Call for Applications: Host the Vagantes Conference on Medieval Studies

The Vagantes Conference on Medieval Studies is now accepting applications for our 2024 host institution! The conference is an interdisciplinary graduate student conference focusing on the Middle Ages. It is entirely organized and run by graduate students. Vagantes is a unique opportunity to showcase the Medieval Studies community at your institution, as well as to gain valuable professional development experience in planning and organizing the event, and to meet and interact with top medievalist graduate students.

Applications will be accepted until Wednesday, August 31st 2022 and will be reviewed by the Vagantes Board of Directors. E-mail submissions are required.

Learn more here: http://vagantesconference.org/hosting-vagantes/

Traineeship: York Minster Museum Trainee, deadline 14 July 2022

A fixed term role for one year | 35 hours per week | £20,000 per annum

A Museum Trainee is sought for York Minster.  York Minster’s museum, library and archive collections consist of over 300,000 items, with the artefact collections ranging from stained glass, silver and furniture to archaeology, sculpture, stonework, textiles and social history material. The Minster is home to an Accredited Museum, the Undercroft Museum; the largest Cathedral Library in the country with over 90,000 volumes; and archival records and manuscripts dating back a thousand years. In 2019, the Minster welcomed over 700,000 visitors, of all faiths and none.

The post is suitable for a recent graduate of a postgraduate Museum Studies or equivalent course, or person with equivalent professional experience.  This is a fixed-term role for one year; an excellent developmental opportunity which will provide hands-on experience and training in collections care and management, exhibitions and displays and collections-related public engagement.

This post would suit someone committed to learning; a motivated individual with a good awareness of the principles of collections care and museum services, keen to develop their professional experience. They will work within the friendly and supportive Collections & Interpretation team, and contribute to collections management, displays, visitor welcome and public engagement.

To apply please download Application Pack and download and complete an Application Form, Equality Diversity Monitoring Form and a Confidentiality Declaration Form. Completed forms should be sent to jobs@yorkminster.org.

Find out more information here.

Call for Papers: Fenestella. Inside Medieval Art, Issue 3/2022, Miscellaneous Section. (Extended Deadline: 4 September 2022)

Your news/announcement, or details about your event : Fenestella is a scholarly, multilingual, and peer-reviewed open access journal. Fenestella publishes scholarly papers on medieval art and architecture, between Late Antiquity and c. 1400, covering the Latin West, the Byzantine East and medieval Islam.

The Journal aims to consider medieval artefacts from within, in order to throw light on iconography, function and liturgical practice and space. For the issue 3/2022 we are still accepting contributions, covering all topics, for the miscellaneous section.

Deadline: 4 September 2022

Fore more information, please visit: https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/fenestella/index or email: redazione.fenestella@unimi.it

Conference: London Early Medieval England Symposium, 3 Sep 2022, 12:30—17:30 (BST), London

When: 3 September 2022, 12:30 — 17:30
Venue: Birkbeck Main Building, Malet Street, London

The London Early Medieval England Symposium returns after a two-year hiatus with a programme devoted to ‘making and curating early medieval England’. This year’s theme draws on various aspects of the textual and material cultures of early medieval England, considering acts of creation and curation in the past and present from a range of different disciplinary perspectives, and drawing on the expertise of museum specialists, practitioners, and academics. Central to these discussions are questions about how early medieval people understood acts of making in their own world – in treasure, poetry, manuscripts, and music – and how people in the present have sought to revoice and enliven our understanding of these experiences. Join us for an afternoon of discussion and exploration open to all with an interest in this period and its cultures.

Programme (Provisional)

1.00-2.30: Session 1: Treasures, Poetry, and Song

Dr Sue Brunning: Curating Sutton Hoo Beyond the Glass
Dr Amy Faulkner: Grand designs: Construction, Decoration and Demolition in the Old English Phoenix
Dr Steven Breeze: The Early Medieval Round Lyre and Old English Poetry

2.30-2.45: Break

2.45-4.15: Session 2: Voices of the Past and Present

Dr Fran Allfrey and Dr Carl Kears: Revoicing Medieval Poetry: Reflections
Dr James Aitcheson: Writing the Early Middle Ages: Rethinking the Role of Historical Fiction
Dr Mike Bintley: Inventing Eanswythe: Public Histories of an Early Kentish Saint, c. 900-2020

4.15-4.30: Break

4.30-5.00: Dr Sara Charles: Manuscript-Making in the Middle Ages: A Practice-Based Approach

Chair: Professor Catherine Clarke

5.00 Thanks and closing

5.15 End

Find out more here and register here.

Job Opportunity: Project Curator – Art in Medieval England, Victoria & Albert Museum. August 2022 – July 2023 (Deadline: 11 July 2022)

The V&A seeks to enrich people’s lives by promoting the practice of design and increasing knowledge, understanding and enjoyment of the designed and performed world. The V&A is planning a touring exhibition of singular masterpieces of art in Medieval England c.1000 – 1500 from its collection. The exhibition will showcase some of these unique works of art alongside workshop products such as English Medieval embroidery and alabaster carving that formed the two most prolific art export markets for England in a truly international age. This is an exciting opportunity to join the V&A as an Exhibition Project Curator, working within the Decorative Art and Sculpture department. The post holder will co-ordinate research and other activities associated with this touring exhibition, supporting the creative vision set out by the Lead Curator.

The close date for applications is 11 July 2022 at 17:00

For more information, or to apply, click here.

Online Lecture: “Exploring the Catacombs” with Dr. Norbert Zimmermann, The International Catacomb Society. 26 June 2022, 1 pm ET

The International Catacomb Society directors are pleased to invite you to a virtual lecture by Dr. Norbert Zimmermann (German Archaeological Institute, Rome) on Sunday, June 26 at 1:00 pm (ET) entitled “Exploring the Catacombs of Rome: Old and New Research in the Roman Underground.” The lecture is open to the public. 

Click here to register.

Conference: ‘From Global to Local: Conques as a Crossroads (9th–13th c.)’, In person and online, Hunter College, CUNY, 11-12 July 2022

This conference explores the expanded cultural context of medieval Conques through the work of internationally renowned scholars.

This conference explores the expanded cultural context that made Conques a major crossroads of premodern Europe. As one of the fundamental stops on the road to Compostela, Conques flourished during the 11th and 12th centuries and has maintained an important role for the region and for European culture ever since. Primarily, this conference attempts to frame the “Conques phenomenon” within a broad cultural horizon, with a focus on the constitutive elements that can be observed in Conques itself. The conference is financed by the MSCA-RISE Horizon 2020 project scheme of the European Union, Conques in the Global World.

Tickets are available for both in-person attendance and webinar format.

We would love to see you in person!

From Global to Local: Conques as a Crossroads (9th–13th c.) Schedule:

Conference, Hunter College (1527 North Building): 11th-12th July, 2022.

11th July

Introduction

10.00 → Ivan Foletti, Cynthia Hahn, Kristen N. Racaniello, Cécile Voyer

Session I. Chair: Ivan Foletti

10.20 AM → Kirk Ambrose (University of Colorado), The Tautological Inscriptions of the Conques Tympanum

11.00 AM → Kristen N. Racaniello (Graduate Center, City University of New York), The “Iron Man”: Islamic Materiality and Arabic Inscriptions in the Shrine of Sainte-Foy

Lunch break

Session II. Chair: Cécile Voyer

2.00 PM → Éric Sparhubert (University of Limoges, National Centre for Scientific Research CESCM-Poitiers), Sainte-Foy of Conques and Beyond: Making the Holy Body Visible and Promotional Strategies in Romanesque Architecture

2.40 PM → Martin F. Lešák (Masaryk University, Brno), Landscape, Liturgy, and Sainte-Foy: Rituals in and Around Medieval Conques

Coffee break

3.40 PM → Sabina Rosenbergová (Bibliotheca Hertziana, Max-Planck-Institut für Kunstgeschichte): Conques’ Monastic Landscape: From Geological Reality to Hagiographic Imagination

4.20 PM → Michele Luigi Vescovi (University of Lincoln), Conques: Monastic Network, Artistic Practices

Reception on the Terrace, open to all conference attendants

12th July

Conques and Its Networks

Session III. Chair: Cynthia Hahn

10.00 AM → Vincent Debiais (Centre for Historical Research, EHESS/CNRS, Paris), Portals as Epigraphic Pages. Describing the Path of Light in Conques and Beyond

10.40 AM → Zuzana Frantová (Masaryk University, Brno), The Virgin of Beaulieu: The Engagement of Silver and Vermeil in the Liturgical Drama

11.20 AM → Bissera V. Pentcheva (Stanford University), Audiovision: Image and Chant at Sainte

Foy in Conques

Lunch break

Session IV. Chair: Herbert Kessler

2.00 PM → Lei Huang (HiCSA, University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne), Memory Between Tradition and Modernity: Odolric’s Historicism and Bégon’s Promotion of Image in Romanesque Conques

2.40 PM → Adrien Palladino (Masaryk University, Brno), The Myth of Byzantium on the Way to Conques

Coffee break

3.40 PM → Janet T. Marquardt (Eastern Illinois University), Rouergue Roman: Zodiaque’s Conques

For more information, or to register, click here.

Call for Papers: The 19th International Seminar on the Care and Conservation of Manuscripts, Arnamagnæanske Institut, University of Copenhagen, 19th to the 21st of April 2023. (Deadline: 31 August 2022)

The 19th International Seminar on the Care and Conservation of Manuscripts will be held at the University of Copenhagen from the 19th to the 21st of April 2023.

Proposals are invited for 20-minute papers on subjects relating to the care and conservation of manuscripts in the broadest sense, including conservation techniques and related matters as well as curatorial, codicological, philological and book historical subjects. Panels of three (or more) related papers may also be proposed.

Unlike the last seminar, which was held virtually, the next seminar will be a presential meeting, meaning that speakers will be expected to deliver their papers on location in Copenhagen. The entire seminar will also be livestreamed, in order  to reach a broader audience.

To submit a proposal, please send an email to ami@hum.ku.dk with “C&C19” in the subject line. Proposals should include a preliminary title and an abstract (250-500 words). When submitting proposals, please provide your full name, position and affiliation.

The deadline for submission of proposals is 31 August 2022.

Short Course: ‘Islam and Creativity in Popular Culture’, Online 12, 19 and 26 September 2022, 13:30 – 16:00 BST

This is a three-day online course that addresses the many new expressions of mass mediated creative arts that make reference to Islam. These expressions may be motivated by a wish to express an Islamic interpretation or spirituality, but they may also be for other reasons, such as from anti-racism or critical perspectives. Muslims, as well as non-Muslims, take part in this ongoing art making process. By looking into a number of exciting and intriguing case-studies, and by combining this with the latest theoretical ideas in the field, this course aims to enable participants to individually analyse and comprehend contemporary creativity in relation to Islam.

Read and download course structure: https://fal.cn/3pxq7 

Course Convenor: Professor Jonas Otterbeck is a specialist on contemporary Islam. He is Head of Research at the Aga Khan University’s Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations (AKU-ISMC) and the current holder of the Rasul-Walker Chair in Popular Culture in Islam. The three main topics of his research are Islamic views on music, Muslims in Europe, and contemporary Islamic ideas. Theoretically, he has worked within gender, culture, and religious studies. In August 2021, Otterbeck’s new book The Awakening of Islamic Pop Music was published by Edinburgh University Press, and his current research is on creativity and Islam.

Date and Time: 12, 19 and 26 September 2022,13:30 – 16:00 London Time.

Tickets and Booking: £75 professionals | £45 students, AKU alumni and staff.

Book now: https://fal.cn/3pxqb 

Organiser: Aga Khan University’s Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations (AKU-ISMC), London.

*The course will be delivered via Zoom. Readings and further details will be provided later upon registration.

Lecture: ‘Unimpressed: Livery Badge and Legal Tender in Late Medieval England’, The Courtauld Research Forum, London and Online, 22 June 2022, 5:00 BST

This event is hosted by The Research Forum at The Courtauld, and is organised by the Medieval and Renaissance Cluster.

About this event

Please note this event will be live streamed to allow those outside London access to the event. All those who wish to access the event via this online method should book a ‘Livestream’ ticket rather than ‘Lecture Theatre’ ticket.

Booking closes 30 minutes before the event start time.

At the center of this talk are two unimpressive objects: the livery badge and the coin. Cheap, lead alloy medallions, livery badges bear the insignias of members of the nobility who would distribute them as well as cash payment bearing the face of the king to individuals in their service. Both of these exchangeable objects—badges and coins—enacted social, political, and economic alliances in fifteenth-century England, a system known as maintenance, or, more controversially, “bastard feudalism.” Both objects are also a form of replicable portraiture. And both, over the course of the fifteenth century, underwent physical changes that caused their possessors to doubt their value. Taking seriously the formal and material properties of badges and coins, along with the conditions of their production and distribution, in the decades preceding and coinciding with the Wars of the Roses, I consider how they were essential to activating the perceptual regime that regulated how people envisioned themselves and their relationships to broader political communities, all while casting suspicion on the stability of those very relationships. Ultimately what this juxtaposition exposes is the value of and vexation posed by replicability to representation at this time.

Sonja Drimmer is Associate Professor of Medieval Art in the Department of the History of Art and Architecture at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is the author of The Art of Allusion: Illuminators and the Making of English Literature, 1403-1476 (Penn, 2018). Her most recent publications include, “Connoisseurship, Art History, and the Paleographical Impasse in Middle English Studies,” Speculum (April 2022) and “The Shapes of History: Houghton Library, Richardson MS 35 and Chronicles of England in Codex and Roll,” in Beyond Words (2021). Currently she is at work on her second monograph, Political Visuality: Reproduction, Representation, and the Wars of the Roses.

Organised by Dr Tom Nickson (The Couratuld) and Dr Jessica Barker (The Courtauld).

For more information, or to register, click here.