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 ‘1000 years of Creed settings in music with the choir of Christ Church singing’. Do come and make sure the concert hall buzzes with medievalists! All information here.
Professor Benjamin Pohl’s will be delivering a lecture on “Food for Thought – The Bayeux Tapestry Revisited” in Magdalen’s auditorium at 5pm on Wednesday 17th June, and free tickets can be booked here.
Monday
- French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10:30, Weston Library. If you are interested in joining the group or would like more information, please email the convenor Laure Miolo.
- Archaeology Lecture – 3: 00, Lecture Room, Institute of Archaeology. Kerstin Lidén (Professor of Archaeological Science, Stockholm University) will be speaking on ‘Crisis, Conflict and Climate: Societal Change in Scandinavia 300–700C’.
- Czech Medieval Literature Workshop: Courtly Love and Its Discontents – 4:00, Schwarzman Centre Room 30.023.
- Medieval History Seminar: – 5:00, All Souls College. Charles West (University of Edinburgh) will be speaking on ‘Rethinking eleventh-century Europe’.
Tuesday
- Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 2pm, Weston Library. Those who are interested can email the convenor Laure Miolo.
- Czech Medieval Literature Workshop: Jews, Monks, and Women: Margins and Exclusions – 4:00, Schwarzman Centre Room 30.023.
- Medieval French Research Seminar – 5:00, Maison Francaise. Rebecca Dixon (University of Liverpool) will be speaking on ‘Between Familiarisation and Historicisation: Visualising Ancient Greece in Raoul Lefèvre’s Histoire de Jason’.
- Medieval Church and Culture Seminar– Tea & coffee from 5pm; papers begin at 5.15pm, Harris Manchester College. Celeste Van Gent (Pembroke) will be speaking on ‘death and the burial practices of soldiers on campaign in later medieval England’.
Wednesday
- Methods in Arabic and Islamic Studies Class – 10:30, LMH Library.
- Medieval German Graduate Seminar on Thomasin von Zerklaere – 11:15, Oriel College. If you are interested to be added to the teams group for updates and access to the sources, please contact Henrike Lähnemann.
- Old Norse Reading Group – 4:00, Merton College, Breakfast Room. This term we are reading Völsunga saga. If you are interested in joining the group, please contact one of the group convenors via email Brooklyn Arnot or Zeynep Kirca.
- The Medieval Latin Documentary Palaeography Reading Group – 4:00, online. To join and/or to find out more about this and the possibility of some hands-on experience of cataloguing such documents to develop further your research skills, please contact Michael Stansfield.
- Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5:00, Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar, Ioannou Centre. Maria Lidova (Saint Petersburg) will be speaking on ‘The Murano Ivory Diptych: Defragmenting the History and Image of a Late Antique Book Cover’.
- Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies Lecture – 5:00, Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. Al-Faisal Anniversary Lecture
Thursday
- Middle English Reading Group (MERG) – 11:00, Lincoln College, Beckington Room. All are welcome as we finish Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Bring any edition of the original text! There will be tea and biscuits. For more information or to be added to the mailing list, please email Rebecca Menmuir.
- The Khalili Research Centre Seminar – 4:00, KRC Lecture Room. Nilay Özlü & Ceren Abi (Istanbul Technical University) will be speaking on ‘Archives and Archaeology: Unearthing the Ottoman Perspective’ ; Daniel-Joseph MacArthur-Seal ( Scuola Superiore Meridionale, Naples and Gizem Tongo and KRC & Lusail Museum, Doha) will be speaking on ‘Occupation on Display: Curating the Aftermath of World War I in Istanbul’
- Medieval Visual Culture Seminar – 5:00, St Catherine’s College. Meg Bernstein (University of East Anglia) will be speaking on ‘Negotiating Boundaries in England’s Medieval Parish Churches’,
- Old English Graduate Reading Group – 5:15. This term we will be reading some of the Exeter Riddles. Our Location is variable so please email Hattie (harriet.carter@lmh.ox.ac.uk) or James (james.titterington@stcatz.ox.ac.uk) if you’re interested.
- Oliver Smithies Lecture – 5:15, Gillis Lectute Theatre, Balliol. Elaine Treharne will be speaking on ‘Medieval Manuscript Hunters and the Second World War’.
- Guild of Medievalist Makers – 5:30, online. Optional theme: solstice.
- Heraldry Society – 5:30, Oriel College. Robert Weaver will be speaking on ‘Bound to Please: A Selection of Early Modern Armorial Bookbindings’. Note: This lecture includes “Show and Tell”. In person attendance is recommended!
- Compline in the Crypt – 9:30, St Edmund Hall.
Friday
- Medievalist Coffee Morning – Friday 10:30, Visiting Scholars Centre (Weston Library). All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided.
- Oxford Medieval Manuscript Group Reading Group – 5:00, online.
- Medieval Latin Reading Group – 5:30, Christ Church. This term, we will be reading the Cosmographia of Bernardus Silvestris in the original. For more information, please contact Clara Bykvist or Monty Powell.
Saturday
- Memorial Service for Prof Stephen Baxter – 2:30, St Peter’s Chapel. Registration here.
Opportunities (see Medieval Studies booklet for full details)
- Postdoctoral Fellowships at the Dictionary of Old English, U of T. More information here. Deadline: 12 June 2026.
- Sir John Rhŷs Prize for the study of the Celtic languages, literature, history, and antiquities. Entries should be submitted by email, with the subject line “Sir John Rhŷs Prize”, to the English Faculty Office, no later than Monday of Week 8 of Trinity Term (15 June 2026).
- 20th MEMSA Anniversary Conference. More information here. Deadline: 20 June 2026.
- CfP – 2026 Journal of the History of Ideas Graduate Student Symposium on ‘Prophecy, Prediction, and the Politics of Futurity’. Deadline: June 22, 2026. More information here.
- The Mortimer History Society will once again be offering two Research Bursaries (each of £1000) for the academic year 2026 to 2027, for PhD and MA students whose research includes any aspect of the medieval Welsh Marches or the Mortimers. More information here. Deadline: 30 June 2026.
- CfP – Representations of Women and/as Animals in Literature, Arts, and Other Media. Deadline: 15 July 2026.
- Call for book chapters in ‘Times of Change: Norway in the 13thC‘. Deadline: 31 July 2026.
- Publishing with the Journal Manuscript and Text Cultures. Are you interested in submitting to the journal Manuscript and Text Cultures? Please review the About the Journal page.
- Bodleian Purchasing Opportunity. Do you know of books that would aid your work but are not in the Bodleian? Help us strengthen the university’s collections. You can submit details of suggested books via https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/collections-and-resources/recommend-a-purchase or by email to medieval@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.