Winter 2024
January 12 | Sam Lasman
Early-Career Research Fellow, Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge
“Original Monsters: Giants and the Shaping of Britain’s Past”
12:30-2:00, Zoom
This event is a practice job talk
January 19 | Mary Kemp Thornberry
PhD Candidate, English, University of Chicago
“Wrestling Voice in Piers Plowman”
1:30-3:00, Rosenwald 405
February 2 | Sam Pellegrino
PhD Candidate, Divinity School, University of Chicago
“Turning to Takwin: Takwin, Craft, and Artificiality in 8th-10th Century Islamic Sources”
1:30-3:00, Rosenwald 405
February 16 | Joe Stadolnik
Collegiate Assistant Professor and Harper-Schmidt Fellow, University of Chicago
“Rereading Alchemy at St. Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury”
1:30-3:00, Rosenwald 405
February 28 | Tarren Andrews
Assistant Professor of Ethnicity, Race, and Migration, Yale University
“Legacies of Surveillance: Data, the Domesday Book, and the Dawes Act”
3:30-5:00, Cobb 116
This event was made possible thanks to support from the Center for the Study of
Gender and Sexuality, the Lexicon Project Working Group, and a gift from Faizal Syed (MBA ‘93)
March 1 | Michael Martoccio
Assistant Professor of History, University of Wisconsin-Madison
“The Worst Merchandise I Ever Bought: The Florentine Purchase of Lucca (1341) in the Florentine and Lucchese Imaginary”
1:30-3:00, Rosenwald 405
This event was made possible thanks a gift from Faizal Syed (MBA ‘93)
Spring 2023
Tuesday, March 28, 12:30-2:00, Cobb 319 | Luke Sunderland
Professor of French, Durham University. IAS Fellow, 2022-2023
“Elements and Edges: Inhabitable and Uninhabitable Worlds in Medieval Encyclopaedias”
This event is a lecture. Lunch will be provided. Sponsored by the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
Friday, March 31, 12:30-2:00, Rosenwald 405 | Kirsten Lopez
PhD Candidate, Romance Languages and Literatures, University of Chicago
“A Tomb of One’s Own: Commemorative Monuments and Mediating Existence in
the Prose Lancelot”
Thursday, April 13, 5:00-6:30, Rosenwald 405 | Micah James Goodrich
Visiting Assistant Professor of English, Boston University
“Kindling, or, Margery Kempe’s Thermal Dynamics”
This event was made possible thanks to generous support from the Center for the Study of
Gender and Sexuality, the Lexicon Project Working Group, and a gift from Faizal Syed (MBA ‘93)
Friday, April 28, 12:30-2:00, Rosenwald 405 | Sabrina Amrane
MA Student, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, University of Chicago
“Raid or Reign: Historical Narratives of the Algerian Bedouin”
Friday, May 19, 12:30-2:00, Swift Common Room | Abigail Palmisano
PhD Candidate, English, Loyola University
“Fix Your Mind on the Rock: Mental Stability and the Allegorized Female Body in Cynwulf’s Juliana and Ælfric’s ‘Saint Agatha and Saint Lucy'”
End-of-Year Lunch Social: May 19, 2:00-3:30, Swift Common Room
Winter 2023
February 3rd | Rodrigo García-Velasco
Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Northwestern University
“Frontier Jews, Royal Jurisdiction, and the Negotiation of Violence in the Fueros of Castile and Navarre, 1000-1200”
12:30-2:00, Swift 208
February 17th | Shaahin Pishbin
PhD Candidate, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago
“Inimitably Complex: The Homeless Poetics of Amīr Khusraw of Delhi”
12:45-2:15, Swift 208
February 27th | Alyssa Mulé
PhD Student, English Language and Literature, University of Chicago
“Rewriting Humanism and Proto-feminism in the Middle English Translation of
De mulieribus claris”
5:00-6:30, Rosenwald 301 (Co-sponsored with the Renaissance Workshop)
March 10th | Rowanne Dean
PhD Candidate, Art History, University of Chicago
“Richard II and the Coronation Regalia: Cases of Duplicated ‘Object-Conversion’”
12:30-2:00, Swift 208
AUTUMN 2022
October 7th | Welcome Back Gathering
4:30-6:00pm, Classics Quadrangle
Refreshments Provided
October 14th | Joshua R. Held
Chair and Associate Professor of English, Trinity International University
“Reviving the Seven Deadly Sins in Piers Plowman: Langland and Textual
Criticism”
October 28th | Gabriel Byng
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Vienna
“Body, Architecture, and Transgression in the Mystical Experiences of Agnes Blannbekin”
November 18th | Alexa Herlands
PhD Candidate, History, University of Chicago
“Race and Marvel in Ghāyat al-ḥakīm/Picatrix”
December 2nd | Griffin Ridley
PhD Candidate, History, University of Chicago
“A Decline in Papal Authority? Historical Epistemology and Ethical Argument in Salimbene de Adam’s Chronicle”
WINTER QUARTER 2022 EVENTS
January 28th: Gabriel Torretta, O.P., PhD Candidate, Divinity. “Theodulf of Orléans’s Ecclesial Beauty.”
February 11th: Jacqueline Dragu, PhD Candidate, English. “Silence: The Euthanasia of Nature.”
February 25th: Samantha Pellegrino, PhD Candidate, Divinity. “Structuring Ṣanʿa (Artifice) Within and Without the Jābirian Corpus.” *Co-sponsored with the Islamic Studies Workshop
March 11th: Michele Lodone, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellow, Universities of Venice and Chicago, RLL. “News From the Future: Prophecy and the Public Sphere in Medieval and Renaissance Florence (14th-16th century).”
FALL QUARTER 2021 EVENTS
October 15: Research Roundtable featuring Daisy Delogu, Luke Fidler, Noel Blanco Mourelle, Sarah Pierce Taylor, and Steven Waldorf
October 29: Trevor Brandt, PhD Student, Art History. “Sign of Sin: The Vädersolstavlan Painting in Stockholm’s Memory.”
November 12: Sam Baudinette, PhD Candidate, Divinity. “From Philosophical to Christian Theology: the Role of the Corpus Dionysiacum in the Writing of Albert the Great.”
December 3: Kris Trujillo, Assistant Professor, Comparative Literature. “Hadewijch and the Translation of Unheard-of Song.”
SPRING QUARTER 2021 EVENTS
APRIL 9: Prof. Duncan Hardy, University of Central Florida. “Imperial Cities and the ‘Reform’ of the Holy Roman Empire, 1414-1531.”
*APRIL 16: Prof. Justine Firnhaber-Baker, University of St. Andrews in conversation with Noel Blanco Mourelle & Kirsten Lopez
*APRIL 23: Prof. Sierra Lomuto, Rowan University in conversation with Julie Orlemanski & Alexa Herlands
*APRIL 30: Prof. Mo Pareles, University of British Columbia in conversation with Benjamin A. Saltzman & Kashaf Qureshi
MAY 7: Kirsten Lopez, PhD Candidate, RLL (French). “Epitaphs in Contemporary Installation Art: Creating Posthumous Dialogues in Sophie Calle’s ‘Rachel, Monique’ and Joyce Burstein’s ‘The Epitaph Project.’”
MAY 14: Julie Orlemanski, Associate Professor of English. “Prosopopoeia, Medium Specificity, and the Art of Centralized Administration, in Bernard of Clairvaux’s Sermons on the Song of Songs.”
*Conversations in Medieval Studies: Margins. This series was made possible by a generous gift from Mr. Faizal Syed.
WINTER QUARTER 2019 EVENTS
JANUARY 11: Benjamin Saltzman, Assistant Professor of English. “Hand and Eyes: Illustrating an Iconography of Shame in Junius 11.”
JANUARY 17: Roland Betancourt, Associate Professor of Art History, UC Irvine. “Queer Sensations: Perception and Same-Gender Desire in Byzantium.”
FEBRUARY 8: “Where Can Medieval Take You?” Medieval Studies Undergraduate Program Alumni Event.
FEBRUARY 15: Rob Porwoll, PhD Candidate, Divinity. “The Epistolary Dialogue of Abelard and Heloise.”
FEBRUARY 21: Kathy Krause, Professor of French at the University of Missouri Kansas City, will give a public talk entitled “‘Son païs sostenoit en vigor’: Portraying the Countesses of Boulogne.”
FEBRUARY 22: Sam Lasman, PhD Candidate, Comparative Literature. “Past and Paradox: What Did It Mean to Time-Travel in Medieval Wales?”
MARCH 8: Owen Joyce-Coughlin, PhD Student, Divinity. “Authorship, Authority and Literary Form in Mechthild of Magdeburg’s The Flowing Light of the Godhead and Marguerite Porete’s The Mirror of Simple Souls.”
AUTUMN QUARTER 2018 EVENTS
OCTOBER 11: David Reher (PhD candidate, RLL), “Troy in Medieval Castilian Travel Literature”
OCTOBER 19: Tristan Sharp (PhD student, History), “Beyond the noble feud: conflict, law and violent self help in late medieval Germany (1350-1450)”
NOVEMBER 2: Dyan Elliott (Peter B. Ritzma Professor of the Humanities and Professor of History, Northwestern University), “Sodomy on the Cusp of the Eleventh and Twelfth Century”
NOVEMBER 8: Nahir Otaño Gracia (Assistant Professor of English at Beloit College), “Counter-narratives and the Middle Ages: Woman and Power in the Global North Atlantic.” (This event is a public talk,
co-sponsored with The Lexicon Project, and will take place at 4:30 pm, location TBD).
NOVEMBER 16: Michael Allen (Associate Professor of Classics), “What Is Wisdom? What Is Concord? An Editor’s Reading of Lupus’s Letter 35”
NOVEMBER 30: Alexandra Peters (PhD student, History), “Islamic Knowledge and Christian Kingship: The Muslim Intellectuals of the Alfonsine Scriptorium”
SPRING QUARTER 2018 EVENTS
October 5: John Latham-Sprinkle (PhD Candidate, SOAS, University of London), “The Power of the Foreign: Kingship in North Caucasian Alania c.875-1100.”
APRIL 6: on-campus conference entitled Gender and Form in the Middle Ages. This event will take place on the ground floor conference room at the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality, time TBD.
APRIL 13: Christopher Davis (Assistant Professor of French, Northwestern University), “Hybrid Harmony: The Poetics of Discord and the Language of Song from the Troubadours to Dante.”
APRIL 20:David Orsbon (PhD Candidate in Comparative Literature and Classics), “Boethius Emendatus: A Re-Examination of Proclus’ Influence on Boethius’ Consolatio.”
APRIL 26: Carole Rawcliffe (Professor of Medieval History, University of East Anglia) public lecture, “Christ the Physician Walks the Wards: Medicine and Religion in Medieval England.” This event will be held at 4:30 pm in the third floor lecture hall of Swift.
APRIL 27: Carole Rawcliffe (Professor of Medieval History, University of East Anglia), “Mental Illness and Mental Health in the Late Medieval English Monastery.”
MAY 4: Felix Szabo (PhD Candidate in History), “Personal Piety in the Seals of Middle Byzantine Eunuchs.”
MAY 8: María Marcos Cobaleda (Assistant Professor, University of Malagá), “Almoravid Art and Its Cultural Impact: Artistic Exchange in the Medieval Mediterranean.” This lecture will take place at 4:00 pm in Stuart 105, and is co-sponsored with Center for Middle East Studies and the Middle East History and Theory Workshop.
MAY 10-13: International Congress on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University.
MAY 15-16: On-campus conference entitled European Urban History, ca. 1200-1500: Comparative Perspectives. Sponsored by the University of Chicago / University of Vienna Faculty Grant Program, the History Department, and the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures.
MAY 22: in co-sponsorship with the Early Modern & Mediterranean Worlds Workshop, Már Jónsson (Professor of History, University of Iceland), “The Victims of Witchcraft in 17th century Iceland.” This event will be held from 5:00-6:30 pm in WB 207.
JUNE 1: Nancy Thebaut (PhD Candidate, Art History), “Meaningful Folds: Representing and Qualifying Christ’s Absence through his Grave Cloths c. 1000.” This event will be held in CWAC 156.
WINTER QUARTER 2018 EVENTS
JANUARY 12 — Mary Anne Case (Arnold I. Shure Professor of Law), “Showing that ‘Femme Est a L’omme Pareille’”
JANUARY 18 — Art History public lecture, Sonja Drimmer (UMass Amherst) “Highly Visible, Hardly Seen: The Object of Politics In Late Medieval England.” CWAC 157.
JANUARY 26 — Jo Nixon (PhD Student, English), “No Epilogue: Lydgate’s “Dance of Death” and the Estates Satire Tradition”
FEBRUARY 9 — Christopher Davis (Assistant Professor of French, Northwestern University), “Hybrid Harmony: The Poetics of Discord and the Language of Song in the Troubadours and Dante”
FEBRUARY 23 — David Cantor-Echols (PhD candidate, History), “Historicizing Ritual and Ritualizing History in the Chronicles of Alfonso XI of Castile”
MARCH 9 — Robert Porwoll (PhD candidate, History of Christianity), “Introduction: Regular Canons, Restoration, and Reform”
AUTUMN QUARTER 2017 EVENTS
OCTOBER 6: Lucy Pick (Senior Lecturer in the History of Christianity and Director of Undergraduate Studies; Associate Faculty in History), “Don’t You Forget About Me: Memory, Gift and Death in the Early Spanish Kingdoms”
OCTOBER 20: Sam Baudinette (PhD Student, History of Christianity) “Tetragrammatic Translation: Maimonidean Arguments about the Divine Names in the Christian Hebraism of Ramon Martí and Meister Eckhart”
OCTOBER 30: co-sponsored event with the Early Modern and Mediterranean Workshop, Boccaccio’s Painters. Panelists included Albert Russell Ascoli (Italian, UC Berkeley) and Justin Steinberg (RLL, UChicago).
NOVEMBER 3: Lisa Scott (PhD Candidate, History), “‘The Lords, Knights, and Cities’: The Estates and Assembly in their Institutional Context”
NOVEMBER 17: Aden Kumler (Associate Professor of Art History, Romance Languages and Literatures, and the College), “Lyric Voices”
DECEMBER 1: Thomas Burman (Professor and Robert M. Conway Director, Medieval Institute, University of Notre Dame), “‘The Breath of God’s Nostrils (Ex. 15:8) is Literally the Holy Spirit,’ Or Why the Best Arabist in 13th-century Christendom Didn’t Care about Islam.” Co-sponsored by the Early Modern and Mediterranean Workshop with generous funding from the Lumen Christi Institute
SPRING QUARTER 2017 EVENTS
APRIL 21 – Karin Krause, Assistant Professor of Byzantine Theology and Visual Culture, “Celebrating Orthodoxy: Miniatures for Gregory the Theologian’s “Unread” Orations (MS Basiliensis AN I 8)”
APRIL 28 – Frank Rexroth, Professor of Medieval Intellectual History, University of Göttingen / Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton) “The school of Peter Abelard and the boundaries of scholarly communication in the twelfth century” (Main Sponsor – History Dept.)
MAY 5 – Claire Jones, Assistant Professor of German, Notre Dame University, “Iron Maiden: Mary in the Chronicles of the Baltic Crusade”
MAY 19 – David Orsbon, PhD Candidate in Classics and Comparative Literature, “Nuda Natura”
JUNE 2 – Matthew Vanderpoel, PhD Candidate in History of Christianity, “In a Manner of Speaking: Scholasticism, Humanism, and Language at the University of Paris”
AUTUMN QUARTER 2016 EVENTS
OCTOBER 6: Francis Oakley, “”Kingship: The Politics of Enchantment”, Classics 110
OCTOBER 7: Luke Fidler, “Inscribing the World at Hexham,” CWAC 152
OCTOBER 21: Damian Fleming (Indiana University, Fort Wayne), CWAC 152
NOVEMBER 4: Mohamad Ballan, “Sayf al-Dawla ibn Hud (d. 1146): An Andalusi Muslim Prince in the Service of King Alfonso VII of Castile-León,” WB 207
NOVEMBER 15: Julian Führer, (University of Zurich), “Phantoms of literacy” (CO-SPONSORED with Late Antiquity & Byzantium Workshop)
NOVEMBER 18: Alexis Becker, Title TBD, WB 207
DECEMBER 2: Dan Yingst , “Creation the Mirror, Creation the Engine,” WB 207