Category: opportunities

Medieval Matter MT 25, Week 5

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10/11/2025

08:48

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

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

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

Opportunities

Colloquium: Journals, Past, Present and Future

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10/11/2025

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Friday 28 November 2025

The Old Library, All Souls College, Oxford

On the 100th birthday of Review of English Studies, this colloquium will reflect on the role of it and other journals in literary studies in the past and today.

All are welcome. To help with catering, please register your intention to attend with Professor Daniel Wakelin, daniel.wakelin@ell.ox.ac.uk.

· 2.00, welcome remarks, Professor Colin Burrow (Oxford)

· 2.15–3.15, on the history of Review of English Studies, Professor Stefan Collini (Cambridge)

· 3.15–3.45, tea

· 3.45–5.15, on journals today: on Review of English Studies, Professor Juliette Atkinson (UCL); on Textual Practice, Professor Peter Boxall (Oxford); on Essays in Criticism, Professor Seamus Perry (Oxford)

· 5.15, a drinks reception to toast the birthday of Review of English Studies

Mortimer History Society Essay Prize Prize

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09/11/2025

19:09

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opportunities

The aim of the MHS Essay Prize is to promote and encourage scholarly research and popular interest in the history of the medieval Mortimer family of Wigmore and its cadet branches, including those of Chirk and Chelmarsh, and the family’s impact on the history and culture of the British Isles. Or the history, geopolitics, topography, laws, economy, society and culture of medieval borderlands, including comparative studies, between 1066 and 1542. Success will garner financial prizes, the opportunity for peer-reviewed publication, membership of the MHS and speaking opportunities. The closing date for entries is 15th February 2026.

2025_MHS_Essay_Prize_Call_for_EntriesDownload

Workshop and Vespers for St Edmund

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04/11/2025

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Around Oxford, opportunities

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Saturday 15 November | 14:00-19:00 | Chapel St Edmund Hall
Open to all, whether singer, scholar, or curious listener. No singing experience required.
Tickets: £15 (General) | £5 (Students & Concessions) | free for SEH staff, students & Fellows
Register on Eventbrite

The historical wind and vocal ensemble In Spiritu Humilitatis joins the Choir of St Edmund Hall for an immersive exploration of Renaissance Vespers. Reading directly from original choirbooks in white mensural notation, and guided by the sound of cornetts, sackbuts, and voices, participants will rediscover the expressive freedom of improvised polyphony and the luminous sonorities of early sacred music.

While traditional musical education often relies on modern editions, working from original sources opens a world of interpretative freedom. It allows musicians to make their own informed choices about phrasing, accidentals, and flow, rather than relying on an editor’s interpretation. It’s a liberating process. Reading from the sources draws you closer to the composer’s voice, encouraging a more personal, heartfelt performance.

This workshop invites you to experience that process firsthand: to step into the world of a Renaissance choir and take part in the singing of Vespers for St Edmund, Archbishop of Canterbury. Together we’ll explore the structure of the service, learn how to sing psalms in monody and improvise around plainchant, and practise reading from original notation.

Open to all, whether singer, scholar, or curious listener, this participatory event is about discovery, connection, and the joy of music-making. There are no wrong notes, only the opportunity to let your musicianship lead the way.

Here’s how the afternoon will go:

2:00 pm – Welcome and introduction to the structure of Vespers
2:30–3:30 pm – Working on the psalms
Break
After the break – Exploring polyphonic pieces in white mensural notation
5:10 pm – Short break
5:30 pm – Performance of Vespers for St Edmund

If you have any questions, please email: events@seh.ox.ac.uk

Come and experience early music from the inside out — as it was first imagined and heard.

MUSIC AT ST EDMUND HALL SERIES

Medieval Matter MT25, Week 4

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03/11/2025

08:25

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

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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

Medieval Matters, MT25 Week 3

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27/10/2025

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

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

Medieval Matters MT25, Week 2

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19/10/2025

16:34

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

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

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13/10/2025

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Fragmented Worlds, Shared Histories

The MEMRN Committee are delighted to announce the return of the Winter Conference after the huge success of last year’s inaugural in-person event in Norwich. The MEMRN Winter Conference 2025 will be held from the 13th to the 16th November 2025 at the University of East Anglia.

Please find the provisional programme for our conference event below. You can register to attend the conference panels virtually via Eventbrite HERE. Online registrations for the final few in-person spaces will be opened shortly. We hope to see you there!

Thursday 13th November Scheduled Activities
19:00
Norwich City Centre
The Adam & Eve
17 Bishopgate,
Norwich, NR3 1RZ		Welcome to MEMRN’s Winter Conference 2025! 

If you’re arriving early to the conference, we’d like to welcome you to Norwich by heading out together on a sociable crawl of some of Norwich’s oldest and finest pubs. 

We’ll begin our evening at the oldest pub in the city: the Adam & Eve, which dates back to at least 1249! From there, we’ll walk over to the Belgian Monk next to the historic Maddermarket. Try the cherry beer – you won’t regret it! We plan to wind up at the Lamb Inn, located in what was medieval Norwich’s Jewish Quarter. 
Friday 14th NovemberDay OneScheduled Activities
10:00 – 10:10
University of East Anglia 
Congregation Hall 
Room 0.13		Arrival & registration at Congregation Hall, UEA. 

Morning refreshments (tea, coffee and breakfast pastries) will be provided.)
10:10 – 10:20 
University of East Anglia 
Congregation Hall 
Room 0.13		Welcome and Opening Remarks from the CHASE MEMRN Committee.
10:30 – 11:40 
University of East Anglia 

Panel Session One: 
Congregation Hall 
Room 0.13

Panel Session Two: 
The Union Building
Room 1		Panel Session One: Fragmented Religious Communities 
Panel Chair: Freya Laidlow-Petersen

Dr. Danny Buck 
(Independent Scholar)

A Calvinist Bolthole? The Unusual Survival of Great Yarmouth’s Dutch Congregation

Anisia Iacob 
(University of Kent, Kings College London) 

Banned and Burnt: Michael Servetus’ Christianismi Restitutio and its Journey to 16th century Transylvania

Felix Liber
(Independent Scholar) 

Natural Law Amidst a Plurality of Opinions: John Selden and the Agent Intellect

Panel Session Two: Communities in Manuscript
Panel Chair: TBC

Kate Yarbrough
(University of York)

Passionately Made: Reader Additions in the Pavement-Pulleyn Hours, York Minster LibraryMS XVI.K.6

Madeleine Duperouzel
(University of Oxford)

Examining Marginal Women in Late Antique and Byzantine Egyptian Papyri, 4th-7th centuries

Mathilda Linnéa Osborne
(Independent Scholar)

Remembering Husdent: Marginalised Animals and the Fragmented Béroul Manuscript

Emilia Hesler Osztafi
(University of Oxford)

Practical Fragments: Compilation as Craft and Ritual in English Fifteenth-Century Home-Made Notebooks
11:40 – 12:10BREAK
12:10 – 13:20
University of East Anglia 

Panel Session Three:
Congregation Hall 
Room 0.13

Panel Session Four:
Congregation Hall 
Room 0.17		Panel Session Three: Voices from the Margin
Panel Chair: TBC

Conor Byrne 
(University of Southampton)

‘The supreme opportunity to speak’? Queenship, Gender and Agency on the Early Modern Scaffold 

Lucy Ryell
(University of Lincoln)

‘I love my master, and I hate that slave’: Servicing Power and Empowering Service in Early Modern Domestic Tragedy

Costas Gavriel 
(University of Oxford) 

The Politics of Conversion: The Role of the Jewish Orphan in the Memorias of Leonor López de Córdoba

Panel Session Four: Poetical Matter: Alchemy and Anatomy
Panel Chair: TBC

Amelia Ormondroyd-Williams
(Birkbeck, University of London)

The Vegetal Analogy in Early Modern Poetry and Obstetrics

Anna Piper-Thompson
(University of York)

‘When Phæbus with his Rayes Bryghte’: Sir Hans Sloane’s Alchemical Manuscript Collection in Practice

Gabriela Luz 
(University of Birmingham & UNESP, Brazil)

“And this feende, that hadde power to make woman conceive” – The Demonic Seed in Supernatural Pregnancies
13:20 – 14:00Lunch
14:45 – 17:00 

Session 1: Norwich Castle 
Castle St, Norwich,
NR1 3JU

Session 2: Norwich Cathedral
Cathedral Close,
Tombland, Norwich,
NR1 4DH

Session 3: Norwich City Centre

Session 4: The Forum,
Millennium Plain, Norwich
NR2 1BH		Afternoon Exploration Sessions
Session 1: Norwich Castle Museum – Visit to the new gallery of Medieval Life
Join Dr. Tim Pestell, Castle Curator of Archaeology, for a special look around Norwich Castle’s newly redeveloped Norman keep. Redesigned over the course of 7 years, the Norman keep now houses reconstructed royal apartments and the new Gallery of Medieval Life, opened in partnership with the British Museum. You’ll have the opportunity to hear Tim’s unique insights into the challenges of the keep project and enjoy some time exploring the museum independently. 

Please note: Norwich Castle keep is now fully accessible. 

Session 2: Norwich Cathedral Library Workshop and Cathedral Tour
With construction beginning in 1096, Norwich Cathedral has been a site of Christian worship for over 900 years. This visit will include a guided tour of the medieval & early modern highlights of the cathedral building, rounded off with a workshop in the Cathedral library with library curator Gudrun Warren to examine some of the special collections. 

Please note: Norwich Cathedral and its Library are mostly accessible but the main cathedral building has some uneven floors. You can access more accessibility information here: https://cathedral.org.uk/accessibility/

Session 3: Medieval & Early Modern Norwich Walking Tour
Wrap up warm and explore the incredible medieval and early modern city of Norwich with us! Embark on a walking tour of some of the stunning highlights including the medieval church that was home to Julian of Norwich, the glorious guildhall, Cathedral Close, Tombland, and the famously picturesque Elm Hill. 

Please note: Our walking tour route is largely accessible but could be a challenging distance for those with mobility issues. In the event that  the winter weather works against us, we will dip into Norwich cathedral, have a look around, and enjoy a sociable tea & cake in the Refectory instead! 

Session 4: Norfolk Heritage Centre – Special Collections Visit
This session will be based at the Norfolk Heritage Centre at the Forum. Workshop participants will have the opportunity to work with some of the medieval and early modern highlights of the Centre’s special collections and develop book handling and interpretation skills with the experts. The workshop is intended to develop a deeper understanding of palaeography and book history as well as the role of Norwich’s historic library collections across four centuries of public and academic life. 

Please note: The Forum is an accessible venue.
18:00 
Norwich City Centre
The Vault
The Cosy Club, 45-51 London St, Norwich, NR2 1AG		MEMRN Winter Conference Welcome Dinner

Tonight delegates will be invited to gather for an informal dinner at The Cosy Club in Norwich. Head downstairs to our private room in the old bank vault for a relaxed evening of great food, drinks and company! 

Please note that the cost of dinner is not included. As an optional social event, we’ve endeavoured to keep the costs as accessible as possible. 
Our dinner will be served buffet-style in The Vault at £25.95 per head for two courses. Payment will be made individually on the night. Please let us know via the registration form if you have any dietary requirements. 
Saturday 15th November Day TwoScheduled Activities
8:30 – 9:00
University of East Anglia 
Congregation Hall 
Room 0.13		Arrival & registration at Congregation Hall, UEA. 

Morning refreshments (tea, coffee and breakfast pastries) will be provided.)
9:00 – 10:15
University of East Anglia 

Panel Session Five:
Congregation Hall 
Room 0.13

Panel Session Six:
Congregation Hall 
Room 0.17		Panel Session Five: Diplomatic Encounters
Panel Chair: TBC

Teoni Maughan Passereau
(University of Bristol) 

Initiating and Negotiating Franco-English Diplomatic Relations: 1660-1664 

Rima Greenhill 
(Stanford University) 

“Mutual affection”: An overview of Anglo-Russian diplomatic and trade relations, 1601-1617.

Giada Semenzato
(Università di Firenze) 

The Wars of the Roses: An Italian Perspective through Diplomatic and Commercial Networks

Panel Session Six: Narratives of Travel & Encounter
Panel Chair: TBC

Freya Grace Laidlow-Petersen (University of Bangor)

Monks on the Move: Tracing the Paths of Celtic Wandering Friars

Virginia Ghelarducci 
(School of Advanced Study, University of London)

Images of Global Encounters: The Classical Tradition and the Americas in Early Modern Travel Literature

TBC
TBC

Title TBC
10:15 – 10:45BREAK
10:45 – 12:00 
University of East Anglia 

Session 1
Congregation Hall 
Room 0.13

Session 2
Congregation Hall 
Room 0.17		Parallel Workshop Sessions

Session 1: Latin Crash Course
This session is designed to give those who haven’t had much of a chance to study Latin the opportunity to give it a whirl. Our Latin Crash Course will give you the basics of the language along with a bucket full of tips, tricks and resources to help you pursue effective self-directed Latin study. 

Session 2: Palaeography Clinic
Are you struggling with some monstrous palaeography in your research project? This session is an opportunity to outsource your palaeography woes and work through challenging documents together as a group. Bring your toughest examples to this workshop and with the help of a facilitator, work with your fellow delegates to decipher them. 
12:00 – 13:00Lunch
13:00 – 14:10
University of East Anglia 

Panel Session Seven:
Congregation Hall 
Room 0.13

Panel Session Eight:
Congregation Hall 
Room 0.17		Panel Session Seven: Premodern Poetics of Race, Otherness, and Alterity
Panel Chair: TBC

Georgie Anderson 
(University of Kent)

‘Al was his sward wat scaetde dat?’ Medieval Conventions of Blackness in the Middle Dutch Moriaen.

Jessica Weiss-Bahia
(University of Oxford)

Medieval Legacies, Stuart Stages: Race and Gender Fluidity in Court Performance

Anna Mowery 
(Warburg Institute)

Magic, Colonialism, and Enslavement on the Early Modern Stage (1588-1621)

Panel Session Eight: The Fabric of Care: Medicine & Materiality
Panel Chair: TBC

Rachel Dow 
(Birkbeck, University of London)

Linen in Pieces: The Role of Linen in Seventeenth-Century Experience and Imagination

Alice Goldsney 
(University of East Anglia)

Medicine for the Soul at The Great Hospital, Norwich  

Veronika Lahodinski
(University of York)

The Transfer of Uroscopic Knowledge from Medieval Script Culture to 16th Century English-Language Print Culture
15:00 – 17:00 

Session 1: Norwich Medieval Combat Club 
St Lawrence Church, 
31 St Benedicts Street,
Norwich, NR2 4PE

Session 2: Museum of Norwich at the Bridewell  
Bridewell Alley, 
Norwich, NR2 1AQ

Session 3: Norwich City Centre

Session 4: The Shoebox Experiences
21-23 Castle Meadow, 
Norwich NR1 3DH		Afternoon Exploration Sessions

Session 1: Norwich Medieval Combat Club – Demonstration of Medieval Weaponry
Step into the gritty world of medieval tournaments with Norwich Medieval Combat as they showcase the raw intensity of full-contact armoured medieval fighting. This is not reenactment, but real combat in steel. Alongside the clashes, you’ll explore the arms and armour of 14th-century knights and even try your hand at the techniques they once used in tourneys. A rare chance to experience real history at its most visceral!

Session 2: Museum of Norwich at the Bridewell Tour
Situated in the Bridewell, one of Norwich’s grandest medieval flint-walled residences, the Museum of Norwich tells the story of the city’s colourful social history. Your exclusive tour of the Bridewell building includes a rare opportunity to enter the medieval undercrofts which are the largest remaining undercrofts in the city accessible to the public. 

Please note: Unfortunately, the Bridewell undercrofts are not wheelchair accessible.

Session 3: Medieval & Early Modern Norwich Walking Tour
Wrap up warm and explore the incredible medieval and early modern city of Norwich with us! Embark on a walking tour of some of the stunning highlights including the medieval church that was home to Julian of Norwich, the glorious guildhall, Cathedral Close, Tombland, and the famously picturesque Elm Hill. 

Please note: Our walking tour route is largely accessible but could be a challenging distance for those with mobility issues. In the event that  the winter weather works against us, we will dip into Norwich cathedral, have a look around, and enjoy a sociable tea & cake in the Refectory instead! 

Session 4: The Shoebox Experiences Norwich Hidden Street Tour 
Step into the shadows of Norwich’s history with the Shoebox Hidden Street Tour.  Guided by a local storyteller, and history enthusiast you’ll uncover a whole new world hidden beneath The Shoebox Experience’s office on Castle Meadow – where layers of city architecture expose secrets from the 15th century. Situated between the market and the Norman Keep, head underground to discover Norwich’s rich past.

Please note: Unfortunately, this tour is not wheelchair accessible. The Hidden Street is underground and the activity may not be appropriate for those who struggle with dark, enclosed spaces.
18:00 
Norwich City Centre 
The Louis Marchesi 
17 Tombland, 
Norwich NR3 1HR		MEMRN Pub Quiz Night! 
Join us this evening in the loft space at the Louis Marchesi pub in Norwich for the MEMRN pub quiz! Gather your teammates and compete in this MEMs-themed quizzical tournament for the Winter Conference prize!

The Louis Marchesi is a Grade II listed medieval building with an original gothic undercroft situated in the historic heart of Norwich on Tombland plain across from the Cathedral. Food and drink will be available to purchase at the venue. 
Sunday 16th November Day ThreeScheduled Activities
8:30 – 9:00
University of East Anglia 
Congregation Hall 
Room 0.13		Arrival & registration at Congregation Hall, UEA.  

Morning refreshments (tea, coffee and breakfast pastries) will be provided.)
9:00 – 10:10
University of East Anglia 

Panel Session Nine:
Congregation Hall 
Room 0.13

Panel Session Ten:
Congregation Hall 
Room 0.17		Panel Session Nine: Historic Communities, Modern Methodologies
Panel Chair: TBC

Stanislava Lisna 
(University of Oxford)

Translating the Translator: Making Heritage Inscriptions Accessible

Auriel Tiltman 
(University of Lincoln) 

What Remains When We Remove? The Conservation of a 13th Century Funerary Chalice

Natalie Tolentino 
(University of Kent) 

Pentlimentality: Fragmented Afterlives in the Canterbury Passional and Digital Representations of Recycled Material 

Panel Session Ten: Devotional Narratives
Panel Chair: TBC

Lucy Dallas 
(University of East Anglia)

Conflict and Contemplation: Hints of Autistic Patterning in the Relationships and Spirituality of Margery Kempe

Bella Cerulle 
(University of Cambridge) 

Ouercome ase kempe: A Lexical and Semantic Study of Depictions of the Miles Christi in Three Old and Early Middle English Lives of St. Margaret
10:10 – 10:20BREAK
10:20 – 12:00 
University of East Anglia

Session One:
Congregation Hall 
Room 0.17

Session Two:
Congregation Hall 
Room 0.13

Session Three: 
Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts,
UEA Campus		Wellbeing Workshops

Session One: Make Your Own Medieval Bestiary 
Under the watchful eye of our own fourteenth-century scribe and illuminator, participants in this art-based workshop will be encouraged to draw and paint their own fantastical medieval creatures, learning about the production and conventions of these attractive medieval manuscripts along the way. No previous art experience needed!

Session Two: Writing Historical Fiction – A Creative Workshop
Put your historical research to use in a brand newway through this guided creative writingworkshop. Learn strategies from our UEA Creative Writing facilitators for building rich and believable historical worlds in fiction, grounded in sensory details and a powerful sense of time and space.No previous creative writing experience is necessary.

Session Three: Exploring Living Art – Group Visit to the Sainsbury Centre 
Join your fellow delegates on a group visit to the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, a pioneering art gallery situated on the UEA campus that seeks to redefine our relationship with museums and cultural artefacts. Enjoy an introduction to the gallery’s unique guiding principle of ‘Living Art’ and explore this diverse collection at your leisure. 

You can find accessibility information for the gallery here: https://sainsburycentre.ac.uk/visit-us/#access
12:00 – 13:00Lunch
13:00 – 14:10
University of East Anglia 

Panel Session Eleven:
Congregation Hall 
Room 0.13

Panel Session Twelve:
Congregation Hall 
Room 0.17		Panel Session Eleven: Embodied Masculinities: Encounter and Emotion
Panel Chair: TBC

Srija Dutta
(Independent Scholar) 

Travelling Masculinities: English Perceptions in Intercultural Encounters in Seventeenth-Century India

Olivia Golby-Kirk 
(University of Birmingham)

For Young-men are so false-hearted: Youthful Masculinity from the Perspective of Women

Alyssa Benedetto 
(University of Strathclyde & Aberdeen)

A Tangible Emotional Past in the Death of Roger Mortimer (1231-1282)

Panel Session Twelve: Romance Worlds
Panel Chair: TBC

Irene Lopez-Huicochea
(University of Kent)

The Decaying Corpse of the Empire: A Contemporary Reading of The Ruin

Davide Salmoiraghi 
(University of Cambridge)

Fragmented Selves in Old Norse Chivalric Sagas

Eileen Foy 
(​​Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf)

Locating Identity, Community and Fellowship in the Winchester MS: Reading Le Morte D’Arthur in its Wider Manuscript Context
14:10 – 14:40BREAK
14:40 – 15:45
University of East Anglia
Room TBC 		Keynote Lecture 

Professor Claire Jowitt
Professor of Renaissance Studies, University of East Anglia

The Gloucester, 1682: History, Artefacts, Significance
15:45 – 16:00 
University of East Anglia 
Congregation Hall 
Room 0.13		Closing Remarks from the CHASE MEMRN Committee
16:00 onwards
Norwich City Centre		Goodbye Social 

Delegates who are staying in Norwich an additional night will be invited to gather in the city to celebrate the close of a successful conference. Keep an eye on the conference WhatsApp and come and join us!

Call for Committee Members – Oxford Medieval Graduate Conference

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08/10/2025

12:46

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opportunities

The Oxford Medieval Graduate Conference (OMGC) is one of the highlights of the graduate academic calendar every year. Over two days, this interdisciplinary conference brings together graduate students from the UK and around the world to present their research on a wide variety of topics from across the Middle Ages. Read a review of the 2025 conference. If you think you might be interested in becoming a committee member and gaining experience organizing conferences, please send an expression of interest to oxgradconf@gmail.com. The committee is also excited to announce that the theme for the 2026 Oxford Medieval Graduate Conference will be Sounds and Silence! Until then, keep an eye on the OMGC website and social media (Bluesky / Twitter) for updates on this year’s conference.

Medium Ævum Essay Prize

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08/10/2025

12:42

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opportunities

The Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literature has awarded the Medium Ævum Essay Prize since 2008. The competition is run annually, with postgraduates and those recently graduated with a higher degree invited to submit an essay on a topic that falls within the range of the interests of Medium Ævum in the medieval period (loosely defined as the fifth to the fifteenth century, in the Western calendar).

The winner of the Essay Prize will receive a cash prize of £500. The winning article is also eligible to be considered for publication in Medium Ævum, subject to the usual editorial procedures of the journal.

The annual deadline for submissions for the Essay Prize is 12 noon on the first Monday of December of the preceding year (for the Medium Aevum Essay Prize 2026, the deadline is 12:00 noon (GMT), Monday 1st December, 2025).

To read the rules of the Essay Prize Competition and to submit your essay, please follow this link.

Any queries can be directed to the Executive Officer of the Society.