This seminar series showcases new research on contact, conflict and exchange in the region of the medieval Black Sea. Our invited speakers will share their expertise on the various aspects of the region’s past, building on analyses of textual, art historical and archaeological material. A wide range of historical sources will be considered, allowing us to explore the agency not only of elite, but also of non-elite individuals and groups.
Category Archives: Seminars & Lectures
Lecture: ‘Speculative Geometry and the Opening Page of ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, by Arthur Bahr, University of Wisconsin, 17:00-18:30 CST
Although not representationally illustrative like its facing page, the anomalous text-block of 91/95r nevertheless illustrates the perceptual challenges posed by Sir Gawain’s literary and numerical structures.
Lecture: ‘New Directions in Manuscript Studies: The Digital and Manual Future’, by Professor Elaine Treharne, 9 November 2022, 16:00-17:30 EST
Elaine Treharne is Senior Associate Vice-Provost for Undergraduate Education, Roberta Bowman Denning Professor of Humanities and Professor of English at Stanford University, where she teaches Manuscript and Archival Studies, and Early British Literatures.
Lecture: ‘From Archive to Repertoire in Late Medieval Women’s Caregiving Communities’, by Sara Ritchey, University of Wisconsin, 11 November 2022, 17:00-18:30 CST
Drawing on a range of thirteenth- and fourteenth-century French and Latin sources, including saints’ lives, charters, psalters, devotional miscellanies, drama, and poetry, this talk will survey the performance of healthcare that religious women (primarily beguines and Cistercians) provided in hospitals, leprosaria, infirmaries, and bedsides.
Lecture: ‘The Dynastic in the Monastic: King Robert of Anjou and the Pierpont Morgan Library MS.M.626’, Denva Gallant, Murray Seminar at Birkbeck, 16 November 2022 17:30 GMT
It is well known that Robert endeavoured to present himself as a pious ruler throughout his reign. The Morgan manuscript sheds light on one such way the sovereign endeavoured to do so—by embodying and performing a sacred rulership through his readings of the Lives of the Desert Fathers.
Lecture Series: Oxford Medieval Visual Culture Seminar Michaelmas Term 2022
Check out the upcoming Michaelmas Term speakers for the Oxford Medieval Visual Culture Seminar series. Please note all lectures take place in person.
Lecture: ‘Networks, Transcultural Entanglements, and the Power of Aesthetic Choices: Artistic Encounters in the Medieval Afro-Eurasian World’ with Dr Vera-Simone Schulz, Wednesday 26 October 2022, 5pm – 6.30pm (BST)
Join Dr Vera-Simone Schulz, who will shed new light on complex intersections between short-distance and long-distance entanglements across the medieval Afro-Eurasian world. It will show the benefits and the necessity of wider horizons beyond traditional subdisciplines such as European, Islamic, African etc.
Lecture: ‘Were Franciscan Churches a Betrayal of St. Francis?’, Dr Erik Gustafson, Murray Seminar Series, Birkbeck, Tuesday 18 October, 5pm (BST)
In this talk, Erik Gustafson addresses two fundamental problems with regards to Franciscan churches: the question of poverty and architecture, and the issue of the role of dividing screens for the friars’ lay constituency.
Lecture: ‘Risky Investments? Mercantile patronage at Santa María del Mar in Barcelona’, Dr Tom Nickson, Thursday, 6 October 2022, 18:30-19:30 (BST)
Why give money to your local church? In this paper Dr Tom Nickson focuses on the 14th-century parish church of Santa Maria del Mar in Barcelona, and explores the risks and rewards it offered to the local merchant community who invested in its construction.
Online Lecture: ‘Medieval Formalism: The Corona-Crown in the Chants & Images of Ste. Foy at Conques’ with Dr Bissera V. Pentcheva, Institute of Historical Research, 3 October 2022, 5:30PM-7:30PM (GMT)
This lecture turns to and recuperates the sonic environment of one famous imago – the late ninth-century golden statue of Holy Faith or Sainte Foy at Conques.
Medieval Art Research 