Call for Papers for Session: The Beast and the Sovereign: Zoopolitics in the Middle Ages, IMC Leeds 6-9 July 2026, Due by 15 September 2025

Call for Papers for Session

The Beast and the Sovereign: Zoopolitics in the Middle Ages

International Medieval Congress, Leeds, 6-9 July 2026

Due by 15 September 2025

Throughout the Middle Ages, relations of power and notions of political authority were

often framed as or compared to relations between human and nonhuman animals.

Medieval zoopolitics in its various manifestations and aspects emerged from the tension

between the cultural and natural orders, between the human and animal community.

The session will discuss the nonhuman dimensions, practices, and ideas about

authority, rulership, and politics throughout the Middle Ages found both in fact and in

fiction. Potential themes may include, but are not limited to:

• animal metaphors and zoomorphism of rulers and rulership

• rulers’ command over nature as their entitlement to authority over humans

• hybrid and liminal nature of rulership

• taming and domestication of wild rulers

• naturalization of power and legitimacy

• treatment and comparison of one’s subjects to animals and beasts

• dehumanization and animalization of one’s enemies

• animal fables and anthropomorphism of animals as reflections on the nature of power

To propose a paper:

Please submit a paper title and abstract (max 200 words) with your name, email address and academic affiliation to Wojtek Jezierski, Department of Historical Studies, University of Gothenburg, Sweden (wojtek.jezierski@gu.se) by 15 September 2025.

Call for Papers for International Conference: ENTANGLED SEASCAPES: MORE-THAN-HUMAN HISTORIES ACROSS OCEANIC WORLDS (Academia Belgica, Rome, 22-23 Jan. 2026), Due by 15 Sept. 2025

Call for Papers

International Conference

ENTANGLED SEASCAPES: MORE-THAN-HUMAN HISTORIES ACROSS OCEANIC WORLDS

Academia Belgica, Rome, 22-23 January 2026

Due by 15 September 2025

This conference seeks to bring together scholars working on pre-modern and early modern oceanic worlds: from the Indian Ocean, South China Sea, and the Pacific to the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. Framed within the emerging field of blue humanities and building on posthumanist and decolonial perspectives, the conference explores the sea not as a passive space between empires or cultures, but as an active, more-than-human agent, one that shapes and is shaped by human and nonhuman actors. By focusing on more-than-human histories and material entanglements, we aim to challenge dominant land-based narratives of civilisation, encounters, and sovereignties.

Key themes

• Oceanic materialities: boats, corals, shells, and sea-assemblages

• Sea deities, spirits, and cosmologies in art, architecture, and ritual

• Oral and literary traditions: the sea as danger, promise, or divine force

• Archaeologies of marginal maritime communities (fisherfolk, pirates, boatbuilders, islanders, sea-nomads)

• Indigenous, subaltern, and local knowledge systems connected to seafaring and/or oceanic life

• More-than-human entanglements in past seascapes: marine animals, currents, winds, tides, and reefs

Research questions

• How have seascapes shaped and been shaped by human and nonhuman actors in pre-modern and early modern worlds?

• By shifting the focus from terrestrial centres to oceanic edges, what alternative historical narratives emerge, particularly those informed by non-elite perspectives and lived experiences of the sea?

• How can oceanic entanglements prompt a rethinking of material culture, human-environment relations, and historical agency by exploring not only the practical uses of the sea but also the cognitive and affective dimensions of maritime experience in the past?

An optional field visit to a museum relevant to the themes of the conference will be organised on Saturday, 24 January 2026. Further details will be announced in due course.

Abstracts

The conference is intended to be multidisciplinary, and we welcome contributions from historians, archaeologists, anthropologists, human geographers and any scholars interested in seascapes, more-than-human thinking and related theoretical approaches.

Participants will be given a 45-minute slot, with 30 minutes for their paper, followed by 15 minutes for Q&As.

In order to be considered, please submit a proposed paper title along with a short abstract (approximately 350 words) no later than 15 September 2025 to Matthew Cobb m.cobb@uwtsd.ac.uk and Daniela De Simone daniela.desimone@ugent.be. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by 15 October 2025.

To support the organisation of the conference, a fee of €80 will be kindly requested from the accepted participants.

Publication plans

Selected participants will be asked to submit an extended abstract (1,500-2,000 words) by 5 January 2026. This should detail your theoretical framework and include five key references.

The extended abstracts will be circulated among conference participants in advance to facilitate informed discussion. Beyond the conference event itself, our intention is for revised versions of these papers to be submitted for a journal special issue.

Keynote

The keynote lecture will be delivered by Professor Serpil Oppermann, Director of the Environmental Humanities Center at Cappadocia University, and author of Blue Humanities: Storied Waterscapes in the Anthropocene (Cambridge University Press, 2023).

Entangled Seascapes is intended not only as a forum for presenting original research, but also as a collaborative space for scholarly exchange and long-term network-building among researchers working on oceanic and more-than-human histories from across the worlds.

Convenors:

Matthew Cobb, University of Wales Trinity Saint David

Daniela De Simone, Ghent University

Organising Committee:

Academia Belgica

Annalisa Bocchetti, "L'Orientale," University of Naples

Matthew Cobb, University of Wales Trinity Saint David

Daniela De Simone, Ghent University

Call for Papers for Session: Denying and undermining sainthood in the Middle Ages, IMC Leeds 2026, Due by 15 September 2025

Call for Papers for Session

Denying and undermining sainthood in the Middle Ages

International Medieval Congress, Leeds, 6-9 July 2026)

Due by 15 September 2025

Ever since Christianity began recognising sainthood, there has also been a parallel phenomenon of its denial. The uncovering of a false martyr’s tomb by St. Martin, and the Dominican inquisitor’s campaign against the cult of Guinefort, the holy greyhound, are among the most well-known examples of such interventions.

The session will discuss the phenomenon of denying and undermining sainthood in Latin Christianity throughout the Middle Ages, its various manifestations and aspects. Potential themes may include, but are not limited to:

- undermining sainthood and refusal to recognise a cult by official church authorities

- questioning sainthood as part of the canonisation process

- refusal to worship approved saints and lack of worship of figures eligible for sainthood

- undermining and diminishing the sanctity of holy patrons by competing ecclesiastical institutions, social groups, political communities, etc.

- questioning sainthood as an element of religious conflicts and a part of heterodox groups’ doctrine and teaching

- questioning the authenticity of relics and sceptical discourse towards the cult of relics

- destroying images of saints and artistic expressions of denying sainthood

To propose a paper

Please submit a paper title and abstract (max 200 words) with your name, email address and academic affiliation to Grzegorz Pac (gl.pac@uw.edu.pl) by 15 September 2025

The session is organised as part of the project RECOGNISING SAINTS in the High Middle Ages: Local and Papal Formalisation of Cults Reconsidered, funded by the National Science Centre, Poland, and hosted by the Faculty of History, University of Warsaw.

Call for Papers for Panel Series: The Materiality of the Late Medieval Book: Production, Reading, and Transition, IMC Leeds 2026, Due by 14 September 2025

Call for Papers for Panel Series

The Materiality of the Late Medieval Book: Production, Reading, and Transition

International Medieval Congress, Leeds, 6-9 July 2026

Due By 14 September 2025

We invite proposals for papers for a series of panels at the International Medieval Congress (IMC), to be held in Leeds, 6–9 July 2026. This session series will explore the materiality of the late medieval book between c. 1350 and 1540, with a particular emphasis on approaches that take the physical object as the foundation of scholarly inquiry. This strand aims to foreground the book as a material artefact – not simply as a vehicle for text or image, but as a made, handled, and interpreted object. We seek contributions that begin with codicological, palaeographical, artifactual, or structural features of books – bindings, layouts, quire structures, scripts, substrates, wear patterns, or added matter – and use these material traces to investigate broader questions of cultural practice, intellectual history, devotional life, or reading habits.

Papers may address, but are not limited to:

• Material production: physical construction of books, use of specific materials (parchment, paper, pigments), regional or institutional practices

• Reading and handling: how physical features shaped reading practices and reader interaction; evidence of use such as marginalia, damage, repairs, signs of wear, and ownership traces; and the repurposing, circulation, or afterlives of books

• Transitions and continuities: how the rise of print engages with manuscript materiality – including hybrid books, printed texts with manuscript additions, and conservative or experimental formats that blur traditional boundaries

• Methodologies: new approaches to studying the physical book as evidence and object

We particularly welcome work grounded in close analysis of specific manuscripts, printed books, or fragments.

Please send an abstract of no more than 250 words, along with your name, institutional affiliation, and a brief biographical note (max. 100 words), to Janne van der Loop, (jannevanderloop@uni-mainz.de) by 14 September 2025.

Selected papers will form part of a multi-session strand proposal for IMC 2026. Applicants will be notified of the outcome around 20 September 2025. For questions or further information, please contact Janne van der Loop (jannevanderloop@uni-mainz.de) or Ad Putter (A.D.Putter@bristol.ac.uk)

We look forward to papers that place the material form of the late medieval book at the centre of scholarly interpretation.

Sponsored by REBPAF and Mainzer Buch Wissenshaft

Call for Papers for Session: The Middle Ages in the Modern Classroom, IMC Leeds 2026, Due by 14 Sept. 2025 Midnight BST

Call for Papers for Session

The Middle Ages in the Modern Classroom

International Medieval Congress, Leeds, 6-9 July 2026

Due by 14 September 2025, 12:00AM BST

(13 September 2025, 7:00PM ET)

Despite the modern era’s fascination with the Middle Ages, teaching the medieval past to modern students remains a challenge. How do we, as teachers, academics, and educators share the love and enthusiasm we have for the period with our students?

This session invites proposals that explore how medieval material is taught in the contemporary classroom, at all levels of education.

• Pedagogical Approaches – innovative methods for engaging students with medieval content

• Digital Tools – use of digital tools, technologies and platforms in the classroom

• Making the Medieval Relevant – dispelling the ‘Dark Ages’ and other misconceptions

• Modes of Assessment – finding new ways to evaluate learning

• Teaching Medievalism – use, abuse, and appropriation of the Middle Ages in modern politics and culture

• Accessibility and Inclusion – creating inclusive learning spaces and teaching the Middle Ages with sensitivity to contemporary race, gender, disability and identity politics

• Decolonising and Diversifying the Curriculum – strategies for incorporating the Middle Ages into diverse curricula, as well as challenging Eurocentric perspectives

• And anything else relating to teaching the Middle Ages!

Please submit abstracts of up to 200 words by midnight 14 September (BST) to m.k.d.cobb@leeds.ac.uk and r.gillibrand@leeds.ac.uk. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or queries

Call for Papers for Panels: New Research on the Art and Architecture of Medieval Parish Churches (1: in person) and (2: virtual), ICMS Kalamazoo 2026, Due 15 Sept. 2025

Call for Papers for Panels

New Research on the Art and Architecture of Medieval Parish Churches (1: in person) and (2: virtual)

International Congress on Medieval Studies

Kalamazoo, MI
May 14-16, 2026

Due 15 September 2025

Scholars are invited to propose presentations on any aspect of the art and architecture of the medieval parish church. Possible research questions include, but are not limited to: How did the architecture, art, or visual culture of the parish define the medieval worship experience? How did individual churches change over time—and what can these changes reveal about each parish community? How can in-depth study of a local parish church expand or contradict broader national narratives? What new methodologies can twenty-first century scholars use to tell the story of the medieval parish?

To submit a proposal for the in-person session: https://icms.confex.com/icms/2026/prelim.cgi/Session/7517.

To submit a proposal for the virtual session: https://icms.confex.com/icms/2026/prelim.cgi/Session/7653.

Proposals should consist of a title, an abstract (300 words or less), and a short description (50 words or less) which may be made public if the proposal is accepted. Please also include the author's name, affiliation and contact information.

For general information on the International Congress on Medieval Studies CFP process, see https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/call.

For questions related to this panel, contact the session presider, Catherine E. Hundley: chundley[at]wesleyseminary.edu.

Proposals are due September 15, 2025.

Opening Reception: Medieval Art from the Wyvern Collection: Global Networks and Creative Connections, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, 4 Sept. 2025, 4-6PM

Opening Reception

Medieval Art from the Wyvern Collection: Global Networks and Creative Connections

Bowdoin College Museum of Art

245 Maine Street, Brunswick, ME 04011, United States, Bowdoin College Museum of Art

Thursday, September 4, 2025 4:00-6:00pm EDT

Join us for a reception to celebrate the exhibition opening of Medieval Art from the Wyvern Collection: Global Networks and Creative Connections. This exhibition brings together works of premodern art from the Wyvern Collection (London, United Kingdom) with the collections of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art to explore the deep ties that linked Asia, the Near East, North Africa, and Europe from the fifth through the fifteenth centuries. 

For this event, please enjoy the opportunity to enter the museum through its historic entrance on the Main Quad. The museum’s contemporary glass-pavilion entrance, with an elevator, will also be available.

Free and open to the public; no registration required. Presented by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art.

Bowdoin College is committed to providing an accessible and welcoming environment. Please contact the Events Office (events@bowdoin.edu or 207-725-3433) with any questions regarding the accessibility of this event and/or to request accommodations. Please note: some accommodations require advance notice and may require documentation of a disabling condition. 

For more information, visit https://calendar.bowdoin.edu/event/opening-reception-medieval-art-from-the-wyvern-collection-global-networks-and-creative-connections

To register, visit https://bowdoin.campusgroups.com/BCMA/rsvp?id=1952571

Call for Participants for Workshop: Studying East of Byzantium XII: Spaces (24 Oct., 2025, 13 Feb., 2026, & 3-5 June 2026), On Zoom, Due 21 Sept. 2025

Call for Participants for Workshop

Studying East of Byzantium XII: Spaces

24 October 2025, 13 February 2026, and 4–5 June 2026

On Zoom

Due 21 September 2025

The Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies at Harvard University and the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture at Hellenic College Holy Cross in Brookline, MA, are pleased to invite abstracts for the next Studying East of Byzantium workshop: Studying East of Byzantium XII: Spaces.

Studying East of Byzantium XII: Spaces is a three-part workshop that intends to bring together doctoral students and very recent PhDs studying the Christian East to reflect on the usefulness of the concept of Spaces” in studying the Christian East, to share methodologies, and to discuss their research with workshop respondents, Darlene Brooks Hedstrom, Brandeis University, and Timothy Greenwood, University of St. Andrews. The workshop will meet on 24 October 2025, 13 February 2026, and 4–5 June 2026 on Zoom. The timing of the workshop meetings will be determined when the participant list is finalized.

We invite all graduate students and recent PhDs working in the Christian East whose work considers, or hopes to consider, the theme of spaces in their own research to apply.

Participation is limited to 10 students. The full workshop description is available on the East of Byzantium website (https://eastofbyzantium.org/upcoming-events/studying-east-of-byzantium-xii-spaces/). Those interested in attending should submit a C.V. and 200-word abstract through the East of Byzantium website no later than 21 September 2025.

For questions, please contact East of Byzantium organizers, Christina Maranci, Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies, Harvard University, and Brandie Ratliff, Director, Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture, at contact@eastofbyzantium.org.

EAST OF BYZANTIUM is a partnership between the Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies at Harvard University and the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture at Hellenic College Holy Cross in Brookline, MA. It explores the cultures of the eastern frontier of the Byzantine Empire in the late antique and medieval periods.

ICMA Pop-Up: Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry, Wednesday 27 August 2025 at 14:00

ICMA Pop-Up
Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry
Wednesday 27 August 2025, 14:00
Château de Chantilly
In-person

REGISTER HERE

ICMA members are invited to visit the exhibition Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry with other ICMA members. Exhibition curator Matthieu Deldicque, will give a 10 minute introduction. Afterwards, members are invited to a nearby café for an apéro.

Attendees are responsible for the their own ticket to the exhibition and for transportation to the Jeu de Paume at Château de Chantilly.

______

Les 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, distinguished artists affiliated with the courts of Burgundy and Berry, whose work profoundly transformed the course of art history. Consisting of 121 miniatures, Les Très Riches Heures capture the imagination with their depictions of historic castles, noble 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.

For more information about the exhibition, click HERE.

Call for Papers for ICMA-Sponsored Panel: 'The Archival Art Historian', College Art Association Conference, Chicago (18-21 Feb. 2026), Due by 29 Aug. 2025

Call for Papers

ICMA-Sponsored Panel

The Archival Art Historian

College Art Association Conference, Chicago (18-21 February 2026)

Due by 29 August 2025

Art historians of the medieval past are often required to conduct research within varied archives that were not designed for art historical research: libraries, historical museums, private collections, cathedral crypts, parish churches or graveyards. Databases such as the Digital Index for Medieval Art, the Warburg Institute’s Iconographic Database and the ICMA Image Database are gradually revolutionising the study of medieval art. However, art historians of the medieval past must still frequently contend with generations of afterlives, layers of bureaucracy and confounding archival systems which rarely prioritise the visual. Working within these spaces presents both challenges and exciting opportunities for original interventions. This panel invites papers that reflect on the experience of conducting art historical research in archives that were not designed with art historians in mind.

This session aims to foster a productive discussion about the intricacies of art historical research and the position of archives therein. The 90-minute session will consist of five 10-minute presentations, followed by a round table discussion and Q&A. We therefore invite 10-minute presentations that reflect on: a single archival encounter, object, institution or methodological problem.

Papers should raise issues which may form the basis of a generative broader conversation between panellists and with the audience. Possible topics may include: discussion of working with unillustrated catalogues, the challenges of studying material that is still ‘active’ in a working context or the complexities which surround the creation of digital archives. We welcome papers which consider medieval archives and objects from across periods and geographies and we define ‘archive’ in the broadest possible terms, to include both digital and physical collections.

Submission guidelines
Please submit a 250-word abstract by Friday 29 August 2025, via CAA’s dedicated submission portal on the conference website.

To submit an abstract and for more information, visit https://caa.confex.com/caa/2026/webprogrampreliminary/Session16076.html

This panel is sponsored by the International Center of Medieval Art (ICMA). If your paper is accepted and you are not already a member of the ICMA, you will be required to join by February 2026. Some funding to assist with the cost of attending the conference may be available to speakers through the ICMA Kress Travel Grant Fund.
Contributing panellists will have the opportunity to submit their paper for publication in a special issue of the open-access journal Different Visions, titled ‘Points of Friction’, and co-edited by Dr Millie Horton-Insch (hortonim@tcd.ie) and Dr Lauren Rozenberg (l.rozenberg@uea.ac.uk).

International Online Conference: Islamic Medieval Wall Paintings: towards an Interdisciplinary Approach, 4-5 September 2025

International Online Conference

Islamic Medieval Wall Paintings: towards an Interdisciplinary Approach

September 4-5, 2025 

Conference Programme Times are provided in Central European Summer Time (UTC/GMT +2 hours)

Conference language: English

Conference Organizers: Dr. Ana Marija Grbanovic (Centre for Heritage Conservation Studies and Technologies (KDWT), University of Bamberg) and Dr. Agnieszka Lic (Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures, Polish Academy of Sciences)

This conference is related to the Iranian Medieval Wall Paintings project funded by the German Research Foundation - the DFG, at University of Bamberg’s Centre for Heritage Conservation Studies and Technologies – the KDWT (Applicant: Dr. Ana Marija Grbanovic).

For more information and to register, visit https://www.uni-bamberg.de/forensische-organik/imwp-tagung/

Conference Program

Day 1 – September 4, 2025

09.00-9.30: Opening of the Conference

• Welcome and Greetings, Housekeeping Information

9.30-10.30: Keynote

• Prof. Dr. Markus Ritter, ‘Space Painting in Medieval Islamic Art and Abbasid Raqqa’

10.30-11.00: Break

11.00-12.30: Podium Discussion 1: Research and Conservation of wall paintings for a sustainable future

• Moderator: Franziska Prell, M.A. and Leander Pallas, M. A.

• Dr. Habil. Dobrochna Zielińska, ‘Technology of medieval Nubian wall paintings. An insight into a culture through the materiality of an image’

• Franziska Kabelitz, M. A., ‘Aspects of Sustainability in Exhibition Management (tbc)’ 

• Dr. Melina Perdikopoulou, ‘Layers of Memory: Preserving Ottoman Wall Paintings in Greece’

• Speaker tbc, ‘Title tbc’

12.30-13.00: Break

13.00-15.00: Panel 1: Setting the Ground: Conservation, Preservation and Production Technologies of Wall Paintings

• Chair: Dr. Ana Marija Grbanovic

• Prof. Dr.-Ing. May al-Ibrashy and Amina Karam, M.A., ‘The painted wood interior of al-Imam al-Shafi’i Dome in Historic Cairo: Discoveries and Observations from the Conservation Project’ 

• Dr. Yury Karev, ‘Self-image of the ruler: Qarakhanids and their contemporary Turcic dynastic rivals (Wall paintings of Samarkand/Afrasiab)’ 

• Dr. Melina Perdikopoulou, ‘The Wall Paintings of Alaca Imaret in Thessaloniki: A Comparative Approach to 15th-Century Ottoman Painting’

• Dr. Giovanna De Palma, ‘The conservation of Qusayr ‘Amra wall paintings: methodologies and discoveries’ 

15.00-15.30: Break

15.30 – 17.00: Panel 2: Cutting Edge Research of Wall Paintings in the Islamic West

• Chair: Dr. Peter Tamas Nagy

• Assoc. Prof. Dr. Victor Garcia Rabasco, ‘Abbadid Seville and the development of the Caliphate’s artistic language’ 

• Assoc. Prof. Dr. Umberto Bongianino, ‘Wall painting in the Islamic West and the aesthetic of naqsh’

• Walid Akef, M.A., ‘Islamic Mural Paintings: Propaganda and Power in the Age of Chivalry and Crusades’ 

17.00-17.30: Break

17.30-18.30: Special Session: Innovative Approaches to Research of Wall Paintings in Christian Nubia

• Chair: Dr. Agnieszka Lic

• Prof. Dr. Karel Christian Innemée, ‘Costumes of Authority, Images of Authority. Christian wall paintings of Medieval Nubia’

• Dr. Agnieszka Jacobson-Cielecka, ‘From mural to costume: The reconstruction process of medieval robes’

Day 2 – September 5, 2025

9.00-11.00: Panel 3: Archaeology of Islamic Wall Paintings in the Middle East

• Chair: Dr. Agnieszka Lic

• Dr. Thomas Leisten, ‘An Umayyad Painters’ Studio at Work: Design and Execution of Frescos at Balis, Syria’ 

• Dr. Julie Bonnéric and Solène Mathieu, ‘The Wall Paintings of the House of Hearts: Interpreting Archaeological Fragments from a Byzantine and Umayyad Urban Residence in Jerash, Northern Jordan’ 

• Dr. Ignacio Arce, ‘Umayyad Mural Paintings: from architectural decoration to narratives of power: some case studies from Qasr Hallabat/ Hammam as Sarrah, Qusayr Amra and Khirbat al Mafjar’

• Ass. Prof. Dr. Tawfiq Da’adli, ‘Khirbat al-Mafjar frescoes reconstruction – which pieces found their way in and why others were left out?’

11.00-11.30: Break

11.30-13.00: Podium Discussion 2: DEIA and gender-sensitive research of wall paintings: perspectives for societal cohesion

• Moderator: Dr. Mareike Spychala

• Cornelia Thielmann, M. A., ‘Gender-sensitive studies for architectural cultural heritage preservation’ 

• Dr. Ana Marija Grbanovic, ‘Intersectionality analysis for preservation of endangered monuments with wall paintings in Ottoman Baroque South-eastern Europe’ 

• Prof. Dr. Konstantinos Giakoumis, ‘Visual Artworks and Blind or Visually Impaired Persons: New Concepts for Independent Accessibility of Orthodox Icons’ 

• Dr. Jeanine Linz, ‘Gender sensitive research and gender dimension in proposals’ 

13.00-14.00: Break

14.00-16.00: Panel 4: Research and Preservation of Persianate Islamic Medieval Wall Paintings

• Chair: tbc

• Dr. Hamed Sayyadshahri, Ass. Prof. Dr. Mohammad Mortazavi and Dr. Mozhgan Mousazadeh, ‘A review on the Conservation of Historical Wall Paintings in Khurasan, Iran: An Ethical Discussion’ 

• Ass. Prof. Dr. Amir Hossein Karimy and Ass. Prof. Dr. Parviz Holakooei, ‘Gilding and glittering in wall decorations from the 12th to the 17th century Iran’

• Dr. Ana Marija Grbanovic, ‘Medieval wall paintings in Iran: a trans-regional phenomenon?’ 

• Mohammad Mahdi Amini Qomi and Mohammad Mahdi Mohammadi Iraqi, ‘Art historical research of damaged wall paintings at the Gunbad-i Azadan mosque near Isfahan’

16.00-16.30: Break

16.30-18.00: Podium Discussion 3: Role of digitization in research of wall paintings: challenges and perspectives

• Moderator: Dr. John Hindmarch

• Dr. Ines Konczak-Nagel, ‘Buddhist Murals of Kucha on the Northern Silk Road’

• Dr. Erik Radisch, ‘Buddhist Murals of Kucha on the Northern Silk Road’ 

• Dr. Ivana Lemcool, ‘Digitizing Fresco Paintings in the Balkan Area- Issues and Perspectives in Digital Preservation of Monumental Heritage in Multi-faith Environments’

18.00-18.30: Break

18.30-20.00: Special Session: AI, ML new technologies and ethical aspects for research of wall paintings

• Moderator: Dr. Julian Hauser

• Prof. Dr. Markus Rickert, ‘AI application in different domains: from production to agriculture to … cultural heritage?’

• Dr. Tomasz Michalik, ‘Eye-tracking as a tool to support informed presentations of wall paintings’ 

20.00-21.00: Conference Closing Discussion

Call for Papers for Sponsored Session: Music and the Visual Arts, ICMS Kalamazoo 2026, Due 15 Sept. 2025

Call for Papers for Sponsored Session

Music and the Visual Arts

Sponsored by Musicology at Kalamazoo

International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI May 14-16, 2026

Due 15 September 2025

This session focuses on the connections between medieval music and the visual arts. Scholars may adopt a wide range of approaches and methodologies drawn from musicology, art history, and elsewhere. We welcome papers that either consider specific and direct relationships (e.g., art that depicts musicians or instruments; marginalia in music books; music that describes handicrafts) or papers that investigate more abstract connections between sound and sight (e.g., philosophical/epistemological approaches). This session offers a space for cross-disciplinary discussion among art historians, musicologists, and others with the aim of enriching our understanding of the medieval period.

Abstracts are due on September 15, 2025, and may be submitted at this website.

Upcoming Exhibition: Gothicisms, Musée du Louvre Lens, France, September 24, 2025–January 26, 2026

New Exhibition

Gothicisms

Musée du Louvre Lens, Lens, France

September 24, 2025–January 26, 2026

From the birth of the cathedrals to the Goth counterculture and fantasy, Gothic art truly has traversed the centuries. In ground-breaking fashion, the Louvre-Lens is presenting its first ever panorama of Gothic art from the 12th to the 21st century, from its emergence through to the neo-Gothic style and right up to the “Goths” of today. 

Gothic art is closely associated with the age of the cathedral builders. As the first pan-European movement, it inspired exceptional artistic forms endowed with unparalleled expressive force. Sculptures, art objects, graphic arts, painting, photography, installations and furniture are gathered here in a journey through some 200 works of art. Together they reveal the recurrences and continuity of these Gothic languages, which blossomed during medieval times, came to life again in the 18th and 19th centuries, and still inspire us now. But where does the word Gothic come from? Why is this colourful art today associated with a dark aesthetic of black, night and the fantastic? How can this endlessly recurring attraction be explained? This chronological journey is interspersed with forays into specific topics, touching on the Gothic script, music, film and literature. It is an immersion into history and into society’s collective imagination to understand the origins and singularity of the Gothic movement: unique, multifaceted and very much alive today.  

Exhibition curators:
General curator: Annabelle Ténèze, director of the Louvre-Lens
Scientific curator: Florian Meunier, chief heritage curator at the Department of Art Objects, Musée du Louvre
Scientific advisor: Dominique de Font-Réaulx, general heritage curator, specialising in the 19th century, special advisor to the President-Director of the Musée du Louvre
Associate curator: Hélène Bouillon, general heritage curator
Assisted by Caroline Tureck, head of publications and documentation at the Louvre-Lens
Scenography: Mathis Boucher, scenographer, Louvre-Lens

This project was made possible thanks to the support of the Musée de Cluny – Musée national du Moyen Âge, Cité de l’architecture et du Patrimoine, Bibliothèque nationale de France and the Musée des Arts décoratifs de Strasbourg.

For more information, visit https://www.louvrelens.fr/en/exhibition/gothicisms-2/

New Exhibition: Paws on Parchment, The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, August 06, 2025–February 22, 2026

New Exhibition

Paws on Parchment

Centre Street Building, Level 3, Medieval Gallery

The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD

August 06, 2025–February 22, 2026

Flanders, Prayer Book, late 15th-century. Acquired by Henry Walters.

Cat lovers unite! The Walters is celebrating our feline friends with this paws-itively adorable exhibition. Paws on Parchment explores how medieval people thought about, engaged with, and admired cats through the animals’ presence in manuscripts from the period. Centuries before cat memes took over the internet, the antics of fanciful felines were already popular in the margins of medieval manuscripts. These furry animals delighted readers back then just as they amuse us today.

Cats played an important role in the medieval era. Like today, cats were considered beloved pets whose behavior amused and exasperated their owners. However, felines also served an important function as hunters that protected valuable books and textiles, food stores, and even people from disease-carrying rodents and other vermin. Cats also carried deep symbolic and moral meaning in this period.

In Paws on Parchment, visitors will enjoy medieval depictions of cats preserved in the pages of manuscripts from across the world, including a 15th-century “keyboard cat.” Most notably, visitors can see real pawprints left by a cat walking across the pages of a Flemish manuscript as the ink dried in the 1470s. A handful of these “pawprint” manuscripts are known around the world, and this is the first time the Walters’ example will ever be shown.

Curator: Lynley Anne Herbert, Robert and Nancy Hall Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts

For more information, visit https://thewalters.org/exhibitions/paws/

Upcoming Exhibition: Sing a New Song: The Psalms in Medieval Art and Life, The Morgan Library & Museum, New York City, 12 Sept. 2025 - 4 Jan. 2026

Upcoming Exhibition

Sing a New Song: The Psalms in Medieval Art and Life

The Morgan Library & Museum, New York City, NY

September 12, 2025 through January 4, 2026

Chanting Clerics, from the Windmill Psalter, England, London, late thirteenth century. The Morgan Library & Museum, MS M.102, fol. 100r (det). 

Traditionally ascribed to King David, the Hebrew Book of Psalms is a collection of sacred poems that constitute the longest and most popular book of the Bible. These poems include expressions of lament and loss, petitions and confessions, as well as exclamations of joy and thanksgiving— universal themes that speak to what it means to be human.

Sing a New Song traces the impact of the Psalms on men and women in medieval Europe from the sixth to the sixteenth century. It encompasses daily practices and performance, as well as the creation of Psalters (Books of Psalms), among the most richly ornamented manuscripts ever made. Stressing the integration of the Psalms in medieval life, topics range from children saying their prayers to people preparing to die.

The beginning of the exhibition is devoted to the Psalms’ origins, with special emphasis on David as composer. The following two sections show how Psalms permeated the intellectual culture of medieval Europe through translations into Latin and the vernacular. Children used Psalters to learn to read, patrons commissioned versions in their native languages, and theologians, glossing the Psalms, authored the most influential interpretive writings of the Middle Ages. The next section is dedicated to the medieval Psalter. More than any other text, Psalms informed the language of the liturgy, and the Psalter served effectively as the prayer book of the Church. Priests, monks, and nuns were required to pray all 150 Psalms weekly. Lay people across Europe, imitating these practices, fueled a demand for Psalters —often gloriously illuminated. Another section examines performance of the Psalms within the monastery, the church, and the private home. The final section examines the apotropaic function of Psalm texts, the use of Psalms as penitential atonement, and how Psalms comforted the dying.

For more information, visit https://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/sing-a-new-song

Upcoming Exhibition: Going Places: Travel in the Middle Ages, Getty Center, Los Angeles, 2 Sept. - 30 Nov. 2025

Upcoming Exhibition

Going Places: Travel in the Middle Ages

Museum North Pavillion, Plaza Level, Getty Center, Los Angeles, California

2 September 2025 - 30 November 2025

Barlaam, Carrying a Shoulder Pack, Crosses a River (detail) from Barlaam and Josephat, 1469, follower of Hans Schilling. Ink, colored washes, and tempera colors. Getty Museum, Ms. Ludwig XV 9 (83.MR.179), fol. 38v

Free exhibition.

In medieval art, the act of movement from one place to another was conceptualized in a variety of imaginative forms. Featuring manuscripts from the Getty’s collection, this exhibition explores the reasons for travel, different modes of medieval travel, and examples of typical travelers. Illustrations often accurately documented the realities of travel and prompted viewers to travel virtually through their imaginations. The exhibition showcases the wide variety of contexts for medieval movement, from religious travel to diplomacy, trade, exploration, and exploitation.

This exhibition is presented in English and Spanish. Esta exhibición se presenta en inglés y en español.

For more information, visit https://www.getty.edu/exhibitions/going-places/

Lecture: Virtue and Adornment in Byzantium: Beautiful Bodies in the Christian East, Alicia Walker, At The Cleveland Museum of Art, 28 Sept. 2025, 2-3 PM

The Dr. John and Helen Collis Lecture

Virtue and Adornment in Byzantium: Beautiful Bodies in the Christian East

Alicia Walker

Professor of History of Art and Director of the Graduate Group in Classics, Archaeology, and History of Art at Bryn Mawr College

Gartner Auditorium, Suzanne and Paul Westlake Performing Arts Center, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio

Sunday, September 28, 2025, 2:00–3:00 p.m

Nereid (Sea-Nymph) from a Hanging (detail), late 300s–400s CE. Byzantine Empire (Egypt).

Free; Ticket Required - To book, click here.

Join Alicia Walker as she explores attitudes toward women and adornment in the Byzantine world. Walker discusses how jewelry and clothing decorated with Christian signs offered women ways to ornament the body while still conforming to religious values that censured personal embellishment and promoted modest piety. At the same time, Byzantine society remained connected to pre-Christian cultural traditions, allowing for Greco-Roman goddesses and other female mythological characters to persist as models for the cultivation of physical beauty and allure. Walker shows how Byzantine women navigated these diverse possibilities, displaying moral virtue and social refinement—but also captivating charm—through their dress and adornment.

For more information, visit https://www.clevelandart.org/events/virtue-and-adornment-byzantium-beautiful-bodies-christian-east

Conference: Boccaccio 650: 1375-2025, Newberry Library, Chicago, 18-20 Sept. 2025

Conference

Center for Renaissance Studies

Boccaccio 650: 1375-2025

Organized by the American Boccaccio Association

Newberry Library, Chicago, IL September 18–20, 2025

Portrait of Boccaccio from Il Decamerone di messer Giovanni Boccaccio, Venice: 1547 (Wing ZP 535 .G4)

Join us for the sixth triennial conference of the American Boccaccio Association.

The year 2025 marks the 650th anniversary of the death of Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375), author of the Decameron and foundational author of the European narrative prose tradition. To commemorate this milestone, the American Boccaccio Association (est. 1974) and the Newberry Library, in collaboration with the Istituto Italiano di Cultura of Chicago will celebrate the Certaldese author with a series of scholarly events.

For more information, visit https://www.newberry.org/calendar/boccaccio-650-1375-2025

Conference: Körper und Herrschaft, in Gotha, Germany, 11-13 Sept. 2025

Conference

Körper und Herrschaft

Referentialität, Räume und Transformationen von Körperlichkeit in politischen Settings im Übergang von Spätmittelalter und Früher Neuzeit

Forschungszentrum Gotha, Germany

11-13 September 2025

Abb.: What makes the King? William Makepeace Thackeray, The Paris Sketchbook, aus dem Exemplar der Forschungsbibliothek Gotha, um 1880.

A conference on "Körper und Herrschaft" (Body and Domination) is being held by the Gotha Research Centre at the University of Erfurt under the direction of Dr Benjamin Steiner and Dr Anja Rathmann-Lutz (Tübingen) from 11 to 13 September 2025 at the "Landschaftshaus" in Gotha.

Body history is more relevant than ever: Recent debates about the health of candidates in US presidential elections, for example, impressively demonstrate the extent to which physical appearance, vitality and health still influence political settings today. This is by no means a purely modern phenomenon. Even in pre-modern societies, the physical constitution of rulers played a central role in legitimising political power.

Despite its historical relevance, corporeality as a condition of political rule remained underexposed for a long time – even in research. Particularly in medieval and early modern monarchies, however, specific expectations were placed on the physical conditions of rulers in order to stabilise political orders or ensure dynastic continuity.

The conference in Gotha is now dedicated to the question of how bodies can be methodically and historically analysed in political contexts. How visible or invisible is the "mere" body behind the façade of staging, ritual and symbolism? What repercussions do political spaces, institutions and techniques of rule have on the bodies of those in power – and vice versa? And can specific transformations in the relationship between body and rule be recognised in the transition from the late Middle Ages to the early modern period?

Speakers have been invited who deal with corporeality in the context of rule from different perspectives - be it in the context of dynastic systems, medical-historical questions, individual biographies of rulers or with regard to comparative approaches that transcend epochs or regions.

The event is sponsored by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation.

Contact: PD Dr. Benjamin Steiner Inhaber der Vertretungsprofessur für Wissenskulturen der Europäischen Neuzeit (Faculty of Philosophy)

For more information, visit https://www.uni-erfurt.de/en/forschungszentrum-gotha/ueber-uns/news/news/newsdetail/koerper-und-herrschaft

Conference: Zwischen Himmel und Erde: Musik im Kloster (St. Gallen, Switzerland, 10-13 Sept. 2025), Register by 31 Aug. 2025

Conference

Zwischen Himmel und Erde: Musik im Kloster

Stiftsbibliothek St. Gallen, St. Gallen, Switzerland

September 10–13, 2025

Register by August 31, 2025

Stiftsbibliothek St. Gallen, Cod. Sang. 542, S. 403 (e-codices)

Die Themen Musik und Kloster sind in der Kulturgeschichte untrennbar miteinander verbunden. Der sakralen Musik kommt viele Jahrhunderte lang eine weitaus größere Bedeutung gegenüber der profanen Musik zu, sie ist gleichbedeutend mit einer direkten Aussprache mit Gott.

Die vierte Veranstaltung der Fachtage Klosterkultur thematisiert die Funktion und Bedeutung von Musik im Kloster. Sowohl die Musikpraxis als auch das musikalische Schaffen durch Ordensleute nimmt die Tagung in den Blick, ebenso Fragen zur Erforschung und zu Austauschbeziehungen klösterlicher Musik.

Die Zahl der Teilnehmenden ist begrenzt. Es wird eine Tagungsgebühr von CHF 140,00 erhoben, darin enthalten ist die Tagungsverpflegung (gemäss Programm). Für die Teilnahme an der Exkursion werden zusätzlich CHF 50,00 erhoben.

Anmeldung jetzt möglich über das Anmeldeformular im Internet!

Organisiert wird die Tagung von der Stiftsbibliothek St. Gallen (CH) in Zusammenarbeit mit der Stiftung Kloster Dalheim. LWL-Landesmuseum für Klosterkultur (D) und dem Benediktinerstift Melk (A). Sie findet in St. Gallen statt.

Tagungsprogramm Und Website: https://www.fachtage-klosterkultur.org/de/.