Author Archives: Roisin Astell

CFP: Communicating Objects: Material, Literary & Iconographic Instances of Objects in a Human Universe in Antiquity & the Middle Ages, Online Conference (27–29 November 2020), deadline 14 September 2020

Communicating Objects: Material, Literary and Iconographic Instances of Objects in a Human Universe in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, University of Bucharest [Online], 27–29 November 2020 Material culture occupies a special place in most research conducted on Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Interdisciplinary approaches have allowed for the enrichment of traditional paradigms used by archaeologistsContinue reading “CFP: Communicating Objects: Material, Literary & Iconographic Instances of Objects in a Human Universe in Antiquity & the Middle Ages, Online Conference (27–29 November 2020), deadline 14 September 2020”

CFP: ‘Seeing Climate through Medieval Art & Architecture’, IMC Leeds (5–8 July 2021), deadline 25 September 2020

Call for Papers for ‘ICMA Student Committee’ Session Proposal In keeping with this year’s theme at the Medieval Congress, this session aims to explore medieval objects and buildings created with an awareness of climate. Climate is intimately intertwined with nature and environments, with as much of a profound impact on medieval lives as on oursContinue reading “CFP: ‘Seeing Climate through Medieval Art & Architecture’, IMC Leeds (5–8 July 2021), deadline 25 September 2020”

New Publication: The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Archaeology, edited by Bethany Walker, Timothy Insoll, & Corisande Fenwick

Born from the fields of Islamic art and architectural history, the archaeological study of the Islamic societies is a relatively young discipline. With its roots in the colonial periods of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, its rapid development since the 1980s warrants a reevaluation of where the field stands today. This Handbook representsContinue reading “New Publication: The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Archaeology, edited by Bethany Walker, Timothy Insoll, & Corisande Fenwick”

New Publication: A Globalised Visual Culture?: Towards a Geography of Late Antique Art, edited by Fabio Guidetti & Katharina Meinecke

Late Antique artefacts, and the images they carry, attest to a highly connected visual culture from ca. 300 to 800 C.E. On the one hand, the same decorative motifs and iconographies are found across various genres of visual and material culture, irrespective of social and economic differences among their users – for instance in mosaics, architectural decoration, and luxury arts (silver plate, textiles, ivories), as well as in everyday objects such as tableware, lamps, and pilgrim vessels.

New Publication: Dissimilar Similitudes: Devotional Objects in Late Medieval Europe, by Caroline Walker Bynum

From an acclaimed historian, a mesmerizing account of how medieval European Christians envisioned the paradoxical nature of holy objects. Between the twelfth and the sixteenth centuries, European Christians used in worship a plethora of objects, not only prayer books, statues, and paintings but also pieces of natural materials, such as stones and earth, considered toContinue reading “New Publication: Dissimilar Similitudes: Devotional Objects in Late Medieval Europe, by Caroline Walker Bynum”

CFP: ‘Sinne / Senses’, VIth Forum Kunst des Mittelalters (Frankfurt am Main, 29 Sep – 2 Oct 2021), deadline 15 October 2020

On the conference topic “Senses”: The arts and the senses have always been reciprocally related to one another. In the Middle Ages, sensual encounters with art and architecture offered a variety of ways to perceive, comprehend and structure the world.