The Better Half: Women and Music in the Middle Ages
This talk will survey what we know about women’s lives in general in the Middle Ages, and examine the roles played by some key figures in the composition and patronage of music through image and sound.
Exploring the Geographies of Froissart’s Chroniques
I’m going to actually speak about a field, rather a subfield, of the digital humanities known as the spatial humanities.
Cursed blades and dark swords in myth and fantasy
Dark and cursed blades are found throughout popular culture and fantasy; join Dr Lillian Cespedes to explore their roots in history, mythology and why they have become so popular.
Uncovering the Formation of Fake History Narratives
The project explores the global topic through a case study of circulating pseudohistorical narratives on Russian medieval history in the Russian language web.
The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World – and Globalization Began
Valerie Hansen will take us back to the year 1000 and discuss how globalization began. For the first time in world history an object or a message could travel all the way around the world.
‘Royal Icons’ of Medieval Georgia
Medieval Georgian monarchs developed their own “icon politics” adapted to the current political situation and their own ideological agendas.
The Staffordshire Hoard and the History of Seventh-Century England
This lecture will give a historian’s perspective on how the hoard develops our understanding of topics such as kingship, overlordship, warfare, assemblies, the impact of Christianity and the world of heroic verse.
Crusaders of Climate Change? The Debate on Global Warming between the Medieval and the Present Age
Through such a debate, the study of medieval history could become more helpful for present considerations on climate change and more resistant against deliberate misinterpretation.
Ilkhanid Chronicles as Sources for History and Doctrines of Fatimid Ismailism
In this paper, I show that these histories, shorn of the narrative frameworks of Persian historical writing and the vitriol directed at the Ismailis, are important witnesses of Fatimid history and doctrine.
Henry VIII: Power, Propaganda and Personality
Who was King Henry VIII, and why does he continue to fascinate and to provoke us today?
The Voynich Manuscript
Lisa Fagin Davis and Claire Bowern speaking about the Voynich Manuscript.
The Greatest Bible Ever Written: Kennicott no. 1, La Coruña, Spain, 1476
The Kennicott Bible is the crown jewel of all medieval Hebrew manuscripts, expertly written by a skillful scribe and beautifully illuminated by an ingenious artist.
The ‘Healthy’ Medieval Diet
I found that the word ‘diet’ does come into English – it’s originally Greek and then Latin – during the Middle Ages as early as the 13th century and it has a wide range of meanings from a whole course of life, a way of living or thinking, a way of feeding a restricted prescribed course of food for those who are ill or in prison.
Emotion, Drama and Intrigue: A year in York’s relationship with Richard III, 1476 – 77
This talk by Sarah Rees Jones will explore the evidence of the York House Books and the York Mystery Plays for clues to the tumultuous relationship between York and Richard in the years before he became king.
Mod Gothic? Medieval Architecture in the Modern Ages
Scholars have long recognised the close connections between Gothic revival, restoration and architectural history in the nineteenth century. But how did personal, institutional and political circumstances shape understanding of medieval architecture in the twentieth century?
Middle Age and Modern Timber Techniques in the Restoration of Notre Dame de Paris
Discussing the use of medieval and modern techniques in the rebuilding of a timber frame at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris following the damaging fire in 2019.
Labyrinths in Medieval Manuscripts: The Liber Floridus (ca. 1121)
Divna Manolova on understandings of labyrinths in the medieval period.
Metadata and Balinese Palm Leaf Manuscripts: Digitization Projects and Online Repositories
Paper given at the International Workshop on Metadata Standards for Palm Leaf Manuscripts
A Very Peculiar Institution: Military Slavery in the Mamluk Sultanate
I will suggest that the prism of slavery as a legal, social and economic institution is an effective way to study the ruling elite and army of the Cairo-based Sultanate that ruled from 1250 to 1517.
Medieval potions and modern lotions
Could there also be some medical merit behind many of the seemingly bizarre ingredients?
The Mongols’ Imperial Space: From Universalism to Glocalization
This paper seeks to explain how the Mongol imperial space was created, organized, and conceived by the Mongols and their subjects in the various realms
Theatres of War: Crusade, Colonialism and Chivalry in the Middle Ages
Were the Crusades an early example of European colonialism? What value did the crusading frontier hold for the knights who fought to defend it? What was the relationship between the Crusades and the knightly culture of chivalry?
Estimating the Loss of Medieval Literature with an Unseen Species Model from Ecodiversity
How much medieval literature has been lost to us?
The Viking Phenomenon: Paradigms, Parameters, and Progress
Rejecting the illusory notion of a ‘smoking gun’ or any single trigger factor, we are exploring the longer time depth of the Viking phenomenon further back into the late Iron Age (following Nordic terminology), the varied ethnicities and identities of ‘Vikings’, and the structures of economy and politics that underpinned their developing diaspora.