Online Conference: Medievalisms on the Screen III: Digital Medievalisms and the Teaching of History, 13-15 April 2023

Online Conference

Medievalisms on the Screen III: Digital Medievalisms and the Teaching of History

Organized by Department of Medieval Studies Central European University

April 13-15, 2023

An online conference exploring the characteristics, opportunities and challenges brought by the use of digital media, digital humanities, public discourse and medievalisms in the contemporary communication of historical knowledge both inside and outside the classroom.

You can pre-register for free at: https://forms.gle/EDfpchLt6BFnXvvC8

Schedule

April 13, 2023

3:00-4:30 ET/9:00-10:30 CET - Keynote Lecture

Prof. Katherine J. Lewis (University of Huddersfield). There is no fiction in our song: Medievalism and the (re)writing of medieval history

5:00-6:30 ET/11:00-12:30 CET - Teaching the Middle Ages: Curricula and Political Ideology

Olga Kalashnikova. History serves the motherland: Miseducating medievalisms in contemporary public discourse in Russia

Brian Egede-Pedersen. "Wait. . . some people actually believe this?!": Using extremist content in the Danish upper secondary sector

Anna Adashinskaya. Digital textbooks on Russian history after Russia's 2014 invasion of Ukraine

7:30-9:00 ET/13:30-15:00 CET - Medieval Gaming and Pedagogy

Daniel Atwood. Fantasy video games and medieval minstrels in the music history classroom

Robert Houghton. Investiture Contest Online: Digitising medieval learning boardgames

Juan Manuel Rubio Arevalo. Learning about medieval history and the crusades through video games

9:30-11:00 ET/15:30-17:00 CET - The Middle Ages in Popular and Digital Media: Politics and Representation

Jan Kremer. Playing religion and spirituality in Kingdom Come: Deliverance - Dialogue with Czech historical culture

Debojyoti Dan. Medieval political histories and their (un)conscious implications in A Song of Ice and Fire

Cullan Bendig. Hussite video games and Czech digital nationalism

April 14, 2023 

3:00-4:30 ET/9:00-10:30 CET - Keynote Lecture

Dr. Helen Young (Deakin University). Learning about the Middle Ages: Videogames as Public History

5:00-6:30 ET/11:00-12:30 CET - Medieval Digital Preservation and Research

Shiv Kumar. Digitization and preservation of epigraphy and inscriptions through the archeological survey of India

Jon Burke. Learning to love fakes: How to overcome the inauthenticity of digital artifacts

Progoti Bakshi. Digitalization and preservation of medieval Bengali manuscripts

7:30-9:00 ET/13:30-15:00 CET - Divulgating the Middle Ages through Social Media

Igor Stamenovic. Information and disinformation about the Middle Ages on popular Serbian history social media pages

Jaime Tortosa Quirós. The Middle Ages and social divulgation in the internet era: The case of @Res_Historica

Paula Stiles. Fictional fascists: Combating racist images of the Knights Templar in visual and social media

9:30-10:20 ET/15:30-16:30 CET - Digital Tools and the Teaching of the Middle Ages

Petra Plantosar. The Middle Ages and artificial intelligence: Possibilities of use in the Teaching of History

Sára Bíbor Sziklai. From Gregorian chant to music printing - four parts of the permanent exhibition in the House of Music, Hungary

 
April 15, 2023

3:00-4:30 ET/9:00-10:30 CET - Teaching the Middle Ages: Strategies and Approaches

Zohrab Gevorgyan. The use of miniatures in Cilician Armenia in history teaching: Strategies and approaches

Shivender Rahul et.al. Diversity in the teaching of the Middle Ages: Exploring the complexity of gender and race

Heather Blatt. Inviting students to address their biases in Medievalisms Studies

5:00-6:30 ET/11:00-12:30 CET - Digital Reconstructions of Medieval Spaces CET

Mariana Barreira. The Timelink information system in medieval historical research: The case of São Bartolomeu of Coimbra

Lorenzo Mercuri. Representative strategies and misleading attempts for a digital reconstruction of the Knights Templar headquarters in Paris

James Baillie. The Uncreativity Engine: AI tools in popular medievalist worldbuilding

7:30-9:00 ET/13:30-15:00 CET - The Middle Ages in Popular and Digital Media: Approaches to Gender

Amy Bucher. "Radiant as the Tresses of Aurora": The pre-Raphaelite impact on popular depictions of medieval women's hair and gender 

Irina Manea. The Northman - another berserk on screen?

Máté Vas. "This is how silly men perish": Imagined medieval masculinities in The Green Knight

For more information, https://medievalstudies.ceu.edu/medievalisms-screen-iii-digital-medievalisms-and-teaching-history

Follow the department at @yoursmedievally.

See our previous iterations on our Channel: Medievalisms on the Screen.

Call for Applications: Dumbarton Oaks, Research Grants (Due 31 March 2023) & Remote Mentorship Program (Due 30 April 2023) for Scholars affected by the ongoing conflict in Ukraine

Call for Applications

Dumbarton Oaks

Research GrantS

Applications Due 31 March 2023

Mentorship Program

Applications Due 30 April 2023

In response to the current conflict in Ukraine, Dumbarton Oaks is offering two initiatives to support scholars at risk. The newest initiative—a four-session remote mentorship program co-organized with scholars at Boise State University, University of Kent, Princeton University, and Tufts University—will offer professional development and workshop opportunities around a variety of topics. The second initiative is a limited number of research grants, open to scholars active in any of the three areas of studies supported by Dumbarton Oaks, namely Byzantine Studies, Pre-Colombian Studies, and Garden and Landscape Studies.

Research Grants

Dumbarton Oaks is committed to the support of scholarship around the world. We are offering for the year 2023 a limited number of research grants of 5,000 USD each (minus any applicable taxes) available to those affected by the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. The grants are open to scholars active in any of the three areas of studies supported by Dumbarton Oaks: Byzantine Studies, Pre-Columbian Studies, and Garden and Landscape Studies. The deadline for applications is March 31, 2023.

Eligibility: The research grant is open to all those who hold a PhD and who are or were affiliated to a research or higher education institution in Ukraine. If they are no longer residing in Ukraine, the applicant will need to provide evidence of active academic affiliation in the last three years. Displaced scholars affiliated with Russian research or higher education institutions can apply if they reside outside Russia and have an active academic affiliation in the last three years within or outside Russia.

Scope and Conditions: The grant may be used to support research in any of the three areas of study supported by Dumbarton Oaks (Byzantine, Pre-Columbian, and Garden and Landscape Studies), whether by an individual or as part of a joint project. The grants are awarded to individual scholars on the basis of their abilities and qualifications, as well as the significance and value of the project to the field for the specific area of study. Funding is immediately available to the researchers at their current location, provided this is permitted by current legal restrictions, and should be used for within one year of the announcement of the grant award.

Applications: Applicants must submit through the Embark application system, which will remain open until March 31, 2023. Each applicant will be asked to submit:

• A research statement of up to 1,000 words in length outlining the project, its significance to the field, and the applicant’s relevant needs, resources, and skills

• A CV that demonstrates teaching and research in one of the three areas of study supported by Dumbarton Oaks

• Proof of academic affiliation

• Three names of referees that may be contacted to provide support letters if needed

Mentorship Program - North of Byzantium | Connected Central European Worlds, 1500-1700

Co-organizers: Tomasz Grusiecki (Boise State University), Suzanna Ivanič (University of Kent), Nikos D. Kontogiannis (Dumbarton Oaks), Maria Alessia Rossi (Princeton University), Alice Isabella Sullivan (Tufts University)

We invite applications for a remote four-session mentorship program tailored to early-career scholars affected by the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. This program is meant to offer professional development and workshop opportunities around the following topics:

• Publishing in top academic journals and books

• Writing successful grant applications

• Preparing successful job documents

• Disseminating research in different contexts

Each professional development event will include presentations from experts and opportunities for Q&A and feedback. These events will be followed by one-on-one mentoring sessions, which are intended to expand on the feedback received, while offering additional tailored guidance for each participant. There might be the possibility for an in-person gathering of all participants upon the completion of the program.

The four sessions will take place in June, July, September, and October 2023. All participants will need to attend all workshops and mentoring sessions to complete the program successfully. Upon completion, each participant will receive a certificate, and may receive an honorarium of $500 (minus any applicable taxes). It is the responsibility of foreign national participants to verify their ability to receive an honorarium.

Eligibility: The successful applicants should be advanced PhD candidates (within 1 year of completion of their degrees) or junior-level scholars (up to 5 years since graduation with a doctoral degree). We encourage historians and art historians with a specialty in the medieval or early modern visual culture of Eastern Europe to apply to this program. This opportunity is open to all, but preference will be given to scholars whose work has been disrupted by the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. We anticipate selecting 6-8 participants for this program.

Applications: To apply, please use the online Embark portal to upload a one-page letter of interest with details about your research, skills, and reasons for participating; a CV; and the names and contact details of two referees who may be contacted to provide support letters, if needed, by April 30, 2023.

For more information, https://www.doaks.org/research/fellowships-and-awards/opportunities-ukraine-scholars

CALL FOR PAPERS: THIRTY-SIXTH IRISH CONFERENCE OF MEDIEVALISTS, TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN AND DUBLIN CITY UNIVERSITY (22-23 JUNE 2023), ABSTRACTS DUE 30 APRIL 2023

CALL FOR PAPERS

THIRTY-SIXTH IRISH CONFERENCE OF MEDIEVALISTS

#ICM36

TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN AND DUBLIN CITY UNIVERSITY

THURSDAY 22 AND FRIDAY 23 JUNE 2023

ABSTRACTS DUE 30 APRIL 2023

Registration: €40 (students €20). Due when invited to register one month before conference.

Venue: The Banking Hall, 3/4 Foster Place, Dublin 2. Please note that this year it is intended that the conference will be in person.

ICM welcomes speakers from Ireland and abroad on all aspects of the Middle Ages. We now invite proposals for papers on any aspect of medieval studies, including but not limited to:

• History

• Art History

• Literature

• Linguistics

• Archaeology

• Theology

• Philosophy

• Palaeography

Papers should last no more than 20 minutes (+10 minutes for discussion). Proposals should be sent by email to Dr Sparky Booker (sparky. booken@dauie) no later than 30th of April 2023.

Each submission should include the following details:

• Name

• Institutional Affiliation (if any)

• Email Address

• Paper Title

• Abstract (c100 Words)

Themed Sessions: Themed sessions are comprised of three speakers. Please provide a proposal for each paper. You are welcome to nominate your own session chair.

Roundtable Sessions: Proposals are also invited for roundtable sessions of 50 minutes addressing major issues in a field. The proposal should include a short description of the purpose of the roundtable, the name of the chair and a list of agreed participants.

Cuirfear fäilte roimh phaipeir as Gaeilge

Conference Organizers: Sparky Booker, Peter Crooks, Seán Duffy. Immo Warntjes.

Revisiting the Cloisters Cross A One-day Colloquium on the Cloisters Cross, Courtauld Institute of Art, London, 12 May 2023

Revisiting the Cloisters Cross A One-day Colloquium on the Cloisters Cross

Courtauld Institute of Art, London

12 May 2023

The Cloisters Cross is widely recognised as a masterpiece of late Romanesque art. Carved of walrus ivory, it appeared after World War II in a private collection and was subsequently acquired by the Metropolitan Museum in New York. The earliest scholarly publications identified it as English, and that probably remains the majority opinion. However, over the years, other attributions have been suggested. What has become clear in the process is that the Cross merits study in the broad intellectual and artistic context of northern Europe, from the Ile de France up to Scandinavia, and England across to Germany.

This one-day colloquium, jointly held by the British Archaeological Association and the Courtauld Institute, will review and extend the debates about the origins and history of the Cloisters Cross. Speakers include Charles T. Little, Sabrina Harcourt-Smith, Robyn Barrow, Miri Rubin, Neil Stratford, Cecily Hennessy and Sandy Heslop.

Date: Friday 12 May 2023, 10.30am - 6.30pm
Location: Courtauld Institute of Art, Vernon Square, Penton Rise, London WC1X 9EW
Organisers: Sandy Heslop (taheslop@gmail.com) and Cecily Hennessy (cecilyjane@hotmail.co.uk)

Tickets are £25 full price and £15 for students. Booking is through Eventbrite:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/revisiting-the-cloisters-cross-a-one-day-colloquium-tickets-510587931247.

This is an in-person event at our Vernon Square campus. Booking will close 30 minutes before the event begins. Registration cost includes lunch and refreshments.

For more information, https://courtauld.ac.uk/whats-on/revisiting-the-cloisters-cross-a-one-day-colloquium/

Call for Applications: Full Professor of History of Art and Architecture (500-1500), Radboud Universiteit, Due 2 May 2023

Vacancy

Full Professor of History of Art and Architecture (500-1500)

Radboud Universiteit, Nijmegen, Netherlands

Applications Due 2 May 2023

Are you an innovative, experienced and inspiring scholar in the field of the history of art and architecture between 500-1500? Do your research and teaching explore cross-cultural connections and expand or complicate the geographical and cultural boundaries of the 'medieval'? As a full professor at Radboud University, you will join and lead a diverse group of dedicated scholars, shape the field of art and architectural history, and flourish in a friendly and vibrant academic community.

We warmly invite you to browse our vacancy and apply! You would preferably begin employment between 1 September 2023 and 1 January 2024.

The History of Art section at Radboud University is looking for a Full Professor of History of Art and Architecture between 500-1500 CE (1,0 FTE). The position builds on the section's existing strengths, which includes visual and material culture of Europe after 1500 CE, architecture, and global modern and contemporary art.

You are an art historian whose research explores cross-cultural connections and links historical research to contemporary issues and practices, such as cultural heritage. Our section is especially interested in scholars whose research and teaching expand or complicate the geographical and cultural boundaries of the 'medieval', who incorporate new methodologies, and whose interests include Islamic Art and Architecture, materiality and craft (including modern material-technical research), or the social uses and sensory experiences of works of art.

As a Professor of History of Art and Architecture at Radboud University, you will build on your robust and innovative research agenda, track record of outstanding scholarly publications, and other academic achievements on an international level. You will develop cross-disciplinary collaborations through innovative teaching and research, mentoring, and forging links with students and faculty across the university and beyond. You will contribute to the development of courses on all levels, teach both introductory and specialised courses, and take part in study trips, which are integral to the curriculum. You will also participate in teaching in Faculty-wide minor programmes, such as Cultural Heritage and the Public, or Conflict and Cooperation in the Mediterranean World.

At Radboud University, you will take on a leadership role in your field of expertise and present a strong vision of its future development. You will play a dynamic and proactive role in the Radboud Institute for Culture and History (RICH), one of the Faculty's research institutes, contributing to its mission and research programme by participating in and further stimulating its research activities, publishing in high-impact journals and other research outlets, recruiting and supervising PhD candidates, mentoring junior faculty members, and applying for grants.
The professorship is part of the Department of History, Art History and Classics, one of three departments comprising the Faculty of Arts. You will represent the Art History section within the university and beyond, serve as its head in a rotating fashion with one other full professor, and work in close connection with its staff members and with the Department as a whole. You will be joining a university with expertise in Mediterranean Studies (both in the Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies). You will be expected to serve as a standard bearer for student recruitment, and take on a crucial role in the promotion and visibility of medieval visual and material cultures, both nationally and internationally.

For more information, https://www.ru.nl/en/working-at/job-opportunities/full-professor-of-history-of-art-and-architecture

NEW Video: Digital Approaches to Medieval Art featuring Maeve Doyle and Alex Brey, 2 March 2023

Digital Resources Committee

Presents

Digital Approaches to Medieval Art featuring Maeve Doyle and Alex Brey

2 March 2023

Top: A folio from NEP-27, UPenn Museum. Bottom: Women readers in the margins of a thirteenth-century book of hours (Cambrai, Médiathèque municipale MS 87, fol. 113r)

On 2 March 2023 at 12:00 pm, the Digital Resources Committee held an exciting event with invited speakers, Maeve Doyle (ECSU) and Alex Brey (Wellesley College), that was introduced by Lindsay Cook (Penn State). Following their presentation, committee members, Paula Mae Carns (UIUC), Nicholas Herman (SIMS), and Lindsay Cook, led a dialogue about digital approaches to medieval manuscript studies, and the event ended with a broader discussion with the virtual audience.

The event can now be viewed on the Special Online Lectures page of the ICMA website: https://www.medievalart.org/special-online-lectures.

Call for Papers: Place and Space: Modifications and Adaptations of the Sacred in the Medieval and Early Modern Eras, Online Symposium (8 June 2023), Abstracts DUE BY 24 April 2023

Call for Papers

Place and Space: Modifications and Adaptations of the Sacred in the Medieval and Early Modern Eras

8 June 2023 (Online Symposium)

Abstracts Due By 24 April 2023

Exeter Cathedral

The relationship between sacred practices and space in the medieval and early modern periods is intricate and varies from place to place in medieval communities. The use of charms, graffiti, personal pieces of artwork, and depositions of everyday materials customised and determined the use and behaviour within sacred spaces. This symposium seeks to explore how communities adapted different spaces for spiritual and religious purposes.

Suggested themes for papers include (but are not limited to):

• Use of material culture in elite or non-elite domestic spaces

• Engagement with the sacred through materiality in rural or urban settings

• Use of visual culture in differing spaces

• Changes or continuity in the significance of spatial contexts for spiritual practices

• The materiality of belief in popular religion

• Regionality of spatial engagement with sacred material culture

• Interdisciplinary approaches combining written and material sources

• The role of architecture in medieval spiritual phenomenology

This symposium will be held in an online format and is hosted by the University of Leicester and the University of Exeter. Papers should be kept to a 20 minute time limiti. Please submit abstracts of 250 words, and a short biography (and any questions) to Crystal Hollis at ch844@exeter.ac.uk or Abigail Ford at af356@le.ac.uk by April 24, 2023.

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

Call for Papers in Digital Workshop: Animal Performances (500-1500). A global perspective (21 July 2023 via Zoom), Abstracts due 30 April 2023

Call for Papers

Digital Workshop

Animal Performances (500-1500). A global perspective

July 21, 2023 (via Zoom)

by Prof. Dr. Przemysław Marciniak

Abstracts Due April 30, 2023

Animals performed (and still perform) a wide range of roles in human society. One of them was entertainment: from bloody venationes of the Romans to less bloody but nonetheless cruel, displays of dancing bears and dogs.

By "animal performances" we understand all forms of public displays of animals, including ceremonial hunts, parades of exotic animals, and animal trials. We invite twenty minutes contributions that would tackle these and related subjects. We especially invite papers approaching this topic from modern methodological perspective and discussing animal performances outside the European/Euromediterrenean area.

This workshop is planned as the initial stage of possible further cooperation.

Please send abstracts, no longer than 150 words, until April 30, 2023 to przemyslaw.marciniak@mzaw.lmu.de

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

Call for Papers: INSECTS IN THE PREMODERN WORLD, Munich (6-7 July 2023), Abstracts Due 30 April 2023

MZAW-Gastprofessur für Kulturgeschichte des Altertums 2022/23

CALL FOR PAPERS

INSECTS IN THE PREMODERN WORLD

July 6-7, 2023, Munich, Germany

Conference by Prof. Dr. Przemystaw Marciniak (LMU)

Abstracts Due 30 April 2023

Edward Wilson, an American biologist, and Pulitzer Prize winner estimated that there are nearly ten quintillion insects worldwide. Throughout centuries they provoked fundamentally different emotions and reactions in various cultures: from disgust to fascination. They were used and are still being used as food and medicine.

Insects have also played an important part in human culture throughout centuries.

They were used in art and literature as vehicles for symbolic meanings. During the conference at the Münchner Zentrum für Antike Welten, we propose to look at the global history of insects from the point of view of cultural entomology, that is, how insects were integrated into the cultural fabric of a given premodern society.

The list of possible topics includes but is not limited to the following subjects:

• Insects in literature;
  Insects in art;

• Insects as animal companions;

• literary Insects as invectives and praises;

• Insects as a source of food;
  Insects in ethnopharmacology;

• archeoentomology

The chronological scope of the conference is from antiquity to ca. 1500, and the geographical perspective is global.

We invite submissions from scholars working on or interested in cultural entomology across the globe.

Date & Location: The conference will take place in Munich (LMU) on July 6-7 in a hybrid format. Please specify in your submission whether you would like to participate in person or online. Selected participants will be offered accommodation and reimbursement of travel expenses.

Abstracts: Abstracts of no more than 150 words should be sent no later than April 30 to: przemyslaw.marciniak@mzaw.Imu.de and mzaw@mzaw.Imu.de

For more information, go to https://www.mzaw.uni-muenchen.de/index.html.

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

Workshop on Medieval Wall Paintings, The Courtauld, Vernon Square Campus, London (17 May 2023), Register by 14 April 2023

Workshop on Medieval Wall Paintings

17th May 2023, 10am – 4pm

The Courtauld, Vernon Square Campus, London (In-Person) 

Register By 14th April 2023

14th-century Wall Painting at Longthorpe Tower, Peterborough, https://courtauld.ac.uk/research/research-areas/wall-painting-conservation/

Wall paintings, as one of the only forms of public art surviving from the Middle Ages, are an invaluable resource for art-historians, historians, and literary specialists, among others. However, there are also many challenges to wall painting research: it can be difficult to ‘read’ their imagery, they are often highly degraded, and crucial archival material is often dispersed and difficult to interpret.

This interdisciplinary research workshop invites participation from PhD and Early Career Researchers in art-history, history, literature, conservation, and other disciplines whose research projects involve medieval wall paintings. As well as establishing a network of researchers working on related material, we will discuss practicalities and methods of research into wall paintings. You will have the opportunity to see the National Wall Painting Survey held at The Courtauld, which contains a vast archive of material covering almost 8,000 wall paintings in the British Isles. We will also hear from wall paintings conservator Emily Howe (who has worked on the mural schemes at Eton and Westminster) about using conservation reports as part of the study of historic wall paintings.

This workshop offers the opportunity to:

• Examine different methods of researching wall paintings.

• Analyse the uses and interpretation of conservation reports for scholars working in other disciplines. 

• Assess the different types of sources for researching wall paintings.Discuss the issues surrounding the dating of wall paintings, and the various methods for doing so.

• Consider the distinctive iconographies found in wall painting and their potential relevance to broader historical enquiries. 

As part of the workshop, all participants will be invited to give a ten-minute lightening talk on the role of wall paintings in their research. 

Whilst this workshop places emphasis on English wall painting due to the connection with the National Wall Painting Survey at The Courtauld, we are keen to consider wall paintings as a global phenomenon. Therefore, we encourage submissions from a broad geographical scope pre-1550.

This workshop is supported by the Consortium for the Humanities and the Arts South-East England (CHASE), AHRC.

Travel bursaries available for travel within England, capped at £100 per person.
To apply, please send a CV and a short statement (300 words) on the role of wall paintings within your research to florence.eccleston@courtauld.ac.uk by Friday 14th April 2023.

Mary Jaharis Center Lecture Series: Chôra and the Creation of Sacred Space in Byzantine Architecture, Jelena Bogdanović, 30 March 2023 12:00 PM ET (Virtual)

Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture Lecture Series

Chôra and the Creation of Sacred Space in Byzantine Architecture

Jelena Bogdanović, Vanderbilt University

Thursday, March 30, 2023 | 12:00 PM EDT | Zoom

North dome, c. 1316–1321, inner narthex, Chora church, Constantinople (Istanbul). Photo: Jelena Bogdanović 

The Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture is pleased to announce the final lecture in its 2022–2023 lecture series.

Can we talk about Byzantine architecture beyond buildings? What is at stake?
This presentation engages with the scholarly opportunities for theoretical considerations of sacred architecture in light of Byzantine intellectual and creative practices. Primarily focusing on principles of architectural design, sacred space is highlighted here not as an abstract category nor as a specific sacred place or location but rather as a combination of the two. As such, sacred space points to a historical and evocative locale and associated events; yet it remains inseparable from its essential qualities. By revisiting the architectural design of Byzantine churches, this talk will demonstrate the meaningful relations between created sacred space and the faithful, between physical objects in space, and the significance of non-material aspects of built structures in communicating the vitality of architectural form as a kind of participatory icon of space. Especially important is the philosophically and architecturally suggestive concept of chôra (χώρα) and its cognate hypodochē (υποδοχή), originally introduced by Plato in his instrumental text Timaeus. This presentation will analyze the relevance of chôra and hypodochē for understanding the modes of creation of sacred space and religious architecture in the late antique and Byzantine Mediterranean.

Jelena Bogdanović (Ph.D. Princeton University) is an Associate Professor of History of Art and Architecture and Classical and Mediterranean Studies at Vanderbilt University. She studies cross-cultural and religious themes in the architecture of the Balkans and Mediterranean.

Advance registration required at https://maryjahariscenter.org/events/chora-and-the-creation-of-sacred-space

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

Call for Papers: THE EARLY DISCOVERY OF MEDIEVAL ART BY TRAVELLERS LOOKING FOR CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN SOUTHERN EUROPE, UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI NAPOLI FEDERICO II (20-21 Nov. 2023), Due 15 Mar. 2023

Call for Papers

THE EARLY DISCOVERY OF MEDIEVAL ART BY TRAVELLERS LOOKING FOR CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN SOUTHERN EUROPE

(FROM THE 17TH CENTURY TO THE BEGINNING OF THE 19TH CENTURY)

UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI NAPOLI FEDERICO II

20-21 NOVEMBER 2023

Materials Due 15 March 2023

Organizers: Vinni Lucherini and Stefano D’Ovidio
Scientific committee: Xavier Barral i Altet, Paola D’Alconzo, Tanja Michalsky, Alessandro Taddei, Arnaud Timbert

The conference is part of the international research project DIOMEDA – The Discovery of Medieval Art while Looking for Antiquities (P.I. Vinni Lucherini), sponsored by the University of Naples Federico II and the Compagnia di San Paolo within the STAR Plus program that supports advanced and competitive research at European level. The project is elaborated in cooperation with Sapienza Università di Roma and Bibliotheca Hertziana - Max-Planck Institute for Art History, Rome.

Since at least the 17th century and throughout the 18th and early 19th centuries, travel played an essential role in the rediscovery of medieval art. Cultured men from all over Europe visited Mediterranean countries, not only Italy and Greece, but also modern-day Croatia, Turkey, as well as the Iberian Peninsula and Southern France, to see Greek and Roman monuments, but they were often confronted with artefacts and buildings from later centuries. How did they describe medieval monuments that fell before their eyes while they were in search of Classical Antiquity, and sometimes were confused with ancient monuments? What kind of language did they employ to describe them? What interpretative categories did they adopt to define them? What aesthetic or historical opinions did they have on the Middle Ages in comparison with Antiquity, which was the main goal of their journey?

The purpose of the present conference is to evaluate the attitudes towards medieval heritage by authors prepared to study Antiquity and to verify their impact on the development of a new discipline specifically dedicated to the History of Medieval Art, as it appeared in Europe from 1820’s onward.

We invite papers with a multidisciplinary perspective from experts in history, art history, archaeology, linguistics, literature, anthropology, and any other disciplines dealing with the history of travel and art historiography, both on single case studies and more general overviews. Areas of interest may include:

- The perception of medieval art and architecture by European antiquarian travellers to Mediterranean countries from the 17th century to the early 19th century.
- The language adopted to describe medieval monuments, as well as the formulation of a specific vocabulary (definitions, lemmas, technicalities), especially when borrowed from other disciplines.

- The elaboration of interpretative categories to define medieval art and architecture, especially in comparison with that from Antiquity and the Renaissance.
- The visual sources on medieval monuments featuring in travel accounts and descriptions, historical treatises, and pamphlets, especially if analysed in relation with their textual counterpart.

- The social, ideological, aesthetic, and political framework that supported the historical interpretation of medieval art and architecture.

The conference will be held at the University of Naples Federico II on 20-21 November 2023. The deadline for proposals is 15 March 2023. Applicants are kindly requested to send a title and an abstract (max 300 words), together with a short curriculum vitæ, to the e-mail address: diomedaconference2023@gmail.com. Proposals will be evaluated, and the applicants will receive an answer by mid-April 2023. The organization will cover coffee/lunch breaks. Travel and accommodation will be at the charge of the participants.

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

EAST OF BYZANTIUM LECTURE SERIES: THE ÖNGÜT CONNECTION: CHRISTIANITY AMONG THE TURKS OF MEDIEVAL EURASIA, JOEL WALKER, 25 APRIL 2023 12:00 PM ET (ZOOM)

EAST OF BYZANTIUM LECTURE SERIES

THE ÖNGÜT CONNECTION: CHRISTIANITY AMONG THE TURKS OF MEDIEVAL EURASIA

JOEL WALKER |UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON, SEATTLE

Tuesday, April 25, 2023 | 12:00 PM EDT | ZOOM

East of Byzantium is pleased to announce another lecture in its 2022–2023 lecture series.

Early and influential allies of Chinggis Khan, the Öngüt Turks of Inner Mongolia played a pivotal role in the rise of the Mongol Empire (1206–1368). Their adoption of “Nestorian” Christianity represents the culmination of a broad stream of Turkic Christian tradition in medieval Eurasia. The careers of the ascetic Marqos of Koshang, who became the East-Syrian patriarch Yahballaha III (1281–1317), and the ruler Giwargis, the Mongol-appointed “Prince of Gaotang” (d. 1298 or 1299), help reveal the distinctive contours of the Öngüt Christian tradition.

Joel Walker is the Lawrence J. Roseman Associate Professor of History at the University of Washington, Seattle. Trained as a historian of Late Antiquity, his publications include: The Legend of Mar Qardagh: Narrative and Christian Heroism in Late Antique Iraq (2006); “From Nisibis to Xi’an: The Church of the East in Late Antique Eurasia” (2012); and “Luminous Markers: Pearls and Royal Authority in Late Antique Iran and Eurasia” (2018). Current projects include Witness to the Mongols: A Global History Sourcebook (co-authored with Stefan Kamola) and a history of cattle in the Ancient World.

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.

East of Byzantium Lecture Series: Divine King or Sacrilegious Upstart? The Portrait of Emperor Yǝkunno Amlak in Gännätä Maryam, Jacopo Gnisci, 21 March 2023 12:00 PM ET (Zoom)

East of Byzantium Lecture Series

Divine King or Sacrilegious Upstart? The Portrait of Emperor Yǝkunno Amlak in Gännätä Maryam

Jacopo Gnisci | University College London

Tuesday, March 21, 2023 | 12:00 PM EDT | Zoom

East of Byzantium is pleased to announce the next lecture in its 2022–2023 lecture series.

In the third quarter of the thirteenth century Yǝkunno Amlak led a rebellion against the Zagwes – a line of Christian rulers who had been in control of most of the Empire of Ethiopia since at least the first half of the twelfth century. He initiated a line that would rule the country until the twentieth century: the Solomonic dynasty. Apart from these general facts, we know relatively little about the life of the first emperor of this dynasty. In this paper I hope to further our understanding of Yǝkunno Amlak’s reign and visual strategies by focusing on his only known contemporary portrait in the church of Gännätä Maryam. By analysing this image in its wider setting, I aim to shed some light on its socio-political background and reflect on the reactions it might have triggered.

Jacopo Gnisci is a Lecturer in the Art and Visual Cultures of the Global South at University College London and a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Africa, Oceania, and the America at the British Museum. He is the co-Principal Investigator of the projects Demarginalizing medieval Africa: Images, texts, and identity in early Solomonic Ethiopia (1270-1527) (AHRC Grant Ref. no. AH/V002910/1; DFG Projektnummer 448410109) and Material Migrations: Mamluk Metalwork across Afro-Eurasia (Gerda Henkel Stiftung).

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.

Exhibition Symposium: Bringing the Holy Land Home: The Crusades, Chertsey Abbey, and the Reconstruction of a Medieval Masterpiece, College of the Holy Cross, 25 March 2023

SYMPOSIUM

BRINGING THE HOLY LAND HOME

The Crusades, Chertsey Abbey, and the Reconstruction of a Medieval Masterpiece

Saturday, March 25, 2023

College of the Holy Cross
1 College Street, Worcester MA 01610

Registration

Program

8:30 - 9 a.m.: Check-in, coffee & pastries

9 - 10:30 a.m.: Welcome and Introduction | Bringing the Holy Land Home 

· "Bringing the Holy Land Home: The Crusades, Chertsey Abbey, and the Reconstruction of a Medieval Masterpiece" | Guest Curator Amanda Luyster, College of the Holy Cross

· "Paving Over Paradise: The Aristocratic Landscape and the Crusading Experience, 1187-1291" | Nicholas Paul, Fordham University

· Moderator: Cecilia Gaposchkin, Dartmouth College

10:45 a.m. - Noon: Chertsey Abbey and England

· "The Middle Ages and the British Museum: Past, Present and Future" | Lloyd de Beer, British Museum

· "'So Much National Magnificence and National History': The Medieval Abbey at Chertsey, Then and Now" | Euan Roger, National Archives, Kew

· "The Chertsey Tiles and 'Art and Crusade' in England: Historical and Historiographical Contexts" | Matthew Reeve, Queen’s University

· Moderator: Sonja Drimmer, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Noon - 1 p.m.: Lunch

1 - 2 p.m.: Sites

· "The Place of Relics in the Crusades" | Cynthia Hahn, Hunter College & Graduate Center of the City University of New York

· "The Visual Arts and the Shaping of the Frankish Experience of the Holy Land" | Eva Hoffman, Tufts University

· "The Galley as Display Space in the Fourth Crusade" | Paroma Chatterjee, University of Michigan

· Moderator: Anne Lester, Johns Hopkins University

2:15 - 3:30 p.m.: Objects

· "How to Move a Mountain: Visual Representations of the Pas Saladin" | Richard Leson, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

· "Fragments and Wholes: Medieval Textiles across the Indian Ocean" | Elizabeth Williams, Dumbarton Oaks

· "Material Connections: The St. Eustace Head Relic Wrappings" | Naomi Speakman, British Museum

· "Ivories Come to England" | Sarah Guerin, University of Pennsylvania

· Moderator: Alicia Walker, Bryn Mawr College

4 - 5:30 p.m.: Crusades, Then and Now

· "A Clash of Civilizations? A Revisionist Reading of the History of Muslim-Frankish Encounters in the Crusader Period" | Suleiman Mourad, Smith College

· “A Clash of (Academic) Civilizations: The Politics of Studying the Crusades after 9/11” | Matthew Gabriele, Virginia Tech

· Closing Remarks | Paul Cobb, University of Pennsylvania

· Moderator: Sahar Bazzaz, College of the Holy Cross

5:30 - 7 p.m.: Exhibition Viewing & Reception | Cantor Art Gallery

Registration

Registration for the Symposium is $40 (plus processing) and includes all sessions, lunch, exhibition viewing and reception. Symposium sessions (excluding lunch) are free to Holy Cross faculty, staff and students. Register here by March 9.

Directions

Symposium sessions will be held in Rehm Library at the College of the Holy Cross. Free parking is available in the lots adjacent to the Hogan Campus Center and Prior Performing Arts Center. Directions to campus.

Accommodations

A limited number of hotel rooms have been set aside for symposium attendees at the AC Hotel Worcester Marriott, 125 Front St., Worcester, MA 01608. Reserve by February 22 to receive a special conference rate of $179 per night.
Review a list of other nearby hotels.
 

Exhibition website https://chertseytiles.holycross.edu

Conference registration https://www.eventbrite.com/e/symposium-bringing-the-holy-land-home-registration-511802253317 

Call for Proposals: Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture Sponsored Session at 49th Annual Byzantine Studies Conference (26-29 October 2023), Abstracts Due 3 April 2023

Call for Proposals

Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture Sponsored Session

49th Annual Byzantine Studies Conference

Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada, 26-29 October 2023

Abstracts Due 3 April 2023

As part of its ongoing commitment to Byzantine studies, the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture seeks proposals for a Mary Jaharis Center sponsored session at the 49th Annual Byzantine Studies Conference to be held at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, October 26–29, 2023. We invite session proposals on any topic relevant to Byzantine studies.

The conference will be in-person only.

Session proposals must be submitted through the Mary Jaharis Center website. The deadline for submission is April 3, 2023.

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 based in 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. Participants must participant in the conference in-person to receive funding. The Mary Jaharis Center regrets that it cannot reimburse participants who have last-minute cancellations and are unable to attend the conference.

For further details and submission instructions, please visit https://maryjahariscenter.org/sponsored-sessions/49th-bsc.

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

Call for Papers: Visualizing Drugs & Dyes. Art and Pharmacology in (Early) Medieval Worlds (600 – 1400), International Conference, Basel (4-6 September 2023), Abstracts Due 2 April 2023

Call for Papers

Visualizing Drugs & Dyes. Art and Pharmacology in (Early) Medieval Worlds (600 – 1400)

International Conference, Basel, 4-6 September 2023

Abstracts Due 2 April 2023

BnF. Département des Manuscrits. Latin 6862, fol. 24r

Plants have long shaped the material practice and imagination of pharmacy. Far more than animals or minerals, plants and their products were central to medicine in premodern epistemologies. Over centuries, images and imaginings of vegetal materia medica played a profound role in human conceptions of and interactions with the natural world. In many ways, they continue to do so. Conversely, the therapeutic efficacy of plants and their products impacted broader visual and material cultures and practices. Thus, premodern pharmacological techniques interacted with the practices of image-making, artistic processes, and art.

Notwithstanding this close, underlying relationship between art and pharmacology in surviving medieval texts on healing and pharmacy produced between the 7th- 14th century, visualizations of medical substances have not yet sufficiently been the focus of art historical studies. Images of plants and their pigments and dyes, invite further investigations into their epistemic status as well as their therapeutic, and mimetic capacities. What forms of knowledge do these images, materials, and substances provide? What audiences do they address? How can they be situated, between the practices and interests of scribes/painters, scholars, nuns and monks, physicians, apothecaries, gardeners, rhizotomes, and also readers – while taking into consideration the changing status of these human actors across society, gender, time, and space? What can such images, materials, and substances tell us about the interconnections between human and vegetal worlds? What role do colors, pigments and dyes, scent or the incorporation of prayers and charms play in the creation of images of healing? Moreover, how does medicinal, pharmacological or toxicological, plant-related knowledge circulate across vast (plant) geographies? The conference wants to connect the representations of simplicia such as ginger, plantain, pennyroyal, saffron, artemisia, liquorice, or strawberry from cities, rural communities, courts, and religious congregations in the Indo-Pacific, the so-called Levant, the Black Sea, the Mediterranean, and the Medieval West.

Visualizing Drugs & Dyes seeks a dialogue among scholars engaged in the history of science, literary studies, history of medicine, art history, and the burgeoning field of plant studies and related disciplines. We welcome papers from all geographical regions, within a premodern, medieval timeframe. We are particularly interested in studies focused on before 1200. We invite contributions which might relate, but are not be limited, to the following topics:

• Pharmacological geographies in early medieval worlds
• Circulation of materia medica and economic history
• Drugs & dyes and transmitting knowledge
• Color and medicine
• Taxonomies
• Drugs & dyes in poetry and literature
• Nomenclature and translations
• The aesthetics of plants and of medicinal substances
• Painting/writing and healing
• Mimesis in medical practice
• Interconnections between human and vegetal worlds

Abstracts for 30-minute papers (max 2000 characters including spaces), together with a brief biography (max 1500 characters including spaces) should be submitted to: Theresa Holler (theresa.holler@unibas.ch). Travel expenses (up to 400CHF) and accommodation costs will be covered. The event will by hybrid and we accept online participation, please indicate whether you wish to attend remotely.

Abstracts’ language accepted: English, German, Italian, French, Spanish

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

Call for Contributions: DOSSIER CAIANA #23, De coloribus. Material, Symbolic and Social Crossroads of Medieval and Renaissance Painting, Due 29 May 2023

Call for Contributions

DOSSIER CAIANA #23

De coloribus. Encrucijadas materiales, simbólicas y sociales de la pintura medieval y renacentista.

De coloribus. Material, Symbolic and Social Crossroads of Medieval and Renaissance Painting.

Due 29 May 2023

Jean Bourdichon (enlumineur), Horae ad usum Romanum, dites Grandes Heures d’Anne de Bretagne, Tours 1503-1508, NAF 21192, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, f.37r (detalle). Source BnF / Gallica: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b52500984v/f82.item# (Consultado: 20/11/2022)

Coordinadoras / Coordinators:

Nadia Mariana Consiglieri (Universidad de Buenos Aires – Universidad Nacional de las Artes- CONICET, Argentina)
María Cristina Correia Leandro Pereira (Universidade de São Paulo, Brasil)

Colour, both in its material and light dimensions, played a leading role in Medieval and Renaissance visual culture. Taking part in altarpieces, sculptures, architecture, tapestries, wall paintings and illuminated manuscripts, colour embraced multiple variants. Likewise, the translucent, ethereal but also brilliant and changing tones of enameled pieces and goldsmiths, gems, mosaics and stained glasses acquired an equally vital importance. Far from the imaginaries built during the nineteenth century about a Middle Ages plunged into dark and monochromatic grey buildings, the language of colour and light was a constant factor in the visual cultures of this period.

Since the last decades of the past twentieth century, the investigations of Michel Pastoureau reconsidered colour as an object of historical study plausible itself to be approached as a visual code from its multiple symbolic, social, cultural and religious dimensions. Moreover, Herbert L. Kessler stressed the dynamic and material performance of colours and Jean-Claude Bonne emphasized their diverse roles within ornamentation. In addition, specific investigations began to be carried out on typologies, modes of application and commercial routes of pigments used for the production of illuminated manuscripts, as well as collective studies on the diversity of techniques and the relationships between makers and patrons.

This dossier aims to open a new field of debate on the ways in which colour appears and acts on pictorial surfaces of different images, objects, devices and spaces produced between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries. Within this broad temporal spectrum, it is not intended to focus only on the Medieval and Renaissance West, but also on chromatic objectualities from the East and from groups considered the «otherness» from Western Christianity perspective, in order to rethink the diversity of processes, exchanges, assimilations and overlaps. How did colours circulate in their different versions? ; how were material and symbolic exchange networks woven?; what were the roles of the itinerant and permanent painters, circles and workshops of artisans?; how did the technical and material knowledge of colour spread among them?; how did patrons and receivers interact?; what iconographic and ornamental relationships can engage colours with images?

We invite to submit papers related at least to one of the following topics:

1. Qualities of pictorial matter: diversity of supports, pigments, materials and techniques. Plurality of materials as interaction devices with the pictorial surface: pastiglia reliefs, use of gold leaf, etc.

2. Painting and praxis: recipe books, treatises and model compilation notebooks.

3. Medieval theories on colour, light, materiality and their symbolic dimensions.

4. The roles of artisans and patrons: miniaturists, painters and enamellers’ ways of making. From monastic environments to secular workshops. Regulations, the action of guilds, contracts.

5. Reception and agency of the pictorial matter: changes, interventions, damages, outrages.

6. Iconographic, constructive, syntactic, symbolic, aesthetic and rhythmic roles of ornamentation.

7. The pictorial materiality in objects and Islamic environments: their interactions with the Christian sphere.

8. Details and features in Medieval and Renaissance pictorial works (paintings, illuminated manuscripts) belonging to the Latin American artistic heritage. Collecting, museographical links and historiographical perspectives.

Requirements

Articles must be original and not be simultaneously evaluated by other publications. To be submitted to peer review modality, the articles must be sent to the email: revistacaiana@gmail.com, indicating in the subject: “LAST NAME_Dossier caiana #23”

Deadline for papers submission: May 29, 2023.

Issue publication date: November – December, 2023.

CAIANA is indexed in the catalog of the Latindex information system, the European Reference Index for Humanities (ERIH PLUS) and DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journal).

Papers must comply with the publishing standards of the journal.
For more information, https://caiana.caiana.com.ar/dossier-caiana-23/

Referencias / references:

Bonne, J. C. (1983). Rituel de la couleur: fonctionnement et usage des images dans le Sacramentaire de Saint-Etienne de Limoges. En: Ponnau, D. (Ed.). Image et signification. Paris: La Documentation française, p. 129-139.

Bonne, J. C. (2002). Penser en couleurs: à propos d’une image apocalyptique du Xe siècle. In: Schmitt, J. C; Hülsen-Esch, A. (Eds.). Die Methodik der Bildinterpretation. Göttingen: Wallstein, v. 2, p. 355-379.

Castelnuovo, E. & Sergi, G. (Eds.) (2013). Arte e Historia en la Edad Media. Volumen II. Del construir: técnicas, artistas, artesanos, comitentes. Madrid: Akal.

Kessler, H. (2011). Seeing Medieval Art. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Miranda, M.A. & Miguélez Cavero, A. (Eds.) (2014). Portuguese studies on medieval illuminated manuscripts. Barcelona-Madrid: Fédération Internationale des Instituts d’Études Médiévales.

Pastoureau, M. (2006). Una historia simbólica de la Edad Media Occidental. Buenos Aires: Katz.

Pastoureau, M. (2008). Black. The History of a Color. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press.

Pastoureau, M. (2010). Azul. Historia de un color. Madrid: Paidós.

Pastoureau, M. (2016). Rouge. Histoire d’une couleur. Paris: Éditions du Seuil.

Pastoureau, M. (2017). Vert. Histoire d’une couleur. Paris: Éditions du Seuil.

Call for Papers: XVI Jornadas Complutenses de Arte Medieval, EN FEMENINO: ART AND WOMEN IN THE MIDDLE AGES, Madrid (19-20 October 2023), Abstracts Due 30 April 2023

Call for Papers

XVI Jornadas Complutenses de Arte Medieval

EN FEMENINO: ART AND WOMEN IN THE MIDDLE AGES

Madrid, October 19th- 20th, 2023

Abstracts Due 30 April 2023

During the last decades, references to women's participation in medieval artistic processes have ceased to be the story of an absence. Similarly, studies of medieval female iconography have transcended their mere representation as wives, mothers, lovers, sinners and sin-inducers, or nuns. Throughout the Middle Ages, women projected, enjoyed and created art; there is no doubt about it. An increasing number of works focus on female patronage, sometimes shared with her husband but often practised autonomously and with incalculable value as a self-affirmation mechanism. Other proposals highlight female identities hidden among the list of male practitioners of any of the arts or give names to faces represented in sacred and profane episodes. Through the testimonies of material and visual culture linked to women, social realities different from the power relations established in those times are being outlined more straightforwardly and precisely. Even so, artistic studies still lag behind those focused on other disciplines such as history, philosophy or literature.

In its sixteenth edition, the Conference will be devoted to highlighting the role of Women in medieval artistic creation. This role will be understood in the broadest possible way: from patronage to creation and reception, as a channel for power strategies, a transmitter of science or a generator of specific iconographic types, regardless of their active or passive role in all this creative dynamic. Women and Gender will serve as the priority vectors to articulate the scientific content of Conference sessions.

We invite the academic community to submit abstracts in Spanish, English, Italian and French consisting of a 500 words summary highlighting the innovative nature of the paper together with the chosen session and a brief curriculum vitae (max. 300 words) before the 30th of April 2023 to the following address: enfemenino@ucm.es

Proposed topics:

●  Women and artistic creation: artists, trades, textiles

●  Depictions and portraits, identity

●  Female spaces and architecture

●  Art and female spirituality

●  Patronage and Memory management

●  Costume and textile trade

●  Cross-cutting gender issues: prostitution, transsexuality, marginalisation,

otherness, old-age

●  Science, techné, art and women

Confirmed keynote speakers: Verónica Abenza (UCM), Jessica Barker (The Courtauld Institute of Art), Bárbara Boloix (Universidad de Granada), Irene González (UCM), Jitske Jasperse (CCHS-CSIC), Elizabeth L’Estrange (University of Birmingham), Diana Lucía (UCM), Therese Martin (CCHS- CSIC), Ana Maria Rodrigues (Universidade de Lisboa), and Marta Poza (UCM).

The organising committee shall acknowledge receipt of submissions and select those considered most closely aligned with the meeting objectives, responding before the 25th of May. Following peer review, these will be published in a monograph.

Scientific-organising Committee: Marta Poza, Elena Paulino, Laura Rodríguez, Alexandra Uscatescu, Irene González, Diana Lucía, Diana Olivares, Verónica Abenza, Ángel Fuentes and Alba García-Monteavaro.

For more information, https://www.ucm.es/historiadelarte/en-femenino

A PDF of the Call for Papers can be read in Spanish and English.

Call for Papers: From Ctesiphon to Toledo: A Comparative View on Early Church Councils in East and West, Central European University, Vienna (12-13 October 2023), Abstracts Due 7 April 2023

Call for Papers

From Ctesiphon to Toledo: A Comparative View on Early Church Councils in East and West

October 12-13, 2023

Central European University, Vienna

Abstracts and Short CVS Due April 7, 2023

The 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea in 325 is approaching, and the importance of the first ecumenical council for the doctrinal and institutional development of the Christian Churches is manifest. Unfortunately for historians, Nicaea itself remains badly documented, but in late antiquity church councils became one of the instruments for ruling the church. For some general church councils, such as the Council of Chalcedon in 451, even the minutes survive, and in recent years, many of these conciliar acts have been made available in translation. This has led to increased interests in church councils, and particularly during the last decades, not only theologians but also historians have started contextualizing conciliar texts.

The envisaged conference "From Ctesiphon to Toledo: A Comparative View on Early Church Councils in East and West" intends to make use of these scholarly achievements and invite colleagues to investigate late antique and early medieval councils with a more holistic approach. The Christian Roman Empire provided a different legal and organizational setting for the so-called ecumenical councils of the fourth to sixth centuries than the post-Roman Germanic kingdoms did for regional councils of the Visigothic and Frankish Churches or Sasanian Persia for councils of the Church of the East. The goal of the conference is to establish comparative perspectives on late antique and early medieval church councils in East and West up to the seventh century.

Possible topics are questions of procedures, such as the practical and organisational aspect of convening a council, and the identities of functionaries who took the notes and who composed the final minutes. Considering the very different frameworks in which these church councils operated – from a non-Christian empire (Sasanian Persia) via the Christian Roman empire to post-Roman Ariminian(/Arian) kingdoms – the question on whose authority the councils convened is another possible topic to address. Independent of the question if it was the emperor, the king or the metropolitan bishop, what were the reasons for convening a council? Were there specific patterns for summoning councils and how much did ecclesiastical politics play a role? How much then were political and theological aspects and agendas overlapping at church councils? Did bishops have the freedom to join or to stay away? Which ecclesiastical topics were discussed in regional councils and did the decisions differ in East and West?

Other innovative perspectives and questions are of course welcome. The conference is hosted by the Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies (CEMS) and the Center for Religious Studies (CRS) at Central European University (CEU), Vienna. Thomas Graumann (Cambridge), Uta Heil (Vienna), Sabine Panzram (Hamburg), Richard Price (London), and Sebastian Scholz (Zurich) have already agreed to participate, and we hope we can interest many more contributors to make this conference a success.

Please send an abstract (c. 250-300 words) and short CV by April 7, 2023 to Volker Menze at menzev@ceu.edu. The conference is funded by CEMS, CRS and the Academic Cooperation and Research Support Office (CEU); accommodation will be provided for speakers and there is also (limited) funding available for the reimbursement of travel costs.

For more information, https://cems.ceu.edu/article/2023-01-30/call-papers-ctesiphon-toledo-comparative-view-early-church-councils-east-and-west