Category: opportunities

Medieval Matters TT26, Wk 6

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31/05/2026

23:00

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

,

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 Oxford Playhouse. Tickets can be bought here. And do book your (free) place for the Inaugural Lecture of theologian and medievalist Andrew Davison on Monday, 15 June, 5pm, in the Concert Hall of the Humanities Centre which promises to be spectacular: 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.

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.
  • Medieval History Seminar: – 5:00, All Souls College. Guy Geltner (Monash University) will be speaking on ‘The workers’ view: an environmental approach to premodern public health’.
  • Edgar Wind Society Lecture – 6:00, House of St Gregory and St Macrina (1 Canterbury Road). Sir Richard Temple will be speakgin on ‘Andrei Rublev and the Hesychastic Mysteries of Byzantium’.

Tuesday

  • Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 2pm, Weston Library. Those who are interested can email the convenor Laure Miolo.
  • Early Modern Diplomacy Seminar 1400-1800 – 4.15, Schwartzman 20.402. Philippa Jackson (Independent Scholar) will be speaking on ‘Girolamo Ghinucci (1480-1541): Papal Judge and English Ambassador’. 
  • Medieval Church and Culture Seminar– Tea & coffee from 5pm; papers begin at 5.15pm, Harris Manchester College. Mary O’Connor (Balliol) will be speaking on ‘Pride and Humility: biblical typologies in Old Norse romances’.

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.
  • Oxford Seminar in the History of Alchemy and Chemistry – 3:00, Maison Française d’Oxford. Session 3 — Compuational History of Alchemy and Chemistry. Vojtěch Kaąe (University of West Bohemia, Plzeň) and Sarah Lang (Max Planck Institute, Berlin) will be speaking on ‘Tracing the Histories of Early Modern Conceptual Ecosystems: Remote Sensing Methods for the Archaeology of Alchemical Knowledge’; Guillermo Restrepo (Max Planck Institute, Leipzig) will be speaking on ‘Computational History of Chemistry: How Big Data Illuminates Macrohistorical Trends and Microhistorical Events’.
  • Old Norse Reading Group – 4:00, Merton College, Americas 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.
  • David Patterson Lecture – 5:00, Clarendon Institute. Elisheva Baumgarten (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) will be speaking on ‘Shared Words: Jews, Christians and Prayer in Medieval Europe’.
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5:00, Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar, Ioannou Centre. Saun Tougher (Cardiff) will be speaking on ‘Minor Characters? Other Eunuchs in Byzantine Historiography of the Tenth Century’. 
  • Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures: Provenance Unknown – 5:15, Memorial Room, The Queen’s College. Dr Stella Panayotova, Royal Librarian, will be speaking on ‘Islamic Manuscripts in the Royal Library’.

Thursday

  • Transmitting and Preserving Languages in the Medieval and Early Modern Mediterranean, Second Workshop – 9:00, Balliol College. To register for online attendance, please contact Ugo Mondini at ugo.​mondini@​mod-​langs.​ox.​ac.​uk.
  • 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. 
  • Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies Lecture – 2:00, Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. Dr Kaouther Karoui (University of Münster) will be speaking on ‘Reframing Transcultural Justice: From Early Arabo Islamic Philosophy to Postcolonial Critique’.
  • Medieval Women’s Writing Research Seminar- 4:00, Somerville College. Recording Women’s Deeds, including extracts from Agnes d’Harcourt’s Life of Isabelle of France and the Crònica de Sant Pere de les Puel·les 
  • Medieval Visual Culture Seminar – 5:00, St Catherine’s College. Jessica Barker (Courtauld Institute) will be speaking on ‘Contemporary Art Meets the Medieval Monastery’. 
  • ‘There is an Animal That is Called an Elephant’ – 5:00, Keble College. Research presentation by Dr Alexandra Paddock and sharing of a work-in-progress exploring the life and times of Henry III’s elephant through music, puppetry and text.
  • The Khalili Research Centre Seminar – 5:15, KRC Lecture Room. Emine Fetvaci (Boston College) will be ‘Portrait as Biography at the Ottoman Court: the Case of Murad III (r. 1574–95)’.
  • Bede Reading Group (or, ‘Bede-ing Group’) – 6:00, Blackfriars. To sign up, email Maura McKeon. Don’t stop Bede-lieving.

Friday

  • Medievalist Coffee Morning – 10:30, Visiting Scholars Centre (Weston Library). All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided.
  • Older Scots Reading Group – 3:00, Schwarzman room 30.401. No intensive preparation required. All are welcome and there are usually snacks. This week the theme is Orpheus and Eurydice. Contact megan.bushnell@ling-phil.ox.ac.uk for further details.
  • 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

Opportunities (see Medieval Studies booklet for full details)

  • 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.
  • CfP – Representations of Women and/as Animals in Literature, Arts, and Other Media. Deadline: 15 July 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).
  • Ashmolean Engagement Programme. More information here. Deadline: 1 June 2026.
  • CfP – Contested Ground: Ownership and Belonging in the Middle Ages. More information here. Deadline: 1 June 2026.
  • CfP – 1027 – 2027 : The World in which William was Born. More information here. Deadline: 1 June 2026.
  • Postdoctoral Fellowships at the Dictionary of Old English, U of T. More information here. Deadline: 12 June 2026.
  • 20th MEMSA Anniversary Conference. More information here. Deadline: 20 June 2026.
  • 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.
  • Call for book chapters in ‘Times of Change: Norway in the 13thC‘. Deadline: 31 July 2026.
  • 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.

Harrowing of Hell.26

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30/05/2026

10:50

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Around Oxford, opportunities

,

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 — 8:00–9:00pm – www.ticketsource.com/theharrowingofhell

With: Thomas Arensen (Satan), Ian Machalek (Jesus), Elizabeth Henderson-Millier (Devil 1), Sonny Fox (Devil 2), Anastasija Vidjajeva (Eve), Caleb Silvergleid (Adam), Patrizia Hinz (Narrator)

Plot: For 4000 years, Satan has ruled Hell and guarded the souls of the dead. After the Crucifixion, Christ descends into Hell to reclaim them and dismantle the kingdom Satan built. The play opens in an exhausted, decaying Hell where Satan, far from triumphant, has become the prisoner of his own creation, haunted by the voices, smells, and bodies of the souls who have been condemned. A narrator forces both the audience and Satan to witness the spectacle of his downfall, imposing upon him the slow collapse and reconfiguration of his kingdom.

Around him, demons transform suffering into ritual. Their violent games perpetually reenact a grotesque mechanism. Hell becomes an obsessive choreography in which exhausted bodies repeat the same gestures endlessly, trapped within laws that even Satan no longer fully controls. Meanwhile, Adam and Eve drift between terror, dependence, and tenderness toward the very being who imprisons them. As an unknown presence begins to press against the walls of Hell, the fragile balance of this decaying world starts to fracture. Christ arrives not as a merciful redeemer, but as a violent intrusion: abandoned by both God and mankind, he descends to reclaim what he believes is rightfully his, tearing apart the miserable order in which these souls have painfully learned to survive. Yet what Christ offers is far from simple salvation. The inhabitants of Hell no longer know how to imagine life outside the systems that have shaped them. Adam and Eve hesitate to leave Satan behind, even as they continue to suffer under his power.

The play asks whether escape from Hell truly means submission, or whether salvation itself can become another form of violence. The Harrowing of Hell.26 is a piece about domination, exhaustion, attachment, and the terrifying uncertainty of liberation itself.

Warning: Contains religious (Christian) themes, elements of irreverence, and depictions of psychological distress

From the Cast Call

About the director: Méryl Vourch is an Oxford Visiting Student at Merton College. She has worked as an assistant director with Laurent Delvert and Denis Podalydès at the Opéra de Lille (Gounod’s Faust, May 2025), and assisted Caroline Staunton (Don Giovanni, Opéra Bastille, 2023) and Mariame Clément (Don Giovanni, Glyndebourne Festival, 2023). As a director, she has staged three productions in Paris: Hamlet, Alice in Wonderland (Théâtre Nicole Loraux, 2024–2025), and Mamma Mia! (MPAA, 2025).

We will be performing our play in week 6 (2 to 6 June) at the Burton Taylor Studio, from 9:30 to 10:30pm and in week 7 (9 to 11 June, tbc) in the crypt of St-Peter-in-the-East (St Edmund Hall), from 8 to 9pm. We are still missing three roles (Adam, Eve, and a demon; all backgrounds welcome, aged 18+). There were auditions on 25/26 April, but anyone who was unavailable is very welcome to contact the director by email for further information.

Roles Available

  • One demon (one of two): part of a grotesque and comic duo—agents of chaos, both cruel and ridiculous, frustrated by their condition.
  • Adam and Eve: a bourgeois couple frozen in time, marked by long waiting, repetitive gestures, and a certain passivity

All roles include some choreographed scenes (minimal movement required).

Auditions

Please prepare a monologue of your choice (2–5 minutes) and an extract from the audition pack for your chosen role. Contact : meryl.vourch@merton.ox.ac.uk if you are interested or have any questions! If the audition dates have already passed but you are still interested, you are very welcome to contact us.

Medieval Matter TT26, wk5

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25/05/2026

09:02

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

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, which includes an exhibition curated by the participants.

Exciting news! The Thegns of Mercia – an Anglo-Saxon reconstruction group – are coming to Balliol the Friday 29th May to show off a range of replicas (Old Common Room, 14:30). All are welcome!

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.
  • Armenian Studies Lecture – 4:00, Pembroke College. Ruth Gornandt (Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies) will be speaking on ‘‘Measured Theology’ – Gregory of Tatev (1346–1410) and the limits of theological knowledge’.
  • Medieval History Seminar: – 5:00, All Souls College. Julia Hillner (University of Bonn) will be speaking on ‘The marrying kind: how late Roman emperors chose their wives’.

Tuesday

  • Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 2pm, Weston Library. Those who are interested can email the convenor Laure Miolo.
  • Medieval French Research Seminar – 5:00, Maison Francaise. Laura Campbell (Durham University) will be speaking on‘In the Beginning: Re-Creating the Creation Story in Medieval French Translations’.
  • Medieval Church and Culture Seminar– Tea & coffee from 5pm; papers begin at 5.15pm, Harris Manchester College. Youfei Fan (St Anne’s) will be speaking on ‘The Potion and the Women around It: female knowledge and trickery in the Tristan Legend’.
  • Professor Frank Griffel’s inaugural lecture – 5:00, Humanities Centre. ‘Double Truth and Multiple Rationalisms: Philosophy in Islam’s Post-Classical Period’. More information here.
  • Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures – 5:15, Memorial Room, Queen’s College. Gunnar Seelentag (Hannover & Münster) will be speaking on ‘Monumentalising Norms, not Names: cartelisation and colossality in Archaic Crete’.

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. Alessandra Bucossi (Venice) will be speaking on ‘The Komnenian Panoplies between Religious Polemic and Political Self-Defence’.
  • Medieval English Research Seminar – 5:15, The Schwarzman Centre, room 00.018 . Mel Cowdery (U of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) will be speaking on ‘What Does a Mirror Mean to Thomas Hoccleve?’.
  • ‘Public Health in the Premodern World’ Book Launch – 5:30 in the Mark Bedingham Room, St John’s College. Discussants: H. Skoda, U. Khan, G. Geltner, Janna Coomans, and Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim. Drinks reception to follow.

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. 
  • Oxford Environmental History Working Group – 12:30, Schwarzman Centre History Hub Room 20.421. Dr. Kelsey Granger (IHR History Research Fellow) will be speaking on ‘Messengers of Empire: The Lives and Labour of Horses in China’s Ancient Postal System’.
  • Medieval Visual Culture Seminar – 5:00, St Catherine’s College. Lloyd Debeer (British Museum) will be speaking on ‘The Many Lives of the Asante Ewers’.
  • Global Manuscript and Text Cultures Seminar – 5:15, Memorial Room, Queen’ College. Lauren Dogaer (Univ) will be speaking on ‘How the Greek Text Culture Has Shaped Modern Views of Ptolemaic Egyptian Priests’; Fergus Bovill (Merton) will be speaking on ‘Rebuilding the Medieval, Preserving the 19th Century: Littifredi Corbizzi, Johann Anton Ramboux, and the making and breaking of a choirbook in Gubbio’.
  • 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.
  • The Khalili Research Centre Seminar – 5:15, KRC Lecture Room. Margaret Squires (Ashmolean Museum) will be speaking on ‘Woven Together: Carpets and Architecture in Safavid Iran’.
  • Oxford Trobadors Concert – 7:00, La Maison Francaise.
  • Bede Reading Group (or, ‘Bede-ing Group’) – 6:00, Blackfriars. To sign up, email Maura McKeon. Don’t stop Bede-lieving.
  • Compline in the Crypt – 9:30, St Edmund Hall.

Friday

  • Conference Exploring Medieval Oxford through Surviving Archives – 9:00, Weston Library lecture theatre.
  • Oxford Festival of the Arts: Reading the signs: The meanings of medieval and Renaissance objects, symbols, and tokens – 9:30, The Hub, Kellog College.
  • Medievalist Coffee Morning – Friday 10:30, Visiting Scholars Centre (Weston Library). All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided.
  • Thegns of Mercia: Learning through Making – 2:30, Balliol College (Old Common Room).
  • 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. 

Opportunities (see Medieval Studies booklet for full details)

  • OMS small grants is now open! Grants are normally in the region of £100–250 and can either be for expenses or for administrative and organisational support such as publicity, filming or zoom hosting. Closing date for applications: Friday of Week 5.
  • 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.
  • CfP – Representations of Women and/as Animals in Literature, Arts, and Other Media. Deadline: 15 July 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).
  • Ashmolean Engagement Programme. More information here. Deadline: 1 June 2026.
  • CfP – Contested Ground: Ownership and Belonging in the Middle Ages. More information here. Deadline: 1 June 2026.
  • CfP – 1027 – 2027 : The World in which William was Born. More information here. Deadline: 1 June 2026.
  • Postdoctoral Fellowships at the Dictionary of Old English, U of T. More information here. Deadline: 12 June 2026.
  • 20th MEMSA Anniversary Conference. More information here. Deadline: 20th June 2026.
  • 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.
  • 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.

Come shape the Ashmolean Museum’s University Engagement Programme

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25/05/2026

08:50

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opportunities

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 unique perspectives about museums, access and the University to be part of this dreaming session. If this sounds like you, please submit a 120-word statement or 1 minute video outlining why you want to participate in the project by 10:00am on 1 June via Microsoft Forms.

This opportunity will take place onsite at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, and is paid at the Oxford Living Wage of £14.06 per hour. Students will need to be available from 10:00am to 4:00pm, Tuesday 23 – Thursday 25 June and from 10:00am – 1:00pm on Friday 26 June 2026.

Please note that this is a positive action opportunity, open to all University of Oxford students who have matriculated. Although not a requirement of the role we are particularly interested in hearing from applicants from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and Disabled, LGBTQIA+ and Global Majority applicants, all of whom are typically underrepresented in the heritage sector.

If you would like to discuss any questions about, or necessary adjustments to, both the application process and the role its self before submitting your application please email caroline.moore@ashmus.ox.ac.uk

(Use of AI in Applications: To help us get a real sense of why you are interested in this opportunity we encourage you to only use AI to perfect rather the write the content of your application.  We also welcome applications which have not used AI at all!)

Medieval matter TT26, Wk 4

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18/05/2026

08:59

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Around Oxford, Call for Papers, conference, events, Medieval Matters, News, opportunities

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 from exams or papers, this editathon offers a space to do so! Participants are encouraged to bring a topic they would like to work on, and prior experience with Wikipedia editing is not required – beginners are very welcome.

Exciting news! Two of our medievalists – Sumner Braund and Helen Flatley – have just opened a used bookshop in Oxford’s Golden Cross called ‘Barker and Company’, full of medieval books.

Monday

  • Bartlemas 900 Exhibition – weeklong, Bartlemas Chapel (Cowley Road). Exhibition exploring the history and significance of Bartlemas. More info here.
  • 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.
  • Medieval History Seminar: – 5:00, All Souls College. Teresa Witcombe (Wadham College, Oxford) will be speaking in ‘The spoils of war: Andalusi captives in medieval Castile’.
  • Italian Research Seminar – 5:15, Taylorian, Room 2. Ambrogio Camozzi Pistoja (Harvard) will be speaking on ‘towards a Criminal History of Medieval Satire: Boccaccio, Decameron 5.10 (Sodomy, Apuleius, Forgery)’

Tuesday

  • Latin Palaeography Special Session – 2pm, Weston Library. Angela Cossu (Grenoble/ Richard Sharpe Memorial Visiting Fellow, Bodleian Libraries) will show and speak about “Medieval Latin florilegia: palaeography, mise en page and mise en texte” Those who are interested can email the convenor Laure Miolo.
  • Medieval Church and Culture Seminar– Tea & coffee from 5pm; papers begin at 5.15pm, Harris Manchester College. Henry Merrifield (Corpus) will be speaking on ‘Adoption or Rejection:  assessing Anglo-Saxon attitudes to ancient Rome’; Rhys Schwan (Trinity) will be speaking on ‘Revisiting the Regnal Chronology of the Kingdom of Northumbria in the 9th Century’
  • The Oxford Society for the Caucasus and Central Asia (TOSCCA) Seminar Series – 5:00, Lecture Room 4, New College. Dilnoza Duturaeva (University of York/ONGC) will be speaking on ‘Animal Power in the Highlands: Qarakhanid Hybrid Camels to China.’

Wednesday

  • Methods in Arabic and Islamic Studies Class – 10:30, LMH Library.
  • ‘AI and the Future of Everyday Heritage’ Heritage Pathway Programme – 11:00, Humanities Centre. Speaker: Dr Dominique Bouchard, Heritage and Engagement Director, Leeds Castle Clara Saliba, AI and Data Insights Analyst, Blenheim Place. More details and booking here.
  • 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.
  • Oxford Seminar in the History of Alchemy and Chemistry – 3:00, Maison Française d’Oxford. Session 2 — Spiritual Foundations of Alchemy. Chair: Ellen Hausner (Oxford). Speakers: Mark Edwards (Oxford) on ‘Ancient Alchemy as Philosophy’; Charles Burnett (Warburg Institute) on ‘Alchemy as Divinatio’.
  • Old Norse Reading Group – 4:00, Merton College, Americas 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. Apolline Gay (Brussels and Oxford) will be speaking on ‘They Also Tell the Story: The Role of Biblical Female Figures in Images from Byzantine and Early Islamic Egypt‘.
  • Medieval English Research Seminar – 5:15, Medieval English Research Seminar – 5:15. Annie Englund (U of Oxford) will be speaking on ‘Ghosts, roasts, and the speaking dead: grappling with the popularity of the Old English Soul and Body’; Corinne Clark (U of Oxford) will be speaking on ‘The Reading bee: honey and venom in Walter Map’s De Nugis Curialium’.
  • Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures: Provenance Unknown – 5:15, Memorial Room, The Queen’s College. Roberta Mazza (University of Bologna) will be speaking on ‘Beyond Provenance: Publishing Papyri and Other Manuscripts from Egypt in 2026’.

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. 
  • Medieval Women’s Writing Research Seminar- 4:00, Somerville College. Poetry and Song, including extracts from the works of Kassia of Constantinople, Florencia Pinar and Gwerful Mechain.
  • Wikipedia Editathon for Medievalists – 5:00, Old Library at St Edmund Hall. More info here.
  • The Khalili Research Centre Seminar – 5:15, KRC Lecture Room. Stephane Pradines (The Aga Khan University) will be speaking on ‘Islamic Archaeology in Egypt: Sixteen Years of Rescue Excavations in Cairo’.
  • Bede Reading Group (or, ‘Bede-ing Group’) – 6:00, Blackfriars. To sign up, email Maura McKeon. Don’t stop Bede-lieving.

Friday

  • Medievalist Coffee Morning – 10:30, Visiting Scholars Centre (Weston Library). All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided.
  • Older Scots Reading Group – 3:00, Schwarzman room 30.401. No intensive preparation required. All are welcome and there are usually snacks. This week the theme is Orpheus and Eurydice. Contact megan.bushnell@ling-phil.ox.ac.uk for further details.
  • Oxford Medieval Manuscript Group: Tour of the Magdalen College Old Library – 3:00, Magdalen College, Porter’s Lodge. Booking required.
  • 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. 

Opportunities (see Medieval Studies booklet for full details)

Medieval Matters TT26, Wk 3

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11/05/2026

09:00

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

, , ,

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 speaking on a panel, please drop me a quick email with the details.

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.
  • Medieval History Seminar: – 5:00, All Souls College. Round table on Richard Hodges’s The Origins of Anglo-Saxon Towns: A Viking Gift? (London, 2025) with John Blair, Helen Gittos, Helena Hamerow and Rory Naismith.
  • Italian Research Seminar – 5:15, Taylorian, Room 2. Graduate Work-in-Progress. Presentations from DPhil students Silvia Cercarelli (modern/contemporary), Esme Hodson (modern/contemporary), Katherine McKee (medieval), and Victoria White (early modern)

Tuesday

  • Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 2pm, Weston Library. Those who are interested can email the convenor Laure Miolo.
  • Medieval French Research Seminar – 5:00, Maison Francaise. Adrian Armstrong (Queen Mary University of London) will be speaking on ‘Testopolis: The Testament as Urban Art’ .
  • Medieval Church and Culture Seminar– Tea & coffee from 5pm; papers begin at 5.15pm, Harris Manchester College. Cris Arama (St Anne’s) will be speaking on ‘Gender embodiment in Old French hagiography:  a textual and iconographical approach’;  Bartholomew Chu (Lincoln) will be speaking on ;The Quandary of Quality:  copying prestige in MS. Bodl. 770′.

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.
  • Early Printed Books: A Computer-Aided Collate-A-Thon – 2:00, Taylor Institute Library. To book a place, please sign up here. For information about the project see here or contact Giles Bergel at giles.bergel@eng.ox.ac.uk 
  • Oxford Seminar in the History of Alchemy and Chemistry: Life and Nature in Early Modern Alchemy – 3:00, Maison Française d’Oxford. Oana Matei (Western University of Arad) will be speaking on ‘Can Life Rise from Ashes? Discussions on the Possibility of the Palingenesis of Plants in the Seventeenth Century’; Xinyi Wen (Warburg Institute) will be speaking on ‘Cosmos or Coitus? A Copy Census of Oswald Croll’s Basilica Chymica, 1609–1690′.
  • 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. Pawel Nowakowski (Warsaw) will be speaking in ‘New Fragments of the Order (forma generalis) of the Praetorian Prefect of the East, Pusaeus Dionysius, 480 CE, from Stratonikeia in Caria’.
  • Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies Lecture – 5:00, Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. Dr Harry Muntv(University of York) will be speaking on ‘Haram Historiography: Writing the History of Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem in the Early Islamic Centuries’.  
  • Oxford Centre of Early Medieval Britain and Ireland: Invisible East – 5:00, online. Nima Asefi (Universität Hamburg) will be speaking on ‘Documents from Turbulent Times: Studying Middle Persian Collections from the Late Sasanian and Early Islamic Periods-Opportunities and Challenges’. Registration essential.  
  • Medieval English Research Seminar – 5:15, The Schwarzman Centre, room 00.018 . Cathy Shrank (U of Sheffield) will be speaking on ‘Thomas More’s dialogues’.

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. 
  • Oxford Environmental History Working Group – 12:30, Schwarzman Centre History Hub Room 20.421. Wallerand Bazin will be speaking on ‘Bracken dissensus: a historical political ecology of tree planting in the English Lake District’.
  • Oliver Smithies Lecture at Balliol College – 5:15, Gillis Lecture Theatre, Balliol College. Elaine Treharne (Stanford University) will be speaking on “Death of a Nun: Medieval Women Scribes and Networks of Piety”. Followed by a Drinks Reception. More information here.
  • Bede Reading Group (or, ‘Bede-ing Group’) – 6:00, Blackfriars. To sign up, email Maura McKeon. Don’t stop Bede-lieving.
  • Medieval Academy of America’s Graduate Student Council webinar on funding – 8:00 online. MAA Special Projects Assistant Jon Dell Isola will discuss what grants are available to graduate students, how to apply, and tips for grant applications. Register here.
  • 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 – 3:00. Courtauld Gallery (London) Visit.
  • Old Frisian Reading Group – 3:00, 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. 

Opportunities (see Medieval Studies booklet for full details)

  • The experimental production of the Harrowing of Hell is still looking for players. More information can be found here.
  • OMS small grants is now open! Grants are normally in the region of £100–250 and can either be for expenses or for administrative and organisational support such as publicity, filming or zoom hosting. Closing date for applications: Friday of Week 5.
  • 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.
  • Register for the Anglo-German Research Funding Opportunities Showcase, Wednesday, 13 May  •  2 PM – 5:30 PM | Eventbrite. The Global Engagement team will host representatives from some of the major German and UK funding bodies (DFG, The Royal Society, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the Royal Academy of Engineering and more) at Rhodes House; for Early Career People as well as established researchers!
  • CfP – Representations of Women and/as Animals in Literature, Arts, and Other Media. Deadline: 15 July 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).
  • CfP – 9th International Conference on Myth Criticism. Deadline: 15 May 2026
  • CfP – The Nine Worthies: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Deadline: 15 May 2026
  • CfP – Contested Ground: Ownership and Belonging in the Middle Ages. More information here. Deadline: 1 June 2026.
  • CfP – 1027 – 2027 : The World in which William was Born. More information here. Deadline: 1 June 2026.
  • 20th MEMSA Anniversary Conference. More information here. Deadline: 20th June 2026.
  • 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.
  • 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.

Medieval Matters TT26, Wk 2

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04/05/2026

09:13

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

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

  • 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.
  • Medieval History Seminar: – 5:00, All Souls College. Nancy Thebaut (St Catherine’s College, Oxford) will be speaking on ‘When Christ turns away: representing the ascension ca. 1000’.

Tuesday

  • Latin Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 2pm, Weston Library. Those who are interested can email the convenor Laure Miolo.
  • Medieval Church and Culture Seminar– Tea & coffee from 5pm; papers begin at 5.15pm, Harris Manchester College. Hannah Free (Kellogg) will be speaking on ‘Christian Fanfiction? Searching for truth in biblical retellings’; Samuel Bedford (Wadham) will be speaking on ‘Reginald Pecock’s Rationalist Turn: a study in medieval intellectual biography’

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 – 5:00, Merton College, Americas 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. Ekaterini Vavaliou (Oxford) will be speaking on ‘Dissecting a Medieval Frontier: The Fortifications of Eastern Central Greece‘.

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. 
  • Writing Environmental History Workshop – 2:00, Schwarzman Centre Room TBA. For updated meeting information, please email Ryan Mealiffe.
  • Black Lives in the Archives: Chivalric Romances – 3:00, Weston Library. This hands-on workshop will explore how surviving medieval manuscripts can help us understand race and race-making in medieval Europe. Register here.
  • Medieval Women’s Writing Research Seminar- 4:00, Somerville College. Spiritual and Material World, including extracts from the works of Margery Kempe, Leonor López de Córdoba and Isabel de Villena 
  • Medieval Visual Culture Seminar – 5:00, St Catherine’s College. Cécile Voyer (Université de Poitiers) will be speaking on “Under the Gaze of the Judge: New approaches to a re-reading of the Conques tympanum” 
  • Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures: Global Manuscript and Text Cultures Seminar – 5:15, Memorial Room, Queen’s College. Shaahin Pishbin (Queen’s) & Thomas Newbold (Asian University for Women, Chittagong) will be speaking on M’uhajir manuscripts: Field notes from the Alia Madrasa Library in Dhaka’; Jaimee Comstock-Skipp (New College) will be speaking on ‘What’s in a nisba? Manuscript makers and migrations in 16th-century Central Asia’.
  • The Khalili Research Centre Seminar – 5:15, KRC Lecture Room. Suna Çağaptay (Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University) will be speaking on ‘Reading Between the Lines: The Maritime Landscape of Anaia on the Byzantine-Genoese and Aydinid Cusp’ 
  • Guild of Medievalist Makers – 5:30, online. Making Space Session –  optional theme: dreams.
  • Bede Reading Group (or, ‘Bede-ing Group’) – 6:00, Blackfriars. To sign up, email Maura McKeon. Don’t stop Bede-lieving.
  • 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.
  • Older Scots Reading Group – 3:00, Schwarzman room 30.401. No intensive preparation required. All are welcome and there are usually snacks. This week the theme is Orpheus and Eurydice. Contact megan.bushnell@ling-phil.ox.ac.uk for further details.
  • Oxford Medieval Manuscript Group – 5:00, Merton College Mure Room. Professor Elaine Treharne (Stanford University) will be speaking on ‘The Look of the Medieval Book: Manuscripts and Their Uses’. Please join us for a drinks reception following the lecture.
  • 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. 
  • O’ Donnell Lecture – 5:30, Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities. Dr Aaron Griffith (Utrecht University) will be speaking on ‘Old Irish: plenty of variation, but of what kind?‘. Register for free tickets here. 
  • A Multilingual Moses Play – 6:30, Ioannou Centre.

Opportunities (see Medieval Studies booklet for full details)

  • The experimental production of the Harrowing of Hell is still looking for players. More information can be found here.
  • OMS small grants is now open! Grants are normally in the region of £100–250 and can either be for expenses or for administrative and organisational support such as publicity, filming or zoom hosting. Closing date for applications: Friday of Week 5.
  • 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.
  • Register for the Anglo-German Research Funding Opportunities Showcase, Wednesday, 13 May  •  2 PM – 5:30 PM | Eventbrite. The Global Engagement team will host representatives from some of the major German and UK funding bodies (DFG, The Royal Society, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the Royal Academy of Engineering and more) at Rhodes House; for Early Career People as well as established researchers!
  • 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).
  • CfP – 9th International Conference on Myth Criticism. Deadline: 15 May 2026
  • CfP – The Nine Worthies: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Deadline: 15 May 2026
  • CfP – Contested Ground: Ownership and Belonging in the Middle Ages. More information here. Deadline: 1 June 2026.
  • CfP – 1027 – 2027 : The World in which William was Born. More information here. Deadline: 1 June 2026.
  • 20th MEMSA Anniversary Conference. More information here. Deadline: 20th June 2026.
  • 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.
  • 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.

OMS Small Grants Now Open!

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27/04/2026

09:00

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opportunities

, ,

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 place during that or the following term. An additional deadline for summer activities and Michaelmas Term is last Friday of July.

Grants are normally in the region of £100–250 and can either be for expenses or for administrative and organisational support such as publicity, filming or zoom hosting. They can also be used to support staging a play for the Medieval Mystery Cycle, e.g. for buying props or material for costumes. Recipients will be required to supply a report after the event for the Oxford Medieval Studies blog and will be invited to present on their award at an OMS event.

Applicants will be responsible for all administrative aspects of the activity, including formulating the theme and intellectual rationale, devising the format, and, depending on the type of event, inviting speakers and/or issuing a Call for Papers, organising the schedule, and managing the budget, promotion and advertising.

Applications should be submitted to Prof. Lesley Smith  using the word grant application form. Informal enquiries may also be directed to Lesley. The Oxford Medieval Studies Programme money is administered by The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH) and the money will be paid out via their expenses system.

Events at Iffley Church

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20/04/2026

15:45

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Around Oxford, events, opportunities

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 visitors to the church on Sunday afternoons from Easter to October.

Events 2026 Drawing Iffley Church

Spend a day looking at and drawing Iffley Church with local artist and teacher, MICAH HAYNS

Saturday 16 May 2026 10.30-5.00pm St Mary’s Church OX4 4EJ

Iffley Church is an outstanding Romanesque building. It stands in a unique historic landscape

  • all materials supplied
  • live demonstration and feedback
  • For amateurs aged 16+
  • Limited numbers
  • BOOK NOW! Ticket sales open!

The session starts in the Church Hall, Church Way, Iffley OX4 4EG. Bring your own lunch. Or visit nearby pub, The Prince of Wales, 73 Church Way, Iffley, Oxford OX4 4EF 01865 586379  https://www.princeofwalesiffley.co.uk/

 Living Stones will provide free hot and cold drinks throughout the day.

All materials will be provided, but you are welcome to bring your own sketching stool, sketch book, or anything you are working on if you wish.

The day will run as part of East Oxford Art Weeks. Some of Micah’s work will be exhibited in the Church Hall throughout the day. 

Work by participants will join the exhibition at the end of the day after which participants may take their work home.

MORE INFORMATION and BOOKING FORM

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/drawing-iffley-church-tickets-1981794010233?aff=oddtdtcreator

Events 2025

SATURDAY 10 MAY 10.00-4.30 – Drawing Iffley Church, day-school with artist Micah Hayns.

SATURDAY 17 MAY 11.00-7.15 – Day of chant in celebration of St Dunstan, patron saint of bellringers and music. The day ends with a special service in the church sung to music composed by St Dunstan and first written down in the 12th century.

SUNDAY 7 SEPTEMBER – Patronal Festival for St Mary the Virgin, picnic and family fun.

Medieval Matters – Vac

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23/03/2026

10:46

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Around Oxford, Call for Papers, conference, events, Medieval Matters, News, opportunities, Uncategorized

The OMS emails will be put on brief pause over the vac, although the blog will be continually updated with new events. Please see below a number of important opportunities and reminders before term starts. Of particular note to those interested in early medieval England (and who amongst us doesnt fall into that category) is the British Library’s upcoming PhD placement on the Norman Conquest. Applications are open for three PhD placements which will support the development of our upcoming major exhibition on the Norman Conquest, marking the 1,000th anniversary of the birth of William the Conqueror. Apply by Monday 6 April 2026. Apply by Monday 6 April 2026.