The British Archaeological Association will hold the fourth in its biennial International Romanesque conference series in Oxford on 4-6 April, 2016. The theme is Romanesque: Saints, Shrines and Pilgrimage, and the aim is to examine the material culture of sanctity over the period c.1000-c.1250. The Conference will be held at Rewley House in Oxford, with the opportunity to stay on for two days of visits to Romanesque buildings on 7-8 April.
The papers fall into three broad categories: the geography of sanctity – more specifically the construction of architectural settings for the display of relics, along with the corresponding spatial, scenographic and mnemonic arrangements devised for pilgrims, for the most part at individual sites; cults and reliquaries – considerations of the ways in which reliquaries helped to define a cult, and how they might be designed to draw attention to the particular attributes, virtues or miracle-working character of individual saints; visual hagiography – the public representation of sainthood, how and where this is found, and how and why this changed over the late 11th and 12th centuries.
Speakers include Javier Martinez de Aguirre, Claude Andrault-Schmitt, Mañuel Castiñeiras, John Crook, Gaetano Curzi, Øystein Ekroll, Meredith Fluke, Barbara Franzé, Richard Gem, Deborah Kahn, Jeremy Knight, Ryan Lash, Nathalie Le Luel, Gerhard Lutz, John McNeill, Montserrat Pages, Marta Poza Yagüe, Arturo Carlo Quintavalle, Neil Stratford, Béla Zsolt Szakács, Elizabeth Valdez del à lamo, Michele Vescovi, Rose Walker, Tomasz Weclawowicz and Susanne Wittekind.
CONFERENCE
The conference will open at 09.30 on Monday, 4 April with lectures at Rewley House, Oxford. Teas, coffees and lunch will be provided on all three days, in addition to dinner on two evenings. The conference will also include an early evening visit to Christ Church Cathedral (once the Augustinian Abbey of St Frideswide and medieval repository of the relics of the eponymous 8th-century nun). More information will be provided in the joining instructions. Participants will need to arrange travel and accommodation. Oxford is well provided with hotels and bed and breakfast accommodation, in addition to which it is possible to stay on a bed and breakfast basis at many Oxford colleges out of term time (the conference is out of Oxford University term time). Information on accommodation in Oxford is available on a number of internet sites, and the conference organisers will send a list of hotels, B&Bs and college accommodation when they acknowledge receipt of your booking form.
VISITS
The BAA will also organise two days of visits to Romanesque sites for those who wish to stay on. These will include Malmesbury and Tewkesbury Abbeys, Iffley, Kempley, Gloucester Cathedral and Old Sarum.
SCHOLARSHIPS
A limited number of scholarships for students are available to help cover the cost of the conference. Please apply by 30 November 2015, attaching a short CV along with the name and contact details of one referee. Applications should be sent to jsmcneill@btinternet.com or rplant62@hotmail.com
It would not be possible to mount this conference without John Osborn, and the British Archaeological Association wishes to take this opportunity to thank him for the boost to Romanesque scholarship afforded by his great generosity.
Conference Convenors: John McNeill and Richard Plant
Conference Secretary: Ann Hignell
Registration Deadline: 30 November 2015