New Discoveries in Medieval Religion Workshop: Call for Speakers and Attendees
Thursday 13 June 2024, Seminar Room and Map Room, IASH, Hope Park Square, Meadow Lane, Edinburgh, EH8 9NW.
A vast body of scholarship into medieval religious cultures has been built over the past century, yet the field as a whole tends to remain—with some notable exceptions—curiously fragmented. This workshop will bring together new work on medieval religions, highlight undiscovered materials, concepts, and ideas, and provide a space to discuss ways forward for medieval religious studies.
In particular, the workshop will seek to draw together researchers wishing to dismantle and move beyond traditionally Christocentric and Eurocentric scholarship on the Middle Ages, creating dialogues and fostering connections between researchers working on a range of medieval religions, and through discoveries of new sources that can change our understanding of previously well-studied religious contexts.
The term ‘medieval’ is intended to be expansive. Topics relating to earlier influences on medieval religious cultures (before c. 500 CE) as well as later responses to medieval religious sources or contexts (after c. 1550) are welcome.
Talks should be limited to 10 minutes, to maximise time for discussion on the day. Contributions may explore, though are not limited to, the following topics:
- Texts (in any language) or iconographies/images that are important to studies of medieval religions but have been overlooked by existing scholarship
- Interfaith disputes and polemics, and their influence on wider religious cultures
- Allegorical treatments of religion and/or belief, including personification
- Studies of gender and sexuality in relation to medieval theology
- Queer and trans theories or approaches to medieval religions
- Cross-period sources and influences rarely studied in conversation, e.g. between classical antiquity and the Middle Ages
- Object studies and material cultures in relation to medieval religion
- Manuscript or archaeological evidence relating to medieval religious studies
The workshop will run in a hybrid format; in-person places are limited and will include lunch and refreshments.
If you are interested in speaking at the workshop either online or in person, or if you wish to attend in person, email Hope Doherty-Harrison at edohert2@ed.ac.uk by Monday 8 April 2024 to apply.
Please include a title and short abstract (150 words or less) outlining the work and ideas you would like to share, or a description of the relevance of the workshop to your research if applying to attend in person (without signing up to give a talk).
Travel bursaries of £50 each are available for early-career researchers and current PhD students. Priority will be given to unwaged participants. If you would require one of these bursaries, please indicate this in your email.
An Eventbrite registration link will be added in due course.
Supported by the Susan Manning Workshop Fund from the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) at the University of Edinburgh.
Image: British Library Illuminated Manuscripts Online, BL MS Add. 47682, ‘The Holkham Bible Picture Book,’ 1327-35, detail from f. 10r, Abraham and Isaiah: https://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=add_ms_47682_f010r