Blog

Hello my friends, and welcome (back) to Oxford. The beginning of another term means a new set of exciting events to put in your calendars. The first version of the new Medieval Booklet of events can be found here. If you are organising an event or series this term, please have a quick check through:… Read more: Medieval Matters: MT 24, week 0

The College of Arts and Humanities, University College Dublin, Ireland, is pleased to announce a generously funded Ph.D. studentship specialising in Early medieval political and/or intellectual culture (c.500-c.1000 CE) which will be supervised by Dr Megan Welton, Assistant Professor in Medieval History and recently appointed Ad Astra Fellow at the School of History (https://people.ucd.ie/megan.welton). Deadline: 4… Read more: University College Dublin PhD opportunity

Introducing a new member of the OMS Steering Group who is taking responsibility for commissions for this website.

By Mathilde Mioche The Oxford Medieval Manuscripts Group (OMMG) is a collective of eight postgraduate students and early-career researchers who bonded in Oxford over their passion for medieval manuscripts. We host a seminar series through which we hope to gather a community of emerging scholars, from the University of Oxford and beyond, around the study… Read more: The Oxford Medieval Manuscripts Group

There are a number of palaeography offers available for anybody interested in Oxford happening in Michaelmas 2024, coordinated by Dr Laure Miolo, Lyell Career Development Fellow in Latin Palaeography and Dilts Fellow at Lincoln College, historian of late medieval Europe, specialising in manuscript studies and history of early libraries with a special focus on scientific… Read more: Palaeography Offers in Michaelmas 24

Date: Friday, 22 November 2024 ‘Crafting the Book’ is a one-day workshop aimed at current Oxford University students with an academic interest in the history of the book and material culture of medieval manuscripts and early printed texts, including their production, decoration, and provenance through signs of ownership. They will engage with historic materials and… Read more: Crafting the Book: A One-Day Workshop

The Multicultural Middle Ages Podcast Series (see the website here // Twitter: @Podcast_MMA_MAA) welcomes proposals for single episodes to be featured in its fourth season. After three successful seasons, The Multicultural Middle Ages (MMA) will return for its fourth in 2025. Sponsored by the Medieval Academy of America, MMA is an anthology-style podcast that welcomes the global… Read more: Call for Podcast Proposals

From Domesday Book to the Leveson Enquiry, our historical records offer students a myriad of untapped research opportunities across a wide range of time periods and disciplines. With so many options, however, getting started in the archives can be a daunting prospect. Many students have questions which they are too afraid to ask. How will… Read more: Introduction to Archival Research

St Catherine’s College, Oxford, Arumugam Building 1.2Thursdays 5 pm. All welcome Thursday, November 7, 5-6:30 pmElena Lichmanova, DPhil student, University of Oxford “Religious Storytelling and the Rise of Marginalia” Thursday, November 21, 5-6:30 pmAlixe Bovey, Professor and Dean, Deputy Director, & Head of Research, The Courtauld Institute of Art “Visual Storytelling in 14th-century London: Subtexts,… Read more: Medieval Visual Culture Seminar

Greetings friends, old and new. My name is Tristan Alphey, and I am the new OMS comms officer for the coming year. I’ll be popping up in your inboxes throughout the year with all sorts of opportunities and events, and so I want to take this quick chance to briefly introduce myself and my research.… Read more: Introducing the new OMS Comms officer

Tuesday, 24 Sept, 11am  in the MBI El Jaber Auditorium, Corpus Christi College, Merton Street, Oxford You are cordially invited to the 2nd Reza Hosseini Memorial Lecture Series delivered, in hybrid format, by William Dalrymple. Please register here to receive the Zoom link for those joining online: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-barmakids-a-bridge-between-islamic-and-indic-worlds-tickets-1012691907757. The opening statements will be offered by Profs Matthew Weait, Director… Read more: The Barmakids – The Bridge between Islamic and Indic Worlds

An invitation from the Bodleian Libraries team: How do we relax? A lot of us like collecting things and enjoying our collections. They might be books, they might be records, they might be photographs… they can be anything! Thursday 26 September, 6–8pm | Blackwell Hall, Weston Library As a library, the Bodleian has enjoyed collecting… Read more: Come Collect!

On Sunday 29 September 2024 (6pm and 8pm) the Chapel of New College, Oxford, offers the rare opportunity to see Man’s Desire and Fleeting Beauty, a short Dutch comedy.  The play was written for a dramatic competition in Gouda in 1546 by a Leiden Chamber of Rhetoric, and this performance may only be the second time the… Read more: Dutch Rhetoricians’ Play: Man’s Desire and Fleeting Beauty

Explanation of the result of the inspection of a sheep liver in the Old Library of St Edmund Hall. Dr Selena Wisnom (Leicester) researches ancient Mesopotamian divination, and asks the question: Will Donald Trump win the 2024 US election? You can watch the inspection in this video: and you can watch the alternative Babylonian reading… Read more: Sheep Liver Divination for US Election

Call for submissions of short stories about Morgana le Fay on behalf of the publisher Flame Tree who are advertising a new hardcover series with myths and short stories. Deadline for submissions is 22nd September 2024 From their website: Discover the mythology of humankind through its heroes, characters, gods and immortal figures. Myths, Gods & Immortals brings together the… Read more: Short Story Competition: Morgana le Fay

The long wait is over! We are extremely excited to finally present a complete video recording of the Old Norse eddic poem Vǫluspá (The Seeress’s Prophecy) by Clare Mulley: This was the premiere performance of Vǫluspá by Clare Mulley, which took place at The Oxford Story Museum, in honour of the third Old Norse Poetry… Read more: Vǫluspá: An Original Poetic Translation and Performance by Clare Mulley

I hope you are all well, and are enjoying a summer that is equal parts restful and productive. I come bearing various summer announcements. Firstly, a sad announcement: this will be my final email in your inbox! After three years, the time has come for me to pass on the torch (or should that be… Read more: Medieval Matters: Summer, and Passing the Torch

The Humanities Division Interdisciplinary Master’s Programmes are advertising an Academic Mentor & Communications Officer Joint Position for the MSt in Medieval Studies and Oxford Medieval Studies (OMS). The deadline for applications is 2 September 2024. For an insight into the duties involved, read the blog post by two previous postholders, Dr Luisa Ostacchini:  A Medieval… Read more: Medieval Studies Academic Mentor and Communications Officer

by Caitlín Kane, Special Collections Curatorial Assistant New College Back in February of this year, New College Library, Oxford had the pleasure of showcasing our wonderful collection of seven Books of Hours—beautiful manuscripts that once served as religious texts and treasured family heirlooms. Popular from the 14th century, especially in France, England, and the Netherlands,… Read more: Discoveries from New College’s Books of Hours

The last of the events organised by Living Stones, St Mary the Virgin, Iffley took place on Saturday 8 September, 2.00 – 5.00 Iffley Church Hall OX4 4EG, focussing on how the world changed in the 12th century when Iffley Church was built. In ‘Encountering the Other: Conflict and connection in 12th-century Europe’, Dr Teresa… Read more: 12th Century Iffley – Study Days

Workshop and Launch The new Introduction to Middle High German by Howard Jones and Martin H. Jones (OUP 2024), is a dedicated student edition of The Oxford Guide to Middle High German, designed for taught courses and self-study. It provides an accessible overview of the grammar and lexis of the language suitable for introductory-level students and includes thirty… Read more: An Introduction to Middle High German

The research project “The Seven Sages of Rome Revisited: Striving for an Alternative Literary History”  invites applications for one doctoral research associate: FU Berlin advertisement of the position The project is funded by the Einstein Foundation Berlin as part of the Berlin University Alliance/Oxford University Einstein Visiting Fellowship scheme. The selected postholder will work closely with the… Read more: Funded Doctoral Position: The Seven Sages of Rome

Friday 8th November 2024, Virtual Workshop For close to two and a half centuries, the state of Epiros represented a crucial node for an alternative socio-political network of the Balkans. Founded by the illegitimate son of the union of three imperial Byzantine dynasties, at its largest extent Epiros assumed the title of ‘Empire of the… Read more: Call for Papers – ‘Epiros: The Other Western Rome’

We are pleased to trial a new format, once or twice a term, in which 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! The sort of questions you might… Read more: Medieval MSS Support Group at the Weston Library

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!

3–4 July 2025 / St John’s College, Cambridge. Deadline for paper submissions 9 January 2025 This two-day, in-person conference will explore developing traditions of silence in dramatic texts from antiquity to the Renaissance. Papers are sought from scholars across a range of fields, including classical reception, comparative literature, and medieval and/or early modern English literature.… Read more: CfP: Staging Silence from Antiquity to the Renaissance

Ugo Mondini is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages and the Principal Investigator of the TORCH Network. He works on medieval Greek poetry and language education in the eleventh-century Byzantine Empire. As we approach our first summer break, it is time to reflect on the initial activities of… Read more: The TORCH Network Poetry in the Medieval World after Two Terms of Activity