Category: Call for Papers

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

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24/06/2025

10:53

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Call for Papers

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

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16/06/2025

08:28

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Call for Papers, events, Medieval Matters, News, opportunities, Uncategorized

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 – 4pm, online, 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 launch – 4:30pm 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 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.

Medieval matters TT25, Week 5

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26/05/2025

08:22

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Call for Papers, events, Medieval Matters, News, opportunities, Uncategorized

Welcome to Week 5: the full Medieval Studies booklet is available here.

Thank you to those who have submitted their publications for the OMS impact booklet – please continue to send short blurbs to the Oxford Medieval Studies email address ASAP. Pictures also welcome!

Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10:30 pm in the Weston Library.
  • Medieval History Seminar is cancelled due to illness.

Tuesday

  • Medieval English Research Seminar – 12.15 in the English Faculty.  Rowan Wilson (University of Oxford) will be speaking on ‘Feeling Aliene, Now and Then: Work, Contemplation, and Alienation between Medieval Devotion and Modern Academia’, and Anine Eglund (University of Oxford) will be speaking on ‘The Speaking Dead: Conversing with the Living from Beyond the Grave in Early English Literature ‘.
  • 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 – 4pm, location TBC.
  • Medieval Church and Culture –  5pm in the Wellbeloved Room. Rachel Cresswell (Blackfriars) will be speaking on ‘Scripture, text and proof-text in Anselm of Canterbury’.
  • Medieval French Research Seminar – 5pm in the Maison française d’Oxford. Catherine Léglu (University of Luxembourg) will be speaking on ‘ ‘The Anglo-Norman Bible (c.1350): rethinking a context’.
  • Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures Work-in-Pogress seminar – 5.15pm in the Memorial Room, The Queen’s College. Laure Miolo (Lincoln College) will be speaking on ‘Predicting and observing eclipses in fourteenth-century Paris: what the manuscripts tell us’, and Shazia Jagot (University of York) will be speaking on ‘Astrolabe as archive and an archive of astrolabes: Chaucer’s astrolabe and its Islamic affordances’.

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 5: Conjunctions and eclipses.
  • Medieval Latin Document Reading Group – 4pm, online, please contact Michael Stansfield.
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5pm in the Ioannou Centre. Rustam Shukurov (IMAFO, Vienna) will be speaking on ‘The Empire of Trebizond: The State of Research and Possible Future Directions’.
  • Medieval Society and Landscape Seminar Series – 5pm in the Department for Continuing Education. Chris Briggs (Cambridge) will be speaking on ‘The Popular Classes and Royal Justice in Medieval England: Evidence from the Derbyshire Eyre of 1330-31’. Book here.
  • Oxford Centre of Islamic Studies Seminar – 5pm in the Oxford Centre of Islamic Studies. Professor Blain Auer (University of Lausanne) will be speaking on ‘The Origins of Perso-Islamic Courts and Empires in India’.
  • Medieval Women’s Writing Research Seminar– 5pm, Lower Lecture Room, Lincoln College. Victoria Sands (University of Oxford) will be speaking on ‘The Dormer Newdigate Family, London Charterhouse and English Reformation’.

Thursday

  • Environmental History Working Group – 12:30 in the Colin Matthew Room, History Faculty. Lucia Nixon (Classical Archaeology, Senior Tutor, St Hilda’s, Co-Director, Sphakia Survey) will be speaking on ‘Toward an Archaeology of Sustainability: Resource Packages and Landscape Management in Sphakia, Southwest Crete’.
  • 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.
  • Masterclass by Patrick Boucheron – Pourquoi des médiévistes ? Penser le contemporain depuis le Moyen Âge – 2:30pm, Maison Française d’Oxford.
  • Patrick Boucheron’s lecture entitled ‘The Birth of the Black Death: New Approaches in World History’ – 5:00pm, Pembroke College.

Friday

  • Fragments of Lives. Medieval Lives in the Muniments of Magdalen, Lincoln, and Beyond – from 9am at Lincoln College. Enquiries to laure.miolo@history.ox.ac.uk.
  • 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.

Opportunities (new additions in bold)

  • ‘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 4

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19/05/2025

08:23

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Call for Papers, events, Medieval Matters, News, opportunities, Uncategorized

Welcome to Week 4: the full Medieval Studies booklet is available here.

OMS are working towards producing an ‘Impact Booklet’, emphasising all of the wonderful things that go on throughout the year. At the moment we are searching for publications – if you have published a relevant monograph/ edited volume/ edition during the past year, please drop an email to this address with a short blurb. Also: Applications to be the next Social Media Officer still welcome; contact Henrike Lähnemann for an informal discussion of the role!

Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10:30 pm in the Weston Library.
  • Medieval History Seminar – 5pm at All Souls College. Julia Smith (All Souls) and Ana Dias (Brasenose) will be speaking on ‘Surviving in the archives: how to make sense of early medieval relic labels’.

Tuesday

  • Medieval English Research Seminar – 12.15 in the English Faculty. (NB change of speaker). Professor Christophe Grellard (Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (Paris)) will be speaking on ‘St. Erkenwald – Orthodoxy on the Edge?’.
  • 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. Kevin Carlson (St Peter’s) will be speaking on ‘Reorienting Towards Life: a queer, medieval phenomenology of death in an anonymous 12thc Latin poem’, and Leslie Pencheng (St Catz) will be speaking on ‘Transforming the Ineffable: metaphors in Julian of Norwich and the Cloud of Unknowing’.

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 Patrick Leuenberger will be speaking on Alexander’s horse Boucephalus. 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 4: Planetary motions and horoscope.
  • Medieval Women’s Writing Research Seminar – 2pm, Lower Lecture Room, Lincoln College. Ved Prahba Shama (Independent Researcher) will be speaking on ‘Moving Beyond Knowledge in a Gendered Space’. See their TORCH website to book.
  • Medieval Latin Document Reading Group – 4pm, online, please contact Michael Stansfield.
  • Oxford Centre of Islamic Studies Seminar – 5pm in the Oxford Centre of Islamic Studies. Dr Michael Callen (London School of Economics) will be speaking on ‘Building State Capacity in Fragile States’.

Thursday

  • 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.
  • The Khalili Research Centre For the Art and Material Culture of the Middle East: Research Seminar – 5.15 in the KRC Lecture Room. Elizabeth Kelly (Independent researcher, London) will be speaking on ‘Zoomorphic incense burners of medieval Khurasan’.

Friday

  • Medievalists Coffee Morning – 10.30am at the Weston Library. All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided.
  • Exploring Medieval Oxford through Lincoln & Magdalen Archives – 2pm in the EPA Centre (Museum Road) Seminar room 1. Please contact Laure Miolo for more information.
  • Oxford Medieval Manuscript Group Reading Group: Connoisseurship – 5pm online. Write to oxfordmedievalmss@gmail.com for more information.

Opportunities (new additions in bold)

  • 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 is open 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 is open 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.

Call for Submissions: Medieval Epic

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21/03/2025

09:12

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Call for Papers

Medieval Epic. Special Issue of The Explicator

From the Editor-in-Chief: We invite contributions to The Explicator on any work of medieval literature that is conventionally considered (or should be considered) an epic. Eligible works include Beowulf, Waltharius, the Song of Roland, the Nibelungenlied, and other works traditionally associated with them. Less prominent works, such as bridal-quest epics (e.g., König Rother, Salman und Morolf) or epics pertaining to Dietrich von Bern, are likewise eligible for the issue. Contributions on German material are particularly welcome; they need not address whether the work being studied should be considered an epic. Each contribution needs only to put forward an original interpretation of a passage (or passages) in the work under scrutiny. Papers published in The Explicator should contain fewer than 2500 words.

Papers intended for this special issue should be uploaded directly through the Submission Portal on the website of The Explicator prior to 1 October 2025.

Leonard Neidorf, Editor-in-Chief, The Explicator, Distinguished Professor English Department Shenzhen University, https://leonardneidorf.com. Latest publication: Waltharius: The Latin Epic of Walther of Aquitaine (ed. Leonard Neidorf, trans. Brian Murdoch)

Medieval Matters HT25, Week 7

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02/03/2025

17:07

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Call for Papers, events, Medieval Matters, News, opportunities, Uncategorized

,

Welcome to week 7: the full booklet, as always, can be found here. A few important points to draw your immediate attention to:

Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10.30am in the Weston Library. Those interested should email Laure Miolo.
  • Medieval Archaeology Seminar – 3pm in the Institute of Archaeology. Helena Hamerow will be speaking on ‘Feeding Medieval England: A long ‘agricultural revolution’’.
  • Medieval History Seminar – 5pm at All Souls College. Simon MacLean (St Andrews) will be speaking on ‘Listing royal lands in the Carolingian Empire’.

Tuesday

  • Europe in the Later Middle Ages – 2pm, Dolphin Seminar Room, St John’s College. Sylvia Alvares Correa (Oxford) will be speaking on ‘Sacred Connections: The Eleven Thousand Virgins and Family Networks in the Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries’.
  • The Latin Palaeography Reading Group meets 2-3.30pm. Please email Laure Miolo for more information.
  • Lecture of Medieval Poetry – 5pm, Location: t.b.d. Zuzana Dzurillová (Czech Academy of Sciences) will be speking on ‘Late Byzantine Romance. On the Wings of Repetition’.
  • Medieval Church and Culture –  5pm in the Wellbeloved Room. Carolyn LaRocco (St John’s) will be speaking on ‘The Cult of Saints in Visigothic Iberia’.
  • Medieval French Research Seminar – 5pm in the Maison française d’Oxford. Charles Samuelson (University of Colorado, Boulder) will be speaking on ‘Consent in Old French Narratives of Female Martyrdom’.

Wednesday

  • Medieval German Graduate Seminar on ‘Geistliche Spiele’ – 11.15am in the Old Library of St Edmund Hall. Contact Henrike Lähnemann if you would like to be added to the teams group.
  • History and Materiality of the Book – 2pm in the Visiting Scholars Centre. Matthew Holford and Laure Miolo will be speaking on ‘Medieval Libraries and Provenance’.
  • Germanic Reading Group ‒ 4pm on Teams. Extracts from Old Icelandic/Old Norse showing biblical style in sagas and saga style in Bible translations.
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5pm in the Ioannou Centre. Tommaso Giuliodoro (Durham University) will be speaking on ‘New Approaches to the Byzantine Army of North Africa in the 7th Century: Organisation, Strategies, and Challenges’.
  • Daisy Black, Medieval Storytelling Performance of Yde and Olive: A Medieval Lesbian Romance – 7pm in the Chapel at University College.

Thursday

  • Medieval Hebrew Reading Group – 10am in the Clarendon Institute.
  • Middle English Reading Group – 4pm, Beckington Room, Lincoln College. The text this term will be the ‘double sorwe’ of Troilus and Criseyde.
  • Jocelyn Wogan-Browne will be hosting an informal seminar discussion covering the topics she has discussed over the term- All Souls Old Library, 5pm on Thursday 6 March.
  • The Khalili Research Centre For the Art and Material Culture of the Middle East: Research Seminar – 5.15pm in the in the Ioannou Centre/Faculty of Classics’ Lecture Theatre. 
  • Zeynep Aydoğan (Institute for Mediterranean Studies, Rethymno) will be speaking on ‘Epicscapes of medieval Anatolia: geographical imagination and identity in Anatolian Turkish frontier narratives’.
  • Compline in the Crypt at 9.30pm: The St Edmund Consort is singing Latin Compline with some Reformation period settings in the crypt of St-Peter-in-the-East, the library church of St Edmund Hall. Everybody welcome with the only caveat being uneven steps and limited space.

Friday

  • Medievalists Coffee Morning – 10.30am at the Weston Library. All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided. This week, Péter Tóth, Curator of Greek Manuscripts, will bring out some special papyri for International Women’s Day!
  • Exploring Medieval Oxford through Lincoln & Magdalen Archives – 2pm in the EPA Centre (Museum Road) Seminar room 1. Please contact Laure Miolo for more information.
  • Anglo-Norman Reading Group – 5pm in the Farmington Institute in Harris Manchester College and online. For more information on the texts, email Jane Bliss.
  • Oxford Medieval Manuscripts Group – 5pm in Merton College, Mure Room. Nancy Thebaut (Art History Department and St Catherine’s College, Oxford) will be speaking on ‘Learning to Look: (Mis)reading the Visitatio sepulchri, ca. 900-1050’.

Upcoming

  • Alyce Chaucer Festival – Ewelme, 16th-18th May 2025. More info here.
  • The Reading Medieval History Postgraduate Research Forum is inviting registration for their upcoming conference – more info here.

Opportunities

  • The Ashmolean’s Krasis Scheme: ‘a unique, museum-based, interdisciplinary teaching and learning programme’. You can find out more about this wonderful opportunity here (deadline 14 March).
  • CfP for ‘lluminating Nature: Explorations of Science, Religion, and Magic’ (21-22 July 2025 at the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Durham Castle).
  • Register for ‘History, Eugenics, and Human Enhancement: How the Past Can Inform Ethical Debates in the Present’ (24 March 2025, 9am – 5.30pm).
  • Register now for the workshop on 21st March From Jean le Bon to Good Duke Humphrey to celebrate the arrival of the French New Testament which was recently recognised to have been owned by Humfrey, duke of Gloucester. The event is free (including tea and coffee).
  • ‘Transcribing Old and Middle French (1300-1500)’ – a short online course from the University of London, 10th-11th March. More info here.
  • CfP for the 35th International Conference of the Spanish Society for Medieval English Language and Literature (University of Málaga, 24th-26th September 2025). More info here.
  • Registration for the conference Byzantium and its Environment – 27th International Graduate Conference of the Oxford University Byzantine Society on 1/2 March now open
  • For all Graduate Students (Master & DPhil): fully funded Wolfenbüttel Summer School on Late Medieval Manuscripts (in English). Apply by the end of February. Call for Papers the Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel
  • The Ashmolean is looking for a University Engagement Lead. This is a parttime fixed term role to research and possibly pilot opportunities for University Engagement. This is a good role for someone that knows the students in Oxford and is looking at a parttime role – and, obviously, loves museum collections! Full job description 
  • The CfP for the ‘Sorrowful Virgin’ is now closed; contact Anna Wilmore if you missed the deadline or simply would like to take place in the workshop at St Hughs, 24 March 2025
  • CfP for ‘Outsiders – Insiders’ (University of Reading), 2nd April 2025
  • OMS Small Grants are no longer open for applications – deadline was Friday of 4th Week. If you missed it, contact Lesley Smith.

Medieval Matters HT25, Week 6

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24/02/2025

00:39

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Call for Papers, events, Medieval Matters, News, opportunities

,

Welcome to week 6: the full booklet, as always, can be found here. This week features the last of the Ford Lectures: Jocelyn Wogan-Browne will be giving a lecture entitles ‘“Et lors que parlerez anglois /Que vous n’oubliez pas le François” (manuscript dedication, c. 1445): Off-shoring French?’. Of special interest to many of you will be the Ashmolean’s Krasis Scheme: ‘a unique, museum-based, interdisciplinary teaching and learning programme’. You can find out more about this wonderful opportunity here.

Errata or changes to announcements will be corrected in the google calendar and on the blog post, so please check these regularly.

Monday

  • French Palaeography Reading Group – 10.30pm in the Horton Room. Malatenia Vlachou (IRTH, Paris) will talk about An Interpretable Deep Learning Approach for Palaeographical Description and Analysis. All Welcome!
  • Medieval Archaeology Seminar – Institute of Archaeology Lecture Room, 3pm. Gabor Thomas, Roland Smith, and Darko Maricevic will be speaking on ‘Old Windsor: A Reassessment’.
  • Medieval History Seminar – 5pm at All Souls College. Alexandra Sapoznik (KCL) will be speaking on ‘Economic and Cultural Connections within Mediterranean Ecosystems’.
  • Old Norse Reading Group – 5.30, English Faculty Graduate Common Room. This term we will be reading Hrafnkels saga.

Tuesday

  • Europe in the Later Middle Ages – 2pm in the Dolphin Seminar Room, St John’s College. Aleksander Paroń (Warsaw/Wrocław) will be speaking on ‘Nomads or ‘Nomads’? Considerations on the Mode of Life of Medieval Populations of the European Steppe *** This meeting is online, but will take place at the normal time in the Dolphin Room ***
  • Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 2pm, Weston Library.
  • Medieval Church and Culture –  5.15pm (coffee from 5pm) in the Wellbeloved Room, Harris Manchester College. Alex Peplow (Oxford) will be speaking on ‘Depicting the Unfamiliar: Scorpions in Northern Europe’.

Wednesday

  • Medieval German Graduate Seminar on ‘Geistliche Spiele’ – 11.15am in the Old Library of St Edmund Hall, on the ‘Wiener Susannaspiel’ (Das leben der heyligen frawen Susanna). Contact Henrike Lähnemann if you would like to be added to the teams group.
  • History and Materiality of the Book Seminar – 2pm in the Weston Library, Horton room. Laure Miolo will be speaking on ‘Calendars and Time-reckoning’
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5pm in the Ioannou Centre. Andy Hilkens (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften) will be speaking on ‘Dialogue and Debate between Syriac and Armenian Miaphysites in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries’.
  • Slade Lecture Series – 5pm at St John’s College. ‘Gaps in Artefacts’. Book a place.
  • Medieval English Research Seminar – 5.15pm, Lecture Theatre 2, St. Cross Building.
  • Cathy Hume (University of Bristol) will be speaking on ‘Biblical poetry and its place in medieval English culture’

Thursday

  • Medieval Hebrew Reading Group – 10am in the Clarendon Institute.
  • Middle English Reading Group – 4pm, Beckington Room, Lincoln College. The text this term will be the ‘double sorwe’ of Troilus and Criseyde.
  • Seminars in Medieval and Renaissance Music- 7pm online. Helen Coffey (The Open University) will be speaking on ‘Music for Dancing in the Empire of Maximilian I’.
  • Ford Lecture – 5pm in the Examination Schools. Jocelyn Wogan-Browne will be giving the final of her lectures: ‘“Et lors que parlerez anglois /Que vous n’oubliez pas le François” (manuscript dedication, c. 1445): Off-shoring French?’
  • Medieval Visual Culture Seminar – 5pm at St Catherine’s College. Ana Días will be speaking on ‘Painting the Apocalypse in Medieval Iberia: The Making of the Beatus Illuminations’.
  • The Khalili Research Centre For the Art and Material Culture of the Middle East: Research Seminar – 5.15pm in the in the Ioannou Centre/Faculty of Classics’ Lecture Theatre. Sinem Eryılmaz (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona) will be speaking on ‘Knowledge and its transmission in Ottoman manuscript culture of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries: observations and propositions’.
  • Tolkien and the Organ – 7pm, Exeter College Chapel.

Friday

  • Medievalists Coffee Morning – 10.30am at the Weston Library. All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided.
  • Exploring Medieval Oxford through Lincoln & Magdalen Archives – 2pm in the EPA Centre (Museum Road) Seminar room 1. Please contact Laure Miolo for more information.

Upcoming

  • Dr Daisy Black’s medieval storytelling event in week 7 (5th March, 7pm, Univ chapel): Yde and Olive. Book tickets here.

Opportunities

  • The Ashmolean’s Krasis Scheme: ‘a unique, museum-based, interdisciplinary teaching and learning programme’. You can find out more about this wonderful opportunity here.
  • CfP for ‘lluminating Nature: Explorations of Science, Religion, and Magic’ (21-22 July 2025 at the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Durham Castle).
  • Register for ‘History, Eugenics, and Human Enhancement: How the Past Can Inform Ethical Debates in the Present’ (24 March 2025, 9am – 5.30pm).
  • Register now for the workshop on 21st March From Jean le Bon to Good Duke Humphrey to celebrate the arrival of the French New Testament which was recently recognised to have been owned by Humfrey, duke of Gloucester. The event is free (including tea and coffee).
  • ‘Transcribing Old and Middle French (1300-1500)’ – a short online course from the University of London, 10th-11th March. More info here.
  • CfP for the 35th International Conference of the Spanish Society for Medieval English Language and Literature (University of Málaga, 24th-26th September 2025). More info here.
  • Registration for the conference Byzantium and its Environment – 27th International Graduate Conference of the Oxford University Byzantine Society on 1/2 March now open
  • For all Graduate Students (Master & DPhil): fully funded Wolfenbüttel Summer School on Late Medieval Manuscripts (in English). Apply by the end of February. Call for Papers the Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel
  • The Ashmolean is looking for a University Engagement Lead. This is a parttime fixed term role to research and possibly pilot opportunities for University Engagement. This is a good role for someone that knows the students in Oxford and is looking at a parttime role – and, obviously, loves museum collections! Full job description 
  • The CfP for the ‘Sorrowful Virgin’ is now closed; contact Anna Wilmore if you missed the deadline or simply would like to take place in the workshop at St Hughs, 24 March 2025
  • CfP for ‘Outsiders – Insiders’ (University of Reading), 2nd April 2025
  • OMS Small Grants are no longer open for applications – deadline was Friday of 4th Week. If you missed it, contact Lesley Smith.

Medieval Matters HT25, Week 5

by

16/02/2025

18:58

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Call for Papers, events, Medieval Matters, News, opportunities

Week 5 rolls around – stave off the blues with an extensive course of medieval events. The full booklet, as always, can be found here.

Events

Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10.30am in the Weston Library. Those interested should email Laure Miolo.
  • Seminar in Palaeography and Manuscript studies – 2.15 in the Horton Room, Weston Library. Jo Edge will be speaking on ‘Working with divinatory texts and manuscripts’.
  • Medieval History Seminar – 5pm at All Souls College. Michael Eber (Oxford/Cologne) will be speaking on ‘Re- and mis-gendering St Marina*us in high medieval Italy’.

Tuesday

  • Europe in the Later Middle Ages – 2pm, Dolphin Seminar Room, St John’s College. Aleksander Parón (Warsaw) will be speaking on ‘Nomads or ‘Nomads’? Considerations on
  • the Mode of Life of Medieval Populations of the European Steppe’. This meeting is online, but will take place at the normal time in the Dolphin Room.
  • The Latin Palaeography Reading Group meets 2-3.30pm. Please email Laure Miolo for more information.
  • Medieval Church and Culture –  5pm in the Wellbeloved Room. Teresa Barucci (Magdalen) will be speaking on ‘European Vernaculars at the Medieval University of Paris’.
  • Medieval French Research Seminar – 5pm in the Maison française d’Oxford. Mary Franklin-Brown, (University of Cambridge) will be speaking on ‘Oath, Song, and the Making of Community in Medieval France’.
  • CMTC “Work in Progress” colloquium – 5:15pm in the Memorial Room, The Queen’s College.
  • Lectures of Medieval Poetry – time and place TBD (email organiser). Ramunė Markevičiūtė (Freie University of Berlin) will be speaking.

Wednesday

  • Medieval German Graduate Seminar on ‘Geistliche Spiele’ – 11.15am in the Old Library of St Edmund Hall. Contact Henrike Lähnemann if you would like to be added to the teams group.
  • History and Materiality of the Book – 2pm in the Visiting Scholars Centre. Matthew Holford will be speaking on ‘Manuscript Structures’.
  • Medieval Latin Document Reading Group – 4pm, online, please contact Michael Stansfield.
  • Oxford University Numismatics Society – 4pm in the Ioannou Centre/Faculty of Classics’ Lecture Theatre. Dr. Mike Shott (Oxford): “Cuneator ad Rex; Quid tibi vis hic..?”. Design features in the Long Cross issues of Henry III; a research project’.
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5pm in the Ioannou Centre. Olivia Ramble (Oxford) will be speaking on ‘Of Scripts and Scribes: Investigating Practices of Writing in Late Antique Iran’.
  • Slade Lecture Series – 5pm at St John’s College. ‘Gaps in Origins’. Check this page for recordings or to check whether places have become available.
  • Medieval English Research Seminar – 5.15pm, Lecture Theatre 2, St. Cross Building. Amy Faulkner (UCL) will be speaking on ‘Expecting the Worst: Beowulf and the End Times’.
  • Principal’s Research Seminar at St Hilda’s College – 5.30pm, the Pavilion, St Hilda’s College. Professor Wakelin’s title is ‘The everyday creatives’. For more information and to book click on link. All are welcome.

Thursday

  • Medieval Anglo-Jewish Texts and History – 9:30 am – 5.00 pm, Catherine Lewis Lecture Theatre (Clarendon Institute). This group convenes once a term to read together unpublished Hebrew and Latin documents from Medieval England as sources for the history of the Jews before the expulsion of 1290.
  • Medieval Hebrew Reading Group – 10am in the Clarendon Institute.
  • Magna Carta 1225: New Discoveries & Repercussions – 12pm in the Blackwell Hall, Weston Library. Dean Irwin will be speaking on ‘Magna Carta and Jewish communities’.
  • Middle English Reading Group – 4pm, Beckington Room, Lincoln College. The text this term will be the ‘double sorwe’ of Troilus and Criseyde.
  • Germanic Reading Group ‒ 4pm on Teams. Extracts from Chaucer showing switches between London and Northern dialects (Simon Horobin leading). Please contact Howard Jones to request the handout and to be added to the list.
  • Ford Lecture – 5pm in the Examination Schools. Jocelyn Wogan-Browne will be giving the fifh of her lectures, titled ‘“Lette Frenchmen in their Frenche endyten”(Thomas Usk, c.1384-87): French in the Multilingual Fourteenth Century;.
  • The Khalili Research Centre For the Art and Material Culture of the Middle East: Research Seminar – 5.15pm in the in the Ioannou Centre/Faculty of Classics’ Lecture Theatre. Umberto Bongianino (The Khalili Research Centre) will be speaking on ‘The Pink Qurʾān: a reverse biography’.

Friday

  • The Human Remains Digital Library (HRDL) Launch – 10am online. More information here.
  • Medievalists Coffee Morning – 10.30am at the Weston Library. All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided. This week, Alyssa Steiner (BL) will speak on the extensive Ship of Fools collection of Francis Douce.
  • Exploring Medieval Oxford through Lincoln & Magdalen Archives – 2pm in the EPA Centre (Museum Road) Seminar room 1. Please contact Laure Miolo for more information.
  • Medieval Manuscripts Support Group – 2pm in the Horton Room. Come along or contact Matthew Holford in beforehand if you have a manuscript to discuss!
  • Old Frisian Taster Session – 2pm in the Taylor Library, room 2. Johanneke Sytsema will be speaking on ‘Strong Verbs Across English, Frisian, Dutch, Low German, High German, an introduction to the crucial place of Frisian in the history of Germanic Languages’.
  • Oxford Medieval Manuscripts Group – 5pm. This week, the group will be visiting the The Queen’s College Library.
  • Anglo-Norman Reading Group – 5pm in the Farmington Institute in Harris Manchester College and online. For more information on the texts, email Jane Bliss.
  • “The Jewish Recipes in a 13th C Andalusian Cookbook” by Hélène Jawhara Piñer will be on Zoom at 5 pm Wednesday 19 February. Event details and the link to register is here.

Opportunities

  • CfP for ‘lluminating Nature: Explorations of Science, Religion, and Magic’ (21-22 July 2025 at the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Durham Castle).
  • Register for ‘History, Eugenics, and Human Enhancement: How the Past Can Inform Ethical Debates in the Present’ (24 March 2025, 9am – 5.30pm).
  • Register now for the workshop on 21st March From Jean le Bon to Good Duke Humphrey to celebrate the arrival of the French New Testament which was recently recognised to have been owned by Humfrey, duke of Gloucester. The event is free (including tea and coffee).
  • ‘Transcribing Old and Middle French (1300-1500)’ – a short online course from the University of London, 10th-11th March. More info here.
  • CfP for the 35th International Conference of the Spanish Society for Medieval English Language and Literature (University of Málaga, 24th-26th September 2025). More info here.
  • Registration for the conference Byzantium and its Environment – 27th International Graduate Conference of the Oxford University Byzantine Society on 1/2 March now open
  • For all Graduate Students (Master & DPhil): fully funded Wolfenbüttel Summer School on Late Medieval Manuscripts (in English). Apply by the end of February. Call for Papers the Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel
  • The Ashmolean is looking for a University Engagement Lead. This is a parttime fixed term role to research and possibly pilot opportunities for University Engagement. This is a good role for someone that knows the students in Oxford and is looking at a parttime role – and, obviously, loves museum collections! Full job description 
  • The CfP for the ‘Sorrowful Virgin’ is now closed; contact Anna Wilmore if you missed the deadline or simply would like to take place in the workshop at St Hughs, 24 March 2025
  • CfP for ‘Outsiders – Insiders’ (University of Reading), 2nd April 2025
  • OMS Small Grants are no lo open for applicationsnger – deadline was Friday of 4th Week. If you missed it, contact Lesley Smith.

Medieval Matters HT25, Week 4

by

09/02/2025

17:29

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Call for Papers, events, Medieval Matters, News, opportunities

Welcome to Week 4. Please find below the events and opportunities for this week: the full booklet, as always, can be found here. A reminder: the deadline for the OMS Small Grants scheme is this friday – don’t miss out!

Events

Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10.30am in the Weston Library. Those interested should email Laure Miolo.
  • Seminar in Palaeography and Manuscript studies – CANCELLED
  • Medieval Archaeology Seminar – Institute of Archaeology Lecture Room, 3pm. Wendy Scott will be speaking on ‘The Lenborough hoard’.
  • Medieval History Seminar – 5pm at All Souls College. Ian Haynes (Newcastle/All Souls) will be speaking on ‘Visualising the Lateran Patriarchium: Recent research by the Rome Transformed Project’
  • Centre for Reception History of the Bible Lecture – 5pm at Trinity College. Rachel Cresswell will be speaking on ‘Quoting Scripture with Anselm of Canterbury: Anselm’s Bible and Why it Matters’.
  • Old Norse Reading Group – 5.30, English Faculty Graduate Common Room. This term we will be reading Hrafnkels saga.

Tuesday

  • The Latin Palaeography Reading Group meets 2-3.30pm. Please email Laure Miolo for more information.
  • Europe in the Later Middle Ages – 2pm in the Dolphin Seminar Room, St John’s College. Caitlin John (UCL) will be speaking on ‘Moving Between the City and the Cemetery: Funerary Processions in Late Medieval Cairo and Paris’.
  • Medieval Church and Culture –  5.15pm (coffee from 5pm) in the Wellbeloved Room, Harris Machester College. Emily Guerry (St Peter’s) 11 will be speaking on ‘Gauthier Cornut and the Invention of the Cult of the Crown of Thorns in Paris’.

Wednesday

  • Medieval German Graduate Seminar on ‘Geistliche Spiele’ – 11.15am in the Old Library of St Edmund Hall, on the Mühlhauser St. Katharinenspiel and other topics. Contact Henrike Lähnemann if you would like to be added to the teams group
  • History and Materiality of the Book Seminar – 2pm in the Weston Library, Horton room. Martin Kauffmann will be speaking on ‘Decoration’.
  • Medieval Latin Document Reading Group – 4pm, online.
  • Brepols are running a short online webinar introducing their International Medieval Bibliography, on the 12th Feb at 4pm. This is a great chance to get to grips with this useful resource, and is especially recommended for MSt/ MPhil students.
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5pm in the Ioannou Centre. Jonathan Shepard (Oxford) will be speaking on ‘Soft Power, Old and New: Debating the Byzantine Commonwealth’.
  • Slade Lecture Series – 5pm at St John’s College. ‘Gaps in Space’. Book a place.
  • Medieval English Research Seminar – 5.15pm, Lecture Theatre 2, St. Cross Building. James Sargan (University of Georgia) will be speaking on ‘Reading Early Middle English Books’.

Thursday

  • Medieval Hebrew Reading Group – 10am in the Clarendon Institute.
  • Middle English Reading Group – 4pm, Beckington Room, Lincoln College. The text this term will be the ‘double sorwe’ of Troilus and Criseyde.
  • Ford Lecture – 5pm in the Examination Schools. Jocelyn Wogan-Browne will be giving the fourth of her lectures: ‘That each may in his own tongue … know his God’ (Grosseteste, in French, 1230s): Bible Translation in Medieval England’.
  • Medieval Visual Culture Seminar – 5pm at St Catherine’s College. Anne-Orange Poilpré (Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne) will be speaking on ‘Figuring the Body of Christ inside the Word of God: Carolingian Gospel Books and their Images’.
  • The Khalili Research Centre For the Art and Material Culture of the Middle East: Research Seminar – 5.15pm in the in the Ioannou Centre/Faculty of Classics’ Lecture Theatre. Anna McSweeney (Trinity College Dublin) will be speaking on ‘Making medieval Spain: carpentry practices in Nasrid Granada and the Alhambra.
  • Celtic Seminary – 5.15pm online. Iwan Edgar will be speaking on ‘Llysieulyfr Salesbury ac enwau planhigion cysylltiedig 1400–1700’.

Friday

  • Medievalists Coffee Morning – 10.30am at the Weston Library. All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided. As a Valentine’s Day special, Niko Kontovas will present queer love in poems from Persian and other Eastern manuscripts, not to be missed!
  • Exploring Medieval Oxford through Lincoln & Magdalen Archives – 2pm in the EPA Centre (Museum Road) Seminar room 1. Please contact Laure Miolo for more information.
  • Oxford Medieval Manuscript Group – 5pm online. Reading Group: Interpretation and Meaning.

For your Calendar

  • “The Jewish Recipes in a 13th C Andalusian Cookbook” by Hélène Jawhara Piñer will be on Zoom at 5 pm Wednesday 19 February. Event details and the link to register is here.

Opportunities