Research Residencies, ERC AGRELITA 2024, University of Lille (France), deadline 1 February 2024

Find out more about the Residency.

The ERC Advanced Grant AGRELITA Project n° 101018777, “The reception of ancient Greece in pre-modern French literature and illustrations of manuscripts and printed books (1320-1550) : how invented memories shaped the identity of European communities”, directed by Prof. Catherine Gaullier-Bougassas (Principal Investigator), opens guest researchers residences.

The Hypotheses academic blog presents the project and its team : https://agrelita.hypotheses.org/

This call for applications is open to anyone, of French or foreign nationality, who holds a PhD in literature, art history, or history, whose work focuses on the history of books, cultural and political history, visual studies, or memory studies, wherein the competence and project are deemed to be complementary to the ones of the AGRELITA team.

These residencies indeed aim to open the reflections carried out by the team, to enhance its scientific activity through interactions with other scholars and other universities. The guest researchers will have the exceptional opportunity to contribute to a major project, to work with a dynamic team that conducts a wide range of activities at the University of Lille and within the research laboratory ALITHILA where many Medieval and Renaissance times specialists work, as well as to publish in a prestigious setting.

The AGRELITA project is based at the University of Lille. Located in the north of France, Lille is a city in the heart of Europe : 35 minutes from Brussels, 1 hour from Paris, 1 hour 20 minutes from London, 2 hours 40 minutes from Amsterdam, and 2 hours 30 minutes from Aachen. Residing in this metropolis offers the chance to discover the rich medieval heritage of Flanders and to carry out research in nearby libraries, museums, and archives, with very rich collections (Lille, Saint-Omer, Valenciennes, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Cambrai, Arras, Brussels).

The ERC Advanced Grant AGRELITA Project

Until now the reception history of ancient Greece in pre-modern Western Europe has focused almost exclusively on the transmission of Greek texts. Yet well before the revival of Greek teaching, numerous vernacular works, often illustrated, contained elaborate representations of ancient Greece. AGRELITA studies a large corpus of French language literary works (historical, fictional, poetic, didactic ones) produced from 1320 to the 1550s in France and Europe, before the first direct translations from Greek to French, as well as the images of their manuscripts and printed books. These works and their illustrations – exploring texts/images interactions as well as the distinctive impact they have – show representations of ancient Greece we can analyze from a perspective that has never been explored until now : how a new cultural memory was elaborated. AGRELITA thus examines this corpus linked with its political, social, and cultural context, but also with the literary and illustrated works of nearby countries from Europe. Situated at the crossroads of literary studies, book history and art history, visual studies, cultural and political history, and memory studies, AGRELITA’s ambition is to explore how the role played by ancient Greece was reassessed in the processes of shaping the identity of European communities. The project also aims to contribute to a general reflection on the formation of memories, heritages, and identities.

Conditions for defraying mission expenses

Visiting researchers will receive, in the form of mission expenses, a maximum fixed amount of 2000 euros per month, based on all necessary receipts of the costs of stay in Lille (accommodation, transport in the North region, and meal costs). A further maximum fixed amount is added to cover their travel expenses from their place of residence to Lille (round trip):

  • travel from a European country (based on proof of expenses) : 400 €
  • travel from a country outside Europe (based on proof of expenses) : 1200 €.

The expenses will be paid following the mission. AGRELITA will not arrange visas.

The University of Lille has a partnership that allows the rental of studios at the Reeflex University Residence : https://reeflex.univ-lille.fr/chercheur ; as well as at the International Research Residence : https://www.crous-lille.fr/se-loger/je-cherche-un-logement/notre-offre-logement-courts-sejours/4883-2/ . Visiting researchers can request this and the AGRELITA team will assist them to complete the reservation, subject to availability.

Lecture: ‘Foreignness and Architecture in late fifteenth-century Castile’ with Dr Costanza Beltrami, The Murray Seminars at Birkbeck, 5 December 2023, 5pm (GMT)

What did it mean to be a foreigner in fifteenth-century Castile? How was local architecture shaped by broader phenomena of migration, and how was international exchange transformed by local contexts? The history of fifteenth-century Spanish architecture has often been told as a history of travelling artists. Following a first ‘wave’ of French ‘pioneers,’ around mid-century, Northern European artists settled in the kingdom of Castile, obtaining leading positions in important cathedral lodges where they trained ‘second-generation’ migrants like Juan Guas (active 1453–1496), the leading architect of his time. In his will, Guas evokes his distant French origins, but also his position as Royal Master Mason. The foreign craftsmen who settled in Castile in the late-fifteenth century have been credited with establishing a new status for architects at the Gothic-to-Renaissance transition. Unusually, their names are recorded next to those of patrons on some contemporary buildings. Exploring the dynamics of artistic migration, this lecture will interrogate the meanings of architecture in fifteenth-century Castile.  

Click here to book the in-person seminar via Eventbrite

Click here to book the livestreamed seminar via Eventbrite

Birkbeck are happy to say that the Murray Seminars on Medieval and Renaissance Art are going to be restarting on December 5th after a longer-than-wished-for absence. The main change that you’ll notice is that the Livestreamed verison will now be using the ‘Microsoft Teams’ platform, as opposed to the glitch-heavy ‘Collaborate’ platform, and we hope you’ll appreciate the difference. You won’t need to download anything new, and access via the link should be straighforward. Of course, if you can attend in person, we’ll be delighted to see you again in our usual haunt of the Keynes Library at 43, Gordon Square, London WCIH 0PD, and we hope you’ll stay for a glass of wine after the seminar.

PhD Funding: ‘Reading and Writing in Medieval Women’s Religious Communities’ University of Cambridge and British Library, deadline 4 January 2024

Applications are invited for an Open-Oxford-Cambridge AHRC DTP-funded Collaborative Doctoral Award at the University of Cambridge, in partnership with the British Library.

This fully-funded studentship is available from October 2024. Further details about the value of an Open-Oxford-Cambridge AHRC DTP award are available on the DTP’s studentships page.

Closing date: 4 January 2024.

Project overview

This Collaborative Doctoral Award would give you the opportunity to investigate the culture of female religious communities in the Middle Ages, through a study of their surviving manuscripts. Medieval women living together in monasteries and other kinds of convent communities owned or produced an astonishing number and variety of manuscripts. These include literary works in poetry and prose, archive and record books, music manuscripts, financial and administrative accounts, maps, books for religious services, paintings in the form of manuscript illumination, documents such as charters, and sculpture in the form of seal impressions.

We are inviting applicants to propose a project that explores any aspect of women’s conventual life, with the specific aim of bringing together kinds of sources that have rarely been discussed in combination. The themes and structure of the project are entirely open, provided the proposal is interdisciplinary and combines different types of manuscripts—broadly defined, as above—in novel, creative, and productive ways. At least some element of your research should concern institutions in the British Isles, but the project as a whole may be comparative. In your proposal, you would aim to draw principally on the British Library’s collections (although we understand that some research in other collections will almost certainly be inevitable). Some indication of the BL’s holdings can be found on these sites:

• Manuscripts and Archives Collections Guides
• Digitised Manuscripts
• Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts
• Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue

The British Library has one of the world’s most extensive and diverse collections of manuscripts from medieval women’s communities. In your research for this project, you would work on these collections alongside the BL’s curatorial staff, and undertake specialised training at both the BL and at Cambridge, where you would be part of a large and collegial community of medievalists in a wide range of fields. The British Library is currently developing a major exhibition, Medieval Women, which is due to open in October 2024. Starting your doctoral research just as the exhibition is opening, you will be able to develop a close familiarity with the display, support the programme of private views and visits to the exhibition, and build on its research findings.

Supervision

The Cambridge supervisor is Dr Jessica Berenbeim, University Lecturer in Literature and Visual Culture at the Faculty of English. The British Library supervisor is Dr Eleanor Jackson, Curator of Illuminated Manuscripts in Western Heritage Collections. 

How to apply

  • We welcome applications from candidates of all backgrounds and ethnicities who have an interest in any field of Medieval Studies. Applicants should meet the eligibility criteria for Open-Oxford-Cambridge AHRC studentships.
  • Should you have any questions, or for an informal discussion about how you might approach the CDA project, you are welcome to contact Dr Jessica Berenbeim at jb455@cam.ac.uk and Dr Eleanor Jackson at ellie.jackson@bl.uk.

You should apply to the PhD in English by 4 January 2024 (midday, UK time), indicate your interest in being considered for an Open-Oxford-Cambridge AHRC DTP studentship and submit a completed copy of the OOC DTP Application Form at the same time. Please see the advert on the Cambridge jobs site.

Online Resource: The Medieval Kingdom of Sicily Image Database

The Medieval Kingdom of Sicily Image Database is now housed at the Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History

The Department of Art, Art History and Visual Studies at Duke University, the Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History at the University of Texas at Dallas, and the Dipartimento di Architettura dell’Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II” are pleased to announce the transfer of The Medieval Kingdom of Sicily Image Database to its new home at the Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History.

This transfer makes possible the continuation and further development of an invaluable digital resource for the study of the cultural heritage of southern Italy. At the time of its transfer, the database consisted of catalogue entries for over 9,000 historical images (including drawings, prints, paintings, and photographs) that document hundreds of medieval monuments in the former Kingdom of Sicily (c. 1100-1450). The database is accessible through a public website at https://koseodiah.org.

The Medieval Kingdom of Sicily Image Database was developed in 2011 at Duke University with a Collaborative Research Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Its objective was to collect and make available to scholars, students, travelers, and local communities the rich patrimony of historical images scattered throughout Europe and the United States in museums, archives, and libraries. Close study of these images enables researchers to reconstruct the history of a site, monument, or city, as well as to attest to its form prior to renovation, restoration, or destruction (especially as the result of natural disasters and bombardment during World War II). From its inception, the database was conceived as a collaboration between scholars in the United States and Italy.

With the retirement of the project’s founder, Caroline Bruzelius, from Duke University, the Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History and Associate Director Sarah K. Kozlowski emerged as the ideal partner to steward the American side of this international collaboration. On the strength of its individual scholars and collaborative research initiatives, the O’Donnell Institute has developed a strong focus on southern Italy and the Mediterranean world, as well as on digital cultural heritage practices. With the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte the O’Donnell Institute founded the Center for the Art and Architectural History of Port Cities “La Capraia”, which will be a Naples-based platform for research for the Medieval Kingdom of Sicily Image Database project. At the Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II”, Paola Vitolo, who has been involved with the design and development of the database since its beginnings, will continue as co-Director (now with Sarah K. Kozlowski) and will represent Italian scholarship and contributions to the project’s future.

Current work on the database includes a comprehensive georeferencing campaign, the creation of new entries that document Arabic inscriptions from medieval Palermo, and the incorporation of material related to the ongoing projects of the team’s researchers and graduate student researchers.

The project team invites scholars, students, and the interested public to visit the relaunched website at https://koseodiah.org. Learn more about the project, its history, and our team. And follow us on Instagram at @medieval.kosid.

For the latest developments in our research, please subscribe to our email list by writing to arthistory@utdallas.edu.

Il Medieval Kingdom of Sicily Image Database si è trasferito all’Istituto di Storia dell’Arte Edith O’Donnell

Il Dipartimento di Arte, Storia dell’Arte e Visual Studies della Duke University, l’Istituto di Storia dell’Arte Edith O’Donnell dell’Università del Texas a Dallas, e il Dipartimento di Architettura dell’Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II” sono lieti di annunciare il trasferimento del Medieval Kingdom of Sicily Image Database alla sua nuova sede presso l’Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History. Questo trasferimento rende possibile la continuazione e l’ulteriore sviluppo di una preziosa risorsa digitale per lo studio del patrimonio culturale dell’Italia meridionale. Al momento del trasferimento, il database comprende le voci di catalogo di oltre 9.000 immagini storiche (tra cui disegni, stampe, dipinti e fotografie) che documentano centinaia di monumenti medievali dell’ex Regno di Sicilia (1100-1450 circa). Il database è accessibile al pubblico attraverso il sito web https://koseodiah.org.

Il Medieval Kingdom of Sicily Image Database è stato sviluppato nel 2011 alla Duke University con un Collaborative Research Grant del National Endowment for the Humanities. Il suo obiettivo era quello di raccogliere e rendere disponibile, per studiosi, studenti, viaggiatori e comunità locali, il ricco patrimonio di immagini storiche sparse in musei, archivi e biblioteche tra l’Europa e gli Stati Uniti. L’attento studio di queste immagini consente ai ricercatori di ricostruire la storia di un sito, di un monumento o di una città, nonché di attestarne la forma prima di un ammodernamento, un restauro o la sua distruzione (soprattutto in seguito a disastri naturali e ai bombardamenti della Seconda Guerra Mondiale). Fin dall’inizio, il database è stato concepito come una collaborazione tra studiosi degli Stati Uniti e dell’Italia.

Dopo il pensionamento della fondatrice del progetto, Caroline Bruzelius, dalla Duke University, l’Istituto di Storia dell’Arte Edith O’Donnell, con la sua Direttrice Associata Sarah K. Kozlowski, è emerso come partner ideale per gestire la parte americana di questa collaborazione internazionale. Forte dei suoi singoli studiosi e delle collaborazioni in diversi progetti di ricerca, l’Istituto O’Donnell ha sviluppato una forte attenzione per l’Italia meridionale e il mondo mediterraneo, nonché per lo studio del patrimonio culturale digitalizzato. Con il Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte, l’O’Donnell Institute ha fondato il Centro per la storia dell’arte e dell’architettura delle città portuali “La Capraia”, che costituirà una postazione di ricerca a Napoli per il progetto del Medieval Kingdom of Sicily Image Database. Presso l’Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II”, Paola Vitolo, che è stata coinvolta sin dall’inizio nella progettazione e nello sviluppo del database, continuerà a ricoprire il ruolo di co-direttrice (ora insieme a Sarah K. Kozlowski) e rappresenterà lo studio e il contributo italiano al futuro del progetto.

L’attuale lavoro sul database comprende una campagna di georeferenziazione completa, la creazione di nuove voci che documentino le iscrizioni arabe della Palermo medievale e l’aggiunta di materiale relativo ai progetti in corso portati avanti dai ricercatori e dagli studenti del team.

Il team del progetto invita gli studiosi, gli studenti e il pubblico interessato a visitare il sito web all’indirizzo https://koseodiah.org. Si rimanda alle singole pagine per saperne di più sul progetto, sulla sua storia, e sul nostro team. E seguiteci su Instagram su @medieval.kosid.

CFP: ‘Production, Transmission & Interpretation’, University of York, deadline 31 December 2023

An interdisciplinary conference on Islamic Art, Architecture, History and Archaeology on 14th and 15th March, 2024

Islamic time begins with the Hijra; the integral responsibilities of every Muslim include the Hajj; and studies of Islamic history have traditionally followed military marches and commercial/cultural corridors that enabled the creation of the great gunpowder empires. More recently, mobility has also been manifested in the Islamic world in the fall of these empires, movement of their materials through loots and repatriations, and voluntary and forced migrations. Until recently, these themes have been predominantly researched divorced from Islam through incongruous positivist lenses and euro-centric canons, and often with underlying colonial agendas.

It is with the aim to intervene within and disrupt this context that the Department of History of Art and the Department of Archaeology at the University of York present Production, Transmission, & Interpretation, a conference on Islamic Art, Architecture, History, and Archaeology. Foregrounding the voices of the historically marginalised, founded in material cultural narratives, and focussed on new sources and methodologies, this conference will bring together the latest research from scholars – doctoral to emeriti – and draw upon a range of cognate disciplines across the arts, humanities, and social sciences, to consider 1400 years of the Islamic world and society.

Submission Guidelines

We welcome abstract submissions intended to culminate into the standard format of 20-minute in-person academic paper presentations and invite applications from across disciplines, including art and architectural history, archaeology, conservation, heritage management, curation, museum studies and cultural studies, on themes that may include:

  • Islamic heartlands, hinterlands, and frontiers
  • Art and architecture of mobility, routes, travels, and transfers
  • Patronage – imperial, sub-imperial, male, female, and non-binary
  • Agency of architects, artists, and craftspersons
  • Sources – oral histories, local archives, epigraphy, calligraphy, endangered languages Archaeological material, bioarchaeological approaches, and conservation
  • Islamic approaches past and present to nature, culture, environment and sustainability
  • Conflicts, occupations, appropriations and adaptations
  • Islamic art markets – auctions, ethics, legislations

Abstracts should be limited to 250 words, indicate the target thematic cluster, and be accompanied by the researcher’s name, institutional affiliation and stage of study, location, and a brief biography not exceeding 100 words.

Deadline for proposal submission is 31 December, 2023.

All abstracts should be sent as pdf attachments to hist592@york.ac.uk

If you have any questions, please email Parshati Dutta or Nausheen Hoosein.

Conversations are underway with leading university presses to publish a thematic edited volume of papers presented, therefore please declare if the material has been used before, and if not, whether you would be interested in publishing with us.

Photo by kind courtesy of Prof Robert Hillenbrand

Cambridge Medieval Art Seminar Series, 2023-2024

The University of Cambridge Research Seminar in Medieval Art meets during Full Term, attracting an impressive range of speakers from home and abroad.

All seminars take place in the Classroom at Scroope Terrace, starting at 5pm or over Zoom, starting at 5pm UK time. Further details will follow shortly, including how to register your attendance for seminars on Zoom.

The seminars have been convened by Dr Laura Slater and Professor Donal Cooper. Please email: lss33@cam.ac.uk to go on the seminar mailing list.

Find out more here.

Michaelmas Term 2023

Monday 30th October 2023

Lucy Donkin, University of Bristol: ‘Transporting the Campo Santo: Material, Visual, and Spiritual Ties to Rome on the Eve of the Reformation’

This seminar will take place in the Classroom, Scroope Terrace, 5pm.  

Monday 13th November 2023

Sarah Guérin, University of Pennsylvania: ‘Paris, Florence, Tunis and… Ni-Jimi : Aureate ambitions and the Eighth Crusade’

This seminar will take place over Zoom at 5pm.  

Monday 27th November 2023

Paul Binski, University of Cambridge; Emily Guerry, University of Kent and Lucy Wrapson, Hamilton Kerr Institute: ‘Caught on film – the Gothic Wall Paintings of Angers Cathedral, their story, date and significance’.

This seminar will take place over Zoom at 5pm. 

Lent Term 2024

Monday 29th January 2024

Frank Fehrenbach, University of Hamburg: ‘Giotto and the Physicists’

This seminar will take place over Zoom at 5pm.  

Monday 12th February 2024

Kathryn A. Smith, Department of Art History, New York University ‘Opening the Space of the Parchment Roll: Imaging Interiority in Two English Copies of the Septenarium pictum.’ 

This seminar will take place over Zoom over 5pm.  

Monday 11th March 2024

Anthony Eastmond, The Courtauld Institute: ‘Icons, Saints and Society in Medieval Georgia’

This seminar will take place in the Classroom, Scroope Terrace, 5pm.

Call for submissions: ‘Marian Devotion and the Senses in the Middle Ages’, deadline 20 December 2023

While some of the abstracts have been secured, we are still looking for ones that address the below topic for a volume being considered for publication with Brepols Publishers.

The volume seeks to explore the sensory approaches of the Marian cult as reflected in Eastern and Western Christianity. It aims to examine the private and collective expressions of Marian devotion in relation to the senses or intersections of senses (visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, and olfactory) that generate forms of spiritual entanglements and mutual dependencies between human devotional practices, artefacts, and sites.

Suggested topics, on any geographic area or time period (between 300-1500) may include, but are not limited to:

  • pilgrimages to Marian shrines/holy sites (incubation, dreams, and Marian miracles);
  • devotion gestures based on: touch (e.g. touching the floor, kneeling, kissing), smell and its healing properties, sound, etc.;
  • active/passive use of the senses in Marian devotion;
  • inner senses/external senses in relation to Marian devotion;
  • Marian devotion, the senses, and the liturgy (ceremonies, sermons);
  • architecture/church interiors in relation to sensory effects and Marian devotion;
  • personal/collective devotional practices;
  • religious objects, the senses, and Marian devotion;
  • sensory deprivation, mystical experience, and Marian proximity;
  • visual representations and the senses: books and illustrations, paintings, mosaics, marbles, statues;
  • literature: liturgical dramas/plays; books.

Submissions from a variety of disciplines (and sources) are accepted including but not limited to: history, art history, visual culture, social history, cultural history, hagiography, religious studies, cultural studies, textual studies in a transdisciplinary perspective. The language of publication is English.

Please submit a 600-800 words abstract clearly underlying the main argument and the potential outcomes of the essay. All contributions should be original and previously unpublished.

Proposals should have an abstract format written either in PDF file or Word.doc and be accompanied by a short 700 words CV including e-mail, current affiliation, affiliation address, and academic position.

CVs should have the standard CV format; narrative bio formats are not accepted.

Please submit all relevant documents, as PDF or Word.doc, by 20 December, 2023, to the e-mail address: znorovszkyandrea@usal.es

Contact information:

Andrea-Bianka Znorovszky, University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain (znorovszkyandrea@gmail.com)

Nota Bene!

Submitted abstracts will be selected. Contextually, potential authors will be asked to submit their essays for the publication of the edited volume considered for publication with Brepols Publishers.

At this early stage, neither the editor, nor the publisher guarantees the publication of the essays. These are accepted for publication only after they undergo several reviewing procedures, initially by the editor, and then by two (2) reviewers. Alternatively the series editor might decide to review the material. Essays also need to fulfill formatting and language requirements.

CFP: ‘Medieval Subjectivities’, 2024 Cornell Medieval Studies Student Colloquium, deadline 15 December 2023

The Medieval Studies Program at Cornell is pleased to announce the 34th annual Medieval Studies Student Colloquium (MSSC), which takes the idea of “Subjectivities” as its theme. The conference will be held virtually over Zoom on Saturday, March 2nd, 2024.

We invite proposals for 20-minute papers investigating the various subjectivities present in the Middle Ages or later understandings of or scholarship on the medieval period. Such papers are encouraged to approach this theme from an expansive range of disciplines and perspectives, especially those which have been absent or underrepresented within medieval studies.

“Subjectivities” can refer to the various ways in which individuals’ perceptions are influenced by their unique identities, experiences, feelings, beliefs, and tastes. For the purposes of this conference, papers may address the myriad relationalities and orientations that connect medieval subjects to each other. Papers might engage with the ways in which identities, communities, religions, affects, archives, arts, or the environment inform medieval subjectivities. Papers might also consider how medieval subjectivities function across spatial and temporal boundaries. How can conceptions of the Global Middle Ages be used to understand medieval subjectivities? What is the relationship between postmedieval and medieval subjects? What subjectivities do modern readers bring to medieval texts, and how do those subjectivities impact scholarship? What are the ramifications of using contemporary critical theories to interpret medieval subjects? How do modern subjectivities affect retellings and re-imaginings of the Middle Ages in pop culture and speculative media? Papers may respond to, but are certainly not limited to, these questions.

Papers from underrepresented fields and backgrounds are particularly welcome, and we strongly encourage papers that look beyond Christian, Eurocentric, and Anglocentric contexts. We invite submissions from all fields and disciplines adjacent to Medieval Studies, including but not limited to Africana Studies, Anthropology, Archaeology, Art History, Asian Studies, Classics, Critical Race Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies, History, Indigenous Studies, Literature, Near Eastern Studies, Philosophy, and Theology. While we will consider all abstracts that are submitted, we will give priority to those aligned with the colloquium’s theme.

Please send 300-word abstracts to Alexa Gall at aap228@cornell.edu by December 15th, 2023.

Call for Journal Submissions: Irish Heritage Studies: The annual research journal of the Office of Public Works, Ireland, deadline 15 December 2023

Image credit: ‘Cormac’s Chapel, Rock of Cashel, co. Tipperary, consecrated in 1134. Image courtesy of the Office of Public Works.’

The Office of Public Works, Ireland, is pleased to announce the launch of its annual research journal and invites submissions for the first volume to be published in spring 2025.

The journal will showcase original critical research rooted in the substantial portfolio of material culture in the care of, or managed by, the OPW: built heritage; historic, artistic, literary and scientific collections; the national and international histories associated with these places and objects; and its own long organisational history. Papers will contribute to a deeper understanding of this important collection of national heritage, and investigate new perspectives on aspects of its history. The journal is designed for a broad public, specialist and professional readership.

Established in 1831 (and with antecedents dating back to 1670), the Office of Public Works is a central government office currently with three principal areas of responsibility: managing much of the Irish State’s property portfolio; managing Ireland’s flood risk; and maintaining and presenting 780 heritage sites including national monuments, historic landscapes, buildings and their collections.

We invite submissions on the following historical themes, ranging from the early medieval period to the close of the twentieth century:

– The design history of properties, demesnes and parks in the care of or managed by OPW.
– The furniture, archives, libraries, historical botanical collection, fine and decorative art collections in the care of OPW – including the State Art Collection – and items of material culture held elsewhere with connections to these properties and collections.
– The social, political, biographical and global histories connected with these properties and collections.
– Previously marginalised historical narratives connected to these properties and collections, such as women’s voices, Ireland minority ethnic/global majority heritage, queer lives and disability history.
– The organisational history of public works bodies in Ireland since the seventeenth century such as the Surveyor General’s activities for the crown in Ireland and the Barrack Board, prior to the formalisation of the OPW. The full spectrum of OPW’s diverse history since 1831 including civil engineering, famine relief, loan administration, architectural builds and conservation, archaeological conservation, curatorship and interpretation of monuments and historical sites. This remit encompasses activities at properties owned or managed by the OPW, as well as OPW work undertaken at other State-owned properties (for example: Leinster House, the Four Courts).

We welcome scholarly papers from a range of perspectives, including (but not limited to) art, architectural, social, scientific and book history, cultures of collecting and display, museum and conservation studies, contested history and provenance research. We are also interested in interdisciplinary approaches and innovative methodologies. Discrete single-object case studies should seek to place the chosen subject within its broader cultural and historical context.

We welcome submissions from academics, post-graduate students, allied professionals, independent researchers and OPW personnel, and actively encourage the work of early career scholars. Submissions should draw on original and unpublished research. Manuscripts will be blind peer-reviewed before definitive acceptance for publication. The journal will be published in hardcopy, with later release for e-book sales and finally open access online.

Each volume will consist of eight to twelve papers. Final manuscripts will be 4,000–8,000 words (plus endnotes), typically with twelve illustrations. In addition to these more traditional essays, we welcome shorter pieces of above 1,000 words (plus endnotes), typically with six illustrations. Submissions should be in English, and multi-authored contributions are welcome.

If you are interested in proposing a paper, please email an abstract of approx. 500 words (300 words for shorter case studies) with a provisional title and a brief biographical note (not CV) to Caroline Pegum, editorial manager, at IHSjournal@opw.ie by 15 December 2023. All submissions will be acknowledged. Informal enquiries are welcome at the same email address.

Find out more information here: https://www.gov.ie/en/campaigns/irish-heritage-studies/

Call for Submissions: ‘Speculations: The Centennial Issue of Speculum’, deadline 1 December 2023

Speculations
The Centennial Issue of Speculum
January 2026

The centenary of a scholarly journal offers the opportunity to recognize, reflect on, and reimagine scholarly methods and objects, including canonicity and the discursive possibilities of scholarship; the boundaries, borders and spaces that define our disciplines; the genres and taxonomies that shape our work.

To mark the 100th anniversary of Speculum, we aim to commemorate the journal by raising questions about the methods and parameters of our study in a prospective rather than retrospective manner. What might the future of medieval studies look like? What might the place of this journal in that future be? The volume focuses on the future of the journal and the field it helps to define by inviting a wide breadth of scholarship that can collectively speculate about how we can take medieval studies into the future. But of course those living in the medieval world broadly considered speculated on their future as well. How was the future conceived in the past and what might those past reflections about the future, and about the condition of futurity generally, have to teach us as we consider recent shifts in our field and a shifting institutional context.

The format of the centennial volume will model the kind of contributions we seek: instead of 4-5 long form articles, we plan to publish 50 short essays (of approximately 3000 words each) in an attempt to represent a broader range of voices, perspectives, methodologies, and areas of study. We welcome traditional essays as well as innovative forms of research and reflection (pedagogical speculations, creative or dialogic writing, speculative history, etc.).

We invite contributions that speculate on the past and future of scholarly work in medieval studies. We particularly welcome essays that address gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, and that use comparative and interdisciplinary methods and that address at least one of the following questions:

  • What kinds of methods and theoretical models shape our work and will orient us in the future?
  • How might we call on more inclusive and expansive understandings of the Middle Ages in light of the global turn and critical reappraisals of periodization.
  • What histories do we examine, what histories do we obscure, and what criteria will most productively guide our examination of histories in the future?
  • How have scholarly understandings of medieval historicity and temporality shaped the parameters of our inquiry, and how might we critically engage these accounts?

Proposals of 300 words should be sent to speculations@themedievalacademy.org by December 1, 2023.

Speculations editorial collective

  • Mohamad Ballan
  • Peggy McCracken
  • Cecily Hilsdale
  • Katherine Jansen
  • Sierra Lomuto
  • Cord J. Whitaker