Institut für Kunstwissenschaft und Historische Urbanistik, Technische Universität Berlin, 3-4, September 2026

Objects record their material pasts: A medieval manuscript’s parchment pages, for instance, retain traces of animal bodies and thus reflect their physical source. Similarly, varying states of silver corrosion and shades of gold could have reminded its readers that metallic colours were produced from differently sourced and alloyed metals (Herbert 2022; Degler/Wenderholm 2016). Illuminations with rare pigments, such as lapis-lazuli, could transport connotations of precious foreignness and geographical expanse (Dunlop 2014), while a so-called toadstone placed on a book cover may have evoked a legendary origin, such as described in the Hortus sanitatis.

Medieval patrons, craftsmen, sellers, and users were highly attentive to the material qualities of artefacts and to their components’ encapsulated memories of provenance. For example, Book III of Theophilus’ twelfth-century Schedula diversarum artium describes various types of gold, including “gold of the land of Havilah”, “Arabian gold”, “Spanish gold” and “sand gold”, which is said to be found on the banks of the Rhine (Dodwell 1998, pp. 96-98). The author mentions their colour and properties, as well as elaborating on their – often legendary – circumstances of extraction.

The conditions of an object or a raw material’s acquisition could also be assessed on ethical grounds, as shown by the fourteenth-century Rawḍ al-Qirṭās, a royal chronicle and history of Fez. Here, provenance is examined through a golden bracelet endowed to the Qarawiyyin mosque by the Marinid ruler Abū Yaʿqūb Yūsuf (r. 1286–1307). According to the chronicle, the bracelet was made from booty taken in a war against Christians in al-Andalus and inherited by the ruler from his mother (Roudh el-Kartas 1860, p. 88). Its verifiably “pure” (ḥalāl) circumstances of acquisition and ownership chain made this piece of jewellery an appropriate resource to finance construction works in a religious edifice.

This conference aims to discuss how medieval objects and materials “remember” their origins (Plate 2025; Schlunke 2013; Jones 2007). Taking inspiration from the methods of modern-day provenance research, which traces the circumstances of acquisition and ownership chains, as well as embracing multiple perspectives on resource extraction and variable object narratives (Hagström-Molin 2022; Binter et al. 2021; Feigenbaum/Reist 2013), we propose to investigate how the prehistories of an object’s components continue to reverberate within the artefact: What role does the memory of a sometimes extraordinary or mythic origin play in endowing things with particular significance? And extending the scope of provenance research to material narratives: To what extent does matter participate in processes of remembering and commemoration – and, conversely, also in forgetting or actively covering up – provenance? Does matter-based memory rather emerge as a “side-effect” from a substance’s properties, or could it also be actively anticipated through techniques of manufacture?

At stake in these questions is whether and how recollection can meaningfully be attributed to the materiality of medieval things. Although one may argue that artefacts “do not ‘have’ a memory of their own”, but merely trigger a viewer’s memory (Assmann 2008, p. 111), recent scholarship increasingly challenges strictly anthropocentric memory models by foregrounding interdependencies and entanglements among humans, animals, plants, and environments (e.g. Crane 2021; Steel 2022). This can be illustrated, for instance, by how materials register time through reactive and alterable qualities such as ageing, deformation, or corrosion, which could be understood as temporal inscriptions shaping how objects contribute to processes of remembering over time.

As a working hypothesis, we propose that these aspects of materiality constitute a form of non-human participation in knowledge production, whereby matter does not merely receive meaning retrospectively but actively influences how material memory is perceived, recalled, or obscured. The conference hence conceives objects as having agency within their own biographies, examining how material features prompt and preserve histories and memories – parchment reflecting animal bodies, recycled metals retaining traces of earlier uses, or textile smells evoking sensory connections to their origins.

We invite submissions that explore how materials store, absorb, or generate memories, and how reshaped objects prompt remembrance over time through the agencies of materials and the temporal narratives embedded within them. Case studies may address the multilayered provenances of objects by including also the imaginaries surrounding them as well as how myth, craft knowledge, and natural philosophy (like Pliny’s Naturalis historia or Albertus Magnus’ De animalibus and De mineralibus) shaped understandings of material memory in the medieval period.

Possible themes include, but are not limited to:

• Objects as material archives that contain origins and histories of their components
• Intersections of material memory and provenance (e.g. metals recast from ancient treasures)
• Legendary material origins (mythical genealogies, dragon-guarded substances, saintly or demonic origins etc.)
• Materials bearing traces of their extraction or ecological memory (e.g. the growth rings of timber, dentin structure revealing its origin in elephant or narwhal)
• Altered or “re-membered” objects storing, losing or projecting memories through decay, reuse, restoration, reintegration into new material cycles or forms (e.g. palimpsests, repurposed precious stones or ivories)
• Reactive, ageing, or “shape-shifting” materialities as mnemonic agents and carriers of memory (e.g. wax, parchment, bark, caoutchouc, asbestos)
• Conservational and theoretical approaches to material memory, addressing human-animal-nature-object relations

Contributions that focus on aspects of the perception, and/or artistic interactions with material memory in non-European contexts are explicitly encouraged.

Please send your paper title, an abstract (max. 300 words), and a short biographical notice (approx. 150 words) as a single file to i.dolezalek@tu-berlin.de and marie.hartmann@tu-berlin.de by 15 March 2026. A publication of selected papers is planned.

This conference is organised by Prof. Isabelle Dolezalek and Marie Hartmann, postdoctoral researcher in the project “Premodern Provenance. Tracing, Telling and Imagining the Origins of Objects and Materials in the Medieval Mediterranean“ (2025–2027).

There will be some funding to support travel and accommodation costs for those without institutional support. Professional childcare can be provided upon request for the duration of the conference.

Bibliography

• Assmann, Jan, “Communicative and Cultural Memory”. In: Astrid Erll and Ansgar Nünning (eds.), Cultural Memory Studies: An International and Interdisciplinary Handbook. Berlin/Boston 2008.
• Binter, Julia et al. (eds.), em II power II relations: A booklet on postcolonial provenance research in the permanent exhibitions of the Ethnologisches Museum and the Museum für Asiatische Kunst at the Humboldt Forum. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Berlin 2021.
• Crane, Susan, “An Ontological Turn for the Medieval Books of Beasts: Environmental Theory from Premodern to Postmodern”. In: Susan McHugh, Robert McKay, and John Miller (eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Animals and Literature. London 2021, pp. 111-126.
• Degler, Anna and Iris Wenderholm, “Der Wert des Goldes – der Wert der Golde. Eine Einleitung”. Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 79 (2016): pp. 443-460.
• Dodwell, Ch. R. (ed. and transl.), Theophilus, De diversis artibus – The Various Arts. London 1961 (reprint Oxford 1986, 1998).
• Dunlop, Anne, “On the origins of European painting materials, real and imagined”. In: Christy Anderson, Anne Dunlop, and Pamela H. Smith (eds.), The Matter of Art: Materials, Practices, Cultural Logics, c. 1250–1750. Manchester 2014, pp. 67-96.
• Feigenbaum, Gail and Inge Reist (eds.), Provenance: An Alternate History of Art. Los Angeles 2013.
• Hagström-Molin, Emma, Provenance in nineteenth-century Europe: Research practice and concept. Nordic Museology 2-3 (2021): pp. 96-104.
• Herbert, Lynley Anne, “A Curator’s Note: The Tarnished Reception of Remarkable Manuscripts”. In: Joseph S. Ackley and Shannon L. Wearing (eds.), Illuminating Metalwork: Metal, Object, and Image in Medieval Manuscripts. Berlin/Boston 2022, pp. 443-462.
• Hortus sanitatis, print. by Jacob Meydenbach. Mainz 1491. Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, digitized 24 Nov. 2008, urn:nbn:de:bvb:12-bsb00027846-3.
• Jones, Andrew, Memory and Material Culture. Cambridge 2007.
• Munteán, László, Liedeke Plate, and Anneke Smelik (eds.), Things to Remember: Introduction to Materializing Memory in Art and Popular Culture. New York 2016.
• Plate, Liedeke, “Remembering Things: The Materiality of Memory and the Memory of Materials”. In: Astrid Erll, Susanne Knittel and Jenny Wüstenberg (eds.), Dynamics, Mediation, Mobilization: Doing Memory Studies With Ann Rigney. Berlin/Boston 2025, pp. 245-250.
• Roudh el-Kartas, Histoire des souverains du Maghreb (Espagne et Maroc) et annales de la ville de Fès, trans. by Auguste Beaumier. Paris 1860.
• Schlunke, Katrina, Memory and Materiality. Memory Studies 6.3 (2013): pp. 253-261.
• Steel, Karl, “Human/Animal”. In: Raluca Radulescu and Sif Rikhardsdottir (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Medieval English Literature. New York 2022, pp. 436-444.

Università di Genova, May 7 and 8, 2026

More information can be found on the conference website.

The PhD conference aims to promote a dialogue between young scholars on the theme of the social differentiation in a diachronic and interdisciplinary perspective. Since the proposed research themes are shared by numerous scopes in the field of the PhD course disciplines, our purpose is to promote reflections and discussions which could lead to the elaboration of new research paths. The “social differentiation” concept refers to the process with which the elements of a collective organism acquire specific autonomy and identity, namely they become reciprocally different. This definition recalls the delineation, into a specific social contest, of areas and communities which distinguish each other by shared traits which assume social significance. It is a process characterizing every human society, regarding, generally, the progressive increase of their complexity which could be analysed through a historical, archaeological and art-historical perspective. This is the meaning of the chosen theme, “different differentiation”, i.e. analysing the transformations of social differentiation processes as the research objects and instruments change. Therefore, we intend to reflect about two main aspects: the first, typological, aims to describe the nature of the observed differentiation (based on ethnicity, gender, juridical status, economic situation etc.); the second, methodological, regarding the sources and the instruments used to analyse the case study. Moreover, it will evenly be important to consider the reasons and dynamics (“logics”) which cause the differentiation, and the modalities with which it manifests (“practices”). The theme enables, furthermore, to consider the relationship between the social differentiation and other related problems, such as the origin of inequality, the outlining of alterities, discrimination cases and social marginalization. Eventually, studying the differentiation implies the possibility to consider its contrary, namely the absence of differentiations and the attenuation of differences that could lead to extreme social homologations.

The aim of the symposium is to explore the theme through a historical, art-historical and archaeological perspective. Proposals concerning the following research areas will be accepted: Prehistoric, Classical and Medieval Archaeology; Medieval, Modern and Contemporary History, including Gender History; Archival Science, Palaeography, Diplomatics and Codicology; Medieval, Modern and Contemporary Art History.

Theoretical or experimental contributions will be welcome, with particular attention to the enhancement of the critical approach, relating to the following (but not restrictive) thematic areas:

1. Origins and dynamics of (in)differentiation: emergence of élites, persistence,processes of transformation, conflicts and breakdowns of hierarchies;
2. Materiality of (in)differentiation: objects, prestige goods, practices of production,gestures and rituals;
3. Representation of (in)differentiation: logics and practices of appropriation, selfdetermination and imitation among social and cultural groups;
4. Depictions, insignia, censorship and iconoclasm: public or private tools for identity affirmation, self or otherness recognition, social distinction or standardization;
5. Class, race and (in)differentiation: processes of inclusion, exclusion, and marginalisation on ethnic, religious, and socio-economic grounds;
6. Gender and (in)differentiation: social roles, identity constructions, feminisms, masculinities, and queer perspectives;
7. Spaces of belonging and distinction, selection or social segregation: geographies, architecture, monuments, public and private places;

1. Economies and trade movements: communication routes, supply chains, free-ports and monopolies for the exchange of goods and services;
2. Craft categories, professions, positions and roles: work hierarchies, guilds, workshops, institutions;
3. Digital technologies and new methodological implications: accessibility practices, inclusion and uses through AI; diversification of digital tools as a means of creating experiences (tactile, visual, performative);
4. Differentiations by law: rules, legal texts, political and legislative guidelines on (in)differentiation;
5. Public memories, cultures and politics of remembrance: processing, reuse, erasure or exaltation of social groups’ memories;
6. Individual experiences and expressions of (in)differentiation: sources for reconstructing biographical events;
7. Theoretical and methodological reflections: ways of defining and interpreting difference and/or standardisation.

Submission guidelines

The Call for Papers is open to PhD students and young researchers who have obtained their degree in the last three years. Proposals may be submitted in Italian or English.

Applications must be sent by email to the following address: phd.conference.starch@gmail.com, specifying “Proposta Convegno Dottorale” in the subject line and indicating the relevant field of research.

Applicants are required to send a single PDF file containing a brief scientific CV (maximum one page) and an abstract of approximately 300 words (excluding essential references), a title and five keywords. 

The conference programme will be established in accordance with the chronological, thematic or methodological similarities of the contributions. Keynote speakers affiliated with national and international academic institutions will be invited. The conference will be held in person, and each participant will have a maximum of 20 minutes for their presentation.

Proceedings will be considered for publication.

The deadline for submitting applications is February 15, 2026. Selection results will be notified by March 6, 2026.

There are no registration fees or refunds. For further information, please write to: phd.conference.starch@gmail.com.

More information can be found on the conference website.

Scientific committee

Professors:

• Gianluca Ameri, Denise Bezzina, Matteo Caponi, Maria Elena Cortese, Antonino Facella, Marco Folin, Fabio Negrino, Valentina Ruzzin, Daniele Sanguineti, Guri Schwarz, Paola Valenti, Stefania Ventra

PhD students:

• Morella Alpa, Lucrezia Boiani, Clotilde Brandone, Enrico Cipollina, Anna Contro, Chiara Dodero, Paola Gargiulo, Monica Gestro, Kevin Imbimbo, Vittoria Magnoler, Bianca Romano, Chiara Tramontana, Matteo Trotta, Mattia Viti

Organising committee:

• Morella Alpa, Lucrezia Boiani, Clotilde Brandone, Chiara Dodero, Paola Gargiulo, Monica Gestro, Kevin Imbimbo, Leila Leoni, Vittoria Magnoler, Bianca Romano, Matteo Trotta, Arianna Vallarino, Mattia Viti