AVISTA Graduate Student Research Grant, Deadline 15 October 2024 (5pm ET)

The application for the AVISTA Graduate Student Research Grant for the study of art and architecture across borders in the medieval world is now open!

This grant of $500 is intended to support an early-stage graduate student’s research on the theme of art that crosses the borders or peripheries of the medieval world. Funds should support research and/or dissemination of scholarship, which may include expenses for conference travel, site visits, or archive visits. The award includes a one-year gift membership to AVISTA.

We are grateful to Robert E. Jamison, Professor Emeritus of Mathematics, Clemson University, for underwriting this grant.

The deadline for submitting your application is October 15, 2024, 5:00pm ET.

For the full application instructions and guidelines please see the link below:
https://www.avista.org/opportunities-prizes-and-grants

CFP: Purgatory To Paradise – Visualizing the Iter Salvationis in Medieval Art (ICMS Kalamazoo 2025), deadline 14 September 2024

This special session wishes to analyze the representations of souls in Purgatory and their journey toward Paradise. The exempla employed in medieval texts and sermons featured vividly impactful imagery designed to engage the audience and leave a lasting impression. In medieval visual art, how are themes of sin, punishment, and, importantly, the possibility of salvation portrayed? Additionally, what is the significance of depicting souls in purgatory as naked? How this symbolism can be interpreted in conveying theological truths about redemption and renewal?

The session will encourage an interdisciplinary approach. Liturgy, sermons, drama, and visual arts were deeply interconnected with the expression of iter salvationis. For this reason, these elements will be examined in relation to pilgrimages and indulgences to understand the dramatization of the after-life. The scientific importance of the session lies in understanding how these devotional images served not only as reminders of mortality, akin to memento mori, but also as catalysts for the pursuit of indulgences. Moreover, the analysis of case studies will not only aim to highlight specific aspects and general phenomena in Late Medieval Europe, but also to define identities and devotees’ experiences in their life and after-life journey of purification.
Scholars are invited to submit a 300-word abstract, excluding references. Proposals should also include name, affiliation, email address, the title of the presentation, 6 keywords, a selective bibliography, and a short CV. Please send the documents to maryandthecity.imc2022@gmail.com by September 14, 2024.

Call for submissions: Metropolitan Museum Journal, deadline 15 September 2024

The Editorial Board of the peer-reviewed Metropolitan Museum Journal invites submissions of original research on works of art in the Museum’s collection.

The Journal publishes Articles and Research Notes. Works of art from The Met collection should be central to the discussion. Articles contribute extensive and thoroughly argued scholarship—art historical, technical, and scientific—whereas Research Notes are narrower in scope, focusing on a specific aspect of new research or presenting a significant finding from technical analysis, for example. The maximum length for articles is 8,000 words (including endnotes) and 10–12 images, and for research notes 4,000 words (including endnotes) and 4–6 images.

The process of peer review is double-anonymous. Manuscripts are reviewed by the Journal Editorial Board, composed of members of the curatorial, conservation, and scientific departments, as well as scholars from the broader academic community.

Articles and Research Notes in the Journal appear in print and online, and are accessible in JStor on the University of Chicago Press website.

The deadline for submissions for Volume 60 (2025) is September 15, 2024.

Submission guidelines: www.journals.uchicago.edu/journals/met/instruct

Please send materials to: journalsubmissions@metmuseum.org
Questions? Write to Elizabeth.Block@metmuseum.org

Conference: Objects of Law in the Medieval and Early Modern Worlds (Universität Bern, 29-30 August 204)

Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Universität Bern, Mittelstrasse 43, 3012 Bern, Room 120

The international conference “Objects of Law in the Medieval and Early Modern Worlds” proposes to reflect on the artistic practices that shaped the materiality, iconography, and texts of legal objects in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period. What forms did these objects take? How did they confer authenticity and legal authority? What education and knowledge are evident in the objects? The conference seeks an interdisciplinary dialogue among scholars from art history, legal history, history, archaeology, and related disciplines who engage with legal objects.

Organized by Corinne Mühlemann (University of Bern) and Fatima Quraishi (University of California, Riverside).

  • For registration, please contact: janina.ammon@unibe.ch
    The conference will be held in person.

Conference Programme

Thursday 29 August 2024

9:00-9:30: ARRIVAL | COFFEE

9:30-10.15: Introduction by Fatima Quraishi and Corinne Mühlemann

PANEL 1 | FORMATIONS OF AUTHORITY

10:30-12:00
Moderated by Omar Anchassi, University of Bern, SNSF Project “Trajectories of Slavery in Islamicate Societies”

  • Zahir Bhalloo (University of Hamburg), Social and Spatial Dynamics of Bukharan Fatwas as Written Artefacts
  • Stella Wisgrill (University of Cambridge), Testing Virtue, Forging Nobility: Emperor Frederick III’s 1462 Augmentation of Arms for the Margravate of Moravia and the Performance of Legal Authority

12:00-13:30: Lunch

PANEL 2 | CIRCULATION AND FORMATION OF LEGAL KNOWLEDGE

13:30-15:00

Moderated by Irina Dudar, Institute of Art History, University of Bern

  • Phillipa Byrne (Trinity College, Dublin), The Materiality of Medieval Judicial Ordines
  • Niko Munz (Oxford University), Bildnisrecht: Legal Aspects of Early Portraiture

15:00-15:30: Coffee Break

PANEL 3 | MULTIPLE MATERIALITIES

15:30-17:30
Moderated by Corinne Mühlemann, Institute of Art History, University of Bern

  • Subah Dayal (New York University), To Attest, Fold, and Copy in the Islamic Port-City: Safavid Seals and Mughal Envelopes across the VOC Archive
  • Masha Goldin (University of Basel), Weapon of Justice? Medieval Swords as Objects and Images
  • Nino Zchomeldise (John Hopkins University), Aesthetics of Illusion and Authenticity in Ottonian Legal Documents

19:00: Dinner

Friday 30 August 2024

PANEL 4 | LEGAL PERFORMANCE

8:30-10:30
Moderated by Fatima Quraishi, University of California, Riverside

  • Shounak Ghosh (Vanderbilt University), Epistolary Texts as Legal Objects: Querying the Mughal Farmān in Diplomatic Contexts
  • Daniela Maldonado Castaneda (University of Toronto), Between Sacred and Script: Examining Legal Objects in Promises, Vows, and Oaths as Defined by Alfonso X in The Seven-Partidas
  • Jordan Skinner (Princeton University), The Medieval Curfew Bell: Sonority and the Voice of Law

10:30-11:00: Coffee Break


PANEL 5 | LONGUE-DURÉE STUDIES
11:00-12:30

Moderation TBA

  • Krisztina Ilko (Queens College / University of Cambridge), The Chess-Knight Seal
  • Heba Mostafa (University of Toronto), “God Protect us from One Finger under Twenty!” The Abbasid Nilometer Column as a Legal Object

12:30-14:00: Lunch

PANEL 6 | EVERYDAY LAW


14:00-15:30

Moderated by Moïra Dato, Institute of Art History, University of Bern

  • Gül Kale (Carleton University, Toronto), The Material and Social Implications of Measuring Tools in Ottoman Legal History
  • Lorenzo Paveggio (University of Padua), What Does a Bribe Look Like? Carolingian munera in Literary Texts

15:30-16:00: Coffee Break

PANEL 7 | OBJECTS IN COURT

16:00-17:30

Moderated by Carlos Rojas Cocoma, Institute of Art History, University of Bern

  • Nathalie Miraval (Yale University), The Sacred Suspended: Martha, Law, and Image in the Early Modern Spanish Atlantic
  • Linda Mueller (Bibliotheca Hertziana Rome/Harvard University), Drawings, Courtroom Practices, and Juridical Decision-Making at the Edges of the Spanish Empire

17:30-18:00: CLOSING REMARKS

CFP: Queer(ing) Medieval Art: New Horizons (International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo 2025), deadline 15 September 2024

How does medieval art define queerness and transness, and how do gendered performances of bodies and images shape one another? How do medieval sexualities and genders, fluid and porous, explicate and trouble modern ones? 

We invite papers that explore queer methodologies and medieval art, including visual cultures of animals, the humoral body, and the non-human. After the success of 2024’s Queer(ing) Medieval Art panels, this new panel seeks to expand our scope: we especially encourage papers examining secular, Jewish, or Islamic perspectives, architecture, non-elite archives, and/or queer intersections with race, religion, and ethnicity as visual/material expressions.

This in-person panel will be part of the 60th International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, MI, taking place May 8 – May 10, 2025. For information about the conference, see https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress. Questions about the panel can be directed to Maeve Doyle (doylemae@easternct.edu) or Christopher Richards (crichard@colby.edu).

Please submit proposals, including an abstract of no more than 100 words, via the ICMS-Kalamazoo Confex website by September 15, 2024: https://icms.confex.com/icms/2025/paper/papers/index.cgi?sessionid=6395.

Online Lecture: ‘Food for Thought: Reconsidering Late Medieval English Cadaver Monuments’ with Morgan Ellis Leah, Tuesday 30 July 2024, 5.30pm-6.30pm (BST)

Date: Tuesday 30 July 2024

Time: 5:30pm-6:30pm

Location: Online

Tickets: £6

Focussing on late medieval English carved cadaver memorials, this talk will reconsider the long-standing misconception that transi effigies present the body in a ‘late stage of decay.’ Popularly, cadaver tombs are thought of as part of the European tradition, presenting the body of the deceased as a gruesome skeletal figure with rotting flesh and devouring worms. However, English memorials are different from their continental cousins. Instead, executed with a high degree of anatomical accuracy, English cadaver tombs present the body with taut, unbroken skin, as per a state of severe emaciation. This talk offers an answer for these striking visual differences, suggesting that these cadavers speak with an English accent, evoking overlooked Anglo-Saxon practices of Feasting the Dead by presenting a state of severe spiritual hunger.

About the Speaker


Morgan Ellis Leah is a member of the National Churches Trust’s Church Engagement Team. She has a background in architectural conservation and historic collections management. Her recent research will be published in the upcoming title: Tomb Monuments in Medieval Europe. Morgan has given lectures at the Universities of Cambridge, Kent, and Harvard, as well as the Societies for Church Monuments and Church Archaeology.

The lecture will be recorded and shared with ticketholders. This event will raise funds for the work of the National Churches Trust supporting churches and chapels throughout the UK. Every year we help hundreds of churches stay open and in use through grants, training, and advice.

Book tickets by visiting our website, https://www.nationalchurchestrust.org/online-lecture-cadaver-monuments

CFP: British Archaeological Association post-grad conference 2024, deadline 31 August 2024

The BAA invites proposals by postgraduates and early career researchers in the field of medieval history of art, architecture, and archaeology. Papers can be on any aspect of the medieval period, from antiquity to the Later Middle Ages, across all geographical regions.

Proposals of around 250 words for a 20-minute paper, along with a CV, should be sent by 31st August 2024 to postgradconf@thebaa.org

The conference will take place online 28-29th November 2024

CFP: ‘IBERSAINTS: Making and Remaking Saints in the Iberian Peninsula and Beyond during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period c. 600 – 1600’, University of Salamanca, Spain (deadline 30 June 2024)

University of Salamanca, Spain, Monday 24 – Wednesday 26 March 2025.
More information can be found on the dedicated website.

Paper and poster proposals are now invited for an in-person international conference hosted by the University of Salamanca in collaboration with the Museum of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain.

This international conference seeks to explore the means of constructing and reconstructing saints in and beyond the Iberian Peninsula with particular emphasis on: 

  • the import of new saints into the Iberian Peninsula from the Holy Land, neighboring territories, occupied territories, etc.
  • the export of saints from the Iberian Peninsula to Europe, Latin America, etc.;
  • the re/creation of saints in the Iberian Peninsula e.g. martyrdom narratives;

The conference approaches this process of saintly re/construction mostly, but not exclusively, from the perspective of:


TRANSITION AND TRANSFER
–    known or lesser-known saints transferred and adapted in geographic areas which require further exploration such as Latin America in the Early Modern Period contributing to a global perspective on the creation and recreation of saints;
–    Saints at crossroads of land and sea and patterns of transfer: between the Mediterranean, the Atlantic Ocean, etc.;
–    cultural transfer and material culture of sanctity;
–    transitional periods and saints from the Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages; the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period; 

INTERACTION
–     adaptation to new cultural contexts and new peoples through religious discourses, hagiographic narratives, and de/construction of images;
–    Local/regional incorporations, interactions, and adaptations;
–    Interactions with images, transfer(s) and circulation(s) of iconographies;
–    Local/regional, personal/collective devotional developments and practices;


PRODUCTION
–    Re/creation of saints and various media (statues, reliefs, panel paintings, manuscript illuminations, frescoes, stained glass, metalwork, mosaics, textiles, etc.);
–    Re/creation of saints in relation architecture;
 
We welcome original submissions, from a variety of disciplines, including but not limited to: history, art history, visual culture, social history, cultural history, hagiography, religious studies, textual studies, archaeology, in a transdisciplinary perspective. Panel proposals are also welcome.

The paper presentations are addressed to early career researchers, faculty or research staff at any level, independent researchers, etc.; while the poster presentations are primarily addressed to PhD candidates particularly from, but not limited to, Spain. Certificates of 30 horas presenciales will be provided to PhDs.

Accommodation, meals, and travel are covered by participants. There is not registration fee and participation is open to all speakers.

Contextually, the participants will be invited to submit their papers and poster contents for the publication of an edited volume. The language of publication is English.

Please submit all relevant documents as PDF files and/or Word.doc to the e-mail address: znorovszkyandrea@usal.es no later than 30 September, 2024.

For paper presentations (Sala de Grados, Faculty of Geography and History, University of Salamanca):

  • A 350 – 400 words abstract, in English, clearly underlying the main argument and the potential outcomes of the paper. The abstract should also include a bibliographic list of 5 – 8 references.
  • A short 500 – 700 words CV, in English, including e-mail, current affiliation, affiliation address, academic position, publications, etc. CVs should have the standard CV format; narrative bio formats are not accepted.
  • The presentations are 15-20 minutes and the language of delivery is English.

For poster presentations (Museum of Salamanca):

  • A 350 – 400 words abstract, in Spanish, clearly underlying the main argument and the potential outcomes of the research. The abstract should also include a bibliographic list of 5 – 8 references.
  • A short 500 – 700 words CV, in Spanish, including e-mail, current affiliation, affiliation address, awards, prizes, etc. CVs should have the standard CV format; narrative bio formats are not accepted.
  • The presentations are c. 5 minutes and the language of delivery is Spanish.

Conference: Glass in the Islamic World, Europäisches Romanik Zentrum, Merseburg, Thursday 4 – Sunday 7 July 2024

19th Colloquium of the Ernst Herzfeld Society for Studies in Islamic Art and Archaeology

  • Vitrocentre Romont, 4–6 July 2024.
  • Organizers: Francine Giese, Sarah Tabbal, Sophie Wolf (Vitrocentre Romont).
  • Keynote Speaker: Stefano Carboni (University of Western Australia).

This colloquium intends to stimulate the study of glass in the fields of art history and archaeology of the Islamic world by presenting ongoing research dealing with art-historical, architectural, archaeological, as well as material, technical and socio-cultural aspects.

Participation is free of charge, registration is required by 28 June 2024 at claudine.demierre@vitrocentre.ch

Conference Programme

THURSDAY, 4 JULY 2024

Romont, Hôtel de Ville, Rue du Château 112, Grande Salle (2nd floor)

9:00–16:30 Graduate Meeting

18:00–18:15 Markus Ritter (University of Vienna) and Francine Giese (Vitrocentre Romont): Opening Remarks

Keynote Lecture, Chair: Sophie Wolf (Vitrocentre Romont)

18:15–19:00 Stefano Carboni (University of Western Australia); Glass from Islamic Lands: An Overview

19:00–20:30 Apéro riche at Vitromusée Romont

FRIDAY, 5 JULY 2024

Romont, Hôtel de Ville, Rue du Château 112, Grande Salle (2nd floor)

Ernst Herzfeld Award 2023

Chair: Mattia Guidetti (Co-chair of Ernst Herzfeld Award Committee)

9:00–9:30 Edward Shawe-Taylor (Oxford University): The Art of Copying: al-Nuwayri and the Ambrosiana Kitāb al-Ḥayawān

Section I: Early Islamic Glass, Chair: Mattia Guidetti (University of Bologna)

  • 9:30–10:00 Hagit Nol (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt): Glass Production in Ramla, 7th to 11th Century: Contexts, Finds and Agents
  • 10:00–10:30 Matthew Gillman (Independent Scholar, Paris) Problems in Attributing Early Abbasid Glass
  • 10:30–11:00 Carol Meyer (Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology (PCMA) / Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures: West Asia and North Africa (ISAC)): The Aqaba Publication Project: The Glass

Coffee break

Section II: Glass in Courtly Contexts, Chair: Markus Ritter (University of Vienna)

  • 11:30–12:00 Vanessa Rose (EUR Translitterae (ENS-PSL), Paris): Glass Revetments in Samarra: Some Considerations
  • 12:00–12:30 Víctor Rabasco García (Universidad de León): Performativity in the Courtly Architecture: The Crystal majlis of the Toledo’s Alcázar
  • 12:30–13:00 Sahar Hosseini (University of Pittsburgh): Mirrors in Motion: From Venice to Hasht-Behesht Palace in Isfahan

Lunch at Vitromusée Romont

Section III: Cultural Interactions, Chair: Stefano Carboni (University of Western Australia)

  • 14:30–15:00 Sing-Yan Choy (University of Vienna): Islamic World and the Dawn of Glassmaking in Late Medieval China
  • 15:00–15:30 Tori Nuariza Sutanto and Furqon Muhammad Faiz (Sultanate Institute, Surakarta): Early Islamic Glass on the West Coast of Sumatra: A Case Study from the Archaeological Site of Bongal, Indonesia

Coffee break

  • 16:00–16:30 Nada Kallas (Lebanese University, Beirut): L’usage de la verrerie islamique sur le territoire libanais entre le VIIe et le XIVe siècle
  • 16:30–17:00 Farzaneh Farrokhfar (University of Neyshabur): Glass Making Industry of Neyshabur in Ghaznavid and Seljuk Period

19:00 Conference dinner (invitation required)

SATURDAY, 6 JULY 2024

Romont, Hôtel de Ville, Rue du Château 112, Grande Salle (2nd floor)

SECTION III: Glass in al-Andalus, Chair: Francine Giese (Vitrocentre Romont)

  • 9:00–9:30 Nadine Schibille (IRAMAT-CEB, UMR7065 CNRS): The Mosaics from the Great Umayyad Mosques in Damascus and Córdoba
  • 9:30–10:00 Almudena Velo-Gala (Universidade Nova de Lisboa): A Glass Production in the Capital of the Andalusian Caliphate: Vessels and Bottles with Drop Decoration
  • 10:00–10:30 Ana Zamorano (University of Seville): The Glass of Madinat al-Zahra. Production and Exchange in Umayyad Cordoba
  • 10:30–11:00 Fernando Valdés Fernández (ALAMUT): Nouvelles sur le catalogue des cristaux de roche islamiques conservés en Espagne

Coffee break

SECTION V: Coloured Light, Chair: Laura Hindelang (University of Bern)

  • 11:30–12:00 Francine Giese, Sarah Keller, Sophie Wolf (Vitrocentre Romont), Nadine Schibille (IRAMAT-CEB, UMR7065 CNRS): Art Historical Classification and Material Characterization of Islamic Stucco Glass Windows
  • 12:00–12:30 Mustafa Tupev (Deutsches Archäologisches Institut Kairo): Nach dem Vorbild Roms an den Ufern des Nils
  • 12:30–13:00 Valentina Laviola (University of Naples L’Orientale): Looking Through Hodeida (Yemen): Stucco and Glass Windows from a Late-Ottoman Harbour City

Lunch at Vitromusée Romont

PARALLEL SECTIONS

Section VI: Glass in the Late Ottoman Period, Chair: Axel Langer (Museum Rietberg)

Romont, Hôtel de Ville, Rue du Château 112, Grande Salle (2nd floor)

  • 14:30–15:00 Cassandra Furstos, Nadine Schibille, Maria Paola Pellegrino, Anne Leschallier de Lisle, Yasmin Kanhoush, Julien Charbonnier (Archaïos, Paris): Glass Exchange Networks under the Microscope: The Composite Glass Assemblages from al-ʿUlā Valley (Hejaz, Saudi Arabia)
  • 15:00–15:30 Andrea Umberto Gritti (Campus Condorcet / EHESS): Ottoman Initiatives to Produce Filigreed Glass in the 19th Century
  • 15:30–16:00 Sarah Tabbal (Vitrocentre Romont): Far from Imagination? Drawings and Photographs of 19th Century Stucco Glass Windows
  • 16:00–16:30 Miriam Kühn (Museum für Islamische Kunst in Berlin): Exploring Acquisition Practices and Provenances in the Formative Period of the Museum für Islamische Kunst in Berlin: A Case Study on Sarre’s Acquisitions of Glass in Cairo between 1904 and 1914

Section VII: Ongoing research, Chair: Hagit Nol (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt)

Romont, Hôtel de Ville, Rue du Château 112, Salle bourgeoisiale (1st floor), 

  • 14:30–15:00 Bekhruz Golibovich Kurbanov (Samarqand Institute of Archaeology): Between Byzantium and Khurasan: A Case Study of a Medieval Ewer from Bukhara
  • 15:00–15:30 Giuseppe Labisi (University of Konstanz): The Bozpar Valley Research Project: New Data and Considerations on the Late Sasanian / Early Islamic Architecture of Iran
  • 15:30–16:00 Ana Marija Grbanovic (University of Bamberg): Colourful Mosques and Tekiyyas in Ottoman Balkans: a Uniquely Balkan Phenomenon?

Coffee break

17:00–19:00 General Assembly of Ernst Herzfeld Society

SUNDAY, 7 JULY 2024, Vitromusée Romont

10:00–11:00 Guided tour through the exhibition ‘Luminosité de l’Orient’11:00–13:00 Visit of the exhibition ‘Regards du Sénégal. Souwèr de la collection Afric.Art’ and presentation of the technique of reverse glass painting by the Senegalese artist Azou Bade

Romanesque Research Award/Prix de recherche de l‘Art roman 2024, deadline 17 July 2024

The European Romanesque Center (Europäisches Romanik Zentrum, ERZ) awards outstanding international research of emerging young scholars on the field of the Romanesque period. The award is donated by the Stiftung Saalesparkasse (Halle).

The award aims to promote, to honour and encourage graduated junior researchers contributing to the study of art and architectural history, archaeology, history, history of theology and liturgy, history of the literature or the law of the early and high Middle Ages.

Only unpublished dissertations will be considered (PhD thesis). The award is supposed to promote graduates. It is valued at 2,000 EUR. The members of the ERZ’s international advisory board and the executive board will co-judge to the selection of the awardee. Accepting the award, the winner is encouraged to give a public lecture at the ERZ.

Please send your application (CV, certificates, references, list of publications), a digital copy of the PhD thesis (PDF), including an abstract and the academic evaluations, until 17 July 2024 to:

Prof. Dr. Ute Engel
Europäisches Romanik Zentrum
c/o Institut für Kunstgeschichte und Archäologien Europas
Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
Emil-Abderhalden-Str. 26-27
E-Mail: sekretariat@romanik-zentrum.eu