Category Archives: Seminars & Lectures

Murray Seminar: ‘Like himself and no other: The Story of Morgante Nano at the Florentine Court of Cosimo I de’ Medici’ with Sarah McBryde, 9 December 2025, Birkbeck, 17:00—18:30 (GMT)

Please join Birkbeck on 9 December 2025, at Birkbeck and online, for the Murray Seminar by Sarah McBryde. In this seminar, Sarah McBryde will share her research on ‘Like himself and no other: The Story of Morgante Nano at the Florentine Court of Cosimo I de’ Medici’.

Online Lecture: ‘Learning Late Antiquity: The Quarry Church at Deir al-Ganadla and the Lost Timber Nave’, with Mikael Muehlbauer, 9 December 2025, 12:00–1:30 pm (Eastern Standard Time, UTC -5)

The Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture and the Mashtot Chair of Armenian Studies at Harvard University is hosting an online lecture by Mikael Muehlbauer on December 9, 2025, focusing on the Quarry Church at Deir al-Ganadla and its significance for understanding Late Antique architecture in Egypt and the Mediterranean.

Online Lecture: ‘Worshipping the Mother Goddess: An Underground Cult Complex in Late Antique Aphrodisias’ with Ine Jacobs, 2 December 2025, 12:00–1:30 pm (Eastern Standard Time, UTC -5)

Ine Jacobs from the University of Oxford will discuss the discovery of a well-preserved underground cult complex dedicated to the mother goddess Kybele in Late Antique Aphrodisias, exploring its architecture, cultic artifacts, and the persistence of pagan worship until the 7th century, during a lecture hosted by the Mary Jaharis Center on December 2, 2025.

Lecture: ‘The Many Lives of the Asante Ewer’ with Lloyd de Beer, British Archaeological Association, 3 December 2025, online and Society of Antiquaries, 5.30pm (GMT) 

Join the British Archaeological Association for the December lecture by Lloyd de Beer on ‘The Many Lives of the Asante Ewer’. This will be followed by a celebratory drinks reception for a new volume honouring Professor Sandy Heslop.

Murray Seminar: ‘Imago Dei, Imago Mundi: Matthew Paris’s saints, relics, maps and wonders’ with Paul Binski, Birkbeck, 17 November 2025, 17:00-18:30 (GMT)

Please join Birkbeck on 17 November, at Birkbeck and online, for the Murray Seminar by Paul Binski. In this seminar, Paul Binski will share his research on ‘Imago Dei, Imago Mundi: Matthew Paris’s saints, relics, maps and wonders’.

Online lecture: ‘Mediating Touch: Ivory Pyxides and the Eucharist’, with Evan Freeman, 17 November 2025, 12–1:30 pm (EST, UTC -5)

In this lecture, Evan Freeman, Simon Fraser University, will consider the use of ivory pyxides for receiving Communion in church. A large body of these round ivory boxes survive from late antiquity. Several boxes display motifs associated with the Eucharist.

Lecture: ‘A Spectrum of Desires: Queering Medieval Art at The Met Cloisters’, with Nancy Thebaut, 17 Dec 2025, 17:30-19:00 (GMT), Courtauld Institute of Art

In this lecture, Dr Nancy Thebaut will discuss their co-curated exhibition “Spectrum of Desire” at The Met Cloisters, which explores medieval perspectives on love, sex, and gender, with a focus on a tapestry of the Queen of Sheba and Solomon.

Online Lecture Series: ‘Participation through Prayer in the Late Medieval and Early Modern World’, 21 October 2025 – 10 February 2026, Tuesdays, 4–6 pm (CET)

Join PRAYTICIPYTE for this lecture series on prayer in the Late Medieval and Early Modern World, which takes place online.

Murray Seminar: ‘The artist’s new body, burle, and the praise of caricature in early modern Italy’, with Katarzyna Murawska-Muthesius, Birkbeck, 20 October 2025, 17:00-18:30 (GMT)

Please join Birkbeck for the first Murray Seminar of this academic year. Katarzyna Murawska-Muthesius will share her research on ‘The artist’s new body, burle, and the praise of caricature in early modern Italy’.