Lectures

This section offers lectures on medieval history on video. In recent years, universities are using Youtube and other video sharing services to release their lectures and conferences to the world.  This growing trend is allowing medievalists to watch and learn about a wide variety of topics.  We are trying to find and post all the available videos of academic lectures and papers about medieval studies.  If you know of any others, or would like help in posting your lecture online, email us at [email protected]

How Effective Was the Longbow, and What Damage Did it Do? – A debate between Professor Kelly DeVries and Professor Clifford Rogers

What is Medieval Military History and Why Does it Matter? – by John France

Mediterranean History as Global History – by David Abulafia – This lecture covers the history of the Mediterranean from ancient to medieval times.

Worlds Upon Worlds: An Illustrated Talk – by Toby Lester – on the Waldseemüller world map of 1507

The World of Khubilai Khan: A Revolution in Painting – by Maxwell K. Hearn – on changes in art in 14th century China

The World of Khubilai Khan: Chinese Art in the Yuan Dynasty – A Retrospective – by James C. Y. Watt

Why Gender and Women’s Studies Matter – by Natalie Zemon Davis

Doing decentered history – the global in the local – by Natalie Zemon Davis

Retooling the Instruments of Christ’s Passion: Late Medieval Labor, Burial, and Prayer – by Ann Astell

Hidden Treasure: The Intellectual Life of Medieval Ashkenazi Jews – by Ephraim Kanarfoge

Mini Lectures by Richard Scott Nokes: Canterbury Tales, Decameron, Pillowbook of Sei Shonagon, Beowulf

On Deep History and the Brain – by David Lord Smail

Tolerance’s End: Religious Minorities, Philosophers, Free-Thinkers and the Rise of Fundamentalism in 12th and 13th Century Islamic Spain – by Lourdes Maria Alvarez

Innovations in Sculpture and the Status of Artists at the Court of Burgundy – by Sherry C.M. Lindquist

Phylogenetics of medieval manuscripts – by Christopher Howe

Drawing as an Art Form in Medieval Manuscripts – by Jonathan Alexander – examines the techniques, aesthetics, and role of graphic images—drawings, maps, diagrams, and masterful manuscript decorations—in the creative and intellectual life of the Middle Ages.

The Angel and the Muse: Inspiration, Revelation, Prophecy – by Michael Sells – examines spirit, desire and inspiration in the Qu’ran and in early Arabic and Islamic poetic traditions.

Materializing Metaphor: Bodies, Buildings, and Ephesians 2:11-22 in Medieval Art – by Peter Low – examines the role of public religious art in churches in the Middle Ages

Byzantium: Rome’s Lost Empire – by Lars Brownworth – examines the legacy of the Byzantine empire

Close Encounters with People of the Past – by Thomas Cahill – discusses his books and some of the decisive moments of Western Civilization

Weeping Statues and Bleeding Bread: Miracles in the Later Middle Ages – by Caroline Walker Bynum – discusses how miracles posed problems for church authorities and the laity

The Mongol Impact on World History – by Edward Vajda – discusses the spectacular consequences of the Mongol conquests begun in the 13th century by Chinggis Khan

The Creighton Century: British Historians and Europe, 1907-2007 – by Robert Evans – explores how the study of European history has changed in the last hundred years

Spirituality of Francis and Clare of Assisi – by Bill Short – examines the lives and faith of the two important Franciscan figures

The Monarchy – by David Starkey – examines the history and influence of the Kings and Queens of England on their country, including in medieval times

The Beautiful Evidence of Medieval Drawings – by Edward Tufte – discusses how drawings from the Middle Ages exhibit “graphical excellence”

Whose Crusade? Media, Muslims and the “Kingdom of Heaven” – panel discussion about the movie Kingdom of Heaven

Antisemitism: medieval and modern – by Steven Katz – describes the features of medieval Christian antisemitism and the very different features of modern racial antisemitism

Machiavelli’s The Prince – by Steven B. Smith – two lectures that deal with the importance of Machiavelli and his most famous work, The Prince

The Church Sex Scandal: Medieval Blueprint for Disaster – by Dyan Elliott – discusses the problems that have emerged from the imposition of clerical celibacy in the Middle Ages

Appropriation of Pagan Roman Motifs in Christian Byzantine Coinage – by Kelly Hughes – from the University of Richmond exhibition “Victories, Orbs, & Angels: Byzantine Coins from the Collection”

The Book of Kells: A Celtic Treasure – by Timothy Graham – on the history, art and symbolism of the Book of Kells, a medieval Celtic decorated gospel manuscript

Introduction to Ecclesiastical Music (Byzantine Tradition) – by Alban West – delves into the history and significance of liturgical chant and music in the Byzantine Tradition

The Terror of History: The Witch Hunt in Early Modern Europe – by Teofilo Ruiz – mostly deals with European history after the Middle Ages

Castiglione: Art of Being a Renaissance Man – by Gary Radke

Islam and Europe — Sites of Conflict – by David Wasserstein – partly medieval, partly modern day analysis

Muslim Responses to the Sanctity of the Temple Mount: Anti-Jewish and Christian Polemics – by Jacob Lassner – examines the medieval Muslim response to Jewish veneration of the Temple Mount and the Christian sanctification of the same area

Borderline Sanctity: Dorothea of Montau, Günter Grass, and Pope Benedict XVI – by David Wallace – examines the life of Dorothea of Montau, a hermitess and visionary of fourteenth century Germany

A Catholic Antigone: An Episode in the Life of Hildegard of Bingen – by Athol Fugard – about Hildegard of Bingen, a twelfth century German abbess, mystic, naturalist, composer, and author, who is considered one of the most remarkable women of the medieval period

Faith Taking Shape: Early Christianity and the Arts – by Thomas F. Noble – explores how and why early Christians learned to talk about art and what they actually said

Before and Beyond Modernism: Icons as Art – by Charles E. Barber – includes Byzantine iconography

Marco Polo: Silk Road to China – by Larry Bergreen – traces Marco Polo’s journey to China along the Silk Road

War and State Formation in Ancient China and Early Modern Europe – by Victoria Tin-bor Hui – argues that from 656-221 B.C., China’s government consisted of a system of sovereign territorial states similar to those in early modern Europe

In the Company of Wolves: Samurai and the Social Order in Early Medieval Japan – by Karl F. Friday – examines the development of the samurai military class in medieval Japan

Telling Stories in Medieval English Courts: Whose Voices Do We Hear? – by Barbara Hanawalt – examines the problems of using medieval court records as a source for social history

London: The Forgotten Hanseatic City – a series of lectures about the Hanseatic League and its relationship with London

The fabrication of medieval history: archaeology and artifice at the Office of Works – by Simon Thurley – examines how efforts to preserve medieval buildings has changed in recent years as well as the current work by English Heritage in this regard

Medieval Hospitals of London – by William Ayliffe – looks at the birth of hospitals in London in the Medieval period

Lark in the Morning: The Verses of the Troubadours – by Robert Kehew – discusses his recently published anthology of poetry of the French troubadours, Lark in the Morning: The Verses of the Troubadours, a Bilingual Edition

Medieval Architecture and the New Media: Representing and Creating Knowledge in Cyberspace – by Stephen Murray – on how medieval architecture, equipped with its painted sculpture and colorful stained glass, provided the three-dimensional virtual reality of the Middle Ages

Community, Culture and Tolerance in a Medieval Islamic Society: the Case of the Fatimids – by Paula Sanders – examines the tolerance between Muslims and religious minorities in Egypt during the Fatimid era (909-1171)