Current Exhibition: Medieval Women: In Their Own Words, British Library, London, Until 2 March 2025

Current Exhibition

Medieval Women: In Their Own Words

British Library, London

Until 2 March 2025

Our latest exhibition introduces the women of medieval Europe through their own words, visions and experiences. Discover the rich and complex lives of women in the Middle Ages, with over 140 extraordinary items that reveal their artistry, resourcefulness, courage and struggles.

Medieval women’s voices evoke a world in which they lived active and varied lives. Their testimonies speak of diverse experiences, revealing female impact and influence across private, public and spiritual realms, and bringing alive experiences that still resonate today.

This exhibition focuses on Europe from roughly 1100 to 1500, a period in which there was strong cultural interconnection across the continent. While most medieval sources from the period were written by and about men, women’s surviving testimonies offer remarkable insight into their contributions to medieval social and economic life, culture and politics, their skilful management of households and convents, and the vibrancy of female religious culture.

Must-see highlights include:

  • The Book of the Queen by Christine de Pizan: The first professional woman author in Europe

  • Sibylle of Flanders' 12th-century ivory cross: Owned by Sibylle, countess of Flanders, who went on Crusade to the Holy Land

  • A silk textile made in al-Andalus (Islamic Spain), where Muslim women labourers were fundamental to the silk industry

  • Julian of Norwich’s The Revelations of Divine Love: the first work in English definitely authored by a woman

  • A 15th-century birthing girdle: a manuscript inscribed with prayers and charms that was used for protection during childbirth

  • Battel Hall retable a rare surviving painting from a medieval English nunnery

  • On Women's Cosmetics: a recipe book likely to have been composed in Southern Italy in the 12th century with recipes for hair dye remover, face creams and breath freshener

  • A lion skull that possibly came from a pet lion of Margaret of Anjou, Queen of England.

Break free from traditional narratives and encounter personalities both famous and forgotten who tell the story of medieval womanhood. And discover stories familiar to women today, from the gender pay gap and harmful stereotypes, to access to healthcare and education, as well as challenges faced by female leaders.

This is the story of medieval women, told in their own words.

Medieval Women: In Their Own Words is supported by Joanna and Graham Barker and Unwin Charitable Trust.

For more information, visit https://www.bl.uk/whats-on/medieval-women/.

Oxford Medieval Manuscripts Group Lecture: Casual trip to see the ‘Medieval Women in Their Own Words’ exhibition at the British Library together, 14 December 2024, 12:00PM

Oxford Medieval Manuscripts Group Lecture

Casual trip to see the ‘Medieval Women in Their Own Words’ exhibition at the British Library together

14 December 2024, 12:00PM

Saint Augustine teaching. Paris, Bibl. Mazarine, MS 616, fol. 1r.

The Oxford Medieval Manuscripts Group (OMMG) is a collective of eight postgraduate students and early-career researchers who bonded in Oxford over their passion for medieval manuscripts. We host a seminar series through which we hope to gather a community of emerging scholars, from the University of Oxford and beyond, around the study of medieval books and the art of illumination.

Starting in Hilary Term 2024, OMMG seminars will take place twice monthly on Friday afternoons. We will discuss the most exciting recent research; share our own projects and ideas in a supportive environment; learn from lectures and tutorials given by experienced colleagues; and examine medieval manuscripts together during library visits.

By promoting exchange between scholars with diverse specialisms and different levels of experience, OMMG aims to turn the study of medieval books and illuminations into a more collaborative pursuit. We know that working with manuscripts is often a solitary business, where knowledge is acquired over silent and cautious one-on-one meetings with a delicate object. We want to share the wonder we experience before the material, visual and textual complexity of illuminated codices, as well as the interrogations or frustrations we have as we encounter obstacles in our research. The OMMG seminar series will provide manuscript enthusiasts with a stimulating platform for learning practical and analytical skills from peers as well as experts. We would love you to join us!

To subscribe to our mailing list, participate in library visits, propose a presentation of your research for work-in-progress meetings, or submit any queries, please write to: Elena Lichmanova.

Oxford Medieval Manuscripts Group Lecture: Medieval Women in Their Own Words: Curating the British Library Exhibition, Eleanor Jackson, At University of Oxford, 29 November 2024, 5:00PM

Oxford Medieval Manuscripts Group Lecture

Medieval Women in Their Own Words: Curating the British Library Exhibition

Eleanor Jackson | British Library 

29 November 2024, 5pm

Mure Room, Merton College, University of Oxford

Saint Augustine teaching. Paris, Bibl. Mazarine, MS 616, fol. 1r.

The Oxford Medieval Manuscripts Group (OMMG) is a collective of eight postgraduate students and early-career researchers who bonded in Oxford over their passion for medieval manuscripts. We host a seminar series through which we hope to gather a community of emerging scholars, from the University of Oxford and beyond, around the study of medieval books and the art of illumination.

Starting in Hilary Term 2024, OMMG seminars will take place twice monthly on Friday afternoons. We will discuss the most exciting recent research; share our own projects and ideas in a supportive environment; learn from lectures and tutorials given by experienced colleagues; and examine medieval manuscripts together during library visits.

By promoting exchange between scholars with diverse specialisms and different levels of experience, OMMG aims to turn the study of medieval books and illuminations into a more collaborative pursuit. We know that working with manuscripts is often a solitary business, where knowledge is acquired over silent and cautious one-on-one meetings with a delicate object. We want to share the wonder we experience before the material, visual and textual complexity of illuminated codices, as well as the interrogations or frustrations we have as we encounter obstacles in our research. The OMMG seminar series will provide manuscript enthusiasts with a stimulating platform for learning practical and analytical skills from peers as well as experts. We would love you to join us!

To subscribe to our mailing list, participate in library visits, propose a presentation of your research for work-in-progress meetings, or submit any queries, please write to: Elena Lichmanova.

Medieval Visual Culture Seminar: What Art Does When It’s Doing Nothing: Stillness, Perdurance, and Agency in Medieval Art, Ben Tilghman, At University of Oxford, 5 December 2024, 5:00-6:30PM

Lecture Series

Medieval Visual Culture Seminar, University of Oxford, Michaelmas Term 2024

What Art Does When It’s Doing Nothing: Stillness, Perdurance, and Agency in Medieval Art

Ben Tilghman

5 December 2024, 5:00-6:30PM GMT

Arumugam Building 1.2, St Catherine's College, Manor Road OX1 3UJ

Smithfield Decretals, Toulouse (?), c. 1300; London, c. 1340. London, British Library, Royal 10 E IV, fol. 4v. Image courtesy of Alixe Bovey, https://medieval.ox.ac.uk/2024/09/25/medieval-visual-culture-seminar/

Ben Tilghman is an Associate Professor of Art History, Washington College & Visiting Research Fellow, University of Edinburgh.

Questions? Contact Nancy Thebaut, Associate Professor, History of Art & Fellow, St Catherine’s College

Call for Applications: 2025-2026 Predoctoral Research Residencies, Center for the Art and Architectural History of Port Cities “La Capraia,” Naples, Due By January 31, 2025

Call for Applications

2025-2026 Predoctoral Research Residencies

Center for the Art and Architectural History of Port Cities “La Capraia,” Naples

Due By January 31, 2025

The Center for the Art and Architectural History of Port Cities “La Capraia” (Centro per la Storia dell’Arte e dell’Architettura delle Città Portuali “La Capraia”) was founded in 2018 as a collaboration between the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte, the Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History at the University of Texas at Dallas, Franklin University Switzerland, and the Amici di Capodimonte.

Housed in “La Capraia,” a rustic eighteenth-century agricultural building at the heart of the Bosco di Capodimonte, the Center engages the Museo di Capodimonte and the city of Naples as a laboratory for new research in the cultural histories of port cities and the mobilities of artworks, people, technologies, and ideas. Global in scope, research at La Capraia is grounded in direct study of objects, sites, collections, and archives in Naples and southern Italy. Through site-based seminars and conferences, collaborative projects with partner institutions, and research residencies for graduate students, La Capraia fosters research on Naples and the south as a site of cultural encounter, exchange, and transformation, and cultivates a network of scholars working at the intersection of the global and the local.

The Advisory Committee of the Center for the Art and Architectural History of Port Cities “La Capraia” invites applications for Predoctoral Research Residencies for PhD students in the earlier stages of their dissertation research. Projects, which may be interdisciplinary, may focus on art and architectural history, archaeology, music history, histories of collecting, the digital humanities, or related fields, from antiquity to the present. Projects should address the cultural histories of Naples and southern Italy as a center of exchange, encounter, and transformation, and, most importantly, make meaningful use of local research materials including artworks, sites, archives, and libraries.

2025-2026 Predoctoral Research Residencies will run from 8 September 2025 through 7 June 2026. Research Residents are granted free lodging at La Capraia (private bedroom/study/bath and communal study/living/kitchen spaces) and a modest stipend of 7,000 EUR, administered by the Amici di Capodimonte, to help defray the cost of living. During their time in Naples, Residents are expected to work on their projects full time and in residence, and to participate in scholarly programs that La Capraia organizes over the course of the year. La Capraia advises Residents on access to collections, sites, archives, and libraries as needed for their projects; at Capodimonte, we arrange access to collections and research resources insofar as it is possible during the museum’s current partial closure for renovation. In the spring semester, Residents are expected to present their research in an informal seminar, gallery talk, or site visit. In the summer following the residency period, Residents are invited to contribute a short essay to the Center’s annual research report.

Research Residents are responsible for obtaining appropriate visas (the Center provides official letters of support) and for providing proof of health insurance. Residents must arrange their own travel to and from Naples.

We welcome applications from doctoral students of any nationality, in the earlier stages of research for the dissertation. Applicants are invited to submit a letter of interest, a CV, and a research proposal of 1,000-1,500 words that frames the central questions, methods, and scholarly contributions of project, and describes the resources that will be used while on site in and around Naples. Materials should be sent in a single PDF file, with last name as the title of the file, to Center Coordinator, Dott.ssa Francesca Santamaria (francesca.santamaria@utdallas.edu). In addition, applicants must invite three recommenders to send letters of support directly to the same email address. All materials, including letters of recommendation, are due by January 31, 2025. Finalists will be invited to interviews held via Zoom with representatives from the O’Donnell Institute and Capodimonte.

Learn more about the Center for the Art and Architectural History of Port Cities “La Capraia” at https://arthistory.utdallas.edu/port-cities/, where you will also find digital editions of our annual research reports. Download an overview of La Capraia at https://tinyurl.com/La-Capraia-overview. Learn about our Research Residencies at https://arthistory.utdallas.edu/port-cities/residencies/. View past and upcoming scholarly programs at https://arthistory.utdallas.edu/port-cities/programs/.

Download a pdf version of this call at https://tinyurl.com/LaCapraia2025-2026Call.

Centro per la Storia dell'Arte e dell’Architettura delle Città Portuali "La Capraia"
a collaboration between
The Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte
The Edith O'Donnell Institute of Art History
Franklin University Switzerland
and Amici di Capodimonte

Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte / La Capraia
Via Miano 2 Napoli 80131
+39 3494706237
lacapraia@gmail.com | https://arthistory.utdallas.edu/port-cities/

East of Byzantium Online Lecture: Re-Imagining Jerusalem: The Ritual Recreation of Pilgrimage between Syria and Georgia, Emma Loosley Leeming, 15 November 2024, 12:00PM EST

East of Byzantium Online Lecture

Re-Imagining Jerusalem: The Ritual Recreation of Pilgrimage between Syria and Georgia

Emma Loosley Leeming, University of Exeter

Friday, November 15, 2024 | 12:00 PM (EST, UTC -5) | Zoom

The Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture and the Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies at Harvard University are pleased to announce the next lecture in the 2024–2025 East of Byzantium lecture series.

Pilgrimages to the Holy Land are a well-documented phenomenon of Late Antique Christian belief and we are accustomed to reading about the experience of walking in the footsteps of Christ through the testimony of early witnesses such as Egeria. After the Islamic conquests and the loss of Jerusalem to the Arabs, there were periods when it became more difficult to undertake such travels and by the Middle Ages the concept of pilgrimage was re-framed so that it could also mean an interior journey undertaken by a meditative process such as the navigation of the labyrinth at Chartres Cathedral.

However, across the Middle East and Caucasus, liturgical texts and rare poorly-understood survivals of early liturgical furniture suggest a range of processes for re-imagining Jerusalem both within churches or by imprinting the loca sancta upon a wider regional landscape. This lecture will introduce some of the ways that believers recreated the rituals of Jerusalem pilgrimage without leaving their hometowns and villages. It will introduce examples from Syria and Georgia in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and encourage future research in this widely under-studied area of ritual practice.

Emma Loosley Leeming studied at the University of York, the Courtauld Institute of Art and the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, where she specialised in the art, architecture and liturgy of Late Antique Syria. She then spent several years living and working at the Monastery of St. Moses the Abyssinian (Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi) in Nebek, Syria, during which time she founded and directed the Dayr Mar Elian Archaeological Project in nearby Qaryatayn. From 2004–2013 she was lecturer in Middle Eastern Art and Architecture at the University of Manchester, before moving to the University of Exeter (2013–) where since 2019 she has been Professor of Middle Eastern and Caucasian Christianities. From 2012–2017 she held a European Research Council grant that enabled her to explore the relationship between Syria and Georgia in Late Antiquity and is currently working on a book with a Georgian colleague examining the origins and development of Georgian ‘three-church’ basilicas.

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.

An East of Byzantium lecture. EAST OF BYZANTIUM is a partnership between the Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies at Harvard University and the Mary Jaharis Center that explores the cultures of the eastern frontier of the Byzantine empire in the late antique and medieval periods.

Call for Applications: Visiting Researchers, ERC AGRELITA (2025), The reception of ancient Greece in pre-modern French literature and illustrations, Due By 15 February 2025

Call for Applications

ERC AGRELITA (2025)

Visiting Researchers

Project: The reception of ancient Greece in pre-modern French literature and illustrations of manuscripts and printed books (1320-1550): how invented memories shaped the identity of European communities

Due by 15 February 2025

Until now the reception history of ancient Greece in pre-modern Western Europe has focused almost exclusively on the transmission of Greek texts. Yet well before the revival of Greek teaching, numerous vernacular works, often illustrated, contained elaborate representations of ancient Greece. AGRELITA studies a large corpus of French language literary works (historical, fictional, poetic, didactic ones) produced from 1320 to the 1550s in France and Europe, before the first direct translations from Greek to French, as well as the images of their manuscripts and printed books. The AGRELITA project, “The reception of ancient Greece in pre-modern French literature and illustrations of manuscripts and printed books (1320-1550) : how invented memories shaped the identity of European communities”, directed by Catherine Gaullier-Bougassas, opens guest researchers residencies in 2025 in the University of Caen Normandy (France). Stays at the University of Caen Normandie may be 4 to 6 weeks length, and during the year 2025 may take place in May/June/early July.

This call for applications is open to anyone, of French or foreign nationality, who holds a PhD in literature, art history, or history, whose work focuses on the history of books, cultural and political history, visual studies, or memory studies, wherein the competence and project are deemed to be complementary to the ones of the AGRELITA team. These residencies indeed aim to open the reflections carried out by the team, to enhance its scientific activity through interactions with other scholars and other universities. The guest researchers will have the exceptional opportunity to contribute to a major project, to work with a dynamic team that conducts a wide range of activities at the University of Caen Normandie and within the research laboratory CRAHAM where many Antiquity, Medieval and Renaissance times specialists work, as well as to publish in a prestigious setting.

In 2025, the AGRELITA project will focus on these lines of research:
- “The new lives of Greek divinities (14th-16th centuries)”, “Images of Nature and beings in the reception of Greek myths (14th-16th centuries)”, “The political exploitations of Greek Antiquity (14th-16th centuries)”;

- A broader line of research: “Uses and exploitations of Antiquity memories, from the beginning of our era until the 21th century”.

For more information, please see: https://agrelita.hypotheses.org/5997

Call For Papers: Medieval Communities, 18th Annual Conference, IMS-PARIS (3-5 July 2025), Abstracts Due 1 Dec. 2024

Call For Papers

INTERNATIONAL MEDIEVAL SOCIETY (IMS-Paris) - 18th Annual Conference

Medieval Communities

July 3-5, 2025

Deadline for Abstracts: December 1, 2024

Keynote Addresses :

Sharon Farmer, Department of History, University of California, Santa Barbara

Cécile Voyer, Centre d’Etudes supérieures de civilisation médiévale, l’Université de Poitiers

BnF, MS Français 12559, f. 167r

How did people in the Middle Ages define, create, and maintain a sense of community? The International Medieval Society, Paris (IMS-Paris) invites abstracts and session proposals for our 2025 symposium on the theme of Communities in Medieval France.

The word “community” may be defined as a group of people with shared characteristics, emotional values, or interests who perceive themselves as distinct from others. From communes, monasteries and confraternities to soldiers, lepers, and the blind, medieval people formed close emotional ties and created rituals and other practices that constituted community. This symposium invites new lines of investigation that will deepen our knowledge of the medieval sense of community, broadly defined.

Proposals should focus on France during the Middle Ages, but do not need to be exclusively limited to this period and geographical area. We encourage proposals and papers from all fields of medieval studies, such as anthropology, archeology, history, economic and social history, art history, gender studies, literary studies, musicology, philosophy, etc. Proposals of 300 words (in English or French) for a 20-minute paper should be e-mailed to imsparissymposium@gmail.com no later than December 1, 2024. Abstracts should be accompanied by full contact information and a short bio.

For more information, please click here.

The IMS-Paris is an interdisciplinary, bilingual (French/English) organization that fosters exchanges between French and foreign scholars. For more than a decade, the IMS has served as a center for medievalists who travel to France to conduct research, work, or study.

APPEL A COMMUNICATIONS

Société internationale des médiévistes de Paris - 18e colloque annuel

Communautés médiévales

July 3-5, 2025

Conférences plénières:

"Jehanne la Fouaciere: Parisian widow, linen merchant -- and Beguine?“ Sharon Farmer, Department of History, University of California, Santa Barbara

"Les chanoines de Saint-Hilaire de Poitiers et leur saint patron au XIe siècle: une mise en images dans l'espace ecclésial de la communauté autour du fondateur de l'Église locale, Cécile Voyer, Centre d’Etudes supérieures de civilisation médiévale, l’Université de Poitiers

Comment les gens au Moyen Âge définissaient-ils, créaient-ils et maintenaient- ils les communautés dont ils faisaient partie ? La Société Internationale des Médiévistes, Paris (IMS-Paris) appelle à recevoir des propositions de communication ou de session dans le cadre de son colloque de 2025 sur le thème des communautés dans la France médiévale.

Le terme de « communauté » peut être compris au sens large : tout groupement de personnes partageant des caractéristiques, des valeurs affectives ou des intérêts particuliers, et se percevant comme distinct des autres. Qu’il s'agisse de communes, de monastères, de confréries, ou de rassemblements de guerriers, de lépreux ou d’aveugles, les femmes et hommes du Moyen Âge ont su tisser des liens affectifs étroits et créer de multiples rituels et autres pratiques communautaires. Nous espérons avec cette conférence mettre en valeur de nouvelles pistes de recherche pour mieux comprendre la conception médiévale de la communauté au Moyen Age.

Les propositions doivent porter sur la France pendant le Moyen Age, mais peuvent ne pas se limiter exclusivement à cette période ni à cette zone géographique. Nous encourageons les propositions de communication dans tous les domaines des études médiévales, y compris en anthropologie, archéologie, histoire, histoire économique et sociale, histoire de l’art, études de genre, études littéraires, musicologie et philosophie.

Les propositions de 300 mots (en anglais ou en français) pour une communication de 20 minutes doivent être envoyées par courriel (email) à imsparissymposium@gmail.com au plus tard le 1er décembre 2024. Chaque proposition doit être accompagnée des coordonnées complètes des personnes qui présenteront, leur CV et leur liste du matériel audiovisuel nécessaire.

For more information, please click here.

IMS-Paris est un organisme interdisciplinaire et bilingue (français/anglais) dont l’objectif est de favoriser les échanges entre médiévistes français et étrangers. Pour déjà plus d’une décennie, l’IMS aide les médiévistes venant en France pour le travail, les études ou la recherche.


GESTA VOLUME 63 NUMBER 2 NOW AVAILABLE TO ICMA MEMBERS!

The latest issue of Gesta (Fall 2024) is now available on the University of Chicago Press Journals website. Following is the issue's table of contents: 

Gesta, Vol. 63, No. 2

Seeing Christ on the Cross in Late Antique Syria and Mesopotamia: Crosses, Crucifixes, and the Question of Iconicity 
Daniel An

Illumination Unbound: The Victoria and Albert Museum Cross and Its Parchment Miniatures
Judith Hathaway Oliver

“Go Forth and Learn”: Visual Exegesis in the Medieval Haggadah
Abby Kornfeld

The Columns from “the Tomb of Charlemagne” between Aachen and the Louvre: A Modern Spoliation Saga
Brigitte Buettner

Remember, ICMA membership provides exclusive online access to the complete run of Gesta in full text, PDF, and ebook editions at no additional charge.

To access your members-only journal subscription, log in to the ICMA site here with your username and password.  If you have any questions, please email icma@medievalart.org. 

ICMA IN DC: EXHIBITION TOUR OF "AN EPIC OF KINGS: THE GREAT MONGOL SHAHNAMA" - FRIDAY 6 DECEMBER 2024. REGISTER TODAY!

ICMA IN WASHINGTON DC
EXHIBITION TOUR OF AN EPIC OF KINGS: THE GREAT MONGOL SHAHNAMA

FRIDAY 6 DECEMBER 2024, IN PERSON
1:30–3PM ET
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF ASIAN ART, WASHINGTON, DC

Register HERE

Iskandar and the talking tree (detail), folio from the Great Mongol Shahnama (Book of kings), Iran, probably Tabriz, Ilkhanid dynasty, ca. 1330, ink, color, and gold on paper, National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, Freer Collection, Purchase—Charles Lang Freer Endowment, F1935.23

The Great Mongol Shahnama is the most celebrated of all medieval Persian manuscripts. Considered Iran’s national epic, the Shahnama (Book of Kings) was completed by the poet Firdawsi in 1010. The copy known as the Great Mongol Shahnama was produced three hundred years later, commissioned by a ruler of the Ilkhanid dynasty, a branch of the Mongol Empire. Between the manuscript’s covers, art, power, and history intertwined. An Epic of Kings presents twenty-five folios from this now dismantled manuscript alongside contemporaneous works from China, the Mediterranean, and the Latin West, highlighting the cosmopolitan nature of the Ilkhanid empire.

For more information on the exhibition, click HERE.

You are invited to join other ICMA Members and area medievalists for a tour led by exhibition curator Simon Rettig (Associate Curator for the Arts of the Islamic World, National Museum of Asian Art) on Friday 6 December 2024 at 1:30pm. Drinks to follow courtesy of the ICMA.
 
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
1050 Independence Ave., SW
Washington, DC
Meet on Floor B1 at the bottom of the stairs, in front of the entrance to the exhibition in Galleries 23 and 24.

This gathering is informal:

  • Attendees are responsible for their own travel bookings. Admission to the exhibition site is free.

  • The purpose of this event is to introduce ICMA members and medievalists from the area to one another, to strengthen the social and professional ties in our community, and to celebrate our mutual interest in medieval art, while exploring the exhibition together.

 
Organized by Michelle C. Wang, Georgetown University, and Matthew Westerby, National Gallery of Art.

For questions, please email icma@medievalart.org

Register HERE

STUDY DAYS FOR "LUMEN: THE ART AND SCIENCE OF LIGHT" AND "WONDERS OF CREATION: ART, SCIENCE, AND INNOVATION IN THE ISLAMIC WORLD" - 10-12 NOVEMBER 2024. REGISTER TODAY!

STUDY DAYS FOR LUMEN: THE ART AND SCIENCE OF LIGHT AND WONDERS OF CREATION: ART, SCIENCE, AND INNOVATION IN THE ISLAMIC WORLD


GETTY CENTER AND THE SAN DIEGO MUSEUM OF ART
LOS ANGELES, CA AND SAN DIEGO, CA

SUNDAY 10 NOVEMBER 2024 - TUESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2024

Register by emailing: medievalstudyday@gmail.com

ICMA members are invited to an event organized by our friends at Study Day Medieval Art on the occasion of two exhibitions Lumen: The Art and Science of Light at the Getty Center and Wonders of Creation: Art, Science, and Innovation in the Islamic World at The San Diego Museum of Art.



PART I
Los Angeles, CA
Getty Center

SUNDAY 10 NOVEMBER 2024
Talk (in-person and online)
Art, Science, and Wonder in the Medieval World
The Getty Center

Free | Advance ticket required   
To attend in person, click Get Tickets  
To watch online, register via Zoom.

To complement the exhibition Lumen: The Art and Science of Light, curators and scholars present two panel discussions on the intersections of art and science in the medieval world. Designed as a series of engaging discussions, the first presentation explores topics such as astronomy and optics, and examines how medieval people thought about the science of light in both Latin and Arabic speaking regions. The second discussion invites scholars of neuroscience, philosophy, and art to discuss the way the eye and the brain react to light and how medieval people harnessed these effects to create immersive spaces of wonder.

Panel 1: Light, Time, and Magic in the Middle Ages, 11:00 am–12:30 pm

Moderator
Barry C. Smith, professor of philosophy and director, Institute of Philosophy at the University of London’s School of Advanced Study

Ladan Akbarnia, curator, South Asian and Islamic art, San Diego Museum of Art
Margaret Gaida, postdoctoral researcher, California Institute of Technology
Megan McNamee, lecturer in pre-modern art, 500–1500, Edinburgh College of Art, The University of Edinburgh

Panel 2: The Perception and Neuroscience of Light, 2:00-3:30 p.m.

Moderator
Barry C. Smith, professor of philosophy and director, Institute of Philosophy at the University of London’s School of Advanced Study

Nancy Thompson, professor of art and art history; Department Chair of Art and Art History, St. Olaf College
G. Gabrielle Starr, president, Pomona College
Abbey Stockstill, associate professor of Islamic art and architecture, Meadows School of the Arts, Southern Methodist University

Full information HERE



MONDAY 11 NOVEMBER 2024
Study Day in the exhibition Lumen: The Art and Science of Light with the curators of the exhibition: Kristen Collins, Nancy Turner, and Glenn Phillips

Click HERE for exhibition info. 


Afternoon / evening: individual travel to San Diego



PART II
San Diego, CA
The San Diego Museum of Art

Tuesday 12 November 2024
Study Day in the exhibition Wonders of Creation: Art, Science, and Innovation in the Islamic World with curator Ladan Akbarnia

Click HERE for exhibition info.  

 
Afternoon:  return travel
 

Please send your registration as soon as possible to:
medievalstudyday@gmail.com

Call for PhD Applications: MSCA Doctoral Network StoryPharm, Due 15 December 2024, 14:00 CET/ 8:00 ET

Call for PhD Applications

MSCA Doctoral Network StoryPharm: Storytelling as Pharmakon in Premodernity and Beyond. Training the New Generation of Researchers in Health Humanities

Various Locations

Due 15 December 2024 at 14:00 CET (8:00 ET)

MSCA Doctoral Network StoryPharm: Storytelling as Pharmakon in Premodernity and Beyond. Training the New Generation of Researchers in Health Humanities. Call for PhD Positions Medieval Art History

We are pleased to announce four three-year Special Scientist PhD Positions in Medieval Art History within the framework of the MSCA doctoral network StoryPharm: Storytelling as Pharmakon in Premodernity and Beyond. Training the New Generation of Researchers in Health Humanities (European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action – Doctoral Networks – Grant Agreement 101169114, https://www.ucy.ac.cy/storypharm/):

“Images of Christ’s Miraculous Healings between Medical Awareness and Social Inclusion (9th–11th c. CE)” (University of Salerno, Italy)

“The Pictorial Narratives of Herbal Medicine in Dioskorides’ De materia medica” (University of Lund, Sweden)

“Ecologies of Healing: Visual Storytelling in Medieval Medical Manuscripts and Herbals” (University of Bamberg, Germany)

“The Healthy Place: Architecture and Images for Healing Devotional Experiences in Southern Italy in a Mediterranean Context” (University of Salerno, Italy)

StoryPharm focuses on premodern narratives and images involving medicine, health, and healing. These will be studied from a transdisciplinary and comparative perspective, across linguistic and cultural borders.

For detailed information on each PhD position and on the application procedure please consult: https://www.ucy.ac.cy/storypharm/vacancies/

Applications will be accepted from 15/10/2024 until 15/12/2024 at 14:00 CET (8:00 ET).

NEW VIDEO! FRIENDS OF THE ICMA PRESENTS MEDIEVAL COMING ATTRACTIONS, 2024-2025

NEW VIDEO

FRIENDS OF THE ICMA PRESENTS MEDIEVAL COMING ATTRACTIONS 2024-2025

12 September 2024, 12 PM ET

The Friends of the ICMA held the latest in a series of special online events on Thursday 12 September 2024, 12 PM ET. The hour-long program previeweed three medieval exhibitions, each introduced by its curator.

Stephan Wolohojian introduced the exhibition, Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300–1350. The exhibition is on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art until 26 January 2025. For more information, visit https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/siena-the-rise-of-painting-1300-1350

Sue Brunning spoke about the exhibition, Silk Roads. The exhibition is on view at The British Museum until 23 February 2025. For more information, visit https://www.britishmuseum.org/exhibitions/silk-roads

Ladan Akbarnia introduced the exhibition, Wonders of Creation: Art, Science, and Innovation in the Islamic World. The exhibition is on view at the San Diego Museum of Art until 5 January 2025. For more information, visit https://www.sdmart.org/exhibition/wonders-of-creation-art-science-and-innovation-in-the-islamic-world/

The panel was introduced and moderated by Leslie Bussis Tait, Chair of the Friends of the ICMA.

To watch the video, visit the Special Online Lectures page.

Last Conques EU Project Meeting: Conques in the Global World, Rome, 11 October 2024, 9:30-13:00

Last Conques EU Project Meeting

Conques in the Global World

11 October 2024, 9:30-13:00

Max-Planck-Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Rome, Italy

The last meeting of the Conques EU project will take place in Rome in person--For those who cannot attend, look for a book publication within the year that is full of the newest research on Conques. See: https://conques.eu/outputs for material that has already appeared.

Branner Forum for Medieval Art: Professor Ivan Drpić, At Columbia University, 14 Nov. 2024 6:15-7:45PM

Branner Forum for Medieval Art

Image Therapy: Notes on a Byzantine Picture Book

Professor Ivan Drpić

Thursday, 14 November 2024, 6:15-7:45PM

Schermerhorn Hall, Columbia University, New York, NY

Join us for Professor Ivan Drpić's (University of Pennsylvania) Branner Forum lecture entitled, “Image Therapy: Notes on a Byzantine Picture Book.” The lecture will take place at Columbia University on Thursday, November 14th at 6:15pm in Schermerhorn Hall, room 807.

For more information, visit
https://arthistory.columbia.edu/events/branner-forum-medieval-art-professor-ivan-drpic.

Branner Forum for Medieval Art: Professor Jacqueline Jung, 17 Oct. 2024 6:15-7:45PM

Branner Forum for Medieval Art

Boundaries, Passages, and the Play of Media: The Painted Screen-Walls of Franciscan Churches in the Italian Alps

Professor Jacqueline Jung

Tuesday, 17 October 2024, 6:15-7:45PM

Stronach Center, Schermerhorn Hall, Columbia University, NEw York, NY

Join us for Professor Jacqueline Jung's (Yale University) Branner Forum lecture entitled, “Boundaries, Passages, and the Play of Media: The Painted Screen-Walls of Franciscan Churches in the Italian Alps.” The lecture will take place at Columbia University on Thursday, October 17th at 6:15pm in the Stronach Center (8th floor of Schermerhorn Hall).

For more information, visit https://arthistory.columbia.edu/events/branner-forum-medieval-art-professor-jacqueline-jung

IN-PERSON AND ONLINE CONFERENCE: Unruly Iconography? Examining the Unexpected in Medieval Art, INDEX OF MEDIEVAL ART AT PRINCETON UNIVERSITY

IN-PERSON AND ONLINE CONFERENCE

Unruly Iconography? Examining the Unexpected in Medieval Art

INDEX OF MEDIEVAL ART AT PRINCETON UNIVERSITY

9 NOVEMBER 2024

LINK TO REGISTER: https://ima.princeton.edu/conferences/

Ivory chess piece in the form of a queen, British Museum (1831 1101 84) © The British Museum; CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Free registration is now open for on-site attendance at the upcoming Index conference. “Unruly Iconography?” opens a new conversation about medieval images that don’t follow the rules. Speakers will challenge their listeners to rethink the unspoken paradigms that have decided when iconographic motifs should be considered canonical and which are instead “singular,” “exceptional,” or even “mistakes.” They will interrogate the value and limitations of the unspoken binaries that often underlie such labels: tradition versus invention, canon versus exception, or center versus periphery. Their wide-ranging papers will demonstrate the value of a more critically aware, contextually sensitive, and historically informed approach to the study of images and image-making in the Middle Ages. The conference will take place on November 9, 2024 in the Louis A. Simpson Building, A71, at Princeton University. Although the conference will not be recorded, a live stream link will provide digital access to those who cannot attend in person. Only those attending on site are asked to register, using the form below.

This constitutes the first of two internationally linked conferences, the second of which will be a site-based seminar at the Center for the Art and Architectural History of Port Cities “La Capraia” in Naples in June 2025, which makes southern Italy a laboratory for exploring the relationships between iconography and place within a geographically expanded Middle Ages. Details and a call for participation for the field seminar can be found here.

SCHEDULE

8:45–9 am: Coffee and pastries

9:00–10:15 am

Welcome

Diliana Angelova (UC Berkeley), “Lawless, Hilarious, Black: Eros and Companions in Byzantium.”

Krisztina Ilko (University of Cambridge), “The Chessmen of the Hunt.”

10:15 am: Coffee break

10:45–12:15 pm

Heidi Gearhart (George Mason University), “A Poem, a Scribe, a Saint, and a Scriptorium: Evoking Multiple Presences in Arras Bibliothèque Municipale MS 860.”

Julie A. Harris (Independent Scholar, Chicago), “Indicate, Illustrate, Decorate, or Comment? Iberian Hebrew Bibles and Their Unruly Paratextual Marks.”

Q&A

12:15–2:00 pm: Lunch Break

2:00–3:00 pm

Alexander Brey (Wellesley College), “Iconography Between Empires: The Red Hall at Varakhsha.”

Mark H. Summers (University of Kentucky), “Dressed to Impress: Reconsidering Roger II of Sicily and the Iconography of Kingship.”

3:00–3:30: Coffee break

3:30–4:30 pm

Nicole C. Paxton (John Cabot University), “Iconographic Innovation and Political Subversion in the Medieval Serbian Akathistos Cycle.”

Patricia Simons (University of Michigan/University of Melbourne), “The Goldfinch: Flights of Fancy.”

4:30-5:15 pm

Q&A and Closing

Reception to follow in Weickart Atrium, Louis A. Simpson Building


LINK TO REGISTER: https://ima.princeton.edu/conferences/

ICMA in Milwaukee on Saturday 12 October 2024: Tour of "Material Muses: Medieval Devotional Culture and its Afterlives" + Joan of Arc Chapel site visit

ICMA in Milwaukee
Tour of Material Muses: Medieval Devotional Culture and its Afterlives + Joan of Arc Chapel site visit

Saturday 12 October
2pm CT

Register HERE

ICMA members are warmly invited to an informal gathering at the Haggerty Museum of Art on the campus of Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI on Saturday, October 12th, beginning at 2:00pm to view Material Muses: Medieval Devotional Culture and its Afterlives. The co-curators of the exhibition, Abby Armstrong Check, Claire Kilgore, and Tania Kolarik will give a brief introduction to the exhibition and highlight different objects within the show. Attendees will then be welcome to roam the galleries. At 3:00pm we will walk over as group to the Joan of Arc Chapel on the campus of Marquette University where Abby Armstrong Check will give a short talk about the history of the only consecrated medieval chapel in the United States.

More information about the exhibition: https://www.marquette.edu/haggerty-museum/material-muses.php

Register HERE

Call for Applications: Assistant Professor of Art History and Architectural Studies, Mount Holyoke College, Due By 1 December 2024

Call for Applications

Assistant Professor of Art History and Architectural Studies

Late Antique and Medieval Mediterranean World

Department of Art History and Architectural Studies

Mount Holyoke College

Due By 1 December 2024  

The Mount Holyoke College Department of Art History and Architectural Studies invites applications for an art or architectural historian of the late antique and medieval Mediterranean world for a tenure-track position at the rank of Assistant Professor to begin July 1, 2025. We are especially interested in candidates whose research and teaching are concerned with aspects of globalism and cultural connections. The teaching load is four courses per year, comprising a general survey, upper-level courses, and advanced seminars in the candidate's area of expertise.

In addition to an active and exciting research program, applicants should have a record of strong teaching at the undergraduate level and experience mentoring students who are broadly diverse. Our department is deeply committed to diversifying our curriculum as well as our faculty. Ph.D. or ABD in art or architectural history is required. Please submit a cover letter, CV, and three statements concerning 1) teaching philosophy, (2) research interests, and (3) mentoring. Please also include a writing sample and upload this additional document in the Please upload other documents in support of your application section of the application. Reference letters will be requested at a later date in the process.

Applicants are requested to apply online by December 1, 2024 at the following site:

https://mtholyoke.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/External/details/Assistant-Professor-of-Art-History-and-Architectural-Studies_R-0000001388

 For more information, please contact Anthony Lee.

For a copy of this advertizement, click here.

Mount Holyoke is an undergraduate liberal arts college with 2,200 students and 220 faculty. Over half the faculty are women; one-fourth are persons of color. Mount Holyoke College is located about 90 miles west of Boston in the Connecticut River valley, and is a member of the Five College Consortium consisting of Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith Colleges and the University of Massachusetts.


Background Checks:

Mount Holyoke College is committed to providing a safe and secure environment, supported by qualified employees that will allow all of its students, faculty, staff and those associated with them to successfully carry out the mission of the college. As a condition of employment, the College will conduct appropriate background checks for all new hires. Mount Holyoke has designated the Office of Human Resources as the office responsible for ensuring that background checks (CORI, SORI, Credit History, & Driver Credential) are completed and utilized in the hiring process and Five College Office of Compliance and Risk Management as the office responsible for facilitating background checks as articulated in this policy.

 

Special Instructions for Applicants: 

Apply online; application materials must include:

  • A cover letter summarizing interests and qualifications

  • A complete resume or curriculum vitae

  • For faculty positions, statements on mentoring, teaching, and research will also be required.


Mount Holyoke College is an Equal Opportunity Employer (EOE)

Mount Holyoke College, the leading gender-diverse women’s college, is dedicated to providing equal employment opportunities for all individuals regardless of their race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, or any other legally protected status. We are a diverse community of staff, faculty, and students, united in our mission to offer an intellectually adventurous education in the liberal arts through academic programs that are renowned internationally for their cross-disciplinary excellence, experiential approach, and commitment to diversity.

Mount Holyoke College is a welcoming and inclusive environment that values and respects individuals of all backgrounds. As an EOE, we encourage members of historically underrepresented groups or nontraditional backgrounds to apply for open positions at our institution. The College has a long-standing tradition of providing women and other historically underrepresented groups with access to an innovative educational experience that prepares students for purposeful leadership by integrating hands-on opportunities into the curriculum. We firmly believe that diversity enriches our community and enhances our ability to prepare students for success in an increasingly globalized world. 

We are dedicated to providing equal opportunities for all qualified applicants and to building an exemplary workforce that reflects the diversity of our student body and the communities we serve. Our ultimate goal is to produce graduates who are capable of engaging thoughtfully, effectively, and boldly with the world.