The Medieval University
It’s back to school time. This week on The Medieval Podcast, Danièle tells us about life in the medieval university. What did students learn, what was expected of them, and how they really behaved.
Ritual Artifacts and Ceremony with Lucy Dean – Part 1
On this episode of Scotichronicast, Kate Buchanan is joined by Lucy Dean to discuss Lucy’s research on material culture and ritual objects in coronation ceremonies in medieval Scotland.
Dante’s Florence
We travel to medieval Florence with the famous writer Dante Alighieri. In this episode of the Medieval Grad Podcast, Elisabeth Trischler talks with Lucie Laumonier about the city of Florence and how it inspired Dante’s Divine Comedy.
Coping with pandemics in Byzantium, with Tina Sessa and Kyle Harper
This episode looks at Byzantine reactions to pandemics. What was the threshold of social visibility for a pandemic anyway? What could the government do to help? What imaginative and social resources were activated in times of pandemic?
Carolingian and Byzantine practices of empire compared, with Jennifer Davis
A conversation with Jennifer Davis on the study of empire in a medieval context, contrasting the different ways in which Charlemagne and the Byzantine emperors ran theirs. What do we mean by empire after all?
The Women in Medieval Armored Combat
A new documentary follows the lives of women who fight in an extreme and full-contact sport, Medieval Armored Combat. This week, Danièle talks with filmmaker Adrian Cicerone about Steel Song.
Medieval Chinese and Inner-Asian Politics
This week’s guest on the Medieval Grad Podcast is Soojung Han, a PhD candidate in East Asian studies at Princeton University. Soojung Han talks with Lucie Laumonier about the Shatuo Turks who rose to power in the ninth century, after the fall of the Tang dynasty.
Waste Management in Medieval Scotland with Richard Oram
Kate Buchanan and Richard Oram talk about the everyday task of dealing with waste in Medieval Scotland. Covering both urban setting and elite residences, this episode outlines what people thought about and did with their daily waste.
“Get out of the way, Battal Gazi is Coming!”: Turkish films on Byzantium
A conversation with Buket Bayrı about Turkish films that prominently feature Byzantine characters and settings, especially the films about Battal Gazi.
Medieval Storytime: Sir Orfeo
It’s medieval storytime! This week on The Medieval Podcast, a story from the ancient world is translated into the Middle Ages in the tale of Sir Orfeo.
Medieval Disabled Bodies
Lucie Laumonier talks to Adelheid Russenberger about medieval disabilities and what it meant, in the Middle Ages, to be disabled.
Byzantine soft power in an age of decline, with Cecily Hilsdale
A conversation with Cecily Hilsdale about the coping strategies that late Byzantium used to counter, ameliorate, and reverse its imperial decline.
The Green Knight and Sir Gawain
The Green Knight has just been released in the cinemas. This week on The Medieval Podcast, Danièle is joined by Peter Konieczny to talk about the film and how it compares to the 14th-century story Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
Bower’s Scotichronicon – Part 1
This is the first of the Scotichronicast’s book club series. In this episode, Dr. Kate Buchanan and Dr. Marian Toledo talk about the first 5 books in Walter Bower’s Scotichronicon.
If you could meet and interview one person from Byzantine history, who would it be and why?, Part 2 with Paroma Chatterjee and Merle Eisenberg
We know so much about the Byzantines, and yet really so little. If we had the chance to meet and debrief one person from that world, who would it be?
The Beginnings of England with Marc Morris
The roots of some important English traditions and political institutions began in one of those historical pockets of huge change but scarce written material in the centuries after the Romans left and the Normans arrived, making it challenging to find answers. Enter Dr. Marc Morris.
Medieval Race and the Image of the “Saracens”
Today, we tend to associate race with skin colour. But, what did “Race” mean in the Medieval era? That’s what we’re finding with…
The peoples of the Caucasus between Rome, Iran, and the steppe, with Garth Fowden
A conversation with Garth Fowden about how the peoples of the Caucasus – Armenians, Georgians, and Albanians – coped with living between two empires, how those empires sought to intervene in their region, and the cultural and religious changes that took place there during the first half of the first millennium. This episode demonstrates the illuminating ways in which global and regional history can be combined.
The power and journeys of the True Cross and other holy relics, with Lynn Jones
A conversation with Lynn Jones on how fragments of the True Cross were requested, gifted, traveled, repatriated, abducted, and returned in the early Byzantine period; how they were used to validate rival claims to power; and the anxiety caused by doubts over their authenticity.
Inventories and the Auld Alliance with Bryony Coombs
Part two of Kate Buchanan’s conversation with Bryony Coombs. In this episode, they focus on medieval inventories and the history behind the Auld Alliance.
What would you bring back to medieval England?
Imagine yourself going on a one-way trip to medieval England. What items would you bring back with you?
What Medieval Animal Bones Teach Us
Digging up animal bones can teach us a lot about the Middle Ages – in fact, zooarcheologists are able to make them speak! Today’s guest is Erin Crowley-Champoux, a PhD candidate in anthropology at the University of Minnesota Twin-Cities. She talks with Lucie Laumonier about zooarchaeology and how animal remains of the past can speak to social changes.
From Moneylending to Hell
Moneylending was serious business in the Middle Ages. You could be risking your very soul! Lucie Laumonier talks with Sama Mammadova, a PhD candidate at Harvard University, who studies the history of usury and moneylending in fourteenth and fifteenth-century Italy. How did moneylenders reconcile their business with the fear of sin?
What can we know about the life of the Prophet Muhammad?, with Sean Anthony
A conversation with Sean Anthony about the earliest sources for the life of the Prophet Muhammad, including the Quran, papyri, inscriptions, and Christian sources of the seventh century, and how Muslims were initially perceived by the Romans of the eastern provinces.