2 PhD positions, University of Basel, Eikones: Center for the Theory and History of the Image, deadline 27 April 2025

Call for Applications for 2 PhD Students for 4 years

Start date September 1, 2025

In the fields of History, Art History, Ancient History, Egyptology, English, German Literature, Latin Studies, Media Studies, Musicology, Philosophy.

Application Due Date: April 27, 2025

Find out more on the University website.

The eikones Graduate School at the Center for the Theory and History of the Image at the University of Basel invites applications for two positions for doctoral study on the theory and history of the image for four years beginning September 1, 2025.

Since 2005, eikones has served as a center for research on images from systematic and historical perspectives. The international and interdisciplinary center investigates the meanings, functions and effects of images in cultures since Antiquity and in our contemporary society. It aims at foundational image theory and at a historical investigation of images as instruments of human knowledge and cultural practices. We welcome PhD applications in all fields represented by members of the eikones Trägerschaft. Members of the eikones Trägerschaft are listed here: https://eikones.philhist.unibas.ch/de/graduate-school/leitung/#c1003

Your position

The purpose of the grant is to support the completion of an original dissertation and the degree within the duration of the position. Students must fulfill all curricular requirements of the eikones Graduate School and participate in the events of the Center for the History and Theory of the Image.

Your profile

  • Excellent academic qualifications and promise in your field of study.
  • An innovative dissertation project relating to the theory and history of the image.
  • Masters or equivalent qualification in a relevant field of study, in particular History, Art History, Ancient History, Egyptology, English, German Literature, Latin Studies, Media Studies, Musicology, Philosophy.
  • Applicants must possess a MA degree or equivalent by September 1, 2025. The MA degree must have been completed in the previous two years. Exceptions may be possible in extraordinary circumstances.
  • Doctoral students must be advised by a faculty member of the eikones graduate school.
  • Doctoral students must also be enrolled in the University of Basel for the duration of the program.

We offer you

The eikones graduate school offers excellent students of the humanities who would like to pursue a doctorate in the history and theory of the image a structured program of graduate study distinguished by dedicated advising, internationality, interdisciplinary, regular dialogue with guest scholars, and professional opportunities. The goal of the doctoral program is the successful completion of the degree within the four-year duration. Salaries follow the standards of the University of Basel for doctorate positions.

Application / Contact

Please submit your application in German or English as a single pdf by April 27, 2025 using the online portal provided by the University of Basel. The application should include:

  • Cover Letter
  • CV
  • Copies of Degree Certificates
  • Contact details for two references
  • Project description (at most 10 pages) and bibliography
  • Writing sample (at most 20 pages)

Please upload two files only: all materials listed above (1.-6.) in A SINGLE PDF FILE via the field “resume” as well as an extra cover letter (1.) via the field “cover letter”. Applications that do not conform to this format or received after this date will not receive consideration. Inquiries should be sent to eikones@unibas.ch. Short-listed candidates will be contacted for interviews.

Find out more on the University website.

CFP: BAA Romanesque Conference: Transmission, Reception, Imitation, Toulouse (13-17 April 2026), deadline 30 June 2025

The British Archaeological Association will hold the ninth in its series of biennial International Romanesque conferences in Toulouse from 13-17 April, 2026.

The theme of the conference is Romanesque: Transmission, Reception, Imitation and the aim is to examine not only the ways in which techniques, iconographic motifs and styles moved around Romanesque Europe but also the ways and reasons they were adopted, and particularly how they were transformed in their new environment. Some aspects of the question are well-researched: the movement of artists or masons, patronal activity and monastic affiliation are obvious examples, and perhaps in need of critical re-examination. We do not, however, wish to repeat the themes of Romanesque: Patrons and Processes too much. We would also be interested in papers which deal with why certain motifs or approaches fail to take root and, indeed, transmission and reception across time. Other factors, the pre-existing artistic background, liturgical concerns, economic and social factors or transcultural exchanges will also have played a part.

The conference will be held at the Hôtel d’Assézat in Toulouse from 13-17 April 2026 with the opportunity to stay on for two days of visits to Romanesque buildings in the surrounding area on 16-17 April.

Proposals for papers of up to 30 minutes in duration should be sent to Quitterie Cazes and Richard Plant on romanesque2026@thebaa.org by 30 June 2025. Papers should be in English. Decisions on acceptance will be made by the end of July.

Online Lecture: ‘The Blood of His Flesh? Controversial Relics from Byzantium in Venice’, with Karin Krause, 10 April 2025, 12–1.30 pm (ET)

10 April 2025 | Zoom | 12:00–1:30 pm (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC -4)

This lecture will take place live on Zoom, followed by a question and answer period. Please register to receive the Zoom link.

REGISTER HERE

The Mary Jaharis Center is the next lecture in our 2024–2025 lecture series: The Blood of His Flesh? Controversial Relics from Byzantium in Venice. In this lecture, Karin Krause, University of Chicago, will trace the history and veneration of two relics of the Holy Blood of Christ kept in the church of San Marco in Venice.

This lecture examines the history and shifting interpretations of two relics of the Holy Blood of Christ in the Church of St. Mark’s in Venice between the late Middle Ages and the Baroque era. 

One is kept in a Byzantine rock crystal pyx bearing a Greek inscription that identifies its contents as Christ’s carnal blood. Although the artifact is listed in an inventory drawn up in 1325, Venetian sources before the seventeenth century are suspiciously silent about the veneration and whereabouts of this relic. Evidently, the reliquary remained concealed in the Santuario, the relic chamber of St. Mark’s, until its miraculous rediscovery in 1617.

Drawing on sources from Venice and elsewhere, I argue that soon after the arrival of the pyx, its contents must have become part of the theological controversy over the bodily blood of Christ, a Catholic debate questioning the authenticity of such relics. Because of its problematic contents, I conclude, the doges decided not to make the pyx available for public veneration for several centuries. The theological disputes surrounding the relic inside the pyx can be better understood in light of the fate of a second reliquary of the Holy Blood of Christ from Constantinople, which has been in the same church since the thirteenth century.

It was only during the Baroque era that the relic inside the Byzantine pyx was rehabilitated as authentic resulting from the efforts of Giovanni Tiepolo, an accomplished theologian and ecclesiastical leader. I examine the strategies Tiepolo employed to establish the relic’s cult, strategies that illuminate the scholar’s familiarity with Byzantine history and religious culture.

Karin Krause, University of Chicago

Karin Krause is an Associate Professor in the University of Chicago Divinity School. Trained as an art historian, she specializes in the Christian visual cultures of Byzantium and the premodern Mediterranean region. Her research interests include visual hermeneutics, Byzantine manuscript culture, the cult of relics, and cultural exchange between Byzantium and the West. She has published extensively on the reception of Byzantine art and artifacts in premodern Venice. In her most recent book, Divine Inspiration in Byzantium: Notions of Authenticity in Art and Theology (Cambridge University Press, 2022), she examines the intersecting conceptions of divine inspiration and authenticity in the literature and visual arts of Byzantium. 

The CRSBI Annual Lecture: ‘Romanesque Sculpture and Water: the Art of Carved Vessels’, with Michele Luigi Vescovi, 30 April 2025, 6-7.30pm (BST) 

The Courtauld Institute of Art, Vernon Square Campus, Lecture Theatre 2

Book your tickets and learn more about the lecture on the Courtauld’s website.

The Courtauld is delighted to host the Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland for the 2025 Annual Lecture.

In this talk, Dr Michele Luigi Vescovi will explore the intersections of Romanesque sculpture and water in medieval stone vessels. Examining carved well heads and holy water fonts throughout the Italian peninsula, mostly dating from the twelfth century, he will interrogate the ways in which their content – water – and its agency relate to their imagery. Furthermore, he will show how script and image, in turn, sought to shape the experience of the vessels’ viewers.

Dr Michele Luigi Vescovi, Associate Professor in Medieval Art and Architecture, University of Lincoln.

Organised by Dr John Munns, Associate Professor of History and Art History, Magdalene College, Cambridge, and Dr Tom Nickson, Reader in Medieval Art and Architecture, The Courtauld, as part of the Medieval Work-in-Progress series. 

Symposium: ‘Tombs of the Aristocracy’, Church Monuments Society, 29-31 August 2025, West Dean College

Location: West Dean College, West Dean, Chichester, West Sussex PO18 0QZ

Find out more about the Symposium 2025 on the Church Monuments Society website.

The Church Monuments Society is delighted to invite you to the next symposium which will be held at West Dean College from Friday 29th to Sunday 31st August 2025.

Our theme, Tombs of the Aristocracy, is inspired by the magnificent tombs of the Fitzalans and Howards (Earls and Dukes of Norfolk) in Arundel and Chichester but covers so much more (see the provisional programme below). The event will include expert lectures and two excursions, with both residential and non-residential options for attending. Please download the relevant booking form from below, which can be emailed to us (instructions on the form).

The symposium is open to anyone, but members of the Church Monuments Society are eligible for Early Bird rates (up to 31st March 2025). The final deadline for bookings is 30th June 2025. Those aged under 30, and/or registered on full- or part-time degree courses, are eligible for a special reduced rate, but these are strictly limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. See the booking forms for more details and conditions.

Non-residential attendees have the option to pay for the evening meal and lecture on Friday, and the extra meal on Saturday evening. Sunday-only attendees are able to attend the evening lecture (but not the evening meal) on Saturday with their Sunday-only ticket because, due to extra speakers filling the programme, Saturday now has a fuller programme of talks.

Provisional Programme (detailed timings to be confirmed nearer the time)

Friday 29th August: West Dean College

  • Registration (time TBC but after 3pm)
  • Hot buffet dinner (private room) with President’s Welcome
  • After dinner lecture: Dr Dirk Breiding on commonalities and differences in iconography between English and Continental aristocratic tombs

Saturday 30th August: West Dean College lectures and excursion to Chichester Cathedral

  • Brian & Moira Gittos, ‘Beaufort’s pride’: the Tomb of John, 1st Duke of Somerset at Wimborne Minster
  • Dr Keith Dowen, All’Antica or Alla Moderna? The Monuments of Erasmo and Giantonio di Narni in Padua
  • Mid-morning refreshments
  • Sophia Dumoulin, ‘meete for my degree and callinge’: The Monument to Frances Sidney, Countess of Sussex, in Westminster Abbey
  • Pat Poppy, Fashion, status or timeless: clothing in 17th century church monuments.
  • Buffet lunch at West Dean
  • Visit to Chichester Cathedral
  • Optional evening buffet meal (self-service)
  • After dinner lecture: Dr Roger Bowdler, Humility in the Grave: outdoor aristocratic monuments over the centuries

Sunday 31st August: West Dean College lectures and excursion to Fitzalan Chapel, Arundel

  • Dr David Carrington, The Church Monuments Society in Action: progress report on the Getty-funded North Yorkshire monument conservation publication
  • Dr Adam White, John, Lord Lumley, the last of his line
  • Mid-morning refreshments
  • Dr Tobias Capwell, The French Connection: Refining the Stylistic Attribution of Armour Represented on Certain English Effigies c. 1435-1450
  • Buffet lunch at West Dean
  • Visit to Fitzalan Chapel, with talks

ICMA Annual Lecture: ‘Word/Play: Interiority, Performance, and Reading in Late Medieval Flanders’, with Alexa Sand, 14 May 2025, 5.30pm-7pm (BST)

The Courtauld Institute of Art, Vernon Square Campus, Lecture Theatre 2

Book your place and find out more on the Courtauld’s website.

A small group of devotional, literary, and spiritually instructional texts from late thirteenth and early fourteenth century Flanders and Northern France contain a remarkable array of marginalia depicting performance practices and play, ranging from puppet shows to violent ball sports. In the environment that produced these books, reading, especially in a devotional vein, was not merely transactional or functional, and the books are part of a performance culture in which engaging in various outward behaviours, especially those associated with “play” in all its aspects was critical to creating the awareness of and experience of inwardness, including a heightened sense of one’s spiritual visibility to the divine. Drawing on scholarship in dance history, performance studies, and the history of sports, and responding to recent work by fellow art historians focusing on the nexus of sensory experiences – haptic, visual, aural, gustatory, and olfactory – that constitute what is sometimes characterised as “medieval somaesthetics,” this work situates the illuminated manuscripts and the acts of reading they engendered as indices of a much larger realm of experience and practice that constituted the prima materia of late medieval selfhood.  Understanding how these particular objects, images, and performances constituted the field of its enactment, is pertinent to twenty-first-century phenomena of self-formation and self-perception within the relentlessly performative realm of media culture.

Alexa Sand is Professor of Art History and Associate Vice President for Research at Utah State University, where she has taught since 2004. She earned her Ph.D. in art history from UC Berkeley, with an emphasis on medieval French art and literature. Her book, Vision, Devotion, and Self-Representation in Late Medieval Art appeared with Cambridge University Press in 2014. Her most recent work has focused on medieval puppetry, including her 2021 essay in Gesta, “Puppets, Manuscripts, and Gendered Performance in the Hortus deliciarum.”  She is cohost of the podcast Real Fantastic Beasts.

Organised by Dr Jessica Barker, Senior Lecturer in Medieval Art History, The Courtauld. This event is kindly supported by the International Center of Medieval Art (ICMA), and the drinks reception sponsored by Sam Fogg. This Series made possible through the generosity of William M. Voelkle.

Conference: ‘Medieval Art on the Move’, Courtauld Institute’s Postgraduate colloquium, 28 March 2025, 10am – 5.45pm (GMT)

The Courtauld Institute of Art, Vernon Square Campus, Lecture Theatre 2

Book your tickets and find out more about the conference on the Courtauld’s website.

Now entombed in airless glass vitrines, medieval objects in museums appear static and immovable. But in the Middle Ages artworks were active and mobile: they were manipulated in the hand, processed through towns, and traded or gifted across very large geographic areas. Viewers were also on the move: they carried artworks on their body or processed alongside them in religious ceremonies. Merchants, soldiers, and pilgrims travelled to new places and brought artworks home with them. This colloquium will explore medieval artworks as sites of sophisticated meaning-making through the theme of movement, on small and large scales. Medieval works of art were often moved during ritual, and many artworks also integrated moving parts, such as wings or other hinged elements. In a broader context, artworks could travel huge distances, acquiring new significances as they transgressed political, cultural and religious borders. The Silk Roads exhibition currently open at the British Museum speaks to such journeys, presenting the people and objects travelling along overlapping and expansive networks of trade, and asking how these movements shaped meanings and cultures both along the way and at their destinations. To that end, the colloquium looks to open new dialogues regarding the movement of medieval artworks, initiating discussions on how it affected an object’s reception.

The colloquium will take place on Friday 28th March 2025 at The Courtauld Institute of Art’s Vernon Square campus in London. Lunch will be provided for speakers, and the event will be followed by drinks at the Courtauld Research Forum and dinner for speakers.

Organised by Courtauld PhD students Sophia Adams and Natalia Muñoz-Rojas, and generously supported by Sam Fogg. 

Programme

Session 1:

  • Sara Salvadori, PhD student Università degli studi di Palermo, Fellow Institut für Kunst- und Bildgeschichte Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, ‘The Mobility and Liturgical Role of a Byzantine Ivory Diptych’.
  • Ricardo Mandelbaum Balla, PhD Candidate, The Courtauld, ‘Ramon Llull, man in perpetuum mobile: graphic representations of his life and theories’.
  • Elisabeth Niederdöckl, PhD Candidate at EHESS Paris (History) and KU Leuven (Art History), ‘Engraved Faith, Embedded Relics: The MET Portable Altar and the Conception of Medieval European Evangelization’.

Session 2:

  • Bernát Rácz, PhD Candidate, Central European University, Vienna, ‘The Reliquary of Pétermonostora: A Twelfth-Century Lotharingian Masterpiece from a Private Monastery in East-Central Europe’.
  • Lydia Lymbourides, Doctoral Fellow, University of Zürich, ‘Miracles and the Mediterranean. The Rock Crystal Cross in the Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista di Venezia’.
  • Sophia Dumoulin, PhD Candidate, The Courtauld, ‘Security, Salvation and Shameless Self-Promotion: Framing Movement through Parclose Screens in Fifteenth-Century Westminster Abbey’.

Session 3:

  • Christien Schrover, PhD Candidate, Utrecht University, ‘Bridging the Distance in Time and Place: The Digital Reconstruction of Late Medieval Altarpieces’.
  • Isabella Inskip, PhD Candidate, University of Edinburgh, ‘Dynamic Spaces: Digital Visualisation and the Peripatetic Lifestyle of the Great Mughals’.

Pasold Research Fund Grants

The Pasold Research Fund

The Pasold Fund promotes and supports research on textile history;  embracing the economic, social and cultural history of textiles, their technological development, design and conservation, as well as the history of dress, and other uses of textiles from prehistory to the present.

Pasold research grants are awarded to fund high quality research, relating to all branches of textile history including the history of dress and fashion.

Applications are encouraged for projects where there will be a lasting outcome in the form of a publication or an exhibition or similar. This includes conservation related projects, leading to publications, but excludes the purchase or repair of objects and the purchase of hardware (eg cameras or computing equipment or computer software).

Applications will also be considered where preliminary work is needed for the preparation of a more substantial grant application to one of the major funding bodies.

Applications may be made to fund conference attendance – these applications may come from individuals or from conference organisers seeking funding for a named applicant.

However, it is important to provide an abstract of the paper and details of the nature of the conference and its significance. Where a conference organiser is seeking support for a named delegate details of the conference, a CV of the delegate and title and abstract of the paper are required.

All successful grant applicants, where appropriate, will be encouraged to consider submitting the outcome of their research to Textile History.

Publication would of course be subject to editorial refereeing and decision. Grants in aid of publicationfor a contribution towards illustrations, will be considered where a clear case is made explaining the absence of funding from other sources and the way in which the illustrative material is essential to the analysis and quality of the research output. Where funding is sought to complete or to part-finance a commissioned work and/or a work to be published under the auspices of a university, museum, gallery or similar, please specify the necessity, the case for, and the role of, the additional external funding.

APPLICATIONS

Application forms should be submitted electronically to: histart-pasold@york.ac.uk

DETAILS AND DEADLINES FOR RESEARCH GRANTS

The Pasold has recently changed its Grants structure. Please read carefully. 

Research Activity Grants (under £750).

Applications may be made at any time.

Research Project Grants (between £751 and £2,500).

Two deadlines 1 March and 1 October each year.

PhD Grants for PhD students registered at a British institution (up to £2,500). 

Single deadline: 15 June each year.

MA Grants for MA students registered at a British institution (up to £500).

Single deadline: 15 April each year.

Publication Grants (up to £1,000). 

Two deadlines: 15 February and 1 September each year.

Raine Grants to assist individual staff working in UK museums (up to £500).

One deadline: 30 June each year.

Pasold Fellowships in collaboration with the Victoria and Albert Museum  (up to £1,500).

The Research Fellowship schemes are suspended at present due to collections movement at both the V&A and Museum of London.

Neaverson Pasold Postdoctoral Fellowship (up to £20,000)

One deadline: 1 April 2025
 

THE CRITERIA APPLIED IN JUDGING RESEARCH GRANT APPLICATIONS

which can be in ANY area of the history of textiles including multidisciplinary approaches, are as follows:

  1. Originality and rigour of the research, especially where the study of the history of textiles is being approached from a new angle, using new sources or new methodology. You must demonstrate that the history of textiles is the central area of concern and study.
  2. The care given to laying out of objectives and design of the research.
  3. The viability of the research within the timescale laid out and in view of the research training or experience of the applicant.
  4. The contribution of the research in terms of publications, the development of web based materials, exhibitions or similar.
  5. Referees’ reports (at least one nominated referee should be from outside the applicant’s own institution).

PLEASE NOTE

  • The Pasold Research Fund will not fund salaries.
  • Only research expenses such as travel, subsistence, photocopying, microfilming and similar are funded.
  • We do not accept retrospective applications.
  • All costing must be in GB£ sterling;
  • Grants are awarded in GB£ sterling. A sterling cheque is sent to the grant recipient.
  • Successful applicants must wait a full calendar year following the end of their grant before submitting another application for Pasold funding.

IMPORTANT

Applications must be submitted at least 80 days before the beginning of the research project/conference attendance or other activity; or for grants schemes with named deadlines, the project should start at least 80 days after the deadline. The Pasold wishes to ensure that sufficient time is given to referees to assess applications and that applications’ outcomes are notified well in advance of the starting date of the research activity.

Please also note that the Pasold Research Fund will not fund salaries, only research expenses such as travel, subsistence, photocopying, microfilming and similar. We do not accept retrospective applications. All costings must be in GB£ sterling.

SOME REASONS WHY APPLICATIONS ARE TURNED DOWN

Competition for our grants has grown significantly in the last few years. We are sometimes surprised by the poor presentation of applications. We thought it would help applicants to know the most common reasons for applications being turned down:

  1. Applications in which the history of textiles is peripheral and not central to research (if in doubt please make preliminary enquiries to the Director).
  2. Applications which fail to convey the scope and significance of the research and its wider contribution. If it is necessary for applicants to write at length they should not confine themselves to the short space on the form. You are invited to use a continuation sheet. Many applicants ignore this.
  3. Applications where the costings are incomplete, inaccurate, do not give totals and sub-totals, are not in £ sterling or where the cheapest method of transport has not been investigated.
  4. Applications for travel to conferences which do not provide an abstract of the paper or the significance of the conference – a title is not enough.
  5. Carelessly prepared applications.

If you have further queries as to whether you are eligible or about the type of support do please contact the Pasold Research Fund’s Director, Dr Bethan Bide at histart-pasold@york.ac.uk or bethan.bide@york.ac.uk.

Online talk: ‘Unfolding Concertina-Fold Almanacs: The Making of an Exhibition’, 28 March 2025 12-1.30pm (EDT)

Presented by Sarah Griffin, Lambeth Palace Library, & Megan McNamee, University of Edinburgh

Hosted by: SIMS and Kislak Center

Unfolding Time: The Medieval Pocket Calendar, an exhibition presently on view at Lambeth Palace Library in London, explores ideas about time in the middle ages through the concertina-fold almanac, a rare and remarkable book type introduced in the fourteenth century. Concertinas are formed of oblong parchment strips, folded lengthwise and then in an accordion or concertina pattern. Cuts in the parchment allow different sections to be accessed without unfolding the entire sheet. People in medieval Europe tracked time through planetary motion, seasonal shift, historic events, and religious celebrations. Concertina-fold almanacs illuminate and align these varied cycles. In them, time is vividly expressed in colorful pictures, poems, tables, and devices. Just twenty-nine of these extremely fragile folded manuscripts are known to survive; the Lambeth exhibition brings a selection together, for the first time. In this talk, Sarah Griffin, curator of the exhibition, and Megan McNamee, a collaborator, will introduce the concertina corpus and discuss the process of putting these frighteningly fragile, fiendishly complex, and wonderfully dynamic little books on public view. They will also share some of the tools they developed to make the concertinas and temporalities that they embody understandable and exciting to seven- and seventy-year olds alike. 

Book your spot and find out more here.

New Open Access Publication: ‘Art médiéval et médiévalisme’, edited by Philippe Cordez

The ‘Middle Ages’ is a recent and shifting creation, at once a stratified historiographical elaboration and an appreciation of historical objects in the present. What we know and imagine shapes our perception. Studying the medieval arts therefore requires us to study medievalisms, and vice versa.

This volume, the result of work carried out in 2015/2016 at the German Centre for Art History in Paris, brings together fifteen studies on medieval artefacts and their subsequent history, up to the present day. They are accompanied by a review of German-language studies of medieval art in France since 1933.

With contributions by Philippe Cordez, Eveline Deneer, Frédéric Elsig, Iris Grötecke, Lukas Huppertz, Jacqueline E. Jung, Thomas Kirchner, Stephanie Luther, Kathrin Müller, Andrew Murray, Assaf Pinkus, Nina Reiss, Martin Schwarz, Judith Soria, Jean-Michel Spieser, Susanne Wittekind.

Read the volume now. 


Philippe Cordez was Deputy Director of the German Centre for Art History in Paris from 2018 to 2023. He is now Deputy Director of the Museum Studies and Research Support Department of the Louvre Museum.