Category: Call for Papers
Medieval Matter MT 25, Week 5
A medieval event a day keeps the blues away – meet week 5 head-on with another set of seminars and events! As always, you can find a complete copy of the Oxford Medieval Studies Booklet here. Any last-minuted changes will be updated in the weekly blogpost and in the calendar, both accessible via https://medieval.ox.ac.uk/.
This week, on the 13th and 14th of November, the Crafting Documents project, alongside the Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures, is hosting the ‘Heritage Science and Manuscript Conference‘. Registration is free, and the full programme of events is available here.
Monday
- French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10:30, Weston Library (Horton Room)
- Italian Research Seminar – 1:00, Taylorian Room 2. Ryan Pepin will be speaking on ‘‘Dietro la memoria non può ire’: Copyists’ Slips in the Textual Tradition of the Commedia‘.
- Introduction to Arabic Palaeography – 2:00, Khalili Research Centre
- Carmina Burana: Graduate Text Seminar – 5:00, Harris Lecture Theatre, Oriel College.
- Medieval History Seminar – 5:00 with drinks reception to follow, All Souls College. Tom Johnson (Oxford) will be speaking on ‘The Inscription Economy in Fifteenth-Century England’.
Tuesday
- Medieval English Research Seminar AND Medieval French Seminar – 12:15, Margaret Thatcher Centre, Somerville. Juluan Mattison (U of Georgia) will be speaking on ‘What is an English book? French Scribes, Scripts and Texts in England’
- Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room)
- Medieval Church and Culture Seminar – 5:00, Harris Manchester College. Nancy Thebaut (Catz) will be speaking on ‘Gender, Nature, and the Limits of Art: A Close Reading of ‘Two Riddles of the Queen of Sheba’, a Late Medieval Tapestry at the Met Cloisters‘.
- Old Norse Research Seminar – 5:00, New Seminar Room, St. John’s College. Caz Batten (Pennsylvania) will be speaking on ‘Unmaking a Man: The Contested Bodies of the Völundr Legend’. Drinks to follow.
- Old English Graduate Reading Group – 5:15, location TBC, contact Hattie Carter
Wednesday
- John Lydgate Book Club – 11:00, Smoking Room (Lincoln College).
- Medieval German Graduate Seminar on the Constance Chronicle – 11:15, Somerville College.
- Older Scots Reading Group – 2:30, Room 30.401 in the Schwarzman Centre.
- Medieval Latin Documentary Palaeography Reading Group – 4:00, online.
- Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5:00, Ioannou Centre. Marlena Whiting (Groningen) will be speaking on ‘Hodology, Wayfinding, and Geographical Knowledge in Late Antique Pilgrimage Accounts’
Thursday
- Middle English Reading Group – 11:00, Beckington Room (Lincoln College).
- Environmental History Working Group – 12:30, Room 20.421 in the Schwarzman Centre. Ryan Mealiffe will be speaking on ‘What are White Storks (Ciconia ciconica) Doing in High and Late Miedieval Calendars’?
- Celtic Seminar – 5:00, hybrid. Simon Rodway (Aberystwyth) will be speaking on ‘Gwlithod Blewog a Mygydau Barddol: Golwg Newydd ar Garchariad Aneirin yn y Tŷ Deyerin’
- Medieval Visual Culture Seminar – 5:00, St. Catherine’s College. Carly Boxer (Bucknell University) will be speaking on ‘Abstract Figures and Bodily Change: Giving Form to Unseen Things in Late Medieval England’
- Seminars in Medieval and Renaissance Music – 5:00, online. Elina Hamilton, Peter Lefferts and Elzbieta Witkowska-Zaremba will be speaking on ‘Theinred of Dover (fl. c. 1300): A New Context for him in Fourteenth-Century Music Theory’
- Compline in the Crypt – 9:30pm, St Edmund Hall.
Friday
- Medievalist Coffee Morning – 10:30, Visiting Scholars Centre (Weston Library). All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided.
- Exploring Medieval Oxford through Surviving Archives – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room).
- Oxford Medieval Manuscript Group: Library Visit (Merton) – 5:00. Sign-up required.
Saturday
- Workshop and Vespers for St Edmund. -14:00, St Edmund Hall Chapel. Open to all, no singing experience required. For registration, follow this link.
Opportunities
- Call for readers: For a Multilingual Medieval Compline in the Crypt on 20 Nov, 9.30pm, Henrike Lähnemann is looking for versions of the Our Father in as many medieval languages as possible. Old High German, Middle High German, Old English, and Middle English have been assigned but any further languages are welcome! Contact her if you have a version and are willing to read it.
- CfP: Shaping the Word – the Form and Use of Biblical Manuscripts in the Early Medieval West. Deadline 17th Nov 2025.
- Colloquium: ‘Journals, Past, Present and Future’, hosted by The Review of English Studies. More info and registration here.
- Register before 30 November for Ars Inquirendi – Querying the Pre-Modern in the Age of Large Multimodal Models
- Register for MEMRN Winter Conference 2025 13-16 November via Eventbrite HERE.
- Call for Committee Members for the Oxford Medieval Graduate Conference.
- Medium Ævum Essay Prize welcomes applications. Deadline 1 December 2025.
- Data Visualization in the Humanities: Nodegoat Open Workshop.
- CfP: Locational Lives: Medieval Experience in Town and Country. Deadline 5th Jan 2026.
- CfP: Character Groupings in Classical and Medieval Art and Literature at the University. Deadline 5th Jan 2026.
- Mortimer History Society Essay Prize. Deadline: 15th February 2026.
Medieval Matter MT25, Week 4
Monday
- French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10:30, Weston Library (Horton Room)
- Introduction to Arabic Palaeography – 2:00, Khalili Research Centre
- Medieval Archaeology Seminar – 3.00, Institute of Archaeology, Lecture Room. Wyatt Wilcox will be speaking on ‘Isolated Barrows in Early Medieval England: A Spatial Analysis’
- Carmina Burana: Graduate Text Seminar – 5:00, Harris Lecture Theatre, Oriel College.
- Medieval History Seminar – 5:00 with drinks reception to follow, All Souls College. Anna Chrysostomides (Queen Mary, University of London) will be speaking on “Non-Binary Gender in Abbasid Baghdad: Reality vs. Fiction”
Tuesday
- Medieval English Research Seminar – 12:15, Margaret Thatcher Centre, Somerville. Kathy Lavezzo (U of Iowa) will be speaking on ‘The Darker Side of the Middle Ages’.
- Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room)
- Medieval Church and Culture Seminar – 5:00, Harris Manchester College. Clare Whitton (Blackfriars) will be speaking on ‘Resurrecting a Patron Saint: The Feast of San Gennaro in 14th century Naples’
Wednesday
- Medieval German Graduate Seminar – 11:15, Somerville College. The topic for this term is Ulrich von Richental, Chronik des Konzils zu Konstanz (1414-1438).
- Centre for Early Medieval Britain and Ireland Welcome Lunch – 12.30, Balliol College
- Older Scots Reading Group – 2:30, Room 30.401 in the Schwarzman Centre.
- Medieval Latin Documentary Palaeography Reading Group – 4:00, online.
- Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5:00, Ioannou Centre. Erin Thomas Dailey (Leicester) will be speaking on ‘Why Did the Byzantine Empire Forbid SlaveOwners from Making Eunuchs of their Slaves? Castration, Masculinity, and Identity in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages’
Thursday
- Medieval Hebrew Reading Group – 10:00, Catherine Lewis Lecture Theatre, Clarendon Institute and online.
- Middle English Reading Group – 11:00, Beckington Room (Lincoln College).
- Chronicling the Self: including extracts from the memoirs of Lady Nijo and Leonor López de Córdoba
- Celtic Seminar – 5:00, online. Lloyd Bowen (Cardiff) will be speaking on ‘London Puritan networks and the publication of the 1630 Welsh Bible’
- David Patterson Lecture – 6:00, Clarendon Institute, Walton St. Dr Emily Rose (Academic Visitor, OCHJS) will be speaking on “A Bleeding Corpse, A Grim Grimm Fairy Tale with Early Modern Shivers: The Dubious Margaret of Pforzheim (1267?), A Singular Female Blood Libel”. In order to participate in this lecture via Zoom, please register at this link.
- Latin Compline in the Crypt – 9:30pm, in the crypt below St-Peter-in-the-East, St Edmund Hall
Friday
- Medievalist Coffee Morning – 10:30, Visiting Scholars Centre (Weston Library). All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided.
- Exploring Medieval Oxford through Surviving Archives – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room).
- Oxford University Heraldry Society Lecture – 4:30, Harris Seminar Room of Oriel College. Professor Yorick Gomez Gane will be speaking on “The Italian Language in British Heraldry,” followed by a drinks reception.
Opportunities
- CfP: Locational Lives: Medieval Experience in Town and Country. Deadline 5th Jan 2026.
- CfP: Character Groupings in Classical and Medieval Art and Literature at the University. Deadline 5th Jan 2026.
- CfP: Shaping the Word- the Form and Use of Biblical Manuscripts inthe Early Medieval West. Deadline 17th Nov 2025.
- MEMRN Winter Conference 2025 signups open.
- Call for Committee Members for the Oxford Medieval Graduate Conference.
- Medium Ævum Essay Prize welcomes applications. Deadline 1 December 2025.
- Data Visualization in the Humanities: Nodegoat Open Workshop.
CfP: Shaping the Word- the Form and Use of Biblical Manuscripts inthe Early Medieval West
Durham University, 2–5 July 2026
In the second half of the first millennium, the Christian scriptures were produced,
circulated, and put to use in a diverse range of forms and contexts. A manuscript may
accommodate a single biblical text (the psalter, a gospel, the Apocalypse), a collection
of texts (the Hexateuch, the fourfold gospel), or, rarely, a complete “New Testament” or
“Bible” in the familiar modern sense. The distinctiveness of a manuscript is determined
by its content and textual aFiliation, its palaeographical and codicological
characteristics, and its paratextual features – from illustrations of biblical narratives,
author portraits, and illuminated lettering to canon tables, capitula, prefatory materials,
and glosses. Once in circulation, a manuscript’s contexts of use may include liturgical
reading and preaching, meditation and mission, education and scholarship, gift-giving
and display. DiFerent uses correspond to diFerent users with distinct and perhaps
conflicting priorities and goals. Production and use(s) may occur at the same site or at
far distant times and places.
This conference aims to explore topics related to both the physical presentation and the
use of scriptural manuscripts produced in the Early Medieval period (c. 500–1000 CE).
We welcome paper proposals from scholars working in all areas of this field, including
PhD students. Whatever the specific topic, priority may be given to papers that also
relate it to the wider focus of the conference on both “form” (or “production”) and “use”.
We hope to be able to cover presenters’ full conference costs with the exception of
travel.
Titles and Abstracts of proposed papers should be submitted to Lauren Randall
(lauren.m.randall@durham.ac.uk), copied to Francis Watson
(francis.watson@durham.ac.uk), no later than Monday 17 November. Abstracts should
not exceed 150 words. Our current draft schedule can accommodate up to fourteen 45
minute sessions, with a maximum of 25 minutes for the presentation in order to allow
substantial time for discussion. There will also be several keynote papers or
presentations. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions about this event!
For information, the context of this event is our sub-project “Text, Format, and Reader”,
focused primarily on Codex Amiatinus and funded by the Glasgow-based “Paratexts
Seeking Understanding” project (Templeton Religion Trust). We are grateful to our
Glasgow colleagues for their support.
Francis Watson (Prof)
Lauren Randall (PhD student)
CfP: Character Groupings in Classical and Medieval Art and Literature at the University
CfP: Locational Lives: Medieval Experience in Town and Country
Medieval Matters, MT25 Week 3
Week 3 is upon us – please find below the weekly offering of events, groups, and opportunities. As always, you can find a complete copy of the Oxford Medieval Studies Booklet here. Any last-minuted changes will be updated in the weekly blogpost and in the calendar, both accessible via https://medieval.ox.ac.uk/.
Monday
- French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10:30, Weston Library (Horton Room)
- Introduction to Arabic Palaeography – 2:00, Khalili Research Centre
- Carmina Burana: Graduate Text Seminar – 5:00, Harris Lecture Theatre, Oriel College
- Medieval History Seminar – 5:00 with drinks reception to follow, All Souls College. Lucy Donkin (University of Bristol) will be speaking on “Ex urbe et ab Hierosolomis: The Materiality and Portability of Place in Pre-Reformation Europe”.
Tuesday
- Medieval English Research Seminar – 12:15, Margaret Thatcher Centre, Somerville. A range of contributors will be speaking on ‘On the Life and Works of Vincent Gillespie’
- Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room)
- Medieval Church and Culture Seminar – 5:00, Harris Manchester College. Susanna Heywood (KCL): will be speaking on ‘A Practical Guide to Kingship?: the virtue of prudence in Giles of Rome’s De Regimine Principum’
- Medieval French Researsh Seminar – 5:00, Maison Française d’Oxford. Prof. Ellen Delvallée (Université Grenoble Alpes) will be speaking on ‘‘Éclats de la Chronique française de Guillaume Cretin: de l’inachèvement aux explorations esthétiques’
- Old English Graduate Reading Group – 5:15, location TBC, contact Hattie Carter
- Oxford Architectural and Historical Society – 5:30, Rewley House. Duncan Taylor will be speaking on ‘A New Understanding of Oxford’s Divinity School Vault’
Wednesday
- John Lydgate Book Club – 11:00, Smoking Room (Lincoln College).
- Medieval German Graduate Seminar – 11:15, Somerville College.
- Older Scots Reading Group – 2:30, Room 30.401 in the Schwarzman Centre.
- Medieval Latin Documentary Palaeography Reading Group – 4:00, online.
- Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5:00, Ioannou Centre. Stratis Papaioannou (Athens) will be speaking on ‘The Synaxarion of Constantinople as Historiography’
- Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures Lecture – 5:15, Memorial Room (The Queen’s College). Daniel Schwemer (Würzburg) will be speaking on ‘Ancient Kings, a New Language (and sometimes wheelbarrows): a decade of field epigraphy at the Hittite capital Boğazköy-Ḫattuša’
Thursday
- Middle English Reading Group – 11:00, Beckington Room (Lincoln College).
- Environmental History Working Group – 12:00, Room 20.421 in the Schwarzman Centre. Madeleine Fyles (UToronoto) will be speaking on ‘More than Kindling: Algarrobo Posts and Social Memory on the Peruvian North Coast’.
- Celtic Seminar – 5:00, hybrid. Jaione Diaz Mazquiaran (Alan R King Etxepare Chair 2025) will be speaking on ‘Language, Beliefs, and Belonging: Immigrant Students in Basque-Medium Education’
- Medieval Visual Culture Seminar – 5:00, St. Catherine’s College. Hannele Hellerstedt (Ox.) will be speaking on ‘Seeing Double: Visualizing La Cité des dames and La Cité de Dieu‘.
- Seminars in Medieval and Renaissance Music – 5:00, online. Anne Walters Robertson (The University of Chicago) will be speaking on ‘a cycle of masses for all seasons in the Burgundian court’
- Spooktacular Manuscripts – 3:00, Visiting Scholars’ Centre (Weston Library). To celebrate Halloween, Alison Ray will present a range of spooktacular medieval manuscripts, from magical spell books and alchemical texts to depictions of black cats and a witches’ sabbath. Costumes are optional! NOTE that a University or Bodleian reader card is required for access, which is via the Readers’ entrance to the Weston Library
- Compline in the Crypt – 9:30, St Edmund Hall.
Friday
- Medievalist Coffee Morning – 10:30, Visiting Scholars Centre (Weston Library). All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided.
- Exploring Medieval Oxford through Surviving Archives – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room).
- Oxford Medieval Manuscript Group: Library Visit (Merton) – 5:00. Sign-up required.
Opportunities
- Cambridge Colloquium in ASNC: Women and the Weird (Saturday 21 February 2026). Deadline 10th November 2025.
- Those wishing to join the Old Norse Reading Group mailing list should email brooklyn.arnot@magd.ox.ac.uk.
- The programme for the Heritage Science and Manuscripts Conference is now available.
- Call for Committee Members for the Oxford Medieval Graduate Conference.
- Medium Ævum Essay Prize welcomes applications. Deadline 1 December 2025.
- Medieval Insular Romance Conference CfP. Deadline 31 October 2025.
- Special Issue: Points of Friction CfP. Deadline 2 November 2025.
- Data Visualization in the Humanities: Nodegoat Open Workshop.
Medieval Matters MT25, Week 2
Welcome to week 2, and the Medieval Matters email – a day early this time to coincide with St Frideswide’s Day! In honour of the occasion, Jesus College has paid for the Pershore Legendary to appear on Digital Bodleian, which includes the most accurate copy of Robert of Cricklade’s Life of St Frideswide. Browse away!
As always, you can find a complete copy of the Oxford Medieval Studies Booklet here. Any last-minuted changes will be updated in the weekly blogpost and in the calendar, both accessible via https://medieval.ox.ac.uk/.
Monday
- French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10:30, Weston Library (Horton Room)
- Introduction to Arabic Palaeography – 2:00, Khalili Research Centre
- Carmina Burana: Graduate Text Seminar – 5:00, Harris Lecture Theatre, Oriel College.
- Medieval History Seminar – 5:00 with drinks reception to follow, All Souls College. Peter Jones (King’s College, Cambridge), will be speaking on ‘Event, story and image in writings of John Arderne (1307-c.1380), English surgeon’.
Tuesday
- Medieval English Research Seminar – 12:15, Margaret Thatcher Centre, Somerville. David Scott-Macnab (North-West U) will be speaking on ‘Edward, Second Duke of York’s Master of Game: A New Edition for EETS
- Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room)
- Medieval Church and Culture Seminar – 5:00, Harris Manchester College. John Merrington (All Souls) will be speaking on ‘Reading the Five Thousand: gender, the body and the interpretation of John 6 in medieval Europe’.
- Medieval French Research Seminar – 5pm at the at the Maison Française d’Oxford. Prof. Johannes Junge Ruhland (University of Notre Dame) will be speaking on ‘The Bookishness of French Prose Histories’.
Wednesday
- Medieval German Graduate Seminar – 11:15, Somerville College. The topic for this term is Ulrich von Richental, Chronik des Konzils zu Konstanz (1414-1438).
- Older Scots Reading Group – 2:30, Room 30.401 in the Schwarzman Centre.
- Medieval Latin Documentary Palaeography Reading Group – 4:00, online.
- Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5:00, Ioannou Centre. Johannes Pahlitzsch (Mainz) will be speaking on ‘Concepts of Space and Orthodoxy beyond Byzantium’.
Thursday
- Middle English Reading Group – 11:00, Beckington Room (Lincoln College).
- Medieval Women’s Writing Research Seminar – 4:00, Somerville College (meet at Lodge). Authorising the Text: including extracts from the prose works of Teresa de Cartagena and Anna Komnene.
- Celtic Seminar – 5:00, hybrid. Rhys Kaminski-Jones (CAWCS) will be speaking on ‘Bardic liberties: Bardism and slavery in the poetry of Iolo Morganwg’.
- Guild of Medievalist Makers – 5:30, online. Making Space Session.
- Oxford University Heraldry Society – 6:30, online. Mike Rumble will be speaking on ‘The Heraldry of Kensington and Chelsea, London’.
Friday
- Medievalist Coffee Morning – 10:30, Visiting Scholars Centre (Weston Library). All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided.
- Exploring Medieval Oxford through Surviving Archives – 2:00, Weston Library (Horton Room).
- Memorial Service for Professor Vincent Gillespie – 2:00, Keble College Chapel.
- Oxford Medieval Manuscript Group Workshop – 5:00, Merton College. Workshop with Joumana Medlej.
Opportunities
- MEMRN Winter Conference 2025 signups open.
- Call for Committee Members for the Oxford Medieval Graduate Conference.
- Medium Ævum Essay Prize welcomes applications. Deadline 1 December 2025.
- Medieval Insular Romance Conference CfP. Deadline 31 October 2025.
- Special Issue: Points of Friction CfP. Deadline 2 November 2025.
- Data Visualization in the Humanities: Nodegoat Open Workshop.
Interim Medieval Matters (Long Vac)
Term draws near. Please send all entries for next term’s OMS booklet to medieval@torch.ox.ac.uk, by Wednesday of -1 week at the latest (1st October). Until then, please see below a number of upcoming deadlines and opportunities:
- CFP: CHASE Medieval and Early Modern Research Network (MEMRN) postgraduate conference – deadline 12 September. More info here.
- Oxford School of Rare Jewish Languages classes. The deadline to apply is 12 September at 12 noon UK time. More info here.
- The Medieval Academy of America’s podcast series The Multicultural Middle Ages is accepting episode proposals for their 5th season. More info here.
- CFP: Cambridge Medieval History Graduate Workshop. Deadline 29th September. More info here.
- Applications are open for the John W. Baldwin Post-Doctoral Fellowship. The Post-Doctoral Fellow will be a scholar whose research aligns with the goals of the study of “Europe in the world” and who has demonstrated evidence of innovative methodologies. Deadline 10th Nov. More info here.
- The West Horsley Place Trust seeks a researcher. More info here.
CFP: Cambridge Medieval History Graduate Workshop
The Cambridge Medieval History Graduate Workshop is inviting paper submissions
for Michaelmas term 2025.
We host presentations on the cultures, economies, literature, material cultures, politics,
thought, religions, and reception of the medieval world, which we define as broadly as
possible as the global period between c.500 and c.1500. We welcome interdisciplinary
scholarship and encourage submissions which stretch our conception of ‘medieval’ in
time or space, from late antiquity to modern reception and from Scandinavia to the
Middle East and beyond, or which deal with the practice of medieval history.
These short 15–20-minute workshop papers are excellent ways to share your work, gain
presentation experience, and receive constructive feedback in a supportive environment run
for and by graduate students. In terms of scope, we are looking for focused studies that offer
snapshots into ongoing graduate research, and particularly encourage primary source work
and case studies, rather than sweeping overviews of large topics or summaries of entire
dissertations/theses.
We welcome submissions from Master’s and PhD students from any discipline or university,
but especially encourage graduate students based in or around Cambridge to submit.
Accepted speakers will have the opportunity to be featured on our blog, Camedieval.
The Workshop meets alternate Thursdays, 4–5 :30pm, with the option of virtual attendance
on Microsoft Teams for audience members. In each session we will have two 15–20-minute
papers, followed by in-person socialising and refreshments.
Please send abstracts of not more than 250 words and a short bio by 29th September
2025 to: cambridgemedieval@gmail.com