officer position is still vacant – we know that Ashley Castelino is a hard act to follow (see his report here) but he is prepared to help whoever is taking over to learn the trade secrets.

Last week saw the premiere of the filmed version of the Oxford Medieval Mystery Play – thank you to all of you who watched along online! The entire collection is available on our Youtube channel here, where each individual play can also be found.

IMC Leeds 2026 has opened its Call for Papers. Following the death of Twitter, it can be hard to circulate CfPs – if you are organising an event for this, please send me information ASAP, and I will try and make sure that these are all circulated as a group. Medievalists Coffee Mornings continue throughout the term break, only stopping in August.

Events

  • 26th June, 6:30pm. Oxford University Heraldry Society online lecture on ‘The King’s Esquire. The life of Robert Waterton ( c.1365-1425 ) in its heraldic context’. Zoom link here.
  • 1st July, 5.15pm-6.15pm. ‘Invisible Treasures’ film screening and panel discussion. More information, and free tickets, here.

Opportunities

  • Three-year postdoc research fellowship in Göttingen in Early Medieval Manuscript Studies and Germanic Philology, on the ERC INSULAR project. More information here.
  • CfP for ‘Borders, Boundaries and Barriers: Real and Imagined in the Middle Ages’, a conference held at Oxford 20th-21st April 2026. More information here.

CfP: Borders, Boundaries and Barriers: Real and Imagined in the Middle Ages

20 and 21 April 2026 in Oxford

Submission Deadline: 15 September 2025.

Borders, Boundaries, and Barriers have become increasingly prominent themes in historical scholarship. Over the last decade, these concepts have been the focus of sustained scholarly interest, drawing especially upon theoretical frameworks and (trans-)national contexts. There is, therefore, a pressing need to examine how these constructs have shaped the lived experiences of historically marginalised groups, as well as how they were perceived, defined, and engaged with by those groups.

This conference seeks to reorient discussions around borders, boundaries, and barriers by foregrounding the experiences and perspectives of marginalised groups and considering how these divisions were perceived fromthe peripheries of societies. Rather than treating these concepts as abstract or solely geopolitical, we will explore the ways in which they have operated — both historically and historiographically — as tools of exclusion and differentiation.


Organised by Natasha Jenman (University of Oxford), Naomi Reiter (QMUL), and Dean A. Irwin (University of Lincoln/OCHJS), the conference will focus on individuals, religious groups, social groups, societal constructions, and natural phenomena. Participants are invited to explore the role played by evolving borders, boundaries, and barriers in the medieval world as part of group identities; and how groups used them to their advantage. Likewise, it will consider the extent to which borders, boundaries and barriers have been imposed upon the medieval world by modern scholars. Possible topics for consideration include, but are not limited to:

  • Legal jurisdictions
  • The natural and the supernatural worlds
  • Socio-economic strata
  • Ritual and religion
  • Space, time, and the environment
  • Gender and sexuality
  • Disability
  • Transgression, delinquency, and the grey middle space

This conference adopts a broad chronological and geographical approach with submissions from all
historically-related disciplines being welcome. The conference will take place on 20 and 21 April 2026 in
Oxford
. To submit, please send a title, abstract (c. 250 words), and a bio (c. 100 words) to:
bordersboundariesbarriers@gmail.com. Any questions should be directed to the same e-mail address.
The organisers hope to be able to offer a limited number of bursaries for students and those on low income. Please indicate in your proposal whether you would like to be considered for
one of these if this becomes possible.

Image ref: Latin Psalter (13th-15th C), f.9 – BL Add MS 28681,



Medieval Matters, TT25 Wk 8

Another academic year draws to a close: welcome, finally, to Week 8. The full Medieval Studies booklet is available here.

Next Thursday, 19 June, 4:30-6pm, is the official launch date for the “The Oxford Medieval Mystery Plays – the Film”. This is a wonderful chance to come together to celebrate the end of the year, and watch some of the excellent performances that were put on earlier in the term. At 4:45pm, the film will have its youtube premiere. You can tune in from anywhere in the world to comment; find the full schedule of when each play will start, more information, and a teaser here.

NB. If you are leaving us at the end of this year, and you would like to remain a member of this mailing list (and you are most welcome to do so), please  register here with your personal email (link always available from our homepage https://medieval.ox.ac.uk/).

Monday

  • Poetry, Power, Literacy, and the Emergence of Vernacular Literatures – 9am in the Radcliffe Humanities Building, Seminar Room. The workshop is part of the activities of the TORCH Network Poetry in the Medieval World.
  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10:30 am in the Weston Library.
  • Medieval History Seminar – 5pm at All Souls College. Stuart Airlie (Glasgow) will be speaking on ‘Returns of the Repressed: Aby Warburg’s cultural history of Percy Ernst Schramm’. Following the talk, a special drinks reception will be held to mark Julia’s retirement. Please sign up here.

Tuesday

  • The Latin Palaeography Reading Group meets 2-3.30pm. Please email Laure Miolo for more information.
  • Medieval Church and Culture –  tea and biscuits from 5pm in the Wellbeloved Room, with talks from 5.15. Cassidy Serhienko (Pembroke) will be speaking on ‘‘That Fayre Lady’: women and the code of chivalry in late Arthurian romance’; Senia Magzumov (Worcester) will be speaking on ‘Imagining the Rus’ Pagan Past in the Radziwill Chronicle: a comparative study with the Litsevoi Letopisnyi Svod’.

Wednesday

  • The Medieval German Graduate Seminar meets Wednesdays 11.15am–12.45pm in Oriel College, Harris Lecture Room. The topic for this term is the ‘Alexanderroman’ and this week Lucian Shepherd and Monty Powell will present. If you are interested to be added to the teams group for updates for future terms, please contact Henrike Lähnemann.
  • Medieval Latin Document Reading Group – 4pmonline, please contact Michael Stansfield.
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5pm in the Ioannou Centre. Special OCBR lecture – Marc Lauxtermann (Exeter) will be speaking on ‘The Emergence of Fiction: Byzantium and the East’.
  • Oxford Centre of Islamic Studies Seminar – 5pm in the Oxford Centre of Islamic Studies. Dr Glaire Anderson (University of Edinburgh) will be speaking on ‘A Bridge to the Sky: Science and Arts in the Age of Ibn Firnas (d. 887)’.
  • Medieval Women’s Writing Research Seminar – 5pm in the Lower Lecture Room, Lincoln College. The theme is ‘Letters of Friendship and Gratitude’.

Thursday

  • The Oxford Medieval Mystery Plays: Film launch4:30pm at the Farmingdon Institute, Harris Manchester College.
  • Lincoln Unlocked – 5.15pm in the Weston Library. Rebecca Menmuir will be speaking on ‘Achilles at Lincoln: Unlocking the Medieval Text of a Classical Poem’. Book here.

Friday

  • Medievalists Coffee Morning – 10.30am at the Weston Library. All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided.

Opportunities (new additions in bold)

  • British Academy talks on Anglo-Saxon and medieval Irish numismatics. More info here.
  • The Latin Hymn as Scriptural Exegesis – from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages – 25–26 September 2025. Registration is free but compulsory. Futher details here: https://classics.web.ox.ac.uk/event/the-latin-hymn-as-scriptural-exegesis-from-late-antiquity-to-the-middle-ages
  • Essay Prize for Review of English Studies seeking applications – more information here.
  • A number of roles are available at Hamburg’s ‘Understanding Written Artefacts’: Doctoral Researcherspost-docs, and advanced post-docs.
  • London Medieval Society’s 80th anniversary colloquium on ‘Memory and Commemoration’ is being held at on Saturday 28th June at The Warburg Institute.
  • ‘Big Data’ and Medieval Manuscripts Exploring the Potential of Large-Scale Catalogue Data – Thursday 26th June, 1–5pm, Weston Library. More information here.
  • The Terence Barry Prize for Best Graduate Paper in Irish Medieval Studies – deadline May 30, 2025. More information here.
  • Anglo-Israeli Archaeological Society Travel Grant – more info here.
  • Call for Submissions: Taube Prizes for Student Writing in Hebrew & Jewish Studies – see blog post.
  • National Archives Skills Courses – see blog post.
  • CfP for ‘Staging Silence from Antiquity to the Renaissance’ – more information here.
  • CfP for ‘Music and Reformation: A Symposium at Lambeth Palace Library, 16 September 2025’
  • A regular pub trip is being organised on a Friday at 6pm at the Chequers, from 0th week to 8th week, for all medievalists at Oxford. Email maura.mckeon@bfriars.ox.ac.uk
  • Additional spaces are available on the ‘Big Data’ and Medieval Manuscripts workshop – please sign up here.
  • Registration for the Masterclass by Patrick Boucheron – Pourquoi des médiévistes ? Penser le contemporain depuis le Moyen Âge – 29 May, 2:30pm, Maison Française d’Oxford.
  • Registration for Patrick Boucheron’s lecture entitled ‘The Birth of the Black Death: New Approaches in World History’ – 29 May, 5:00pm, Pembroke College.
  • The Digital Medieval Studies Institute is hosting a set of workshops on digital scholarly methods specifically tailored for medievalists as part of the International Medieval Congress at the University of Leeds. More information can be found here.

Medieval Matters TT25 Week 7

Welcome to Week 7: the full Medieval Studies booklet is available here. First, a number of important reminders.

The Centre for Early Medieval Britain and Ireland is hosting an online exhibition of artefacts and manuscripts that explore the lives of early medieval women. To submit an item, or to attend the even, follow this link.

The Medieval History research seminar in Week 8 (16 June) has been moved to the Old Library in All Souls. There will be a drinks reception afterwards, 6.30-7.30pm, in the Great Quad, to mark Julia’s retirement.  For catering purposes, people planning to attend should RSVP using this form: https://forms.office.com/e/Mr92xB66jh

Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10:30 pm in the Weston Library.
  • Medieval History Seminar – 5pm at All Souls College. Andrew Dunning (Bodleian Library Oxford) will be speaking on ‘The Cult of Saint Frideswide in Medieval Oxford’.

Tuesday

  • The Latin Palaeography Reading Group meets 2-3.30pm. Please email Laure Miolo for more information.
  • EMBI ‘Women in Early Medieval Britain and Ireland’ online exhibition – 3.30pm, Massey Room, Balliol College.
  • Medieval Church and Culture –  5pm in the Wellbeloved Room. Francesca Peacock (Lincoln) will be speaking on ‘Thu and thi wyff arn barrany and bare!’: the experience of infertility and the cult of St Anne in medieval East Anglia, c. 1100 – 1500′; Isabelle Amy Job (St Anne’s) will be speaking on ‘Blanche of Castile and Le Miroir de l’Ame’; Molly Bray (Lincoln) will be speaking on ‘Conspicuous Materiality, Collective Devotion: making and exchanging textiles in the Lüneburg Heath c. 1500’.
  • Medieval French Research Seminar – 5pm in the Maison française d’Oxford. Bastien Racca (Université de Fribourg, Switzerland) will be speaking on ‘‘L’amour rêvé: des métalepses dans le Songe Vert ?’’

Wednesday

  • The Medieval German Graduate Seminar meets Wednesdays 11.15am–12.45pm in Oriel College, Harris Lecture Room. The topic for this term is the ‘Alexanderroman’. If you are interested to be added to the teams group for updates, please contact Henrike Lähnemann.
  • The ‘science of the stars’ in context: an introduction to medieval astronomical and astrological manuscripts and texts – 2pm in the Horton Room (Weston Library). Session 6: Horoscope: dating and interpretating medieval horoscopes.
  • Medieval Latin Document Reading Group – 4pmonline, please contact Michael Stansfield.
  • June & Simon Li Lecture in the History of Art – 5pm at Lincoln College. Aden Kumler (University of Basel) will be speaking on ‘Vera mensura. Dimensional realism in medieval manuscripts’.
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5pm in the Ioannou Centre. John-Francis Martin (Oriel) will be speaking on ‘“The Last Byzantine Controversy” — Politics, Rhetoric, and Religion from the Council of Ferrara-Florence to the Fall of Constantinople’.
  • Medieval Society and Landscape Seminar Series – 5pm in the Department for Continuing Education. Simon Townley (Victoria County History of Oxfordshire) will be speaking on ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once: Exploring Medieval Place and Society through Local History’. Book here.
  • Oxford Centre of Islamic Studies Seminar – 5pm in the Oxford Centre of Islamic Studies. Dr Sophia Vasalou (University of Birmingham) will be speaking on ‘Al-Ghazālī and the Ideal of Godlikeness’.
  • Medieval Women’s Writing Research Seminar– 5pm, Lower Lecture Room, Lincoln College. Kat Smith (University of Oxford) will be speaking on ‘The Virgin Mary in Medieval and Early Modern Women’s Writing’.

Thursday

  • Oxford Environmental History Working Group – 12:30 online. Bill Smith (DPhil History) will be speaking on “Chains of Control and Reins of Resistance: Nonhuman Animals and the Plantationocene in the American South”.
  • ‘Big Data’ and Medieval Manuscripts – 1–5pm.

Friday

  • Medievalists Coffee Morning – 10.30am at the Weston Library. All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided.
  • Medieval Manuscripts Support Group – 11:30 in the Horton Room. Readers of medieval manuscripts can pose questions to a mixed group of fellow readers and Bodleian curators in a friendly environment. Come with your own questions, or to see what questions other readers have!
  • Anglo-Norman Reading Group – 5pm in the Farmington Institute in Harris Manchester College and online. For more information on the texts, email Jane Bliss.
  • Research Workshop: Working with modern theory on Medieval Women’s Writing – 5pm in the Lower Lecture Room, Lincoln College.
  • Oxford Translation Day 2025 – 6pm at the Taylor Institute. More info here.

Opportunities (new additions in bold)

  • The Latin Hymn as Scriptural Exegesis – from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages – 25–26 September 2025. Registration is free but compulsory. Futher details here: https://classics.web.ox.ac.uk/event/the-latin-hymn-as-scriptural-exegesis-from-late-antiquity-to-the-middle-ages
  • Essay Prize for Review of English Studies seeking applications – more information here.
  • A number of roles are available at Hamburg’s ‘Understanding Written Artefacts’: Doctoral Researcherspost-docs, and advanced post-docs.
  • London Medieval Society’s 80th anniversary colloquium on ‘Memory and Commemoration’ is being held at on Saturday 28th June at The Warburg Institute.
  • ‘Big Data’ and Medieval Manuscripts Exploring the Potential of Large-Scale Catalogue Data – Thursday 26th June, 1–5pm, Weston Library. More information here.
  • The Terence Barry Prize for Best Graduate Paper in Irish Medieval Studies – deadline May 30, 2025. More information here.
  • Anglo-Israeli Archaeological Society Travel Grant – more info here.
  • Call for Submissions: Taube Prizes for Student Writing in Hebrew & Jewish Studies – see blog post.
  • National Archives Skills Courses – see blog post.
  • CfP for ‘Staging Silence from Antiquity to the Renaissance’ – more information here.
  • CfP for ‘Music and Reformation: A Symposium at Lambeth Palace Library, 16 September 2025’
  • A regular pub trip is being organised on a Friday at 6pm at the Chequers, from 0th week to 8th week, for all medievalists at Oxford. Email maura.mckeon@bfriars.ox.ac.uk
  • Additional spaces are available on the ‘Big Data’ and Medieval Manuscripts workshop – please sign up here.
  • Registration for the Masterclass by Patrick Boucheron – Pourquoi des médiévistes ? Penser le contemporain depuis le Moyen Âge – 29 May, 2:30pm, Maison Française d’Oxford.
  • Registration for Patrick Boucheron’s lecture entitled ‘The Birth of the Black Death: New Approaches in World History’ – 29 May, 5:00pm, Pembroke College.
  • The Digital Medieval Studies Institute is hosting a set of workshops on digital scholarly methods specifically tailored for medievalists as part of the International Medieval Congress at the University of Leeds. More information can be found here.

EMBI ‘Early Medieval Women’ Online Exhibition

When: Tuesday 10th, 3:30-5.

Where: Massey Room, Balliol College

Interested in exploring the lives of medieval women? Recently stumbled upon a text or a bit of material culture that piqued your interest?  The Centre for Early Medieval Britain and Ireland will be launching an online exhibition later this spring, designed to complement the British Library’s recent Medieval Women exhibition. While the BL focused primarily on later medieval material, we hope in our exhibition to shed light on the lives of early medieval women.  

For us to embark on this project, we need your help!  

We are looking for artefacts, objects, manuscript inscriptions or sections, documentary evidence, and any other bits and bobs that might speak to the history and lived experience of early medieval women.

If you have in mind something that you would like to be included in the exhibition, we will be hosting an informal meeting next Tuesday, 10 June at 3:30pm at Balliol (main site—Massey Room) to give everyone an opportunity to present their ideas, with time for general discussion about the exhibition as a whole.

To prepare, please send us a single slide for each object/manuscript (one slide per exhibition piece, up to three) you’d like to propose, with a couple of bullet points telling us about it and its relevance. We’ve attached a sample slide, just so you have an idea of what we’re looking for. No need to do a full write-up on your proposals; we’d just love to get an idea of what interests you. 

Please send your slide(s) to Harriet Carter (harriet.carter@lmh.ox.ac.uk) and Sarah Ware (sarah.ware@history.ox.ac.uk) by Monday, 9 June at 6pm

Even if you don’t have a particular object in mind for the online exhibition, please do come along to our meeting. This will be a laid-back discussion, and all are welcome (undergraduates, graduate students, researchers, instructors, community members, and everyone in between). We hope to see many of you there!  

Image Credit: Add MS 33241, f. 1v

‘Art of the Book’ Exhibition at New College, Oxford

Friday 13 June 2025, 12 noon–5PM
Lecture Room 4, New College, Oxford

New College Library is pleased to announce our exhibition for Trinity Term!

Clockwise: New College Library, Oxford, BT3.275.1, MS 281, MS 369

In ‘Art of the Book’, we explore the beauty of all things bibliographical through our wonderful special collections—from the medieval period to the present day. Expect fabulous illumination, exquisite illustrations, beautiful bindings, and some outstanding private press works.

The items will be on display in Lecture Room 4 in New College on 13 June, between 12pm and 5pm. For those unfamiliar with New College, just head to the Porters’ Lodge (located halfway down Holywell Street). There will be signs to direct visitors to the exhibition.

The exhibition is free and open to all, so please do spread the word . . .

Medieval Matters TT25, Week 6

Welcome to Week 6: the full Medieval Studies booklet is available here.

Big News! Join us on Thursday 19th June from 4:30 – 6 at the Farmingdon Institute (Harris Manchester College) for the Film Launch of the Medieval Mystery Plays! We are promised ‘liberal quantities of drinks (including the famous Tiddly Pommes apple juice) and nibbles’; full announcement and trailer here….

Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10:30 pm in the Weston Library.
  • Medieval History Seminar – 5pm at All Souls College. Megan Welton (UCD) will be speaking on
    ‘Diu nocteque: Investigating Liturgical Programs of Prayer for TenthCentury Ruling Women’.

Tuesday

  • Medieval English Research Seminar – 12.15 in the English Faculty. Rita Copeland (Pennsylvania) will be speaking on ‘Messy Chaucer’.
  • The Latin Palaeography Reading Group meets 2-3.30pm. Please email Laure Miolo for more information.
  • Medieval Church and Culture –  tea and biscuits from 5pm in the Wellbeloved Room, with talks from 5.15. Cosima Gilhammer (Christ Church) will be speaking on ‘Liturgy and Translation in Medieval England’.

Wednesday

  • The Medieval German Graduate Seminar meets Wednesdays 11.15am–12.45pm in Oriel College, Harris Lecture Room. The topic for this term is the ‘Alexanderroman’ and this week Rahel Micklich and Anna Wilmore will be speaking on beginnings and endings in different versions. If you are interested to be added to the teams group for updates, please contact Henrike Lähnemann.
  • Medieval Latin Document Reading Group – 4pmonline, please contact Michael Stansfield.
  • CMTC Social ‘Tea – 4:30 – 6 in the Memorial Room, The Queen’s College. Everybody welcome!
  • Medieval Visual Culture Lecture – 5pm in the Raptakos Seminar Room, St Catherine’s College. Vincent Debiais will be speaking on ‘Frustration and Failure: Medieval Images of Christ’s Transfiguration (12th-13thC).
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5pm in the Ioannou Centre. Giuseppe Mendicino (University of Milan) will be speaking on ‘John Tzetzes and the Heritage of Hephaistion: Transmission, Critique, and Innovation in Byzantine Treatises on Metrics’.
  • Oxford Centre of Islamic Studies Seminar – 5pm in the Oxford Centre of Islamic Studies. Professor Anoush Ehteshami (Durham University) will be speaking on ‘Iran’s Crisis of Governance’.

Thursday

  • Balliol Interdisciplinary Institute’s conference (‘Transmitting and Preserving Languages in the Medieval and Early Modern Mediterranean’) – 8.45am in the Gillis Lecture Theatre, Balliol College. More information here.
  • Middle English Reading Group (MERG) – 2pm in the Smoking Room (Lincoln College). Join us to read the ‘double sorwe’ of Troilus and Criseyde in a weekly reading group. We will be reading from the end of Book IV. For more information or to be added to the mailing list, please email rebecca.menmuir@lincoln.ox.ac.uk.
  • Handle with Care: The Oldest Translations of the Bible in English – 4:30pm in the St Cross Lecture Theatre. Register here.
  • The Khalili Research Centre For the Art and Material Culture of the Middle East: Research Seminar – 5.15 in the KRC Lecture Room. Yusuf Tayara (Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies) will be speaking on ‘The mosque as instrument: new approaches in the history of Islamicate astronomy’.

Friday

  • Medievalists Coffee Morning – 10.30am at the Weston Library. All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided.
  • Oxford Medieval Manuscript Group Reading Group: Connoisseurship and Medieval Manuscripts: A Roundtable – 4pm online at the Center for Digital Scholarship at the Weston Library. Write to oxfordmedievalmss@gmail.com for more information.
  • Old Norse seminar – 5pm in the History of the Book Room, EFL. Richard Dance (Cambridge) will be speaking on ‘The Etymologist vs. the Vikings: Some “Difficult” Old Norse Borrowings in Middle English.

Opportunities (new additions in bold)

  • A number of roles are available at Hamburg’s ‘Understanding Written Artefacts’: Doctoral Researchers, post-docs, and advanced post-docs.
  • London Medieval Society’s 80th anniversary colloquium on ‘Memory and Commemoration’ is being held at on Saturday 28th June at The Warburg Institute.
  • ‘Big Data’ and Medieval Manuscripts Exploring the Potential of Large-Scale Catalogue Data – Thursday 26th June, 1–5pm, Weston Library. More information here.
  • The Terence Barry Prize for Best Graduate Paper in Irish Medieval Studies – deadline May 30, 2025. More information here.
  • Anglo-Israeli Archaeological Society Travel Grant – more info here.
  • Call for Submissions: Taube Prizes for Student Writing in Hebrew & Jewish Studies – see blog post.
  • National Archives Skills Courses – see blog post.
  • CfP for ‘Staging Silence from Antiquity to the Renaissance’ – more information here.
  • CfP for ‘Music and Reformation: A Symposium at Lambeth Palace Library, 16 September 2025’
  • A regular pub trip is being organised on a Friday at 6pm at the Chequers, from 0th week to 8th week, for all medievalists at Oxford. Email maura.mckeon@bfriars.ox.ac.uk
  • Additional spaces are available on the ‘Big Data’ and Medieval Manuscripts workshop – please sign up here.
  • Registration for the Masterclass by Patrick Boucheron – Pourquoi des médiévistes ? Penser le contemporain depuis le Moyen Âge – 29 May, 2:30pm, Maison Française d’Oxford.
  • Registration for Patrick Boucheron’s lecture entitled ‘The Birth of the Black Death: New Approaches in World History’ – 29 May, 5:00pm, Pembroke College.
  • The Digital Medieval Studies Institute is hosting a set of workshops on digital scholarly methods specifically tailored for medievalists as part of the International Medieval Congress at the University of Leeds. More information can be found here.

Film Launch Medieval Mystery Plays 2025

Watch the release of the films of the Mystery Plays and celebrate the end of the academic year with Oxford Medieval Studies! Since OMS was just awarded a prize for the Mystery Plays from the ‘Engagement with Research’ fund, there will be liberal quantities of drinks (including the famous Tiddly Pommes applejuice) and nibbles as well as discussions on how to continue the dramatic adventures in the future. Do come along to have your say whether, when, and how to stage the next Mystery Cycle!

When? Thursday, 19 June 2025, 4.30-6pm
Where? Farmingdon Institute, Harris Manchester College

Film premiere will start on 19 June 2025, 4:45pm. Join us from anywhere in the world to comment live on the premiere!

16:45 – Opening
16:48 – The Fall of the Angels
17:00 – Adam and Eve
17:21 – The Flood
17:42 – Abraham and Isaac
17:58 – The Annunciation
18:06 – The Nativity
18:32 – The Wedding at Cana
18:47 – The Crucifixion
19:02 – The Lamentation & The Harrowing of Hell 1
19:17 – The Harrowing of Hell 2
19:20 – The Resurrection
19:42 – The Martyrdom of the Three Holy Virgins
20:07 – The Last Judgement

Read a report on the 2025 Medieval Mystery Cycle. After the film launch, all plays will be accessible via the Oxford Medieval Studies youtube channel as one film and individually!

Header image: Ben Arthur capturing the Passion of the Holy Virgins, the penultimate play in the Mystery Cycle