CFP: ‘Moving in the Medieval Apse’ (ICM Leeds 2026), deadline 12 September 2025

International Medieval Congress (IMC 2026), University of Leeds, July 6-9, 2026

The medieval apse – adorned with its altar/piece, reliquaries, liturgical objects, or religious scenes – becomes a place of permanent movement(s) by bridging the spiritual to the corporal, the immaterial to the material, and the divine to the mortal. As these movements occur in time, one’s relation with the divine is changed, shaped, or negotiated.

The proposed session focuses on movements of devotional objects, images, and texts in the medieval apse. Suggested topics on movements in the medieval apse, from any geographic area or time period ,(between 300-1500), may include, but are not limited to:

• Altarpieces: change in iconography, composition, materials
• Reliquaries: multiplication of, change in materials, form or function
• Liturgical objects: crosses, books, votive offerings
• Frescoes, paintings, statues: composition, iconography, materials
• Liturgy, feasts, music cultures, ritual in relation to objects

Submissions from a variety of disciplines are accepted including but not limited to: history, art history, visual culture, social history, cultural history, hagiography, religious studies, cultural studies, textual studies in a transdisciplinary perspective.

Please submit a 250- 400 word proposal (in English) for a 15-20 minute paper. Proposals should have an abstract format and be accompanied by a short CV, of no more than 800 words, including e-mail, institution, and profession. The session is planned to be in-presence. Please submit all relevant documents by 12 September 2025, to the e-mail address: andreabianka.znorovszky@udl.cat

Contact information:

Andrea-Bianka Znorovszky, University of Lleida, Lleida, Spain (andreabianka.znorovszky@udl.cat)