Blog

Thursday 9 July 2026, 6:00 p.m. Lecture Hall of the Museum of Decorative Arts Kulturforum, Potsdamer Platz, Matthäikirchplatz 4/6, 10785 Berlin In a lecture for the Kunstgeschichtliche Gesellschaft zu Berlin (Founded in 1887), Martin Kauffmann (Head of Early and Rare Collections, Bodleian Library, Oxford) will speak on an Ottonian illuminated manuscript in Oxford, and how… Read more: An Ottonian Manuscript in Oxford

At last, week 8! We’d like to put together a survey of all the medieval opportunities and events that have taken place this year. If you’ve run a seminar series, reading group, or workshop, at any point this year, I would be very grateful if you’d send me a short report for inclusion by the… Read more: Medieval Matter TT26, Wk 8

Querying Pre-Modern Cultures with LLMs St Edmund Hall Oxford / Online ; 20-22 November 2026 Call for Papers & Workshops Following the first Ars Inquirendi conference in December 2025, we invite proposals for a second hybrid exploration of the impact of Large Language Models (LLMs) on the study of cultures before the dominance of movable-type… Read more: Ars Inquirendi 2026

Peter Payne: A Forgotten Great European is an international workshop that will take place at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, 30 September – 1 October 2026. It is co-organised by Elizabeth Solopova, Henrike Lähnemann, Hannah Schühle-Lewis and James Howarth. The workshop is generously funded by a grant from the John Fell Fund awarded to Elizabeth Solopova… Read more: Peter Payne: A Forgotten Great European

Welcome to week 7. From Tuesday til Thursday, productions of The Harrowing of Hell.26 continue, now in The Crypt of St Peter-in-the-East. Tickets can be bought here Free tickets are still available for the inaugural Lecture of theologian and medievalist Andrew Davison on Monday, 15 June, 5pm, in the Concert Hall of the Humanities Centre on… Read more: Medieval Matter TT26, Wk7

The 2026 Journal of the History of Ideas Graduate Student Symposium, will be held online on October 17, 2026. The theme for this year’s Symposium is “Prophecy, Prediction, and the Politics of Futurity.” Graduate students at all stages of their program and working on different topics, periods, and regions are invited to submit a 500-word abstract on… Read more: CfP – Prophecy, Prediction, and the Politics of Futurity

Welcome to sixth week! All week, from Tuesday through to Saturday, you can watch The Harrowing of Hell.26, a 2026 experimental and abstract adaptation of the medieval Harrowing of Hell narrative, created from English mystery plays (York Cycle, Towneley Plays, Ludus Coventriae, Chester Cycle) and rewritten into contemporary English. Performances are at 9:30, in the… Read more: Medieval Matters TT26, Wk 6

Andrew Davison’s Inaugural Lecture: A thousand years of setting Christian theology to music Monday 15 June, 5:00pm. Auditorium, Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities Join us as the Revd Professor Andrew Davison delivers his inaugural lecture as Regius Professor of Divinity, exploring how Christian theology has been expressed through musical settings of the Creed across a millennium. The… Read more: The Creed in Music

The Harrowing of Hell.26 is a 2026 experimental and abstract adaptation of the medieval Harrowing of Hell narrative, created from English mystery plays (York Cycle, Towneley Plays, Ludus Coventriae, Chester Cycle) and rewritten into contemporary English. Week 6 — Burton Taylor Studio — 9:30–10:30pm – https://www.oxfordplayhouse.com/events/the-harrowing-of-hell Week 7 — The Crypt of St Peter-in-the-East —… Read more: Harrowing of Hell.26

Welcome to week 5, Last week’s Wikipedia editathon proved a great success, and there is now a wikipedia article for OMS itself! Thanks again to Louise for leading the session – a recording of the introductory talk can be found here. This Friday sees the ‘Exploring Medieval Oxford through Surviving Archives‘ conference at the Weston,… Read more: Medieval Matter TT26, wk5

The Ashmolean Museum are inviting twelve University of Oxford students to help us shape our new University Engagement Programme. Over 3.5 days we will work with staff from across the Museum to set the vision, shape the communications and scope activities for 2026/27 academic year. We are looking for creative pragmatists, with exciting ideas and… Read more: Come shape the Ashmolean Museum’s University Engagement Programme

Conference Friday 29 May 2026 – Weston Library With an exhibition curated by the participants 9          Welcome Matthew Holford & Laure Miolo 9.15      Lauren Pidgeon & Deborah Seymour : An agreement between Agatha the widow and John Halegod 9.30      Emily Breithaupt & India Kelly: The Charter of Alice of Stokes 9.45      Alice Zhang & Annabel… Read more: Exploring Medieval Oxford through Surviving Archives

Thursday 21 May from 15:00 to 16:00.  Registration link: AccessiBod: Widening access to Digital Bodleian Digitised special collections such as manuscripts, archives and photographs are rarely made accessible to people who are blind or have low vision, but this does not mean they are not interested in accessing such materials or that they have no need… Read more: AccessiBod. Widening Access to Digital Bodleian

Welcome to week 4! This Thursday sees our first ever Wikipedia Editathon for Medievalists, at 5:00 in the Old Library at St Edmund Hall. Whether you have always wanted to write or improve a Wikipedia article, are looking for a low-pressure way to start writing about your topic, or simply want a productive and enjoyable distraction… Read more: Medieval matter TT26, Wk 4

Celebrating 900 years of prayer, care and pilgrimage at Bartlemas Chapel A historic Oxford chapel is marking 900 years of history with a year-long programme of events celebrating its legacy of prayer, care and welcome. This follows on from the workshop with Ian Forrest, read the report: Searching for History The celebrations at Bartlemas Chapel in 2026 will tell the story of a place… Read more: The History of Bartholomew Chapel

Week 3 is upon us, and it’s jam-packed with medieval events and opportunities. Of particular note is Balliol’s Oliver Smithies Lecture, this Thursday, which sees Elaine Treharne discussing Medieval women scribes. Looking to the future, we’re hoping to put together a list of Oxford participants in this year’s IMC Leeds. If you are organising or… Read more: Medieval Matters TT26, Wk 3

Call for papers Representations of Women and/as Animals in Literature, Arts, and Other Media University of Oxford, Oriel College, 14-16 April 2027 Keynote speakers: Prof Chloë Taylor (University of Alberta) and Dr Kaori Nagai (University of Kent)Roundtable with Queer Kinship Network led by Prof Charlotte Ross (University of Oxford) Organising committee: Dr Fanny Clemente (University… Read more: Feminaminals

Welcome to week 2. Alongside the usual weekly roster of reading groups and opportunities, this weeks sees a number of exciting one-off events: ‘Black Lives in the Archives’ (Thur), Prof Treharne on ‘The Look of the Medieval Book’ (Fri), and Dr Griffith in the annual O’ Donnell Lecture (Fri). Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Opportunities (see Medieval… Read more: Medieval Matters TT26, Wk 2

International Conference in Cerisy-la-Salle and Caen (9-13 June 2027)Organisation : Pierre Bauduin, Alban Gautier, Marie-Agnès Lucas-Avenel(Université de Caen Normandie, Centre Michel de Boüard – CRAHAM) We do not know exactly the date of William the Conqueror’s birth. It seems that thefuture Duke of the Normans and King was born between mid-1027 and mid-1028. Hismother’s name… Read more: 1027 – 2027 : The World in which William was Born

We hereby would like to announce that the registration for the 20th Medieval and Early Modern Student Association Conference in Durham University is open! The conference theme this year will be ‘Connection, Conversation, and Contention: Encounters in the Medieval and Early Modern World’, and the event itself will feature 36 papers on this theme by… Read more: 20th MEMSA Anniversary Conference

Report by Carlos Rodríguez Otero and Monty Powell On Saturday 2 May 2026, a group comprising medievalists, musicians, musicologists, liturgists and art historians met in Room 2 of the Taylor Institution Library for a workshop on Medieval German Drama, organised by Henrike Lähnemann, Carlos Rodríguez Otero, Monty Powell and Sharang Sharma. The event centred on… Read more: Workshop on Late Medieval German Drama

Welcome back to Trinity term. There have been a substantial number of new additions to the booklet since the draft issued last week – please have a check through the updated booklet here for even more medieval events throughout the term. For some time-sensitive announcements (such as the call for actors for an experimental production… Read more: Medieval Matters TT26, Wk 1

The TORCH Oxford Medieval Studies Programme invites applications for small grants to support conferences, workshops, and other forms of collaborative research activity organised by researchers at postgraduate (whether MSt or DPhil) or early-career level from across the Humanities Division at the University of Oxford. The scheme has a rolling deadline. Closing date for applications: Friday of Week 4 each term for activities taking… Read more: OMS Small Grants Now Open!

Lost, dispersed, and marginalised manuscript collections For updates refer to the blog of the Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures. For more information: clement.salah@queens.ox.ac.uk or shaahin.pishbin@queens.ox.ac.uk Memorial Room, The Queen’s College, Oxford This workshop brings together scholars working across linguistic traditions, regions, and historical periods to reflect on manuscript collections that have been lost, dispersed,… Read more: Forgotten Libraries

The Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literature warmly invites OMS community members to a wine reception to launch the Nigel F. Palmer Travel Fund, to be held at 18:00 on Monday 11 May in the Hinrich Reemtsma Auditorium of the Warburg Institute (Woburn Square, London WC1H 0AB). The Fund will support graduate… Read more: Nigel F. Palmer Travel Fund Launch

Living Stones is looking for volunteers of any age, background or beliefs. Living Stones is the heritage and educational arm of St Mary’s, the church at the heart of Iffley village, Rose Hill and Donnington. Volunteers welcome visitors to the church. They also run activities, events and talks on its history and architecture. They welcome… Read more: Events at Iffley Church

Over the course of two days, this international conference highlighted emerging directions in the study of the field. Hosted at the University of Oxford as part of Prof. Francis Leneghan’s AHRC-funded projected Writing Pre-Conquest England: A History of Old English Prose, the event brought together a diverse cohort of international senior scholars, early career researchers,… Read more: New Directions in Old English Prose: Conference Report