Call for Papers: Readers, Makers, and Medieval Consumer Culture, 19th International Conference of the Early Book Society (NYU, 23–27 June 2025), Due by 15 Dec. 2024

Call for Papers

Readers, Makers, and Medieval Consumer Culture: Manuscripts and Books from 1350–1550

19th International Conference of the Early Book Society, New York University, June 23–27, 2025

Due By 15 December 2024

“Readers, Makers, and Medieval Consumer Culture: Manuscripts and Books from 1350–1550," 19th International Conference of the Early Book Society, New York University, June 23–27, 2025. What were medieval bestsellers? What constituted the book market in the Middle Ages? Papers might consider manuscripts and books as luxury items, the importation of manuscripts and/or books from the Continent, Continental influence on English books, women’s (or men’s) reading circles, multiple copies of manuscripts and books (often an indication of popularity), owners and patrons, or the development and growth of private, monastic, or university libraries. Another subject of interest is representations of manuscripts or books as status symbols in miniatures or paintings. Conference abstracts will be published on the conference website. Some sessions will be Zoomed.

Please send an abstract of 150 words to ebs2025@earlybooksociety.org by December 15, 2024, for consideration. Be sure to include your name, affiliation, and email address on your abstract, along with a brief bio. For more information, contact: ebs2025@earlybooksociety.org See also earlybooksociety.org for updates and announcements.

New Exhibition: Material Muses: Medieval Devotional Culture and its Afterlives, Haggerty Museum of Art, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Opens 23 August 2024

New Exhibition

Material Muses: Medieval Devotional Culture and its Afterlives

Haggerty Museum of Art

Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

23 August 2024 - 21 December 2024

The Middle Ages (ca. 500–1500 CE) is often thought of as a period of heightened religious devotion, especially in the Catholic regions of Western Europe. Looking to the Joan of Arc Chapel, at the heart of the Marquette University campus, and pulling from the collections of the Haggerty Museum of Art and the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, Material Muses: Medieval Devotional Culture and its Afterlives considers how artists since the end of the Middle Ages have looked back to the art from this period as inspiration for creating “authentic” devotional objects of their own time. The exhibition also explores the allure of medieval material as it converses with and energizes post-medieval religious narratives. Read the accompanying booklet here.


Material Muses was curated by Abby R. Armstrong Check, Claire Kilgore and Tania Kolarik, PhD candidates in the Department of Art History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Support for this exhibition is generously provided by the Martha and Ray Smith, Jr. Endowment Fund and in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts. 

The exhibition opens: August 23, 2024

The exhibition closes: December 21, 2024

Website link:  https://www.marquette.edu/haggerty-museum/material-muses.php

Call for Papers for Panel: Fear of Death in the Middle Ages, IMC Leeds, 7-10 July 2025, Due By 11 September 2024

Call for Papers for Panel

Fear of Death in the Middle Ages

International Medieval Congress Leeds, 7-10 July 2025

Due By 11 September 2024

Chrismatory, French, ca. 1200–1220, The MET, Public Domain. For more information and images, click here.

We invite scholars to submit papers for a session at the Leeds International Medieval Congress 2025, focusing on the multifaceted approaches to fear of death in the Middle Ages. This session aims to delve into the emotional, theological, textual, and social dimensions of how death was feared and perceived during this period.

In the Middle Ages fear of death and the afterlife played a significant role in shaping societal and theological norms, lived religion, the composition of works, and personal behaviour. This session aligns with the IMC 2025 theme of "Worlds of learning" as death and dying were seen as something that could and should be learned while living. We are particularly interested in papers that address, but are not limited to, the following topics:

- Theological interpretations of death and the afterlife, and how they instilled fear in medieval societies.

- Depictions of death in medieval art and literature as reflections of contemporary fears.

- Rituals and practices surrounding death and dying aimed at mitigating the fear of the unknown.

- The concept of a ‘good death’ as a countermeasure to the fear of death.

- The influence of saints, relics, and miracles in alleviating fear of death.

We welcome submissions from various disciplines, including history, theology, literature, art history, monastic studies, and more. Papers should provide new insights into how medieval people understood and responded to the fear of death.

Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be submitted by 11th September to Jyrki Nissi (jyrki.nissi@tuni.fi). Please include a brief bio with your submission along with your contact details and affiliation. The Leeds International Medieval Congress will be held July 7th–July 10th at the University of Leeds, UK.

For further information, please contact jyrki.nissi@tuni.fi.

We look forward to your submissions and to a stimulating session at Leeds IMC 2025.

The Courtauld Medieval Work-in-Progress Seminars: Autumn Semester 2024, Courtauld’s Vernon Square Campus, London, Starting 5:30 PM on Wednesdays

The Courtauld Medieval Work-in-Progress Seminars

Autumn Semester 2024

Courtauld’s Vernon Square Campus, London

Starting 5:30 PM on Wednesdays

Seminars are free and open to all. They are held in the Research Forum of The Courtauld Institute of Art’s Vernon Square campus,  starting at 5.30pm on Wednesdays.

Autumn Seminar Programme:

Spring talks will be advertised in the Autumn. Booking opens at the end of September: https://courtauld.ac.uk/research/whats on-research-forum-events/ 

Call for Papers: Houses of Enlightenment: Scriptoria, Schools, and Madrasas from the Caucasus to India (9th–14th century), IMC Leeds (7-10 July 2025), Due By 15 September 2024

Call for Papers

Houses of Enlightenment: Scriptoria, Schools, and Madrasas from the Caucasus to India (9th–14th century)

International Medieval Congress, Leeds, 7-10 July 2025

“Worlds of Learning”

Due By 15 September 2024

The role played by cultural centers and pedagogical institutions during the premodern period across Eurasia is well recognized since decades. From Armenian and Georgian monasteries on the coast of the Black Sea to Islamic madrasas in Delhi, complex networks of teaching, learning, and creativity were beacons of the diffusion of religious ideas, visual patterns, writing, technologies, and scientific knowledge. Surprisingly, they remain little known in part because they suffered from the compartmentalization between modern disciplines: scholars of manuscripts were interested in the role of monastic scriptoria and madrasas as workshops and places of production, scholars of architecture in the spatial and formal organization of these structures, while historians writ large analyzed cultural exchanges, the circulation of ideas, as well as the history of education and teaching. Furthermore, these spaces of learning have usually been studied exclusively in their respective religious contexts, i.e. Christian or Islamic.

Starting from material culture, these panels seek contributions stemming from a diversity of fields including art history, cultural history, archaeology, manuscript studies, and history of science. The goal is to decompartmentalize and understand the networks of these premodern spaces of learning in the broadest sense to highlight similitudes, exchanges and interactions, as well as their essential role in the production of art and knowledge from ca. the 9th to the 14th century.

We welcome proposals from academics at all career stages, including independent scholars, and particularly welcome proposals from scholars from the region and those from marginalized backgrounds. We will be seeking funding support to assist scholars who need it in attending the IMC.

Please email your proposal to Cassandre Lejosne (cassandre.lejosne@unil.ch) and Adrien Palladino (adrien.palladino@phil.muni.cz) by no later than 15 September 2024, with an abstract of no more than 250 words and a CV.

A PDF of the call for papers is available here.

Study Day: XXV. STUDIENTAG KUNST DES MITTELALTERS – XXVth STUDY DAY MEDIEVAL ART, Konstanz and Reichenau-Mittelzell, Germany, 22-23 September 2024

Study day

XXV. STUDIENTAG KUNST DES MITTELALTERS – XXVth STUDY DAY MEDIEVAL ART 

For the exhibition World Heritage of the Middle Ages - 1300 Years of the Monastic Island of Reichenau

22-23 September 2024

Konstanz and Reichenau-Mittelzell, Germany 

An invitation from our friends at Deutscher Verein für Kunstwissenschaft

Der nächste Studientag Kunst des Mittelalters findet anlässlich der Ausstellung „Welterbe des Mittelalters - 1300 Jahre Klosterinsel Reichenau“. Wir haben wieder die Möglichkeit, die Präsentation an einem Schließtag zu besichtigen. Sll jene, die etwas frueher anreisen, koennen die neu gestaltete Schatzkammer des Muenster in Reichenau-Mittelzell besichtigen.

Für weitere Informationen besuchen Sie: https://www.ausstellung-reichenau.de/

The next Study Day Medieval Art will take place on the occasion of the exhibition "World Heritage of the Middle Ages - 1300 Years of the Reichenau monastery island". We will again have the opportunity to visit the presentation on a closing day. Those who arrive a little earlier can visit the newly designed treasury of the monastery in Reichenau-Mittelzell.

For more information, visit https://www.ausstellung-reichenau.de/en/

Vorläufiges Programm / Preliminary program

SUN 22.09.2024
Optional: 
15.00:  Reichenau-Mittelzell; Schatzkammer im Münster St. Maria und Markus / Treasury in the Minster of St. Mary and St. Mark
Gemeinsames Abendessen / optional dinner
MON 23.09.2024 
Ausstellungsbesuch / Exhibition visit


Weitere Details werden noch rechtzeitig bekanntgegeben / Further details will be announced in due time 

Anmeldung bitte an:
StudientagMittelalter@gmail.com
Please send your registration  to: 
medievalstudyday@gmail.com

Scholarly Colloquium: Living with Sculpture: Presence and Power in Europe, At Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth, 7 September 2024 10:00AM-4:45PM

Scholarly Colloquium

Living with Sculpture: Presence and Power in Europe

September 7, 2024

10:00 am–4:45 pm (Registration opens at 9:30 am)

Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth

Sculptures surround us in our daily lives. Similarly, they enlivened private and public spaces in medieval and Renaissance Europe, contributing to presentations of identity, practices of devotion, and promotions of nationhood. Featuring objects made across the continent, the exhibition Living with Sculpture examines the significance of sculpture between 1400 and 1750, an era of profound cultural and social change. Amid war, colonization, religious conflict, philosophical debates, and social stratification, these works of art ornamented homes, altars, libraries, and collections.

In connection with the exhibition, this colloquium brings together scholars and curators from around the Northeast to discuss how audiences, patrons, and makers engaged with sculpture in the Middle Ages and early modern period. Ranging from twelfth-century Spain to seventeenth-century Rome, the discussion topics will offer an in-depth examination of making and living with sculpture. The colloquium will include a tour of the exhibition by its Hood Museum curators, Elizabeth Rice Mattison and Ashley Offill. Registration opens at 9:30 am. The program will begin at 10:00 am.

Speakers:

Elizabeth Lastra, Vassar College

Kelley Helmstutler Di Dio, University of Vermont

Lara Yeager-Crasselt, Baltimore Museum of Art

Laura Tillery, Hamilton College

Lorenzo Buonanno, University of Massachusetts, Boston

Miya Tokumitsu, Davison Art Center, Wesleyan

Nicola Camerlenghi, Dartmouth College


This event is free, by registration.  

 This event is organized by the Hood Museum of Art with support from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.

Call for Sessions: NORDIK 2025: WHY SO NORDIC? THE 'NORDIC' AS FACT AND FICTION IN ART HISTORY, Helsinki (20-22 Oct. 2025), Session Proposals By 6 Sept. 2025

Call for Sessions

NORDIK 2025: WHY SO NORDIC? THE 'NORDIC' AS FACT AND FICTION IN ART HISTORY

Helsinki, 20–22 October 2025

Proposed Sessions Due By 6 September 2024

The Nordic Association for Art Historians NORDIK came into being as an organizer of international conferences that since 1984 have brought together individual scholars and organizations with an interest in Nordic and Scandinavian art history. Today, the very notion of a network of Nordic art historians raises questions. Who do we include in this community today? How do we look at the Nordic in art and its history? What does it mean to ‘do Nordic art history’? The NORDIK 2025 conference “Why so Nordic? 

The 'Nordic' as fact and fiction in art history” is organized by the Nordic Association for Art Historians NORDIK in collaboration with the University of Helsinki, Faculty of Arts, Department of Cultures, Art History.

Important days and information

  • The deadline for Call for Session proposals: September 6th, 2024

  • Notification of acceptance for Sessions organizers: October 2024 

  • The Call for Papers will open in November 2024

For more information, visit here.

Information About Call for Sessions Proposals

The conferences, which occur every three years, forge connections between research environments in the five Nordic countries and have sustained the idea of a specific art history related to Northern Europe and the North Atlantic. Today, the very notion of a network of Nordic art historians raises questions. Who do we include in this community today? How do we look at the Nordic in art and its history? What does it mean to ‘do Nordic art history’? 

For the XIV NORDIK Conference of Art History in the Nordic Countries, we examine the ‘Nordic’ as fact and fiction. We invite scholars and all interested parties to reflect and discuss this contested concept. 

A long period defined by wars, exploitation and intermittent exchange was transformed with the birth of new Nordic and Scandinavian identities at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Now, towards the end of the twentieth century, the divergent paths of the Nordic countries have suggested new transformations and divisions. In the new millennium, climate crises and war in Europe make the future seem wholly uncertain. Thus, a common history is undeniable, but its implications and meanings are contested.  

The Nordic seems a powerful concept, equal parts liberating and oppressive. It has been a concept of exclusion – of colonized subjects, of the have-nots, of women – but it has also been a concept of radical alternatives to hegemony, whether in politics or art. Nordicness is defined as much from outside of the region. Romantic and racist frames of reference intermingle in fantasies of the North. Even the most powerful concepts and slogans erode with time, and the political and social structure of the Nordic welfare state with its strong cultural ambitions seems replaced by superficial branding. How has art, design and architecture contributed to the various concepts of Nordicness expressed through history? And how do we deal with the multiplicity of identities and interpretations connected to this term, today? 

The NORDIK Association for Art Historians is hereby announcing a call for sessions for the conference in Helsinki 2025 under the heading ‘Why so Nordic?’. Session proposals should preferably relate to the topic of the conference and to the Nordic countries. Preference will be given to session proposals that are at a high level of reflexivity and at the forefront of research and practice in art history or related branches of study such as visual culture, critical theory, landscape studies, or museum studies. Contributions based upon artistic research and practice are highly welcome. 

Possible session proposals could touch upon:

  • The historiography of Nordicness and Scandinavianism in art history 

  • The geographical borders and mental/spiritual confines of the Nordic in art and culture 

  • Collaborations, networks and conflicts between artists, art historians, critics, and dealers in and through the Nordics 

  • Constructions and critiques of Nordic and national imagery 

  • Arguments for expanding, revising or re-framing Nordic art histories 

  • Art, colonialism, oppression, and exploitation in the Nordic countries 

  • The hierarchies of a Nordic art system: art, architecture, design, visual culture... 

  • The institutional settings for Nordic art in museums and cultural heritage: exhibitions, archives, collections 

  • Public art and the Nordic Welfare model 

  • Welfare state, public support and progressive art policies 

We will accept session proposals until September 6th, 2024 after which a committee drawn from the members of the board of NORDIK together with representatives of the conference co-organizer, the University of Helsinki will make an inclusive selection.  

Proposals for sessions (max 1 page) must include the following: 

  • a title  

  • a short description of the theme/subject of the session (max. 250 words) 

  • suggested type of session and number of papers included in it 

  • contact information of the organizers  

  • keywords  

For each session organizer, a CV (max 2 pages) should be appended.  

Accepted sessions are set to last 1 h 30 min and contain btw. 3 and 4 papers. A separate call for papers will take place in November 2024.  

Please submit your proposal via e-mail to nordik2025@helsinki.fi.

Call for Abstracts: Casting Art, In New Series: Traces. Public History and Cultural Heritage , Due 1 September 2024

Call for Abstracts

Casting Art

In New Series from De Gruyter: Traces. Public History and Cultural Heritage

Guest editors: Yaëlle Biro and Noémie Etienne

Due 1 September 2024

Plaster Head, With inscription at back “Ife-Terrakotte der Frobenius Expedition, 1910” British Museum Af1927,0309.6, H. 23 centimeters (with block), Original terracotta head from Ife, Nigeria, 12th-15th century

Publication date: 2026
Please send your abstracts to yaellebiro@gmail.com and noemie.etienne@univie.ac.at

Full articles (if abstracts are accepted): February 2025
A peer-reviewed evaluation will take place
Final versions of the articles are expected for April 2025

Plaster casts molded from artworks are ubiquitous in museum and university collections. In the art history department at the university of Vienna, for instance, a small vitrine surrounded by plants displays old plaster casts of medieval ivories. The installation functions simultaneously as an educational tool from the past, an archive of the department history, and a decorative ensemble. The German anthropologist Leo Frobenius had multiple plaster casts made of several terracottas he excavated in 1910 in Ife, Nigeria, marked them with his name and donated them to European ethnographic museums. He thus transformed masterpieces of an ancient West African civilization into his own vanity pieces-carte de visite and subjects of scientific research.

As can be seen in many museum storage and gypsotheques, over centuries, plaster casts have been molded on art works, architectural elements, and even human beings. The Italian Renaissance and the 19th century are two contexts often discussed in the framing of the importance of casting as part of broader creative processes but their presence and impact goes beyond. Since the 1990s and the work by Georges Didi-Huberman (e.g. L’empreinte, 1997), plaster casts have stimulated art historical research and have expanded thinking about heritage.

In this volume edited by De Gruyter (New series Traces), we propose to redefine collectively what plaster casts are across different geographies and time periods, focusing mainly on the reproduction of objects. As the use of 3D printing of works of art is becoming common practice as a tool to the current debate on restitution of cultural patrimony, we would like to interrogate how this replication practice differs conceptually from the earlier one. We will explore what plaster casts were upon production and what they have become, what they enable, and how they impact original productions as well as discourses surrounding them.

Topics of interest can include:

1. Past: Plaster copies were highly circulated between institutions and continents. How were they traded, commercialized, and commodified? How did plaster cast enable the forging of specific disciplines, in which context and for whose profit? How were plaster casts used in teaching and study collections? How were they produced, circulated, and exhibited?

2. Present: We believe that plaster casts, and casts in general, need to be better defined in a global theoretical framework. Despite the numerous single studies focusing on specific contexts, in both art history and anthropology, the topic per se lacks broader conceptualization. How should this type of object be defined? What do they convey? How do they transform the casted original, be it an artwork (or even sometimes a human being)? Topics can also include the connection between artistic and anthropological castings, as well as the use of casts in contemporary art.

3. Future: Plaster is a very sensitive material prone to degradation. What are the specific challenges of exhibiting and preserving plaster cast today? Should they be preserved at all as parts of the museums’ collections? Does today’s proliferation of 3D printing of works of art, and their possible use in the context of restitution practices, present similar challenges and should these processes be submitted to better control?

Call for Applications: Doctoral Fellowships, Herzog-August-Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel, Germany, Due 1 October 2024

Call for Applications

Doctoral Fellowships

Dr. Günther Findel-Stiftung / Rolf und Ursula Schneider-Stiftung

Herzog-August-Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel, Germany

Annual application deadlines: April 1 and October 1.

Thanks to the initiatives by private foundations (Dr. Günther Findel-Stiftung/Rolf und Ursula Schneider-Stiftung) fellowships programmes for doctoral candidates have been established at the Herzog August Bibliothek. These programmes are open to applicants from Germany and abroad and from all disciplines.

Applicants may apply for a fellowship of between 2 and 10 months, if research on their dissertation topic necessitates the use of the Wolfenbüttel holdings. The fellowship is € 1.300 per month. Fellowship holders are housed in library accommodation for the duration of the fellowship and pay the rent from their fellowship. There is also an allowance of € 100 per month to cover costs of copying, reproductions etc. Candidates can apply for a travel allowance if no funds are available to them from other sources.

Candidates who already hold fellowships (eg. state or college awards or grants from Graduiertenkollegs) or are employed can apply for a rent subsidy (€ 550) to help finance their stay in Wolfenbüttel.

New: Thanks to generous financial support by the Anna Vorwerk-Stiftung, the monthly fellowship will be increased by € 150 per month until further notice.

Please request an application form, which details all the documents that need to be submitted, at ed.bah@gnuhcsrof. Reviewers will be appointed to evaluate the applications. The Board of Trustees of the foundations will decide on the award.

Application deadlines: October 1st or April 1st. The Board holds its selection meetings in February and July. Successful applicants can take up the award from April 1st or October 1st onwards each year.

If you send your applications by mail, please submit only unstapled documents and no folders.

You can find more information about the foundation here.

For more information about the fellowship and other funding, visit here.

Exhibition Closing: WORLD HERITAGE OF THE MIDDLE AGES: 1,300 YEARS OF THE MONASTIC ISLAND OF REICHENAU, BADISCHES LANDESMUSEUM, KARLSRUHE, GERMANY, Until 20 October 2024

Exhibition Closing

World Heritage of the Middle Ages: 1,300 Years of the Monastic Island of Reichenau

Great State Exhibition 2024

Badisches Landesmuseum (Baden State Museum), Karlsruhe, Germany

20 April - 20 October 2024

The exhibition "World Heritage of the Middle Ages - 1,300 Years of the Monastic Island of Reichenau" is one of the "Great State Exhibitions" of the federal state Baden-Württemberg in Southwest Germany. The exhibition celebrates the 1,300 year jubilee of the Reichenau Monastery, which was founded in the year 724 on the Reichenau Island in Lake Constance.

The exhibition is curated by the Badisches Landesmuseum and will be hosted at the Archaeological State Museum Baden-Württemberg in the city of Constance. The historic sites on the nearby Monastic Island of Reichenau complement the exhibition.

Precious loaned objects along with two UNESCO World Heritage titles make the Great State Exhibition 2024 one of the most spectacular special exhibitions in Europe: The imperial cloister Reichenau was one of the most innovative cultural and political centers of the realm and an influential school of painting in the 10th and 11th centuries . Long before printing was invented, the cloister was considered one of the greatest European centers of learning and knowledge. The “Monastic Island of Reichenau” has been included in the list of UNESCO world heritage sites in the year 2000.

The cloister scriptorium on Reichenau was among the most prodigious book producers of the early Middle Ages. Some of the most precious and magnificent manuscripts in the world originated there. At the order of powerful emperors, kings and imperial bishops, the monks created works of art, which fascinate to this day with their perfection and beauty. The main works of Reichenau manuscripts were named UNESCO World Documentation Heritage in 2003 as “unique documents of cultural history, which are exemplary for the collective memory of mankind.”

The exhibition, which will be hosted in the Archaeological State Museum Baden-Württemberg in Constance, brings the fascinating history of the cloister to life: The magnificent manuscripts from the Reichenau scriptorium, which have never been exhibited in such number, are one particular highlight. The rich monastic landscape at Lake of Constance and the upper Rhine are presented, as well as the life of the monks.

Monastic Island of Reichenau

The Reichenau island is of outstanding natural beauty. Vegetables, herbs and wine thrive in the gardens, fields and vineyards of the island in Lake Constance at the foot of the Alps. The three medieval churches, which used to belong to the cloister Reichenau are part of the UNESCO World Heritage. They form a unique ensemble of Carolingian and Ottonian architecture.

A spectacular treasure chamber presents numerous reliquaries and other cult objects dating from the 5th to the 18th centuries. The newly designed cloister gardens are inspired by two famous medieval treatises on horticulture, which are associated with the monastery. The "Museum Reichenau" hosts an exhibition on the cultural and historical significance of the Reichenau.

For more information, visit here.

Exhibition Closing: The wonderful Treasure of Oignies : 13th century sparks of brilliance, Musée de Cluny, Paris, Until 20 October 2024

Exhibition Closing

MERVEILLEUX TRÉSOR D’OIGNIES: Éclats du 13e siècle

The wonderful Treasure of Oignies : 13th century sparks of brilliance

Musée de Cluny le monde médiéval, Paris

19 mar 2024 - 20 octobre 2024

The Treasure of Oignies, recognised since 1978 as one of the Seven Wonders of Belgium, is leaving its home country almost in its entirety for the first time. From 19 March to 20 October 2024, the Musée de Cluny – musée national du Moyen Âge is presenting these pieces of gold and silversmithery in an exhibition entirely dedicated to them.

The exhibition “The Wonderful Treasure of Oignies : 13th Century Sparks of Brilliance” is presented at the Musée de Cluny in the current events room. The curators are Christine Descatoire, Chief Curator at the Musée de Cluny, responsible for the gold and silversmithery collection, and Julien De Vos, Chief Curator, Director of the Cultural Heritage Department of the Province of Namur.

It is organised with the support of the King Baudouin Foundation, which owns the Treasure of Oignies. 

For more information, visit here.

Le Trésor d’Oignies est un extraordinaire ensemble d'orfèvrerie du 13e siècle, reconnu comme l'une des sept merveilles de Belgique. 

L'exposition "Merveilleux Trésor d'Oignies : Éclats du 13e siècle" présente pour la première fois hors du territoire belge la quasi-intégralité de cet ensemble : des pièces d’orfèvrerie (surtout des reliquaires) et quelques textiles. 
Elle reviendra sur l'histoire du prieuré d'Oignies, pour lequel les pièces ont été réalisées. Elle  constituera également un éclairage sur la production orfévrée de Hugo d’Oignies et de son atelier.

Des visites guidées de l'exposition sont organisées en septembre et octobre 2024. Retrouvez toutes les dates ici. 

Commissariat :
Christine Descatoire, conservatrice générale au musée de Cluny, responsable de la collection d’orfèvrerie
Julien De Vos, Directeur du Service des Musées et du Patrimoine culturel de la Province de Namur

Exposition organisée par le Musée de Cluny et le Musée provincial des Arts anciens du Namurois avec la contribution de la Fondation Roi Baudouin.

Pour plus d’informations visitez leur site ici.

Call for Applications: AVISTA Graduate Student Research Grant, Due 15 October 2024 5PM ET

Call for Applications

AVISTA Graduate Student Research Grant

Art & Architectures Across Borders in the Medieval World

Due 15 October 2024, 5:00pm ET

Our application for the AVISTA Graduate Student Research Grant for the study of art and architecture across borders in the medieval world is now open!

This grant of $500 is intended to support an early-stage graduate student’s research on the theme of art that crosses the borders or peripheries of the medieval world. Funds should support research and/or dissemination of scholarship, which may include expenses for conference travel, site visits, or archive visits. The award includes a one-year gift membership to AVISTA.

We are grateful to Robert E. Jamison, Professor Emeritus of Mathematics, Clemson University, for underwriting this grant.

The deadline for submitting your application is October 15, 2024, 5:00pm ET.

For the full application instructions and guidelines please see our “Prizes and Grants” page here.

Call for Academic Articles: Belvedere Research Journal, New Issue, Due 30 September 2024

Call for Academic Articles

Belvedere Research Journal, New Issue

Due 30 September 2024

The Belvedere Research Journal (BRJ), a peer-reviewed, open-access e-journal, invites new submissions. We are interested in articles that shed light on the visual culture of the former Habsburg Empire and Central Europe broadly defined from the medieval period to the present. Contributions that position Austrian art practices within a wider international framework are particularly welcome. We value innovative art historical approaches, such as challenging established narratives or exploring transnational exchanges that highlight the interconnected and cross-cultural nature of the art world. The BRJ is also keen to feature work on artists and figures who have been historically underrepresented, with a special emphasis on women. We encourage interdisciplinary research that blends art history with methodologies from other fields, such as digital humanities, social sciences, and cultural economics.

Each issue of the BRJ offers two publication formats: Research Articles (20,000 to 50,000 characters, including endnotes and spaces), which undergo a double-anonymous peer review, and Discoveries (max. 15,000 characters, including endnotes and spaces), which are subject to editorial review. Discoveries allow scholars to share findings and insights on specific works of art, archival materials, or historical documents. We welcome contributions from established scholars as well as early career researchers, including PhD candidates.

The BRJ accepts manuscripts on a rolling basis, with publication in English. The BRJ arranges translation for accepted manuscripts from common Central European languages and ensures all articles undergo professional copy-editing. Articles are published in an open annual issue immediately after final acceptance, covering the period from January 1 to December 31. The BRJ handles the acquisition of image rights, and no article processing charges (APC) are required.

Accepted submissions will be published under the Creative Commons License CC BY 4.0, with copyright retained by the author(s).

Submission deadline is September 30, 2024.

See the Author Guidelines here: https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/brj/about/submissions

The editors welcome informal inquiries about potential proposals. Please send articles and inquiries to: journal@belvedere.at. For more details, visit our journal’s website: https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/brj/index.

Editor-in-Chief: Christian Huemer (Belvedere, Vienna)

Call for Papers: The Modern Independent Scholar in the Medieval Research World: BECOMING A DIGITAL DETECTIVE, ICMS Kalamazoo (8-10 May 2025), Virtual Session, Due By 15 Sept. 2024

Call for Papers from Independent Medieval ScholarS

The Modern Independent Scholar in the Medieval Research World: BECOMING A DIGITAL DETECTIVE

International Congress on Medieval Studies (8-10 May 2025)

Virtual Paper Session

Due By 15 September 2024

Have you conducted your own independent research on any medieval matter by using digital resources? Perhaps researching for a book in progess? Would you like to share your experience with like minded independent researchers and authors? We'd love to hear from you at our upcoming virtual paper session at the 60th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI, from May 8-10, 2025. Papers may focus on any matter related to your personal research using digital platforms.

The importance of access to digitized medieval manuscripts by researchers cannot be overemphasized. Usually, that access occurs through an academic institution. To those independent medieval scholars with limited or no access to such institutional resources, alternative gateways to digitized material become critical. This session will explore materials available in various open-access libraries, such as those offered by the Digital Bodleian or the Digital Biblioteca Vaticana and their effect upon the scholarly work of independent medievalists. We will also consider the various ways to access and use increasingly available online manuscripts.

We will consider papers providing practical ways that independent scholars have used to access and explore the increasing availability of online digitized medieval manuscripts housed in strong institutions such as the Digital Bodleian or Digital Vatican. We are also looking for papers that will guide the beginning independent researcher through the gatekeeping steps of such institutions and ways to become comfortable working with open-access medieval manuscripts. Furthermore, we encourage papers that explore collaboration and communication among independent researchers, all to the purpose of fostering open dialogue and peer support that nurture valuable contributions to future medieval scholarship.

THIS PAPER SESSION IS VIRTUAL ONLY AND PRESENTED THROUGH ZOOM.

To submit a short proposal by September 15, 2024, here is the official ICMS link to our session: https://icms.confex.com/icms/2025/paper/papers/index.cgi?sessionid=5857

For any questions, please contact Barbara Prescott at both bprescott125@gmail.com and barbprescott@alumni.stanford.edu. Sponsoring Organization: American Society of Dorothy L. Sayers Studies

Call for Papers for Special Session (FULLY ONLINE): Purgatory to Paradise - Visualizing the Iter Salvationis in Medieval Art, ICMS Kalamazoo (8-10 May 2025), Due By 14 Sept. 2024

Call for Papers for Special Session (FULLY ONLINE)

Purgatory to Paradise - Visualizing the Iter Salvationis in Medieval Art

60th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, May 8–10, 2025

Due By September 14, 2024

This special session wishes to analyze the representations of souls in Purgatory and their journey toward Paradise. The exempla employed in medieval texts and sermons featured vividly impactful imagery designed to engage the audience and leave a lasting impression. In medieval visual art, how are themes of sin, punishment, and, importantly, the possibility of salvation portrayed? Additionally, what is the significance of depicting souls in purgatory as naked? How this symbolism can be interpreted in conveying theological truths about redemption and renewal?

The session will encourage an interdisciplinary approach. Liturgy, sermons, drama, and visual arts were deeply interconnected with the expression of iter salvationis. For this reason, these elements will be examined in relation to pilgrimages and indulgences to understand the dramatization of the after-life. The scientific importance of the session lies in understanding how these devotional images served not only as reminders of mortality, akin to memento mori, but also as catalysts for the pursuit of indulgences. Moreover, the analysis of case studies will not only aim to highlight specific aspects and general phenomena in Late Medieval Europe, but also to define identities and devotees’ experiences in their life and after-life journey of purification.

Scholars are invited to submit a 300-word abstract, excluding references. Proposals should also include name, affiliation, email address, the title of the presentation, 6 keywords, a selective bibliography, and a short CV. Please send the documents to maryandthecity.imc2022@gmail.com by September 14, 2024.

Conference: Objects of Law in the Medieval and Early Modern Worlds, Universität Bern, 29-30 August 2024

Conference

Objects of Law in the Medieval and Early Modern Worlds

Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Universität Bern, Mittelstrasse 43, 3012 Bern, Room 120

29-30 August 2024

The international conference “Objects of Law in the Medieval and Early Modern Worlds” proposes to reflect on the artistic practices that shaped the materiality, iconography, and texts of legal objects in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period. What forms did these objects take? How did they confer authenticity and legal authority? What education and knowledge are evident in the objects? The conference seeks an interdisciplinary dialogue among scholars from art history, legal history, history, archaeology, and related disciplines who engage with legal objects.

Organized by Corinne Mühlemann (University of Bern) and Fatima Quraishi (University of California, Riverside).

For registration, please contact: janina.ammon@unibe.ch
The conference will be held in person.


Conference Programme

Thursday 29 August 2024

9:00-9:30: ARRIVAL | COFFEE

9:30-10.15: Introduction by Fatima Quraishi and Corinne Mühlemann

PANEL 1 | FORMATIONS OF AUTHORITY

10:30-12:00
Moderated by Omar Anchassi, University of Bern, SNSF Project “Trajectories of Slavery in Islamicate Societies”

  • Zahir Bhalloo (University of Hamburg), Social and Spatial Dynamics of Bukharan Fatwas as Written Artefacts

  • Stella Wisgrill (University of Cambridge), Testing Virtue, Forging Nobility: Emperor Frederick III’s 1462 Augmentation of Arms for the Margravate of Moravia and the Performance of Legal Authority

12:00-13:30: Lunch

PANEL 2 | CIRCULATION AND FORMATION OF LEGAL KNOWLEDGE

13:30-15:00

Moderated by Irina Dudar, Institute of Art History, University of Bern

  • Phillipa Byrne (Trinity College, Dublin), The Materiality of Medieval Judicial Ordines

  • Niko Munz (Oxford University), Bildnisrecht: Legal Aspects of Early Portraiture

15:00-15:30: Coffee Break

PANEL 3 | MULTIPLE MATERIALITIES

15:30-17:30
Moderated by Corinne Mühlemann, Institute of Art History, University of Bern

  • Subah Dayal (New York University), To Attest, Fold, and Copy in the Islamic Port-City: Safavid Seals and Mughal Envelopes across the VOC Archive

  • Masha Goldin (University of Basel), Weapon of Justice? Medieval Swords as Objects and Images

  • Nino Zchomeldise (John Hopkins University), Aesthetics of Illusion and Authenticity in Ottonian Legal Documents

19:00: Dinner

Friday 30 August 2024

PANEL 4 | LEGAL PERFORMANCE

8:30-10:30
Moderated by Fatima Quraishi, University of California, Riverside

  • Shounak Ghosh (Vanderbilt University), Epistolary Texts as Legal Objects: Querying the Mughal Farmān in Diplomatic Contexts

  • Daniela Maldonado Castaneda (University of Toronto), Between Sacred and Script: Examining Legal Objects in Promises, Vows, and Oaths as Defined by Alfonso X in The Seven-Partidas

  • Jordan Skinner (Princeton University), The Medieval Curfew Bell: Sonority and the Voice of Law

10:30-11:00: Coffee Break


PANEL 5 | LONGUE-DURÉE STUDIES
11:00-12:30

Moderation TBA

  • Krisztina Ilko (Queens College / University of Cambridge), The Chess-Knight Seal

  • Heba Mostafa (University of Toronto), “God Protect us from One Finger under Twenty!” The Abbasid Nilometer Column as a Legal Object

12:30-14:00: Lunch

PANEL 6 | EVERYDAY LAW

14:00-15:30

Moderated by Moïra Dato, Institute of Art History, University of Bern

  • Gül Kale (Carleton University, Toronto), The Material and Social Implications of Measuring Tools in Ottoman Legal History

  • Lorenzo Paveggio (University of Padua), What Does a Bribe Look Like? Carolingian munera in Literary Texts

15:30-16:00: Coffee Break

PANEL 7 | OBJECTS IN COURT

16:00-17:30

Moderated by Carlos Rojas Cocoma, Institute of Art History, University of Bern

  • Nathalie Miraval (Yale University), The Sacred Suspended: Martha, Law, and Image in the Early Modern Spanish Atlantic

  • Linda Mueller (Bibliotheca Hertziana Rome/Harvard University), Drawings, Courtroom Practices, and Juridical Decision-Making at the Edges of the Spanish Empire

17:30-18:00: CLOSING REMARKS

For a PDF of the program, click here.

Call for Article Submissions: Metropolitan Museum Journal, Sponsored by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Due By 15 September 2024

Call for Article Submissions

Metropolitan Museum Journal

Sponsored by the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Due By 15 September 2024

The Editorial Board of the peer-reviewed Metropolitan Museum Journal invites submissions of original research on works in the Museum’s collection. Beginning with Volume 52 (2017), there will be two sections: Full-length Articles and Research Notes. Full-length Articles contribute extensive and thoroughly argued scholarship. Research Notes typically present a concise, neatly bounded aspect of ongoing study, such as the presentation of a new acquisition or attribution, or a specific, resonant finding from technical analysis. All texts must take works of art in the collection as the point of departure.

We look forward to receiving your submission, whether a first-time investigation or a critical reassessment from the Museum's vast holdings.

Click here to view inspiration from the Collection

Click here for the call for submissions

View the Journal here
View the instructions for authors 

To be considered for the following year’s volume, an article must be submitted, complete including illustrations, by September 15. 

Call for Session Proposals: Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture, IMC Leeds (7-10 July 2025), Due 5 Sept. 2024

Call for Session Proposals

Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture

2025 International Medieval Congress

University of Leeds, July 7–10, 2025

Due 9 September 2024

Curtain Fragment with Galloping Horse (The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 1948.27)

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 2024 International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, July 7–10, 2025. We invite session proposals on any topic relevant to Byzantine studies.

The thematic strand for the 2025 IMC is “Worlds of Learning.” See the IMC Call for Papers (https://www.imc.leeds.ac.uk/imc-2025/) 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-2025). The deadline for submission is September 9, 2024.

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 coming 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-2025.

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

Call for Papers for Roundtable: The Middle Ages Reloaded: Activism, Public Engagement, and Political Realities, ICMS Kalamazoo (8-10 May 2025), Due 15 Sept. 2024

Call for Papers for Roundtable

The Middle Ages Reloaded: Activism, Public Engagement, and Political Realities

International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo 2025 (8-10 May 2025)

Due 15 September 2024

Our roundtable panel seeks to draw attention to how we speak of the Middle Ages during tumultuous times. We aim to highlight real-world issues and ways of creating and innovating against the crises in education, institutional constraints, and social disparities at large. For example, how one teaches the Middle Ages in the classroom is increasingly subject to state and local curricular mandates. In museums, exhibitions and acquisitions are frequently dependent on fundraising structures, donor relations, and stewardship. Throughout the field, inequitable institutional and social structures condition who gets to participate in the telling of the Middle Ages, and even within those structures, the labor required to engage remains invisible or unacknowledged.

We are seeking contributions to a roundtable on the current praxis of the Middle Ages as we are in the midst of rapid cultural changes. Participants should propose present issues and/or future-oriented questions about how we teach, curate, and research the Middle Ages. How do we get around restrictions placed upon us to talk, write, educate, and create the Middle Ages in inclusive, global, and meaningful ways? How can we balance activism with work that is historically responsible? Do we envision disruptions to larger systems that would fundamentally change the field of medieval studies?

Interested panelists should submit a 100-word bio and 200-word abstract that concretely conveys examples of recent changes to, or future goals for, your practice as a medievalist. We are looking for short talks (ca. 8 minutes) on actionable changes to the field, recommendations for the future, and/or strategies that grapple with the changing U.S. political landscape. We especially welcome non-traditional forms of academic presentations, including personal reflections, public engagement and writing, innovative pedagogical approaches, social media and digital projects, and emerging platforms broadly speaking. Panelists from a variety of contexts/positions/career stages are strongly encouraged to apply, including: K–12 public educators, government and public service workers, curators and staff from museums and cultural institutions, those with non-academic affiliations, graduate students, as well as retired, tenure-track and contingent faculty from higher education, among others.

Organizers:

Larisa Grollemond, Assistant Curator of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts, Getty Museum
Laura Tillery, Assistant Professor of Art History, Hamilton College

Submit to:
https://icms.confex.com/icms/2025/round/papers/index.cgi?sessionid=6297