Online Lecture: Decoding the Enigma of the Daphni Monastery: Landscape and Identity in Middle Byzantine Attica

Online Lecture
The Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture
Decoding the Enigma of the Daphni Monastery: Landscape and Identity in Middle Byzantine Attica
HAPPENING: 29 October, 2026

The Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture is pleased to announce the next lecture in our 2026–2027 lecture series.

October 29, 2026 | Zoom | 12:00–1:30 pm (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC -4)

Decoding the Enigma of the Daphni Monastery: Landscape and Identity in Middle Byzantine Attica

Justin Mann, Eastern Michigan University

Despite the considerable popular and scholarly attention devoted to it, the monastery of Daphni, on the western outskirts of Athens, remains an enigmatic monument. It is a site about which much is celebrated, but almost nothing is known for certain. However, when one looks beyond discussions of typology and chronology, the Daphnian enigma begins to unravel. Daphni thus represents a key site through which to explore the ways in which natural and cultural landscapes shaped the formation of monastic identity and memory. In this lecture, I aim to decode, in part, the enigma of Daphni through a multidisciplinary study of the monument that examines the ways in which the monastery integrated mountains, cityscapes, and pilgrimage networks into a distinctively Daphnian landscape. By doing so, it sheds new light on the monastery and reveals how Daphni articulated a sense of identity through its surroundings and its deep connection to regional Attic history.

Justin Mann is Assistant Professor of Art History at Eastern Michigan University.

Advance registration required. https://maryjahariscenter.org/events/decoding-the-enigma-of-the-daphni-monastery

Contact Brandie Ratliff (mjcbac@hchc.edu), Director, Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture with any questions.

ICMA at Princeton University: Study Day on Friday 23 October 2026; Princeton University Art Museum, Firestone Library, and the Index of Medieval Art - REGISTER TODAY!

ICMA at Princeton University
Study Day

Friday 23 October 2026
Starting at 10am
Princeton University Art Museum, Firestone Library, and the Index of Medieval Art

Register HERE

ICMA members are invited to a Study Day at Princeton University on Friday 23 October 2026, starting at 10am. Site visits will include the newly renovated Princeton University Art Museum, Firestone Library, and the Index of Medieval Art.

The day will begin at 10am at the Princeton University Art Museum, where Scott Miller, Associate Curator of European Art, will lead a tour and study session with medieval objects in the collection. After lunch, attendees will meet at 1:30pm at the Firestone Library, where Eric White, Scheide Librarian and Assistant University Librarian for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, will discuss a selection of the collection's medieval manuscripts. At the end of the day, attendees are invited to a casual wine hour at the Index of Medieval Art, hosted by Director Pamela Patton.


SCHEDULE
10am-12pm:
Princeton University Art Museum

12pm-1:30pm:
lunch (individual cost, not provided by the ICMA)

1:30pm-3:30pm:
Firestone Library

3:45pm-5:30pm:
wine hour at the Index of Medieval Art


Organized by Scott Miller, Pamela Patton, and Eric White.

Register HERE

Folger Institute Long Term Fellowships for 2027-2028

Fellowship Opportunity
Folger Institute Long-Term Fellowships
DUE: 15 December, 2026

Applications are open through December 15th for Folger Institute Long-Term Fellowships!

Each year the Folger Institute awards research fellowships to create a high-powered, multidisciplinary community of inquiry. This community of researchers may come from different fields, and their projects may find different kinds of expression. But our researchers share cognate interests in the history and literature, art and performance, philosophy, religion, and politics of the early modern world.

The Folger Institute offers three long-term fellowship tracks: year-long (9 month) Scholarly fellowships, year-long (9 month) Public Humanities fellowship, and semester-long (5 month) Scholarly fellowships. Year-long fellows will receive an award of $70,000, and semester-long fellows will receive an award of $35,000.

Long-term Scholarly fellowships are designed to support scholarly research projects that would benefit from significant primary research onsite at the Folger. Long-term Public Humanities fellowships are designed to support significant, full-time research and public humanities project implementation for Folger audiences.

For all long-term fellowships, applications that propose productive use of the Folger’s Collections, in both traditional and non-traditional ways, are more likely to receive fellowship awards. Extensive experience in archives and special collections, however, is not a requirement.

Please note that for the 2027-28 fellowship year, all long-term fellows will have the option to take a portion of their fellowship virtually. Year-long fellows may take up to three months virtually, and semester-long fellows may take up to one month virtually. This virtual time may be taken at any point in the fellowships. Applicants may propose any research schedule that best fits their project’s needs.

The deadline for all Long-Term fellowship applications is December 15, 2026.

Further information can be found HERE.

Online Lecture: Antioch as a Center: New Research on a Dispersed Archaeological Legacy

Online Lecture
2026–2027 East of Byzantium Lecture Series
Antioch as a Center: New Research on a Dispersed Archaeological Legacy
HAPPENING: 2 October, 2026

The Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture and the Mashtot Chair of Armenian Studies at Harvard University are pleased to announce the first lecture in the 2026–2027 East of Byzantium lecture series.

October 2, 2026 | 12:00 PM (EDT, UTC -5) | Zoom

Antioch as a Center: New Research on a Dispersed Archaeological Legacy

Nicole Berlin, Davis Museum, Wellesley College

Ancient Antioch, located in present-day Antakya, Türkiye, was one of the great urban, artistic, and religious centers of the Roman and Byzantine worlds. This lecture presents new research on artifacts excavated during the 1930s Princeton expeditions and now held in museums across North America. Through provenance research, archival investigation, and close study of the objects themselves, it reconstructs the histories of these dispersed collections and reveals new perspectives on Antioch’s role as a center of artistic production and cultural exchange. The lecture also examines how archaeological objects acquire new meanings as they move from excavation sites into museum collections.

Nicole Berlin is Associate Curator of Collections at the Davis Museum, Wellesley College, where she specializes in ancient Mediterranean art and archaeology.

Advance registration required. Register: https://eastofbyzantium.org/upcoming-events/

Contact Brandie Ratliff (mjcbac@hchc.edu), Director, Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture with any questions.

John W. Baldwin Post-Doctoral Fellowship Opportunity

Fellowship Opportunity
John W. Baldwin Post-Doctoral Fellowship
DUE: 13 November, 2026

We are currently accepting applications for the John W. Baldwin Post-Doctoral Fellowship, a two-year position beginning July 1, 2027, for recent Ph.D. recipients whose work focuses on European medieval studies within a global comparative context. The application deadline is November 13, 2026.

I've attached a PDF and Word doc of the flyer we have for marketing this position on the web and in email campaigns.

Full position details and application link: https://recruit.apo.ucla.edu/JPF11239

We would greatly appreciate it if you shared this opportunity on your website, job board, or upcoming communications. Please let me know if you need additional materials.

Thank you for your time and support in helping us reach potential candidates.

Further information can be found HERE.

Best regards,

Sunterrah

CFP: 'Living with the Otherworldly: Feelings, Journeys, and Dialogues in the British Isles' IMC Leeds 2027 (5–8 July 2027), deadline 18 September 2026

Call for Papers
IMC Leeds 2027
Living with the Otherworldly: Feelings, Journeys, and Dialogues in the British Isles, ca. 1300–1550
DUE: 18 September, 2026

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

We are excited to announce a Call for Papers for our session, ‘Living with the Otherworldly: Feelings, Journeys, and Dialogues in the British Isles, ca. 1300–1550’ at the International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds (5–8 July 2027).

While the OED defines ‘otherworldly’ as spiritual, unworldly, fictitious, and immaterial, medieval encounters with the otherworldly often took remarkably palpable, mobile, and transmissible forms within material worlds. Beyond this definition, this session invites a more conceptual interpretation, exploring how otherworldly communities interacted with and were imagined within communities of the living in the late medieval British Isles.

Taking feelings, journeys, and dialogues as central modes of encounter, this session looks into the relationships between earthly and otherworldly communities. We ask how boundaries between them were defined, negotiated, or traversed within and beyond institutionalised settings across the British Isles in the later Middle Ages.

We welcome papers that attend to the questions, including but not limited to:
- In what ways was the otherworldly apprehended and articulated through emotions?

- How did physical, spiritual, and imaginative journeys that are present in pilgrim records and (fictional) travelogues connect communities with otherworldly beings and spaces? How did such journeys contribute to the (re)shaping of (other)worldly landscapes?

- What forms of dialogue became visible through prayer, intercession, and ritual practices—among the living, the dead and the saintly, and between humans and supernatural beings? Accordingly, how did those communications conform to or transform the understanding and practice of commemoration and memory?

- How were those encounters materialised in manuscripts, objects, architecture, and performance, making knowledge of and experiences with the otherworldly portable and transmissible?

- How might such encounters reshape our understanding of belonging, social bonds, and communities?

We welcome papers on subjects underrepresented in existing scholarship and contributions that foster cross-disciplinary conversations, including literary studies, liturgical and religious studies, art history, manuscript studies, and material anthropology.

Paper proposals (please use this form [https://yaleedu-my.sharepoint.com/:w:/g/personal/sejin_park_yale_edu/IQA3OggxdfJfR5lbOrIrLMRlAe6gZCcCnMhksjjqyIMF6SQ?e=I0QoOs]) for a 15–20-minute paper should be submitted to the Session Convenors, Se Jin Park (sejin.park@yale.edu) and Hanting Niu (hn367@cam.ac.uk), no later than 18 September 2026. For more information or questions, please contact the Session Convenors.

Further information can be found HERE.

Index Database Training Session - 5 October 2026

Announcement
Index of Medieval Art
Index Database Training Session
HAPPENING: 5 October, 2026

We are pleased to announce that the Index will be holding an online training session for anyone interested in learning more about the Index of Medieval Art database! It will take place via Zoom on Monday, October 5, 2026 from 10:00 – 11:00 am EDT.

This session, led by Index specialists Maria Alessia Rossi and Jessica Savage, will demonstrate how the database can be used with advanced search options, filters, and browse tools to locate works of medieval art. There will be a Q&A period at the end of the session, so please bring any questions you might have about your research!

Further information and registration can be found at this link: https://ima.princeton.edu/index_training/.

Call for Papers: Byzantium from the Margins: Critical Perspectives on the Historiography of the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean

Call for Papers
Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture Sponsored Panel
Byzantium from the Margins: Critical Perspectives on the Historiography of the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean
DUE: 15 September, 2026

Call for Papers: Byzantium from the Margins: Critical Perspectives on the Historiography of the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean

Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture Sponsored Panel

62nd International Congress on Medieval Studies

Western Michigan University, Kalamzoo, MI

May 13–15, 2027

Organizers: Catherine McNally (MIT) and Andy Chen (Harvard University)

This panel will bring into conversation emerging scholars working across Byzantine studies to reevaluate inherited historiographical traditions and to reflect on the epistemological conditions through which Byzantium has historically been construed. Papers will reexamine the twentieth-century historiographical frameworks that have shaped the study of the medieval Eastern Mediterranean, with particular attention to the scholarly marginalization of communities that resist clear confessional, ethnic, or imperial categorization. Long governed by disciplinary models rooted in nationalism, positivism, and colonialism, Byzantine historiography has often privileged imperial centers rooted in doctrinal orthodoxy at the expense of peripheral, typically heterodox communities that complicate fixed notions of empire. However, disciplinary predispositions towards normative accounts which present Byzantium as monolithic become untenable when confronted with the reality of the medieval Eastern Mediterranean’s fractured geopolitical landscape, linguistic hierarchies, and diverse forms of social organization.

The papers may come from relevant disciplines in Byzantine, Islamic, and eastern Mediterranean studies such as, but not limited to, history, art and architectural history, and comparative literature, with a preference for those incorporating innovative technological applications and/or integrating understudied archives into their approach.

Abstracts of 300 words are due September 15, 2026, and must be submitted using the ICMS CONFEX PORTAL (https://icms.confex.com/icms/2027/prelim.cgi/Session/8539).

A full description of the panel and funding information are available at https://maryjahariscenter.org/sponsored-sessions/62nd-icms.

Please submit any questions to Catherine McNally at csmcn@mit.edu.

Before and Amid the Artificial: (Trans)historicizing the Visual A Symposium Celebrating 20 Years of Art History @ Elon | March 5-6, 2027 Elon University

Call for Papers
Art History @ Elon
Before and Amid the Artificial: (Trans)historicizing the Visual
DUE: 15 September, 2026

In 2015, Art History @ Elon hosted “Between, Among, and Across: Transhistories of the Visual” to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the art history program. This symposium, affectionately nicknamed “BAA”, celebrated how art history has expanded the Eurocentric and Enlightenment-based model on which the discipline was founded. In 2027, we will mark the 20th anniversary of the art history major with a second symposium. And while we will continue to celebrate the good work happening in our field, we also recognize that this moment is not like before. We live and work amid local, national, and global crises that endanger lives, threaten well-being, and tear at community values and commitments. At the same time that arts and humanities institutions are losing economic and social support, academic institutions are adopting artificial intelligence for the sake of efficiency rather than deepening intellectual inquiry and committing to ethical practices.

Our second symposium “Before and Amid the Artificial: (Trans)historicizing the Visual” (BAA2) will examine how art history helps us understand what it means to be human/e. We seek a variety of approaches to the concept including (but not limited to) proposals that center concepts of practice, praxis, and pathos over product, productivity, or apathy, undertake critical reevaluations of or enact alternatives to the colonial, racist legacies of our intellectual and cultural institutions and the erasure/omission of human/e experiences, critique tokenistic “global” encounters and too-narrowly defined geographic approaches, challenge cisheteronormative, ableist, and/or anthropocentric frameworks question whose history is privileged by linear chronologies and accelerating temporalities

And as we did in 2015, we welcome presentations that address these concerns creatively, rigorously, contingently, and/or in a questioning frame of mind. Please submit an abstract of up to 500 words and your CV using this form (https://forms.cloud.microsoft/r/aE2L5aX6gF). You can also find a link on our conference website. Review of abstracts will begin on Sept. 15, 2026 and will continue through Nov. 1. *If you have questions (or any problems accessing the form), please reach out to Professor of Art History Evan Gatti (egatti@elon.edu).

Further information can be found HERE.

Call for Presentations: New Research on the Art and Architecture of Medieval Parish Churches at Kalamazoo

Call for Presentations
International Congress on Medieval Studies
New Research on the Art and Architecture of Medieval Parish Churches
DUE: 15 September, 2026

Call for Presentations: New Research on the Art and Architecture of Medieval Parish Churches (1: in person) and (2: virtual)

International Congress on Medieval Studies

Kalamazoo, Michigan

May 13-15, 2027

The medieval parish church was a place of architectural wonder, artistic power, and community life for worshipers across social strata. Thousands of medieval parish churches throughout Europe hold compelling evidence of artistic and architectural innovation, though they are often overlooked in broader histories of medieval art. In order to raise the profile of these important structures, the long-running parish church panels at Kalamazoo have provided space for new and established scholars to share research, test theories, and try out new methodologies in the study of parish church art and architecture. The conversation will continue at the 2027 International Congress on Medieval Studies with both in-person and virtual panels.

Scholars are invited to propose presentations on any aspect of the art and architecture of the medieval parish church. Possible research questions include, but are not limited to:

-How did the architecture, art, or visual culture of the parish define the medieval worship experience?

-How did individual churches change over time—and what can these changes reveal about each parish community?

-How can in-depth study of a local parish church expand or contradict broader national narratives?

-What new methodologies can 21c researchers use to tell the story of the medieval parish?

Speakers who incorporate art and architectural analysis, archaeology, archival research, landscape studies, interdisciplinary approaches, and other methodologies in their work are encouraged to submit a proposal for either an in-person or virtual presentation.

To submit a proposal for the in-person session: https://icms.confex.com/icms/2027/prelim.cgi/Session/8924

To submit a proposal for the virtual session: https://icms.confex.com/icms/2027/prelim.cgi/Session/8938

Proposals should consist of a title, an abstract (300 words or less), and a short description (50 words or less) which may be made public if the proposal is accepted. Please also include the author's name and contact information.

For general information on the International Congress on Medieval Studies CFP process, see https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/call.

For questions related to this panel contact the session organizer, Catherine E. Hundley, at medievalchurches@pm.me .

Proposals are due September 15, 2026.

Limited travel funding is available. For more information, see https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/awards/travelawards .

Encountering the Sacred Image: Highlights from the Icon Museum and Study Center

Conference
Icon Museum and Study Center
Encountering the Sacred Image: Highlights from the Icon Museum and Study Center
DATES: 15 October - 16 October, 2026

Encountering the Sacred Image is an international symposium hosted at the Icon Museum and Study Center that brings together leading scholars from around the world to share new research on Greek and Russian icons in the Museum’s collection. Participants will present on a selection of highlights from the Icon Museum’s permanent collection, none of which have been previously published or extensively studied. The conference papers will serve as the core of a new museum catalogue, which will offer a new perspective on the history of Orthodox icons in a manner accessible and engaging for art historians, museumgoers, and icon lovers alike.

The symposium will be held in conjunction with a collaborative exhibition, featuring masterpieces from the Ikonen-Museum Recklinghausen, opening October 16, 2026. Together, the symposium and exhibition celebrate the milestone twentieth anniversary of the Icon Museum and Study Center.

The conference will take place in person at the Icon Museum and Study Center. Registration is required.

Further information can be found HERE.

Call for Papers: Illusion and Imitation in European Choir Stalls, ICONOstalla - Misericordia International 17th Colloquium

Call for Papers
ICONOstalla - Misericordia International 17th Colloquium
Illusion and Imitation in European Choir Stalls
DUE: 30 October, 2026

Call for Papers:

ICONOstalla - Misericordia International 17th Colloquium

Illusion and Imitation in European Choir Stalls

Location: Fondazione MIA, Bergamo, Italy

Dates: 21-22 May, 2027 with optional field trip on 23 May

Submission Deadline: October 30, 2026 (applicants will be notified of their participation by December 15, 2026)

Conference languages: English and Italian

Choir stalls sit at a unique intersection of liturgical function, architectural framework, and virtuosic craftsmanship. Located at the heart of the sacred interior, these wooden structures served not only as functional seating for the clergy but as primary sites for complex visual and intellectual play. This conference seeks to explore the conceptual, material, and sensory dimensions of illusion and imitation in European choir stalls from the medieval to the early modern periods. Far from being mere decorative backdrops, choir stalls frequently engaged in sophisticated visual deception. From the dazzling perspectival illusions of Italian intarsia (wood inlay) to carvings that deliberately manipulate their own materiality, these spaces challenged the eye and the mind. They functioned as micro-architecture, mirroring the grand designs of cathedrals, while simultaneously testing the boundaries between the real and the simulated.

Fra Giovanni da Verano (ca. 1475 – ca. 1525), Musical Instruments, 1503-1505, Monte Oliveto Maggiore

We invite papers that investigate how these woodcarvings played with the senses, collapsed spatial boundaries, and negotiated the tense relationship between truth and falsehood within a sacred environment.

Submission Guidelines

We invite proposals for 20-minute papers. Submissions from established scholars, early career researchers, and curators are all highly encouraged.

Please submit an abstract of no more than 300 words along with a brief biography (maximum 150 words) to Lorenzo Mascheretti lor.masche@gmail.com and Joanne Allen drjoanneallen@gmail.com by October 30, 2026.

Further information can be found HERE.
Full conference information can be found HERE.

Graduate Student Opportunity: International Symposium at the Icon Museum and Study Center

The Icon Museum and Study Center and Mary Jaharis Center
Encountering the Sacred Image: Highlights from the Icon Museum and Study Center
DUE: 1 September, 2026

The Icon Museum and Study Center, together with the Mary Jaharis Center, invites 2 graduate students of any level to submit a one-page letter of interest to attend the international symposium Encountering the Sacred Image: Highlights from the Icon Museum and Study Center held Oct. 15-16, 2027, in conjunction with the exhibition opening Light from the East: Masterpieces from the Ikonen-Museum Recklinghausen.

Successful applicants will be invited to attend the two-day symposium, as well as the exclusive opening of the exhibition, and will receive a reimbursement for travel and lodging up to $1,000.

The deadline for letter of interest submissions is September 1, 2026. Submit your letter of interest to Dr. Elliot Mackin, e.mackin@iconmuseum.org.

Further information can be found HERE.

CFP: Entangled Histories Seminar Series 2026–2027: Borders and Sustainability across Time, Space, and Human Societies

Call for Papers
Entangled Histories Seminar Series 2026–2027
Borders and Sustainability: Human and Natural Resources across Time and Space
DUE: 31 August 2026

Call for Papers: Entangled Histories Seminar Series 2026–2027

Theme: Borders and Sustainability: Human and Natural Resources across Time and Space

The Entangled Histories Seminar Series invites abstract submissions for its 2026–2027 cycle, adopting a broad diachronic perspective from Prehistory to the Contemporary Era, with a strong focus on medieval studies, material culture, art, architecture, and environmental history.

We welcome papers addressing medieval art history, architecture, visual culture, aquatic iconographies, sacred and domestic space, material culture, and the circulation of artefacts across borders. We also encourage contributions on long-term resource management, island studies (such as Rapa Nui), indigenous perspectives, endangered heritage, and digital art history/mapping.

Format: Online seminar (Approx. 30-min presentation).

Please submit proposals to: entangledhistories.seminars@outlook.com

Deadline for abstracts: 31 August 2026

Notification of acceptance: By 30 September 2026

The accepted papers will be published in an edited volume/special issue with a world-leading academic publisher.

MANDATORY SUBMISSION RULES & THEMATIC CRITERIA:

1. Border-Sustainability Nexus: Proposals MUST explicitly address the intersection and relationship between "Borders" (political, geographical, linguistic, cultural, or symbolic) and "Sustainability" (ecological, material, or heritage management across time and space).

2. Proposal Content: Submissions must include Title, an Abstract (250–300 words), a short Bio (100–150 words), Institutional Affiliation, and Preferred months of availability.

3. File Format Requirement: All materials must be compiled into a SINGLE file (.doc, .docx, or .pdf). Multiple attachments will not be considered.

For further details, please visit our official website: https://sites.google.com/view/entangledhistories/home

Organized by:

Dr. Maria Pia Ester Cristaldi (Üsküdar University) & Dr. Elisa Ramazzina (University of Insubria)

Weathering at ICMS

Call for Papers
62nd International Congress on Medieval Studies
Weathering
DUE: 15 September, 2026

62nd International Congress on Medieval Studies (May 13 - 15, 2027)

Kalamazoo, MI, USA

In-Person Session

How do premodern texts and material cultures conceptualize weathering–the physical registration of time, climate, and material contact on the surfaces of flesh and stone? How do varying forms of premodern care, craft, maintenance, repair, or reconstruction sustain objects subject to decay? This panel approaches medieval materiality by considering the shared structural vulnerability that defines life within both bodies and buildings. We welcome proposals from all disciplines (such as digital, archival, and manuscript studies, art history, the health humanities, archaeology, ecocriticism, and the history of emotion) and are especially interested in representing a wide range of methodologies, including nontraditional approaches.

If you are interested, please apply by September 15, 2026. Presenters will need to submit a proposal via the Confex system in order to be considered: https://icms.confex.com/icms/2027/prelim.cgi/Home/0

Acceptance notifications will be sent by October 15.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact the panel organizers: juareza2@union.edu or chelsea.silva@okstate.edu.
Further information can be found HERE.

CFP FOR CAA 2027: Medieval Italian Women & Visual Culture

Call for Papers
College Art Association
Medieval Italian Women & Visual Culture
31 August, 2026

CFP for CAA, New York City, March 11-13, 2027

“Medieval Italian Women & Visual Culture”

This session investigates how late medieval women lived their lives both in compliance with and in circumvention of the societal assumptions circulating about their nature and capabilities, read through their relationships to visual images and artistic patronage. Papers will address this topic through two lenses: 1) ways that gendered religious and social beliefs were encoded in visual imagery and 2) how women of different social and economic strata negotiated regulations that defined and constrained them in the ways they engaged with visual imagery or commissioned works of art or architecture.

The roles of women as artists, patrons, and audiences for illuminated manuscripts enjoy extensive in-depth study for northern medieval cultures since the mid 20th century. Studies of women’s participation in the visual culture of medieval Italy are much rarer and less well-known. This session seeks to help redress that imbalance by focusing on medieval Italian women as patrons, but also as audiences of artistic projects and performative visual media, and the ways women responded to or helped shape the imagery and ideas those works projected.

Papers are welcome from art history scholars in all stages of their careers as well as advanced graduate students whose research focuses on Italy in the 5th through 14th centuries.

If interested, submit a proposal by August 31, 2026 to jsteinhoff@uh.edu

Please include:

Your name and affiliation (if any)

Title

Abstract of 300 words

CV of a maximum 3 pages

Notifications will be sent out on September 16. More information can be found HERE.

Call for Sessions: Mary Jaharis Center Sponsored Panel, 2027 International Medieval Congress

Call for Sessions
2027 International Medieval Congress
Communities
DUE: 7 September, 2026

To encourage the integration of Byzantine studies within the scholarly community and medieval studies in particular, the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture seeks proposals for a Mary Jaharis Center sponsored session at the 2027 International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, July 5–8, 2027. We invite session proposals on any topic relevant to Byzantine studies.

The thematic strand for the 2027 IMC is “Communities.” See the IMC Call for Papers (https://www.imc.leeds.ac.uk/imc-2027/) for additional information about the theme and suggested areas of discussion.

Session proposals must be submitted through the Mary Jaharis Center website (https://maryjahariscenter.org/sponsored-sessions/imc-2027). The deadline for submission is September 7, 2026.

If the proposed session is approved, the Mary Jaharis Center will reimburse a maximum of 4 session participants (presenters and moderator) up to $800 maximum for participants traveling from within Europe and up to $1400 maximum for those traveling from outside Europe. Funding is through reimbursement only; advance funding cannot be provided. Eligible expenses include conference registration, transportation, and food and lodging. Receipts are required for reimbursement. Participants must participate in the conference in-person to receive funding. The Mary Jaharis Center regrets that it cannot reimburse participants who have last-minute cancellations and are unable to attend the conference.

For further details and submission instructions, please visit https://maryjahariscenter.org/sponsored-sessions/imc-2027.

Please contact Brandie Ratliff (mjcbac@hchc.edu), Director, Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture, with any questions. More information can be found HERE.

Call for participants: Studying East of Byzantium XIII: Centers and Hubs

Call for Participants
The Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies at Harvard University and the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture at Hellenic College Holy Cross
Studying East of Byzantium XIII: Centers and Hubs
DUE: 13 September 2026

The Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies at Harvard University and the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture at Hellenic College Holy Cross in Brookline, MA, are pleased to invite abstracts for the next Studying East of Byzantium workshop: Studying East of Byzantium XIII: Centers and Hubs.

Studying East of Byzantium XIII: Centers and Hubs is a three-part workshop that intends to bring together doctoral students and very recent PhDs studying the Christian East to reflect on the usefulness of the concept of "Centers and Hubs" in studying the Christian East, to share methodologies, and to discuss their research with workshop respondents, Muriel Debié, École pratique des hautes études (EPHE), Sorbonne, PSL, and Nicholas Matheou, University of Edinburgh. The workshop will meet on 9 October 2026, 12 February 2027, and 3–4 June 2027 on Zoom. The timing of the workshop meetings will be determined when the participant list is finalized.

We invite all graduate students and recent PhDs working in the Christian East whose work considers, or hopes to consider, any aspect of cities, religious centers, and intellectual hubs (and intersections thereof) in their own research to apply.

Participation is limited to 10 students. The full workshop description is available on the East of Byzantium website (https://eastofbyzantium.org/upcoming-events/studying-east-of-byzantium-xiii-centers-and-hubs/). Those interested in attending should submit a C.V. and 200-word abstract through the East of Byzantium website no later than 13 September 2026.

For questions, please contact East of Byzantium organizers, Christina Maranci, Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies, Harvard University, and Brandie Ratliff, Director, Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture, at contact@eastofbyzantium.org.

EAST OF BYZANTIUM is a partnership between the Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies at Harvard University and the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture at Hellenic College Holy Cross in Brookline, MA. It explores the cultures of the eastern frontier of the Byzantine Empire in the late antique and medieval periods. More information can be found HERE.

Call For Papers IMC Leeds 2027: Enviro-Political Ecologies of the Medieval City

Call for Papers
International Medieval Conference in Leeds
Enviro-Political Ecologies of the Medieval City
DUE: 4 September, 2026

Enviro-Political Ecologies of the Medieval City

CFP: IMC 2027

For the 2027 meeting of the International Medieval Congress in Leeds, we welcome proposals for papers addressing the overlaps and frictions between the material and the political in the "ecologies" of the medieval city from roughly 1000 to 1500.

As urban growth and urban governance proceeded apace in the High and Late Middle Ages, newly self-conscious urban communities confronted the complex relationships between collective good and collective action. Cities and towns negotiated these relationships in both civic action and civic discourse; recently, scholars have begun to explore what may be called the "ecologies" of life in the medieval city as extending beyond the material and into the political. In the latter centuries of the Middle Ages, efforts to institute idealized civic socio-political projects met the challenges and ambiguities of urban topography, demography, and their attendant necessities.

We will consider papers from a wide variety of fields (including environmental history, art history, political history, literary criticism, archaeology, and anthropology) and we are open to proposals on cities and towns in Europe and the greater Mediterranean world.

Scholars whose research addresses the tensions and anxieties present in urban life are particularly encouraged to submit proposals.

Please submit a paper abstract (no more than 250 words) along with a proposed title for your paper as well as your full name and academic affiliation to irb24b@fsu.edu. We will begin consideration of proposals September 4th. Full information can be found HERE.

DUE: 15 July, 2026, Renaissance Society of America 2027 CFP: Fifteenth-Century Problems

Call for Papers
Renaissance Society of America 2027
Fifteenth-Century Problems
DUE: 15 July, 2026

The fifteenth century occupies an uneasy place in art history: simultaneously ‘medieval’ and ‘early modern’, yet also suspended somewhere in between, it is overburdened with paradoxes and inherited assumptions about artistic practices during a transitional century. Art historians construct narratives on the artistic personalities of largely anonymous “masters” from scant documentary evidence and surviving examples. Workshops are imagined as neatly ordered around masters, pupils, followers, and circles, even as we possess little concrete evidence for how fifteenth-century workshops actually functioned. Fabricated names (the Master of the Legend of St. Lucy, the Masters of the Dark Eyes, the Imperialissima-Meister, and so many more) and intricate webs of attribution place fifteenth-century artistic production uncomfortably between medieval models of anonymous collaboration and early modern notions of authorship. Simply put, approaches to understanding fifteenth-century artists weirdly straddle two worlds—and trying to make sense of it is even weirder.

This session invites papers that interrogate the methods and assumptions shaping the study of fifteenth-century art in all media. How might we define the fifteenth century on its own terms, rather than through early modern standards? We welcome contributions that address problems specific to the study of fifteenth-century artistic production, especially those that can reflect on the structures that led us here, as well as new directions that resist the status quo:

--Reflect critically on historiographical and methodological structures that have shaped periodization (simultaneously medieval & early modern), labels of convenience, workshops, and artistic personalities

--Expose the limits of traditional methods on causality, influence, & style

--Propose new approaches that reconfigure our old assumptions (e.g., AI attributions)

If you have fifteenth-century problems, please send an abstract (max 200 words) and short 2-page C.V. to Larisa Grollemond (LGrollemond@getty.edu) and Laura Tillery (ltillery@hamilton.edu) by 15 July.