New ExhibitionS

The Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry

And

Books of hours: a history in objectS

SChâteau de Chantilly, Institut de France

Chantilly, Oise, France

7 June - 5 October 2025

The Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry

The Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry is the most famous manuscript in the world. Described as the ‘Mona Lisa’ of manuscripts, this collection of offices and prayers made especially for the Duke of Berry, brother of King Charles V of France, is a testament to the splendour and artistic refinement of the late Middle Ages.

Produced throughout the 15th century, this exceptional work was illuminated by the Limbourg brothers, eminent artists attached to the court of Burgundy and then of Berry, who revolutionised the history of art. Consisting of 121 miniatures, the Très Riches Heures capture the imagination with their depictions of historic castles, princely scenes and seasonal work in the fields that have shaped our perception of the Middle Ages.

To celebrate the restoration of this masterpiece, which has only been shown to the public twice since the end of the 19th century, an international exhibition has been set up, featuring almost 150 exhibits from all over the world. The exhibition provides visitors with an insight into each stage of the creation of the Très Riches Heures over almost a century and explains why the manuscript is still so popular.

The exhibition focuses particularly on the figure of Jean de Berry, his lavish patronage and his taste for books. For the first time since the prince’s death in 1416, all his books of hours known to date have been collected in one place. Manuscripts, sculptures, paintings and valuable works of art provide a comprehensive overview of the context behind the creation and dissemination of the Duke’s most ambitious work.

Due to the ongoing restoration of the manuscript, its famous calendar is on display unbound. Come and admire the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry as you will never see them again!

For more information, visit https://chateaudechantilly.fr/en/evenement/les-tres-riches-heures-du-duc-de-berry/

Books of hours: a history in objects

As an extension of the major exhibition devoted to The Très Riches Heures of the Duke of Berry, the Reading Room presents a remarkable collection of over fifty Books of Hours, both manuscripts and printed editions, dating from the late 12th to the 19th century. These once-overlooked works now reveal the rich and fascinating history of a treasured book form that was both dreamt of and venerated.

For more information, visit https://chateaudechantilly.fr/en/evenement/exhibition-books-of-hours-a-history-in-objects/

Call for Papers

Cultural Crossroads

Artistic Encounters between the Low Countries and Spain, 15th-17th Centuries.

III. Echoes of Flemish Sculpture in Spain from Gothic to Baroque

Brussels, 28 November 2025

Due 6 June 2025

ince 2020, the Moll Institute (Madrid) and the Fondation Périer-D’Ieteren (Brussels) have been conducting a research program aimed at identifying and studying the art that developed in the Low Countries between the 15th and 17th centuries and that is preserved in Spanish collections. As part of this collaboration, a series of study days has been organized since 2023 to stimulate and disseminate research conducted in this field. The first and second study days (2023 Brussels; 2024 Madrid) focused on, respectively, painting and tapestry. The third study day will be dedicated to sculpture and will be organized in Brussels, at the Fondation Périer-D’Ieteren.

Focus & Scope

Contributions may relate to the following areas:

• Mobility of artists and local settlement: trajectories of Flemish artists; establishment of artistic hubs in centres such as Seville and Burgos; social and professional integration of sculptors and their workshops; the importance of ports and trade fairs for cultural exchanges.

• Patrons and commissions: the role of the royal court; commissions from the nobility and the bourgeoisie; the impact of religious institutions.

• Typologies and specific features of the works: sculpted altarpieces integrated into local architecture; funerary monuments and their iconography; small devotional pieces adapted to the Spanish market etc.

• Technique and materials: introduction of new techniques; adaptation of local materials by Flemish sculptors.

• Conservation and restoration issues: exploring conservation challenges and restoration solutions for a distinctive Flemish art form in Spanish collections.

Submission

We welcome all paper proposals (English, French, Spanish) related to the topics outlined above. Duration per paper is maximum 20 minutes. Accepted papers will be considered for publication in a collective volume, to be published in the series Cahiers d’études of the Annales d’Histoire de l’Art et d’Archéologie (Brussels). In addition, the artworks discussed in these papers will be included in the Flemish Art in Spain database: https://www.flemishartinspain.com/en.

Paper proposals can be submitted until and including June 6, 2025, and should include a title and short abstract of approximately 300 words, along with a concise CV (to be submitted to congreso@institutomoll.es and fondation@perier-dieteren.org). Notification on the acceptance or rejection of papers will be done before August 31, 2025. Please note that transport and accommodation costs are not borne by the organizing institutions.

Organizing Committee
– Dr. Sacha Zdanov, Fondation Périer-D’Ieteren / Université Libre de Bruxelles
– Dr. Wendy Frère, Fondation Périer-D’Ieteren
– Dr. Ana Diéguez Rodríguez, Instituto Moll / Universidad de Burgos

Call for Papers (PDF)Télécharger

For more information, visit https://www.perier-dieteren.org/journee-detude-cultural-crossroads/

Call for Applications

New Fellowship

Ariane Condellis Fellowship

The Gennadius Library, American School of Classical Studies at Athens

Due 2 June 2025

Ariane Condellis Fellowship at the Gennadius Library supports research by Turkish nationals conducting research on topics related to intercommunal relationships and the social history of Byzantium or the Ottoman period.

Field of Study: Intercommunal relationships, social history, or civil society of Byzantium or the Ottoman Empire.

Eligibility: Citizens of Türkiye who are either senior scholars (Ph.D. holders) or doctoral candidates/graduate students. Citizens of Türkiye do not need to be resident in Türkiye at the time of application.

Terms: A stipend of $11,500 plus room and board in Loring Hall, and waiver of School fees. Meals, Monday through Friday, are provided at Loring Hall for the fellow. Fellows are expected to be engaged full-time in the supported research at the library from early September 2025 to late May 2026 and are expected to participate in the academic life of the School.

Application: Submit an online application. An application consists of a curriculum vitae, description of the proposed project (up to 750 words), and two letters of reference to be submitted online. Student applicants must submit transcripts or an equivalent document(s). Scans of official transcripts are acceptable.

For more information, visit https://www.ascsa.edu.gr/fellowships-and-grants/postdoctoral-and-senior-scholars#Condellis

Call for Papers

The 101st Medieval Academy of America Meeting

Consortiums and Confluences

March 19-21, 2026

Amherst College • University of Massachusetts Amherst • Smith College • Mount Holyoke College • Hampshire College

Massachusetts

Due by Monday, 2 June 2025

The 101st annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America will take place on March 19–21, 2026 on the campuses of the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Amherst College, and will also include events at Mt. Holyoke College and Smith College. Hosted by the Five College Consortium, the theme of the meeting is “Consortiums and Confluences.” “Consortium” denotes association but also implies consorting, or the willful union, sometimes unsanctioned, of distinct parties. By “confluences,” we mean the conjunction, be it actual or conceptual, of groups, individuals, and ideas–the flowing-together, intentionally or otherwise, of seemingly separate streams. In recognition of the five colleges that have come together to organize the Meeting, we suggest within this topic five broadly-construed threads that ask participants to consider mergings and separations, interactions between the one and the many, transitions, alignments, and misalignments. These five threads are open to scholars in all disciplines working on all aspects of the medieval world, as well as critical explorations of more recent interpretations of and engagements with the Middle Ages.

Our plenary lectures will be given by Elly Truitt (Associate Professor of History and Sociology of Science at the University of Pennsylvania), Peggy McCracken (President of the Medieval Academy of America and Professor of French, Women’s Studies, and Comparative Literature at the University of Michigan), and Jesús Rodríguez-Velasco (Augustus R. Street Professor of Spanish & Portuguese and Comparative Literature at Yale University).

Below, please find the call for papers. The deadline for submissions is Monday, 2 June 2025. Submit paper and session proposals here.

Journeys, Pathways, and Process

This thread explores the idea of movement and traversal to highlight the complex interconnections between medieval experiences, outlooks, and ways of knowing. We invite papers that explore rituals or practices of movement, guided and misguided advance, travel on local or global scales, and movement in forms and patterns of composition or construction. Some possible approaches: routes of transmission, exchange, migration, or wandering; architectural, geographical, spatial motions; courses or pathways in the natural world; mystical journeys, speculative undertakings; temporality and historiography; style and form in art, history, and literature; pathways of intellection; interplays of racialized, gendered and/or animal being; choreography, dance, pilgrimage; and routes toward cultural, religious, or political confluence.

Technologies of Knowledge

This thread addresses intersections, discontinuities, and productive tensions between premodern epistemologies and technologies. We invite papers that consider the relationships between knowledge formation and its material substrates. Although scholasticism has given the Middle Ages a reputation for tendentious abstraction, medieval instruments–parchment, styli, diagrams, maps, automata, navigational aids, optical devices, books of translation–tell a different story of the relationship between knowledge and materiality. Papers in this thread might consider the questions: How did medieval approaches to knowledge inform, and how were they informed by, available or imagined technologies? How were medieval disciplinarity, aesthetics, translation practices, or poetics informed by premodern technologies and material literacies? We also invite approaches that engage with contemporary techo-methodologies such as digital humanities or media theory.

Ecologies and Environments

This thread examines human and more-than-human relations with built and unbuilt environments of the premodern world, exploring how new identities, cooperations, divisions, and crises were forged through ecological change. How were cooperative and competitive theories and practices of organized agriculture, conservation, sustainability, collective health, and terraqueous resource ownership, management, and exploitation shaped by knowledge of and interactions with the natural world? How did encounters with and responses to catastrophes like disease, food shortage, earthquake, or flood unite and divide across political, religious, linguistic, legal, and cultural boundaries? How were discourses of shared, contested, and destroyed environments reflected in art, literature, philosophical thought, cartography, and ethnography?

Divergence, Disjunction, Dispersion

This thread explores moments of fragmentation, separation, and diffusion across intellectual, geographical, cultural, linguistic, political, and disciplinary divides. How do moments and movements of disjunction shape medieval communities, texts, and traditions, and by extension, the ways we study them? In what ways do disjunctions produce creative reconfigurations or new forms of connection? We also invite reflections on concepts of exile, diaspora, and deviance, especially those that help us understand the way medieval communities navigated disruption and redefined belonging. How do experiences of displacement or marginalization reshape medieval identities and cultural production? What affordances might have come from transgression of boundaries, whether physical, social, or intellectual, as people reimagined connections across divides? We invite papers that explore the divisions that occur among peoples, ideas, and objects and what they reveal about our disciplines.

Embodiments and Materialities

This thread brings together considerations of the physical, the material, and the corporeal as sites of communication and contact. Papers might address the role of the material in foregrounding production, or they might contemplate the body as a determining factor in reception, considering issues of race, gender, and disability. Presentations might also concentrate on the indeterminate boundaries between the animate and inanimate, and how bodies and material objects collaborate with one other, or alternatively how they might operate at cross purposes.

The Program Committee also invites papers and panels that interrogate present sociohistorical conjunctures and reflect on how medievalists can shape the next century of Medieval Studies. Potential approaches might consider how excavating archives of the medieval past can shape or effect change in the broader social and cultural landscape; ancient-to-medieval histories of Palestine and matters pertaining to the modern reception of this history; the deep histories of genocidal violence; and the history and future of scholarly activism within Medieval Studies. Papers or panels on these topics can be submitted as standalones or as part of any of the individual threads.

Individuals may either propose individual papers or a full panel of papers and speakers, using the link provided below. Paper proposals should include the individual’s name, professional affiliation (including independent scholar), contact information, paper title, and a brief (c. 150-word) abstract. Session proposals should include the name and contact information for the session organizer, the session title, a c. 500-word abstract, and information for each of the session participants (including proposed chairs and respondents). Those submitting paper and session proposals also will be asked to indicate the thread(s) with which their contributions might best be associated. All submissions are due by Monday, 2 June 2025. If you have any questions, please direct them to the Program Committee chairs at MAA2026@themedievalacademy.org.

Submit paper and session proposals here.

Organizing Committee
Jenny Adams, UMass (co-chair)
Ingrid Nelson, Amherst College (co-chair)
Joshua Birk, Smith College (co-chair)

Samuel Barber, Mount Holyoke College
Jessica Barr, UMass
Sonja Drimmer, UMass
Albert Lloret, UMass
Yiyi Luo, UMass
Evan MacCarthy, UMass
Stacey Murrell, Amherst College
Jutta Sperling, Hampshire College
Wesley Yu, Mount Holyoke College

Call for Papers

The Mediterranean Seminar and The American College of the Mediterranean

The Mediterranean: The Land of the Vine and…

11-12 September 2025, Aix-en-Provence, France

Due 1 June 2025

The Mediterranean Seminar in conjunction with The American College of the Mediterranean announce “The Mediterranean: The Land of the Vine and…,” the Mediterranean Seminar Fall 2025 Workshop to be held from 11 & 12 September in Aix-en-Provence, a meeting made possible thanks to the generous support of The American College of the Mediterranean.

The workshop will feature two keynote speakers, three workshopped papers and round-table sessions.

Keynote speakers:
Paulina Lewicka (University of Warsaw)
Anthony Triolo (The American College of the Mediterranean)

Fernand Braudel famously characterized the Mediterranean as a landscape of the vine and olive. The earliest established origin of wine (as well as beer and distilling) was in the Mediterranean region. More than merely a foodstuff or intoxicant, wine became a crucial element in social, medicinal, cultural and religious practices around the region, and consequently grape production become a pillar of local economies and of regional and transregional trade. It was produced since the pre-historical era and disseminated by the Phoenicians, wine became emblematic of Mediterranean culture in Antiquity and constitutes a key commercial sector today. Distilled grape pomace flavored with anise (anís, pastis, sambuca, ouzo, raki, arak) is also consumed around the region, alongside fermented distillates of fig, palm and dates. Hashish and other narcotics were consumed through much of the region. Nevertheless, intoxication was regarded with ambivalence – both as a medium of euphoria and transcendence and indiscretion and a threat to the rational and moral order. For Christians and Jews wine came to be an essential element of observance. For Muslims grape wine was generally considered forbidden; nevertheless grapes and wine continued to be produced by minority communities, and consumed widely (and often openly) by Muslims. The Islamic wine party became a secular ritual, while genres of secular and religious poetry across the Abrahamic faiths celebrated wine and intoxication.
 
We invite papers that deal with any aspect of the production, distribution, regulation and consumption of grapes, wine, and other intoxicants in the Mediterranean world from Antiquity to the present, together with depictions, rituals, and attitudes to wine and intoxication, whether literal or metaphorical, historical or imagined, as seen from disciplinary perspectives as diverse economic, social, cultural, or political history, literature, history of philosophy, history of science and medicine, art and art history, musicology, anthropology or any related humanities and social science disciplines.
 
Proposals are welcome from scholars of all ranks from across all disciplines of the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, as are papers from the Sciences, that engage in the broadest sense with social, historical and cultural aspects of the Mediterranean language, linguistics, literature, culture, society, art, and social, economic and political history, as well as anthropology, sociology, and other related humanities and social science disciplines. Junior scholars, graduate students, contingent faculty, scholars of underrepresented communities, and those whose work engages with historiographically marginalized groups are particularly encouraged to apply.
 
Papers may address either specific case studies or larger historical, cultural, artistic or historiographical dynamics and apparatuses. Comparative, interdisciplinary, and methodologically innovative papers are of particular interest. Our Mediterranean world is construed as the center of the historical West, including southern Europe, the Near East and North Africa and stretching into continental Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Black Sea and Central Asia, and the Red Sea and the western Indian Ocean. While our primary laboratory is the premodern Mediterranean, we welcome proposals from across historical eras, as well papers which focus on other regions in which analogous or related processes can be observed.
 

Workshop Program

For the workshop program, we invite abstracts (250 words) for unpublished in-progress articles or book or dissertation chapters relating directly or tangentially to the production, distribution, cultural, economic, social history, artistic or literary representations of wine or intoxicants in the Mediterranean world.

To complete the form you will need a (provisional) title and abstract (±250 words) of your proposed presentation, a prose biographical paragraph (±250 words), and a 2-page CV (pdf).

The deadline for workshop proposals is 1 June 2025 via this form. Successful applicants will submit a 35-page (maximum) double-spaced paper-in-progress for pre-circulation by 21 August 2025.

Round-Table Conversations

For the three round-table conversations, we invite abstracts (±250 words) for position papers that respond to one of the prompts below.

The deadline for application proposals is 1 June 2025 via this form.

Round-table presenters will submit a 3-5 page “position paper” in response to their round-table prompt by 30 August 2025. Position papers are informal “op-ed” pieces with minimal scholarly apparatus.
 
To complete the form you will need a (provisional) title and abstract (±250 words) of your proposed presentation, a prose biographical paragraph (±250 words), and a 2-page CV (pdf).

Round-table topics
1. Production and Distribution: How did techniques of wine production develop and disseminate across the Mediterranean world? How did production, dissemination and consumption of wine and intoxicants shape Mediterranean economies and how did this intersect with specific communities and constituencies?
2. Consumption and Culture: How, why and when were wine and intoxicants consumed? What role did they have in social and cultural practices, and secular and religious rituals? What were the various manifestations of Mediterranean wine culture and how did these various over time, place and across ethno-religious communities?
3. After-Effects and Altered Perceptions: How was wine and intoxication viewed and depicted in art and across the various genres of literature (including fiction and non-fiction, prose, poetry, and scientific, moral or religious texts)? How do these depictions intersect with the with the cultural, social, religious and economic environments of the Mediterranean world? What particular dynamics and tensions did this produce?

Given that only three workshop papers can be accepted, workshop applicants are
encouraged to also apply for a round-table (using a separate form). Applicants are
welcome to indicate more than one round-table topic if appropriate for their proposal.

Other Information

This is an in-person meeting only. The workshop language is English. Participants agree to be present and actively participate in the entirety of the program.

Meals and accommodation will be provided for workshop and round-table presenters, and local ground transportation will be reimbursed. Presenters will be responsible for inter-regional or international travel.

A separate call for non-presenting participants will go out in July.

This workshop is organized by Brian A. Catlos (University of Colorado Boulder), William Granara (Harvard University), Sharon Kinoshita (University of California Santa Cruz) and Anthony Triolo (ACM). It is sponsored by The American College of the Mediterranean, together with the Mediterranean Seminar and the CU Mediterranean Studies Group.

Call for Papers

Valonia: A Journal of Anatolian Pasts 2 (2025)

Due 31 May 2025

The Editorial Board of Valonia: A Journal of Anatolian Pasts invites contributions of articles for the next volume of the journal, to be published in 2025.

Valonia is an international, double-blind peer-reviewed journal published by Koç University's Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (ANAMED) (https://valoniajournal.org). Appearing online and in limited print runs, the journal aims to bring forth in a timely manner selections of the latest innovative, critical, and synthetic scientific research on the broad range of subjects that fall within ANAMED's mission: the archaeology, architectural and art history, heritage, and history of Anatolia and its affiliated geographies, from deep prehistory through late Ottoman times. Valonia publishes one special or one open-topic issue per year. The selection of topics for special issues as well as articles for open issues aims for chronologically and disciplinarily balanced representation.

Contributions for publication can be submitted at any time via the journal's website (https://valoniajournal.org). The deadline for submission of articles for Volume 2, which is an open-topic issue to be published in 2025, is 31 May 2025.

For the journal's style guide and other guidelines for submission, see
https://valoniajournal.org/submission-guidelines

Contact Email: emalisik@ku.edu.tr

URL: https://valoniajournal.org

Call for Papers

International Conference

RESTORY

Small Communities Facing Danger. Strategies of Solidarity and Resilience Before the Modernity

University of Coimbra, Portugal (30-31 October 2025)

Due by 31 May 2025

We invite you to propose a paper for the International Conference RESTORY on Small Communities Facing Danger. Strategies of Solidarity and Resilience Before the Modernity, to be held in the University of Coimbra (October 30-31, 2025). In this RESTORY meeting, we aim to focus on small communities, their approaches to education and knowledge transmission, and their internal solidarity practices at different stages of life, including preparations for death. In addition, we seek to examine the strategies employed by small communities to confront climatic, economic, or conflict-related hardships across diverse geographical and chronological contexts. We also wish to reflect on human resilience in overcoming adversity, as well as human responses to pain, famine, death, and loss, in order to contribute to the historical characterisation of individual and collective trauma in the past.

Please read the call in the following link: https://chsc.uc.pt/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/RESTORY-COIMBRA-MEETING-CFP.pdf

To formalise the application to participate in this meeting and editorial project, we request the submission of a title and abstract (c. 500 words) of the proposed paper, accompanied by a detailed curriculum vitae of the candidate, to the email address, restorycoimbra25@gmail.com, by May 31.

Lecture

Curious Cures: In-Conversation with the Curator

Cambridge University Library, UK

Thursday 29 May 2025, 5.30PM TO 7PM

Join us for an evening with the curator of Cambridge University Library’s current exhibition. Dr James Freeman, curator of Curious Cures: Medicine in the Medieval World, will be in-conversation with University Librarian, Dr Jessica Gardner.

A talk will be followed by audience questions, and the opportunity to visit Curious Cures after hours.

LOCATION: Hosted in-person at Cambridge University Library. Directions
TICKETS: Free, booking essential. Suitable for adults; under 18s welcome when accompanied by an adult.
ACCESSIBILITY: Step-free access, hearing loop, accessible parking and accessible toilets available.

For more information and to book tickets, click here

Exhibition Closing

The Book of Marvels: Imagining the Medieval World

The Morgan Library & Museum, New york, NY

January 24 through May 25, 2025

From the tales of famous travelers like Marco Polo and Alexander the Great to the ancient encyclopedias of Pliny and Isidore, medieval conceptions of the world were often based more on authoritative tradition than direct observation. This exhibition presents one of the most fascinating examples of a medieval guide to the globe, known as the Book of the Marvels of the World. Written in France by an unknown author, this fifteenth-century illustrated text vividly depicts the remarkable inhabitants, customs, and natural phenomena of various regions, both near and far. Reuniting two of the four surviving copies, The Book of Marvels: Imagining the Medieval World brings to life medieval conceptions—and misconceptions—of a global world.

Additional objects in the exhibition demonstrate how foreign cultures were imagined in the Middle Ages, and what the assumptions of medieval Europeans tell us about their own implicit biases and beliefs. Highlights include rare illustrated manuscripts of Marco Polo and John Mandeville; a richly ornamented Ottoman Book of Wonders, made for a sultan’s daughter; and a spectacular medieval map of the Holy Land, based on pilgrimage accounts.

For more information, visit https://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/book-of-marvels

Online Event

ICMA MEDIEVAL COMING ATTRACTIONS, 2025-26

21 May 2025, 11am ET/17:00 CET

Register HERE

Please join the Friends of the ICMA for the latest in a series of special online events on WEDNESDAY 21 MAY 2025 at 11am ET (17:00 CET). The hour-long program will preview three medieval exhibitions, each introduced by its curator.

Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry  (Musée Condé at the Château de Chantilly, 7 June -5 October 2025) Curator: Mathieu Deldicque

Spectrum of Desire: Love, Sex, and Gender in the Middle Ages (The Met Cloisters, 16 October 2025– 29 March 2026) Curators: Melanie Holcomb and Nancy Thebaut

Praymobil. mittelalterliche kunst in bewegung (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum Aachen, 29 November 2025 - 15 March 2026) Curator: Michael Rief

Please feel free to notify colleagues and friends who may not be ICMA members about this event. 

For questions, please contact icma@medievalart.org

Call for Proposals

Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture Sponsored-Session Proposals

61st International Congress on Medieval Studies

Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, May 14–16, 2026

Due 12 May 2025

To encourage the integration of Byzantine studies within the scholarly community and medieval studies in particular, the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture seeks proposals for a Mary Jaharis Center sponsored session at the 61st International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, May 14–16, 2026. We invite session proposals on any topic relevant to Byzantine studies.

Session proposals must be submitted through the Mary Jaharis Center website. The deadline for submission is May 12, 2025.

If the proposed session is approved, the Mary Jaharis Center will reimburse a maximum of 4 session participants (presenters and moderator) up to $800 maximum for scholars traveling from North America and up to $1400 maximum for those traveling from outside North America. Funding is through reimbursement only; advance funding cannot be provided. Eligible expenses include conference registration, transportation, and food and lodging. Receipts are required for reimbursement.

For further details and submission instructions, please visit https://maryjahariscenter.org/sponsored-sessions/61st-icms

Contact Brandie Ratliff (mjcbac@hchc.edu), Director, Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture, with any questions.

Save the Date!

ICMA Reception at University Roadhouse

6:30pm - students
7:00pm - members and friends

Note: this is not listed in the conference program, since it is an off-campus event

Call for Proposals

Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture Sponsored-Session Proposals

8th Forum Medieval Art/Forum Kunst des Mittelalters

Bochum / Dortmund, September 23–26, 2026

Due 8 May 2026

To encourage the integration of Byzantine studies within the scholarly community and medieval studies in particular, the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture seeks proposals for a Mary Jaharis Center sponsored session at the 8th Forum Medieval Art/Forum Kunst des Mittelalters, Bochum / Dortmund, September 23–26, 2026. The biannual colloquium is organized by the Deutsche Verein für Kunstwissenschaft e.V.

The theme for the 8th Forum Medieval Art is Work: Traces, Constellations, Valuations. From a region with a significant medieval character and a post-industrial present we want to address the question whether the term “work” could be of any benefit when applied to the practices of medieval art production and their social and economic context. At the latest with the development of urban culture in the 12th/13th century, the concept of a society based on the division of work began to replace traditional forms of social differentiation – a process that was theologically founded in the 12th century and accompanied by a revaluation of art, craft and creativity.

The Mary Jaharis Center invites session proposals that fit within the Work theme and are relevant to Byzantine studies.

Session proposals must be submitted through the Mary Jaharis Center website. The deadline for submission is May 8, 2025.

If the proposed session is approved, the Mary Jaharis Center will reimburse a maximum of 4 session participants (presenters and session chair) up to $500 maximum for participants traveling from locations in Germany, up to $800 maximum for participants traveling from the EU, and up to $1400 maximum for participants traveling from outside Europe. Funding is through reimbursement only; advance funding cannot be provided. Eligible expenses include conference registration, transportation, and food and lodging. Receipts are required for reimbursement.

For further details and submission instructions, please visit https://maryjahariscenter.org/sponsored-sessions/8th-forum-medieval-art

Contact Brandie Ratliff (mjcbac@hchc.edu), Director, Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture, with any questions.

Call for Papers

From Sacred to Profane

12 June 2025

Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Budapest, Hungary

Due by 4 May 2025

The Pázmány Péter Catholic University Doctoral School of History is organizing a conference titled From Sacred to Profane, organized by the Art History department, on June 12th, 2025. We are calling for applications from and doctoral students in the field of art history and archaeology whose research topic can be related to the subject indicated in the title of the conference. We also welcome students who have already graduated. The languages of the conference are Hungarian and English. The organizing committee prefers, but does not limit, applications to the following topics:

• Sacred Spaces - sacred buildings and their evolution over time

• Sacred Time - sacred timeframes, holidays and their material culture

• The Power of the Profane - desacralization and its tendencies

• Margins - extremities towards the Sacred and the Profane

You can apply with an abstract that must include the title of the lecture, the name of the student, the name of the supervisor and the educational institution. The abstract can be a maximum of 1000 characters, which we ask you to send by May 4th, 2025 to the following e-mail address: muveszettortenet.konferencia@gmail.com

The letter of acceptance will be sent out by the 14th of May.

Call for Papers for Panel

Symmetrical Structures and Patterns in Islamic Architecture, Poetry, and Imagination

3rd Congress of the Society for the Interdisciplinary Study of Symmetry

Orthodox Academy of Crete, Kolymbari, Crete, Greece, 22-29 August 2025

We invite paper proposals for a panel on Symmetrical Structures and Patterns in Islamic Architecture, Poetry, and Imagination, for the 13th Congress of the Society for the Interdisciplinary Study of Symmetry. The congress is scheduled to take place August 22-29, 2025, at the Orthodox Academy of Crete.

Papers in the panel will be allotted 20 minutes, plus discussion. See below for a description of the panel and further details, including preparation of the abstract.

Persian and Islamic lands witnessed an intense flourishing of art, architecture, mathematics, science and poetry beginning in the 9th century. From the poetry of Ferdowsi, Farrokhi Sistani, and Gorgani to the monuments of Bukhara, Isfahan, and Maragha, poetic, artistic, and architectural forms emerged that would become predominant throughout the Islamic world. At the same time, the translation and advancement of scientific, philosophical, and mathematical thought shaped an ‘Islamic Golden Age.’ Ghaznavid palaces were filled with poets and inscribed with poetry. Likewise, the Seljuk courts attracted literati and learned men of diverse backgrounds, who contributed to a vibrant intellectual environment.

In response to this rich cultural flourishing from the 9th-12th centuries, we envision an experimental gathering of scholars trained in different disciplines to provide interpretive insights and diverse perspectives on the use and significance of imagination in the arts and discourses of the pre-Mongol Islamic world. Papers will explore lines of thought that are literal, mathematical, and metaphorical with a view towards understanding how imagination figures in the articulation of worlds beyond that of the tangible.

This panel focuses on the symmetries of intricate geometric patterns executed in cut and glazed bricks on monuments in Iran and neighboring regions, considered in relation to Qur’anic passages and contemporary poetry. In particular, study of Nezami’s Haft Paykar, a literary masterpiece of enormous complexity and imagination, explores its architectural references and geometric structures. Together we raise questions for the interpretation of patterns in spatial and imaginative realms.

CONFERENCE COSTS (for your calculation and planning)

• Airfare to/from Chania, Crete, Greece

• Visa, if needed

• Registration fee (before June 30) 350€, accompanying persons@ 100€

• Conference fee (includes accommodation at the Orthodox Academy of Crete [room and full board], 8/22-29/2025) - Double room 1170€ per person; Single room 1480€ per person

• For more detailed information, click here.

ABSTRACTS

There is a specific format required for submitted abstracts. A template is provided click here.

TIMELINE

May 1, 2025 - abstracts to bier.carol@gmail.com and charleshowley1@g.ucla.edu

May 4, 2025 - panel proposal with approved abstracts to conference organizers

June 1, 2025 - notification of acceptance of panel/abstracts

Jun 30, 2025 - payments due (by wire transfer) for conference registration and booking

Please note that conference registration and booking fees are non-refundable.

Carol Bier, Research Scholar, Center for Islamic Studies, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley CA
Charlotte Howley, PhD Student, Iranian Studies, University of California - Los Angeles CA

Call for Applications

Princeton University Library Special Collections

Connecting Histories: Manuscripts Research Opportunity

Due By 1 May 2025

We are excited to announce a new research opportunity connected to the multi-year project, Connecting Histories: The Princeton and Mount Athos Legacy. The position is for a one-month in-person stay in Princeton and focuses on manuscripts related to Mount Athos held by Princeton University Library. Generous funding for this position has been offered by the A.G. Leventis Foundation. The deadline is May 1, 2025.

For more information about the opportunity, click here.

Online Workshop for Graduate Students and ECRs

Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture and the Byzantine Studies Association of North America

An Introduction to Network Analysis for Byzantinists

May 12–16, 2025, Zoom

Registration Closes: Wednesday, May 1, 2025

The Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture and the Byzantine Studies Association of North America are pleased to offer a week-long introduction to network analysis workshop for graduate students and early career researchers in collaboration with Professor Alexander Brey of Wellesley College, Professor Dr. Zachary Chitwood of Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Dr. Ryan Horne of the University of California, Los Angeles, Professor Christian Raffensperger of Wittenberg University, and Dr. Katerina Ragkou of Philipps University of Marburg.

An Introduction to Network Analysis for Byzantinists, workshop by Alexander Brey (Wellesley College), Zachary Chitwood (University of Munich), Ryan Horne (UCLA), Christian Raffensperger (Wittenberg University), and Katerina Ragkou (University of Marburg), Zoom, May 12–16, 2025

Network analysis allows researchers to model and visualize the connections and interactions between different entities (e.g., people, places, objects) in their research data. This online workshop will offer Byzantinists an introduction to network analysis and its use in historical disciplines, with a focus on Byzantine and medieval studies. Participants will gain an understanding of the basic concepts of network theory and explore projects employing network analysis and the choices that lay the foundation for the projects, including data modeling, methodology, and tools. During practical sessions, participants will learn how to format their own data for network analysis, create a database in Neo4j and query their data, interface their Neo4j database with other tools, and publish their network analysis.

This workshop is intended for those who have very little or no experience with network analysis.

The workshop is limited to 15 participants. The time commitment for this workshop is 20.5 hours of instruction. Participants are expected to attend all sessions. Registration is first come, first served. All participants must be BSANA members. Graduate students and early career researchers (PhD received after May 2017) in the field of Byzantine studies. Students enrolled in graduate programs in North America and early career researchers working in North America will be given priority.

Registration closes Wednesday, May 1, 2025.

To read a full description of the workshop and register your interest, please visit https://maryjahariscenter.org/events/intro-to-network-analysis-for-byzantinists.

Contact Brandie Ratliff (mjcbac@hchc.edu), Director, Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture, with any questions.

The CRSBI Annual Lecture for 2025

Romanesque Sculpture and Water: the Art of Carved Vessels

Speaker: Dr Michele Luigi Vescovi

Vernon Square Campus, Lecture Theatre 2, The Courtauld

30 April 2025, 18:00 - 19:30

The Courtauld is delighted to host the Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland for the 2025 Annual Lecture.

In this talk, Dr Michele Luigi Vescovi will explore the intersections of Romanesque sculpture and water in medieval stone vessels. Examining carved well heads and holy water fonts throughout the Italian peninsula, mostly dating from the twelfth century, he will interrogate the ways in which their content – water – and its agency relate to their imagery. Furthermore, he will show how script and image, in turn, sought to shape the experience of the vessels’ viewers.

Dr Michele Luigi Vescovi, Associate Professor in Medieval Art and Architecture, University of Lincoln.

Organised by Dr John Munns, Associate Professor of History and Art History, Magdalene College, Cambridge, and Dr Tom Nickson, Reader in Medieval Art and Architecture, The Courtauld, as part of the Medieval Work-in-Progress series. 

Free, booking essential

For more information and to book tickets, visit https://courtauld.ac.uk/whats-on/romanesque-sculpture-and-water-the-art-of-carved-vessels/

Call for Applications

ARTES

Iberian & Latin American Visual Culture Group

Juan Facundo Riaño Essay Prize

Due 30 April 2025

To encourage emerging scholars that are based in the UK, ARTES, in collaboration with the Embassy of Spain, awards an annual essay medal to the author of the best art-historical essay or study on a Hispanic theme, which must be submitted in competition and judged by a reading Sub-Committee. The medal is named after Juan Facundo Riaño (1829-1901), the distinguished art historian who was partly responsible for a growing interest in Spanish culture in late nineteenth-century Britain. The winner is also awarded a cash prize of £400, and the runner-up is awarded a certificate and prize of £100 – both prizes are generously sponsored by the Office for Cultural and Scientific Affairs of the Embassy of Spain. Prize-winners also receive a year’s free membership to ARTES, and the winning essays are considered for publication in the annual visual arts issue of Hispanic Research Journal. See the information about eligibility and rules of competition. The deadline is 30th April 2025.

For more information, visit https://artes-uk.org/2022/02/24/call-for-applicants-artes-essay-prize-and-scholarships-deadline-31st-march-2022/

Online Lecture

2024-2025 East of Byzantium Lecture Series

The Malleability of Memory in Memorializing the Saints

Mary K. Farag, Princeton Theological Seminary

Tuesday, April 29, 2025 | 12:00 PM (EDT, UTC -4) | Zoom

The Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture and the Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies at Harvard University are pleased to announce the final lecture in the 2024–2025 East of Byzantium lecture series.

The ritual remembrance of holy ones in late antiquity sometimes had more to do with the intentional formation of the liturgical community than with the life of the holy one. Neither Pachomius, the early-fourth century leader of a monastic federation known as the Koinonia, nor Theophilus, the late-fourth and early-fifth century bishop of Alexandria, were even near contemporaries, but their characterizations were effectively exchanged. The aftermath of the first Origenist controversy rendered their memorialization distinctly malleable. Egypt would remember a Pachomian Theophilus, while Asia Minor would remember a Theophilan Pachomius. Pachomius would become the anti-Origenist that Theophilus was, while Theophilus would become the ascetic visionary that Pachomius was. Their remembrance in hagiographies and homilies was less about making the past present than about shaping the past for the present.

Mary K. Farag is Associate Professor of Early Christian Studies at Princeton Theological Seminary. She studies the history of late antiquity with a focus on Christianity in Egypt.

Advance registration required. Register: https://eastofbyzantium.org/upcoming-events/

Contact Brandie Ratliff (mjcbac@hchc.edu), Director, Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture with any questions.

An East of Byzantium lecture. EAST OF BYZANTIUM is a partnership between the Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies at Harvard University and the Mary Jaharis Center that explores the cultures of the eastern frontier of the Byzantine empire in the late antique and medieval periods.

Remote Seminar

Medieval & Early Modern Cartography: An Introduction

Dr. Karen Rose Mathews

Mediterranean Studies Summer Skills Seminar

21–24 July 2025, 12-2pm & 3-5pm ET/10am-12pm & 1-3pm MDT

Applications Due 28 April 2025

This Summer Skills Seminar provides participants with an overview of key concepts and methodologies in the study of Mediterranean and Early Modern cartography and the interpretation of maps. The course will address the themes of mobility, connectivity, and encounter in relation to the visual culture of peoples and territories across the sea. Participants will acquire an art historical tool kit to assist them in conducting their own research on the visual culture and artistic production of the medieval Mediterranean.

Course overview:
Over the course of the Middle Ages, cartographic works came to play a significant role in Mediterranean visual culture. This Summer Skills course addresses the importance of maps in medieval and early modern society in terms of their production, function, display, and their contribution to a mapping mentality. In the course of four days we will study different types of maps from Islamic and Christian territories in relation to their form, content, function, and context. This course will not be addressing cartographic works in terms of their geographical accuracy or contribution to scientific knowledge; rather they will be assessed as material, visual, and aesthetic products and as repositories of a newly formulated system of signs that promoted novel ways of seeing. We will work here to integrate maps more fully into art historical discourses while analyzing them as ideological objects. Art historians have long acknowledged the non-transparent nature of visual imagery and the inquiry of cartographic works undertaken in this course will illuminate the great power that maps had for their producers and consumers.

For more information about the program and to apply, click here for the website and here for a PDF.

Call for PhD Applications

2 Positions at Universität Basel, Switzerland

Start date September 1, 2025 for 4 Years

Due April 27, 2025

In the fields of History, Art History, Ancient History, Egyptology, English, German Literature, Latin Studies, Media Studies, Musicology, Philosophy.

The eikones Graduate School at the Center for the Theory and History of the Image at the University of Basel invites applications for two positions for doctoral study on the theory and history of the image for four years beginning September 1, 2025.
Since 2005, eikones has served as a center for research on images from systematic and historical perspectives. The international and interdisciplinary center investigates the meanings, functions and effects of images in cultures since Antiquity and in our contemporary society. It aims at foundational image theory and at a historical investigation of images as instruments of human knowledge and cultural practices. We welcome PhD applications in all fields represented by members of the eikones Trägerschaft. Members of the eikones Trägerschaft are listed here: https://eikones.philhist.unibas.ch/de/graduate-school/leitung/#c1003

Your position
The purpose of the grant is to support the completion of an original dissertation and the degree within the duration of the position. Students must fulfill all curricular requirements of the eikones Graduate School and participate in the events of the Center for the History and Theory of the Image.

Your profile

• Excellent academic qualifications and promise in your field of study.

• An innovative dissertation project relating to the theory and history of the image.

• Masters or equivalent qualification in a relevant field of study, in particular History, Art History, Ancient History, Egyptology, English, German Literature, Latin Studies, Media Studies, Musicology, Philosophy.

• Applicants must possess a MA degree or equivalent by September 1, 2025. The MA degree must have been completed in the previous two years. Exceptions may be possible in extraordinary circumstances.

• Doctoral students must be advised by a faculty member of the eikones graduate school. Doctoral students must also be enrolled in the University of Basel for the duration of the program.

We offer you

The eikones graduate school offers excellent students of the humanities who would like to pursue a doctorate in the history and theory of the image a structured program of graduate study distinguished by dedicated advising, internationality, interdisciplinary, regular dialogue with guest scholars, and professional opportunities. The goal of the doctoral program is the successful completion of the degree within the four-year duration. Salaries follow the standards of the University of Basel for doctorate positions.

Application / Contact
Please submit your application in German or English as a single pdf by April 27, 2025 using the online portal provided by the University of Basel. The application should include:

• Cover Letter

• CV

• Copies of Degree Certificates

• Contact details for two references

• Project description (at most 10 pages) and bibliography

• Writing sample (at most 20 pages)

Please upload two files only: all materials listed above (1.-6.) in A SINGLE PDF FILE via the field “resume” as well as an extra cover letter (1.) via the field “cover letter”. Applications that do not conform to this format or received after this date will not receive consideration. Inquiries should be sent to eikones@unibas.ch. Short-listed candidates will be contacted for interviews.

For more information and to apply, click here.

Online Lecture

Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture Lecture Series

“This Holy One is Mother, Father, and Sister to Me”: Gender and Beyond in Byzantine Hagiography

Lucy Parker, University of Nottingham

April 24, 2025 | 12:00 PM (EDT, UTC -4) | Zoom

The Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture is pleased to announce the final lecture in our 2024–2025 lecture series.

Gender has proved a powerful analytical framework for interpreting late antique and Byzantine hagiography. Historians have argued that male and female saints’ lives contained important differences, even perhaps forming different “subgenres” of hagiography. It has been suggested that, in contrast to male saints who fought external evil in cities or in the remote desert, female saints lived more cloistered lives and had to fight their own internal weaknesses. Some hagiographers emphasised that it was particularly impressive for women to achieve holiness given their innately weak and sinful nature. Female saints are often shown transcending their femininity, becoming “manly” as a necessary part of their journey to sanctity.

Yet this lecture will ask whether we have gone too far in drawing a clear distinction between the lives of female and male saints. It will explore some hagiographies of female saints (including the Life of Martha, mother of Symeon the Younger, the Life of Matrona of Perge, and the Life of Irene of Chrysobalanton) that do not fit neatly into the paradigms identified as characteristic of female lives. It will ask whether these unusual lives can be seen merely as exceptions to the general trend, or whether they force us to rethink our broader models, and to question how far a stark male-female gender binary determined understandings of holiness. Not all hagiographers were equally concerned with the differences between men and women, and not all female saints are presented as held back by, or needing to transcend, their femaleness. Rather than imposing a binary gender framework on hagiographic writing, we can instead explore variability in the use of gendered language and the gendering of holiness, and consider when and why gender and specific understandings thereof became particularly important in processes of sanctification.

Lucy Parker is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Nottingham. Her first book, Symeon Stylites the Younger and Late Antique Antioch: From Hagiography to History, was published by Oxford University Press in 2022. As well as Byzantine hagiography, she also works on Syriac and Eastern Christianity in the Early Modern period.

(This lecture is rescheduled from November 2024.)

Advance registration required. Register: https://maryjahariscenter.org/events/gender-and-beyond-in-byzantine-hagiography

Contact Brandie Ratliff (mjcbac@hchc.edu), Director, Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture, with any questions.

Call for Applications

Journées d’étude

Permanence et continuité dans l’art du Moyen Âge

24 novembre 2025 — INHA, salle Vasari

25 novembre 2025 — Université de Lille, IRHiS

Due By 15 April 2025

"Continuity is undeniable; the first Gothic master builders or architects were raised in the Romanesque world. They naturally drew inspiration from it, but this continuity is a living and dynamic one; it is similar to life itself, where heredity, education, and the past weigh on each individual without compromising the emergence of freedom." 1 — Jacques Henriet

By questioning continuity and its intentionality in medieval production, Jacques Henriet highlights a widely observed process whose parameters have rarely been examined. Indeed, art history often analyzes its subject through the lens of innovation. This epistemological bias has led to the marginalization of the issues of permanence in the historiography of medieval artistic production, despite their essential role in understanding this period.

The study of this theme has also suffered from an almost exclusive focus on the legacy of antiquity in medieval art. While this question is crucial, it limits our overall perception of conservative forms and practices. An interest that may have seemed novel twenty years ago now appears to be a central concern in medieval studies.

These study days aim to explore the relationship between permanence and continuity in the use of models and forms specific to medieval culture. In particular, his perspective seeksto examine the existence of a genuine aesthetic conservatism, understood as a fertile artistic dynamic. We will address these notions through the lens of innovation, dissemination channels, creative contexts, and the various intellectual processes at work.

Theme 1: Permanence, Continuity, and Innovation

During this period, creation was often developed and justified by clerics according to a principle of continuity—one may recall the expression "dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants" which John of Salisbury attributed to his master Bernard of Chartres, and which he claimed as the only worthy path to intellectual creation. Therefore, we must question the originality of medieval works through the notion of borrowing from older formulas and the reactivation of past models. This unique relationship with temporality may be explored through the process of creating an artwork, such as an illuminated book or the reinterpretation of monumental works. This approach aims to critically assess the singularity of certain continuities, such as the Franco-Insular style of the Second Bible of Charles the Bald (BnF, Latin 2, c. 871-877), which may invoke notions of archaism and conservatism or even historicism, and reaction, whose relevance to the Middle Ages needs to be interrogated.

Theme 2: Networks and Agents of Dissemination

Understanding the phenomena of continuity requires analyzing the cultural context of these artistic productions. Indeed, continuity may find expression in the long-term realization of artistic programs, as seen in homogeneous projects spanning decades. Another approach involves questioning the notion of tradition; whether it is linked to a specific artistic practice, a defined space, or a particular milieu. Tradition may also exist within a network of actors, particularly institutional ones, that facilitate the dissemination of models, such as repertoires of forms within monastic orders, like the model books circulated in the Cistercian context. Therefore, we will examine the means of transmission and circulation of models and expertise among these various agents, particularly through apprenticeships...

Theme 3: Modalities of Reception

Were these phenomena as prominent to medieval contemporaries as they are to contemporary art historians? This final theme will explore the intentionality behind the use of forms or processes perceived as representative of an earlier period of creation. More specifically, it will examine the role of heritage, understood as the unconscious reproduction of knowledge acquired through education, and that of tradition, considered a deliberate citation of an ancient form, comprehensible only within a given context—such as the memorial project of Saint-Louis de Poissy (c. 1297-1331), for example. This element of intentionality invites us to refine the definition of aesthetic preferences in the medieval era, when the past was considered an aesthetic category in itself.

Keywords: practice; materials; tradition; heritage; recreation; canons; models; coherence; continuity; homogeneity; taste; aesthetics.

Submission Guidelines and Timeline

These study days aim to explore these transmission pathways through original case studies. Our intention is to bring together presentations covering all media of the medieval period (5th–15th centuries). Presentations should be 20 to 25 minutes long. A publication is planned.

Proposals for conference contributions may be submitted in French or English. They should take the form of a summary (approximately 300 words) with a title and be accompanied by a short biography.
Submissions should be sent to jepl.medieval@gmail.com by April 15, 2025. Feedback to authors will be provided by June 30, 2025.

Call for papers in English revised by Allyson Tadjer, PhD, Georgia State University, Professor of English at the University of Lille.

For a PDF of the Call for Papers, click here.

Scientific Committee

• Mathieu Beaud, Associate Professor of Medieval Art History, UMR 8529 IRHiS, University of Lille.

• Étienne Hamon, Professor of Medieval Art History, UMR 8529 IRHiS, University of Lille.

• Anne-Orange Poilpré, Professor of Medieval Art History, UR 4100 HiCSA, University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.

• Ambre Vilain, Associate Professor of Medieval Art History, UMR 6566 CReAAH, LARA Laboratory, Nantes University.

  Organizing Committee

  • Hugo Dehongher, PhD Candidate in Medieval Art History, UMR 8529 IRHiS, University of Lille.

  • Angèle Desmenez, PhD Candidate in Medieval Art History, UMR 8529 IRHiS, University of Lille.

  • Max Hello, PhD Candidate in Medieval Art History, UR 4100 HiCSA, University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.

  • Pierre Moyat, PhD Candidate in Medieval Art History, UR 4100 HiCSA, University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.

Call for Applications

Pasold Research Fund Grants

MA Grants for MA students registered at a British institution

up to £500

Due 15 April 2025

Pasold research grants are awarded to fund high quality research, relating to all branches of textile history including the history of dress and fashion.

Applications are encouraged for projects where there will be a lasting outcome in the form of a publication or an exhibition or similar. This includes conservation related projects, leading to publications, but excludes the purchase or repair of objects and the purchase of hardware (eg cameras or computing equipment or computer software).

Applications will also be considered where preliminary work is needed for the preparation of a more substantial grant application to one of the major funding bodies.

Applications may be made to fund conference attendance – these applications may come from individuals or from conference organisers seeking funding for a named applicant.

However, it is important to provide an abstract of the paper and details of the nature of the conference and its significance. Where a conference organiser is seeking support for a named delegate details of the conference, a CV of the delegate and title and abstract of the paper are required.

All successful grant applicants, where appropriate, will be encouraged to consider submitting the outcome of their research to Textile History.

Publication would of course be subject to editorial refereeing and decision. Grants in aid of publicationfor a contribution towards illustrations, will be considered where a clear case is made explaining the absence of funding from other sources and the way in which the illustrative material is essential to the analysis and quality of the research output. Where funding is sought to complete or to part-finance a commissioned work and/or a work to be published under the auspices of a university, museum, gallery or similar, please specify the necessity, the case for, and the role of, the additional external funding.

APPLICATIONS

Application forms should be submitted electronically to: histart-pasold@york.ac.uk

If you have further queries as to whether you are eligible or about the type of support do please contact the Pasold Research Fund's Director, Dr Bethan Bide at histart-pasold@york.ac.uk or bethan.bide@york.ac.uk.

For more information about this and other grants, visit https://www.pasold.co.uk/important-information

Call for Papers

Sanguis Christi. Visual Culture / Visionary Culture. 13th–18th centuries

3-5 December 2025, Louvain-la-Neuve

Due 15 April 2025

The subject of the Blood of Christ has fueled Christian devotional culture in Europe since the mid-Middle Ages. Rooted in the veneration of relics, it quickly became central with the progressive establishment of the dogma of transubstantiation, particularly at the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), and the development of a liturgy specifically celebrating the Corpus Christi: the Feast of Corpus Christi, universally promoted within Christendom by the papal bull Transiturus (1264).

This interdisciplinary conference aims to explore how devotion to the Holy Blood, in its various forms and manifestations (relics, sacraments, miracles), shaped and nourished the emergence of a visual culture in Europe from the Middle Ages to the 18th century.

Through the lens of visuality—whether visible and/or visionary—this colloquium will examine the theological debates, the development and evolution of a devotional culture, including its social and political dimensions, and their impact on modes of representation in iconography. By visual/visionary culture, we aim to investigate what is rendered visible of the Blood of Christ and to explore the tension between what miracles make perceptible to the senses and what remains beyond perception, opening the faithful to a spiritual and sacred dimension and inspiring new modes of rendering the divine visible.

This interdisciplinary conference explores how devotion to the Holy Blood, through its various forms and manifestations (relics, sacrament, miracles), shaped a visual and visionary culture in Europe from the Middle Ages to the 18th century. It focuses on the interactions between theology, devotional culture, social and political dynamics, and modes of iconographic representation.Contributions may align with one of the following three axes: doctrinal foundations and eucharistic liturgies; visual culture and social history; object-images and visual devices. Proposals (maximum 500 words) accompanied by a CV should be sent by April 15, 2025, to manon.chaidron@uclouvain.be and mathilde.mares@gmail.com.

A full call for papers can be downloaded here.

For more information, click here.

Call for Sessions

Mary Jaharis Center Sponsored Panel, 51st Annual Byzantine Studies Conference

30 October - 2 November 2025, Detroit, Michigan

Due 14 April 2025

As part of its ongoing commitment to Byzantine studies, the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture seeks proposals for Mary Jaharis Center sponsored sessions at the 51st Annual Byzantine Studies Conference to be held in Detroit, Michigan, October 30–November 2, 2025. We invite session proposals on any topic relevant to Byzantine studies.

Session proposals must be submitted through the Mary Jaharis Center website. The deadline for submission is April 14, 2025.

If the proposed session is accepted, the Mary Jaharis Center will reimburse a maximum of 5 session participants (presenters and chair) up to $800 maximum for scholars traveling from inside North America and up to $1400 maximum for those coming from outside North America. Funding is through reimbursement only; advance funding cannot be provided. Eligible expenses include conference registration, transportation, and food and lodging. Receipts are required for reimbursement.

For further details and submission instructions, please visit https://maryjahariscenter.org/sponsored-sessions/51st-bsc

Contact Brandie Ratliff, Director, Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture, with any questions (mjcbac@hchc.edu).

Online Lecture

Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture

The Blood of His Flesh? Controversial Relics from Byzantium in Venice

Karin Krause, University of Chicago

April 10, 2025 | 12:00 PM (EDT, UTC -4) | Zoom

The Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture is pleased to announce the next lecture in our 2024–2025 lecture series.

This lecture examines the history and shifting interpretations of two relics of the Holy Blood of Christ in the Church of St. Mark’s in Venice between the late Middle Ages and the Baroque era.

One is kept in a Byzantine rock crystal pyx bearing a Greek inscription that identifies its contents as Christ’s carnal blood. Although the artifact is listed in an inventory drawn up in 1325, Venetian sources before the seventeenth century are suspiciously silent about the veneration and whereabouts of this relic. Evidently, the reliquary remained concealed in the Santuario, the relic chamber of St. Mark’s, until its miraculous rediscovery in 1617.

Drawing on sources from Venice and elsewhere, I argue that soon after the arrival of the pyx, its contents must have become part of the theological controversy over the bodily blood of Christ, a Catholic debate questioning the authenticity of such relics. Because of its problematic contents, I conclude, the doges decided not to make the pyx available for public veneration for several centuries. The theological disputes surrounding the relic inside the pyx can be better understood in light of the fate of a second reliquary of the Holy Blood of Christ from Constantinople, which has been in the same church since the thirteenth century.

It was only during the Baroque era that the relic inside the Byzantine pyx was rehabilitated as authentic resulting from the efforts of Giovanni Tiepolo, an accomplished theologian and ecclesiastical leader. I examine the strategies Tiepolo employed to establish the relic’s cult, strategies that illuminate the scholar’s familiarity with Byzantine history and religious culture.

Karin Krause is an Associate Professor in the University of Chicago Divinity School. Trained as an art historian, she specializes in the Christian visual cultures of Byzantium and the premodern Mediterranean region.

Advance registration required. Register: https://maryjahariscenter.org/events/the-blood-of-his-flesh

Contact Brandie Ratliff (mjcbac@hchc.edu), Director, Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture, with any questions.

Call for Papers

European Architectural History Network

Good Governance and the Built Environment of Late Medieval Cities (ca. 1200–1600)

Brussels, Belgium, 3-5 September 2025

Due By 7 April 2025

In the late Middle Ages, cities were governed through constant dialogue. Rulers, nobility, citizens and other social groups all found ways to shape urban governance, each articulating complex views on what “good” governance entailed. In order to meet expectations of justice, protection, economic welfare, and the common good, all the aforementioned individuals would often invest in the city’s built environment, either by initiating new architectural and infrastructural projects, or by securing the maintenance of existing ones.

The city as a built space thus required constant development, and in this upkeep and expansion, rulers and governors were attributed a specific responsibility. Scholarship has already extensively explored various policies initiated by rulers and governors for the construction and maintenance of the city’s built environment; Previous studies have, for example, drawn attention to the governmental structures set up in late medieval cities or have explored the legal measures implemented to control urban environments. Similarly, scholarly attention has also focused on individual architectural and infrastructural projects initiated by rulers and governors as a means to meet expectations regarding their governmental responsibilities. However, a systematic overview of how these tasks and obligations regarding the built environment of the city were linked to ideals of good governance is missing, as well as the scope to set individual cases within an overarching framework.

This conference seeks to address this lacuna by asking specifically how the built environment of late medieval cities was conceptualised and physically shaped in relation to ideals of good governance. The focus will be on urban centers in diverse geographical regions (from North-Western Europe and the Mediterranean to the Middle East), and this in the period of 1200 to 1600.

We invite contributions coming from a variety of disciplines (architectural history, art history, literary history, political history and so on) to explore how—and to what extent— building was integral to governing a late medieval city.

Themes may include, but are not limited to:
• The relationship between political and architectural thought with regards to good governance and the construction and maintenance of the city’s built environment.
• The various media (texts, images, etc.) through which political thinking on good governance with regards to the city’s built environment was expressed.
• The tasks, responsibilities, and expectations towards rulers and governing bodies in the construction and maintenance of a city’s built environment.
• The means through which rulers and governors hoped to translate policy for the city’s built environment into practice (administrative bodies, legal measures, direct patronage).
• Specific architectural and infrastructural projects initiated and overviewed by rulers, governors, but also other urban groups, and their relation to political ideals (such as authority, the common good, urban health, justice…).
• The overlapping jurisdictions and governmental structures within late medieval cities and their impact on the construction and maintenance of the urban built environment.

Please send an abstract (max 500 words) with a short CV (2 pages max) to governingandbuildingthecity@gmail.com by 7 April 2025. Contributions should be in English and the result of original research. Contributions should not be previously published or in the process of being published. Notifications of acceptance will be sent out by the end of April. The conference will be held between 3-5 September 2025 in Brussels.

The conference is organised within the research project “Governing and Building the City: Mirrors-for-Magistrates as a lieu for theoretical reflection on architecture (1200-1600)” funded by an Incentive Grant for Scientific Research (FNRS, Belgium).
For more information on the project: see http://governingandbuilding.com.

Organisers:
• Nele De Raedt, professor of history, theory and criticism of architecture, LOCI/LAB, UCLouvain
• Minne De Boodt, post-doctoral researcher in political history, LOCI/LAB, UCLouvain/ Research Group Medieval History, KU Leuven
• Philip Muijtjens, post-doctoral researcher in art history, LOCI/LAB, UCLouvain

For more information on the call for papers, visit https://eahn.org/2025/03/good-governance-and-the-built-environment-of-late-medieval-cities-ca-1200-1600/