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.
Category Archives: Lecture
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.
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.
Lecture: ‘Episcopal display and the English crozier around the time of the Norman Conquest’, with Sophie Kelly, 22 Oct 2025, 17:30-19:00 (BST), Courtauld Institute of Art
Join Dr Sophie Kelly for a lecture that explores the evolving design and significance of croziers in the context of ecclesiastical authority and political change in England during the 11th century.
Online lecture: ‘Grünewald Remediating Wood from the Panel’ with Gregory Bryda, 8 October 2025, 5pm (CEST)
Gregory Bryda will present an online lecture on October 8, 2025, examining how Matthias Grünewald utilised wood’s dual nature in his altarpieces to intertwine the medicinal properties of Christ and saints with those of trees and plants.
Panel discussion: ‘A Conversation about Concertina-Fold Books across Time, Space and Cultures’, Weston Library, Oxford Bodleian Library, Thursday 1 May 2025, 3-4pm (GMT)
Accordion, screenfold, chain—various terms have been applied to books folded in a zig-zag or ‘concertina’ pattern. Seen now as novelties, concertina-fold books were once found worldwide. This discussion will be grounded in some of the outstanding examples of these books in Bodleian collections.
Murray Seminar: ‘Natural Disorder: Art and Unruliness in Norwich Priory’ with Dr Jessica Barker, Birkbeck, 7 May 2025, 17-18:30 (GMT)
Join the next Murray Seminar with Dr Jessica Barker, who will be presenting on representations of the natural world within a particular late-medieval monastic community.
Online Lecture: ‘The Blood of His Flesh? Controversial Relics from Byzantium in Venice’, with Karin Krause, 10 April 2025, 12–1.30 pm (ET)
The upcoming Mary Jaharis Center lecture will be by Karin Krause (University of Chicago), who will discuss the history and veneration of two relics of the Holy Blood of Christ kept in the church of San Marco in Venice.
Medieval Art Research 