Student Scholarships: BAA Winchester and Hampshire Annual Conference, Deadline 25 April 2026

The British Archaeological Association has a limited number of student scholarships are available for their Winchester Conference (20–24 July 2026), covering the conference fee, four nights’ accommodation, and all included meals, refreshments, receptions, lectures, and site visits.

Following previous visits in 1845, 1893, and 1980, the BAA is delighted to return to Winchester for the fourth time in  2026. From its early days as Venta Bulgarum, Winchester developed into an important Anglo-Saxon centre under Alfred the Great and subsequently became a heartland of the tenth-century monastic reform. Site of crown-wearings, synods,  and parliaments, and home to major monastic houses and scriptoria, the royal treasury, pilgrimage sites, and a mint, it remained a major royal and ecclesiastical city—and so a centre of artistic production—through the post-Conquest period. In more recent times, Winchester has become one of the most extensively and systematically excavated cities in the UK  and remains replete with important medieval buildings and archaeological remains. The surrounding county of Hampshire is similarly rich with treasures from the Roman period as well as the medieval: royal, military, monastic, and parochial. 

Lectures will cover aspects of the city and county’s art, architecture and archaeology from late Antiquity through the early,  high, and late Middle Ages. It is anticipated that site visits in the city will take in the Cathedral and Close, the Westgate and the Castle, Wolvesey Palace, Winchester College, and the Hospital of St Cross, amongst others. Whilst much of the conference will be spent exploring Winchester itself, there are also plans to travel out into Hampshire for further site visits, including a half-day visit to Romsey Abbey, and an excursion to Portchester and the Meon Valley. 

Scholarships are awarded to those studying at postgraduate level and to those who have been awarded research degrees in these areas within the last two years. The scholarships are funded by the generosity of BAA members and the number awarded varies according to the funds available. The maximum number of scholarships to attend a BAA summer conference for any one individual is two. The deadline for applications is 25 April 2026.

How to apply: 

Email [email protected] with:

  • a brief CV
  • at least one academic reference (it is the responsibility of the applicants to either send the academic reference with the application or to make sure their nominated referee sends it in)
  • a brief statement on the reasons for wanting to attend the conference and how it might relate to your own research

Find out more about the conference scholarship here

CFP: ‘Vassals and Lords: Christians, Muslims, and Jews in the Western Mediterranean (13th-15th centuries)’, deadline 30 June 2026

Madrid, 26-28 October 2026 | Faculty of Geography and History, UNED.

Medieval history has been traditionally dominated by a monarchical and State-centric perspective. Yet the decentralised nature of medieval power demands a broader analytical framework that goes beyond the dichotomy between monarchy and nobility. This conference invites scholars to examine the intermediate tiers of authority −the complex and often negotiated relationships between lords and their vassals of different religions− in the late medieval western Mediterranean.

We welcome proposals from different disciplines (political history, history of art, literary criticism, cultural studies, diplomatics, archaeology, and others) that explore the dynamics of seigneurial power across the Iberian kingdoms −Portugal, Castile, Navarre, the Crown of Aragon and its Mediterranean territories (including those in Italy and beyond). Despite regional variations in jurisdiction and lordship, these areas share structural features that enable meaningful comparison. The conference will focus on the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries, a period in which seigneurial systems reached full maturity and produced diverse forms of authority that was exercised over Christian, Jewish, and Muslim populations. The event moves beyond traditional narratives of power to foreground, through multidisciplinary approaches, the diverse lived realities of vassalage and lordship in the late medieval Mediterranean.

Submission Deadline: 30 June, 2026

For more information about applying, visit the conference website. 

CFP: ‘Creating the Sacred at Court. Sensorial Practices and Experiences in Europe (1300–1800)’ (Bratislava, 21-23 Sep 26), deadline 15 May 2026

Bratislava, Slovak University of Technology, 21-23 September 2026

Organisation: COST Action 24164: Sensing Europe’s Court Spaces at the Crossroads of Past, Present and Future (SENSES) and Slovak University of Technology

How does the sacred come into being?

History of art and architecture as well as religious studies have long demonstrated that the sacred is not merely an inherent property of spaces, objects, or images, but is constituted in part through (worldly) staging. Light regimes, overwhelming chromatic effects, dense olfactory atmospheres, architectural materials and spatial structures capable of producing resonances, all contribute to the sensorial construction of the holy. Yet sacred space is never purely environmental. Singing and speaking, moving and sometimes even dancing participants and audiences are integral to the performative creation of the sacred as well as to its perception.

But how can we approach such past sensorial enactments and experiences today? How can we model the historical sensory dimensions of ceremonies and devotional acts on the basis of surviving spaces, furnishings, or liturgical and courtly sources? And how might contemporary cognitive science alongside digital, virtual, and AI-based methods enable new forms of analysis, simulation, and interpretation? These questions lie at the centre of the Working Group “Sacred Spaces” within COST Action 24164: Sensing Europe’s Court Spaces at the Crossroads of Past, Present and Future (SENSES). “Court Space(s)” should be understood here as the spatial and material environment of medieval and early modern courts in Europe (1300–1800), and is/are seen as playing a significant role in shaping social structures, behaviours, and ways of life. The Action explores the full gamut of sensory experiences linked with the court residence and its life throughout history until today to build a better understanding of this complex cultural phenomenon, to support its survival as European heritage, and to contribute actively to its role as shaper of a collective identity for the future.

Sacred space at court should be understood as a multiple ranging from the smallest scale to the largest. Architecturally speaking, it comprises the court chapel, or as the case may be, the church, even an entire monastery (e.g. the convent palaces of the Hispanic world, such as the Escorial and the Descalzas Reales in Madrid, Spain, but also the monastery at Brou, France, built by the widowed regent of the Habsburg Low Countries). As part of the private apartments, the oratories constitute another component, one which serves as connection. But sacred space at court includes much more, the courtly organization behind the chapel’s service frequently taking care of worldly matters such as the prince’s valuables, for instance; the great hall adjacent to the smaller chapel actually serving as auditorium of the Mass for the lower ranks at court, and so on. On a larger scale, courts established religious networks extending across their lands, such as the Habsburg archdukes serving as regents establishing seven Marian shrines in strategic sites of the Low Countries around 1600.

Focusing on courtly contexts 1300–1800, the conference intends to explore the inter-sensorial performances and experiences within religious spaces of European court residences. It is explicitly conceived as forward-looking, aiming to open future avenues of research and foster shared methodological standards across disciplines.

We especially welcome contributions that:

  • explore inter-sensorial experience from an interdisciplinary perspective
  • address the performative and embodied dimensions of sacred space at court in all its forms (such as court chapels, churches, monasteries, oratories)
  • reflect epistemological questions of approaching past perception
  • present proof-of-concept projects using digital, virtual, or AI-based methods

We particularly encourage participation from art and architecture historians, scholars in cognitive sciences and historical cognition studies, olfactory heritage studies, digital humanities researchers, heritage specialists and curators, as well as digital designers and simulation experts. Early-career researchers are strongly encouraged to apply.

Please submit:
– an abstract (max 300 words)
– a short CV (max one page)
by May 15, 2026 to [email protected] and [email protected]

Participants must register with COST (free of charge). Travel and accommodation costs of accepted speakers will be reimbursed according to COST rules. Early career researchers may also apply for Short-Term Scientific Missions.

For more information, see:

Organisation:
Andrea Vargová (Slovak U. of Technology, Bratislava)
Monika Rychtáriková (KU Leuven / Slovak U. of Technology, Bratislava)
Magdaléna Kvasnicová (Slovak U. of Technology, Bratislava)
Vojtech Chmelík (Slovak U. of Technology, Bratislava)

Scientific Committee:
Krista De Jonge (KU Leuven), Chair
Monika Rychtáriková (KU Leuven)
Andrea Vargová (Slovak U. of Technology, Bratislava)
Joanna Olchawa (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München)
Dubravka Botica (U. of Zagreb)
Jiří Kubeš (U. of Pardubice)
Philippe Vendrix (Tours, RicercarLab, Centre d’Études supérieures de la renaissance)
Pedro Luengo Gutiérrez (U. of Seville)
Mona Hess (Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg)
José Eloy Hortal Muñoz (U. Juan Carlos, Madrid)

Call for Applications for 3 PhD Students for 4 years: The eikones Graduate School, University of Basel, deadline 12 April 2026

The eikones Graduate School at the Center for the Theory and History of the Image at the University of Basel invites applications for three positions for doctoral study on the theory and history of the image for four years beginning September 1, 2026.

Since 2005, eikones has served as a center for research on images from systematic and historical perspectives. The international and interdisciplinary center investigates the meanings, functions and effects of images in cultures since Antiquity and in our contemporary society. It aims at foundational image theory and at a historical investigation of images as instruments of human knowledge and cultural practices. We welcome PhD applications in all fields represented by members of the eikones Trägerschaft. Members of the eikones Trägerschaft are listed here: https://eikones.philhist.unibas.ch/de/graduate-school/leitung/#c1003

The purpose of the grant is to support the completion of an original dissertation and the degree within the duration of the position. Students must fulfill all curricular requirements of the eikones Graduate School and participate in the events of the Center for the History and Theory of the Image.

The eikones graduate school offers excellent students of the humanities who would like to pursue a doctorate in the history and theory of the image a structured program of graduate study distinguished by dedicated advising, internationality, interdisciplinary, regular dialogue with guest scholars, and professional opportunities. The goal of the doctoral program is the successful completion of the degree within the four-year duration. Salaries follow the standards of the University of Basel for doctorate positions.

Deadline for applications is 12 April 2026.

Find out more about applying and the programme here.

CFP: ‘Threads of Knowledge in Middle Ages and Renaissance’ (New York, 4-5 December 2026), deadline 1 May 2026

Columbia University, New York, 4–5 December 2026

29th Biennial Conference of the Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program of Barnard College

For centuries, textiles clothed bodies and books, veiled relics, marked liturgical and political boundaries, and insulated and adorned walls. Their portability and preciousness made them ideal agents of exchange. They carried forms, materials, and techniques across vast regions and cultures. It is through textiles, perhaps more than any other artistic medium, that the global interconnectedness of this historical period comes into view. At the same time, their manufacture could remain insistently local and idiosyncratic, dependent as it was—before industrustrialization—on individual touch and rhythm. Textiles could be a luxury or a thing of everyday life, and medieval and Renaissance writers exploited the double entendre of the Latin textus—both a woven and written thing—in their expositions on divinity and knowledge. Jerome characterized the Evangelists as those who “wove the truth of history” (historiae texere veritatem), a metaphor Erasmus, among others, revived in describing eloquence as a woven fabric of words. In Arabic, al-Jāḥiẓ described poetry as “a kind of weaving (ḍarb min al-nasj).”

This one-day conference invites scholars from across disciplines (archaeology, art history and conservation, history, literary studies, religion, history of science, legal history) to explore how textiles, and the metaphors they inspired, shaped medieval and Renaissance life. Topics could include but are not limited to the following: production and labor; global trade and circulation; technical knowledge and transmission; gendered and domestic craft practices; liturgical and ceremonial textiles; clothing and identity; textiles as diplomatic or political gifts; conservation and material analysis; weaving and intertextuality; and the role of textiles in shaping networks and communities.

The conference will be held Saturday, December 5, 2026 on the Barnard College campus in New York City. Tours of local collections for conference participants may take place the preceding day, Friday, December 4.

Plenary Speakers:

  • Timothy McCall, Villanova University
  • Sharon Farmer, University of California-Santa Barbara

PLEASE NOTE: The conference will be in person. While we will give preference to submissions for papers held in person, we also invite proposals from scholars who are only able to deliver papers remotely on Zoom.

Please submit an abstract of 250-300 words and a 2-page CV to Greg Bryda ([email protected]).

Submission Deadline: May 1, 2026

Call for Submissions: ‘Points of Friction’, Special Issue, Different Visions, deadline 30 April 2026

Issue editors: Dr Millie M. Horton-Insch ([email protected]) and Dr Lauren Rozenberg ([email protected])

If the mission of art history is to make sense of visual and material cultures, then what can be learned from objects that resist art historical study? How can medieval art history benefit from the methodological frictions this resistance generates? Scholars of medieval art may expect to encounter ‘friction’ from archives, individual artworks or methodologies. This Special Issue invites contributors working across the medieval period to reflect on artworks that they find compelling, but which they feel they have “failed” to satisfactorily engage in art historical study.

Contributors are encouraged to consider objects and images that they find confounding, have struggled to write about, have abandoned the study of, or have found resistant to art historical methodologies. Contributors may also wish to consider methodological “failings,” such as art historical theories that present significant challenges when applied to medieval art. Archives may also be explored as “sites of friction.” Art historians of the medieval past are often required to conduct research within varied archives that were not designed for art historical research. We therefore also welcome contributions that discuss the “friction” of working with unillustrated catalogues, the challenges of studying material that is still “active” in a working context, or the complexities which surround the creation of digital archives.

In reflecting on the limits of art historical research, this issue will provoke generative discussion about what can be learned from these “frictions,” both with medieval objects and in art history as a discipline. In doing so, we conceive of ‘frustration’ as a rewarding method in the study of medieval art. Given the challenges posed by the pressures to publish within the neoliberal university, we invite medievalists to confront what confounds them and pause to find scholarly joy in the medieval.

We invite contributions in the range of 6000–9000 words; however, alternative lengths and formats are possible. Write to the issue editors Dr Millie M. Horton-Insch ([email protected]) and Dr Lauren Rozenberg ([email protected]) with any questions.

Please send a 250-word abstract and a 100-word biography to [email protected] by Thursday 30 April 2026.

Find out more about this special issue here.

About the journal:

Different Visions aims for inclusive publishing and welcomes a variety of approaches and topics reflecting the diversity of medieval visual and material culture. It publishes work that engages with all forms of critical theory, including Premodern Critical Race Studies, Gender Studies, the global Middle Ages, and Medievalism. The journal also seeks integrated, socially-engaged, or pedagogical projects that examine the role of medieval visual culture in our contemporary world. In addition, the journal welcomes projects that work at the intersection of medieval art history and the digital humanities. Unlike a traditional print journal, the e-format of Different Visions accommodates dynamic and interactive new media. We invite submissions that include digital content, including but not limited to film and audio clips, three-dimensional models, and gigapixel and spherical panoramas.

CFP: Harmondsworth600: Celebrating six centuries of the Great Barn at Harmondsworth, deadline 20 March 2026

A conference hosted by English Heritage and the Friends of the Great Barn at Harmondsworth

Friday 4 – Saturday 5 September 2026 

2026 marks the 600th anniversary of the construction of the ‘New Barn’ at Harmondsworth, the largest surviving medieval timber-framed barn in England. To celebrate this remarkable example of medieval architecture, English Heritage and the Friends of the Great Barn at Harmondsworth are hosting a conference in the Barn and the adjacent church of St Mary. 

Described by the former Poet Laureate, John Betjeman, as ‘a cathedral’, Harmondsworth Barn was built in 1426. William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, had bought the manor of Harmondsworth in 1391 as part of the endowment for Winchester College. Their medieval records show that the barns on the demesne farm were soon beyond economic repair and a replacement was planned in 1425. It is the longevity of this ‘New Barn’ we are celebrating. All those who now visit it are, like Betjeman, struck by the size, proportions and atmosphere of this magnificent structure, even though it was not designed as polite architecture. Its function was to store the agricultural produce from the manor. 

Today the Barn’s significance lies in its extraordinary scale (over 58 metres/190 feetlong), the near-complete survival of its medieval structural timbers, its precocious features, and the exceptional survival of documentary evidence relating to its construction, ownership and use. Yet, despite its importance and more recent scholarship on comparable structures, there has only been one comprehensive study of Harmondsworth Barn this century. This conference aims to act as a catalyst for new research into medieval vernacular buildings, using Harmondsworth Barn as both case study and inspiration. 

The name of Harmondsworth will be familiar to many not from its long history but from recent media reports of Heathrow Airport’s wish to build a third runway. It is still some years before a final decision on this will be taken by the Government, but the Barn, the village, and their surroundings are again threatened. It is thus an appropriate moment to celebrate the Barn’s survival and to remind ourselves of its significance, both national and local.

Themes and Scope 

We invite proposals from everyone, including postgraduate students, early-career and more established researchers for papers that engage with Harmondsworth Barn and/or the construction and use of related buildings. Contributions may address, but are not limited to, the following themes:

  • The architectural history, construction, and materiality of medieval barns
  • Vernacular architecture and large-scale agricultural buildings in medieval England and northern Europe
  • Documentary, archaeological, and scientific approaches to medieval agricultural structures
  • Medieval farming, crop storage, and land management practices
  • The relationship between vernacular architecture and ecology, landscape, or environmental history
  • Conservation, repair, and heritage management of medieval timber-framed buildings
  • The social, political, and economic contexts of medieval agricultural architecture
  • Memory, community, and lived experience of Harmondsworth Barn as part of a working farm
  • Threats to heritage sites from modern infrastructure and development

Interdisciplinary approaches are particularly encouraged, including perspectives from architectural history, archaeology, history, agricultural studies, environmental studies, conservation, and heritage practice.

A word from the hosts 

English Heritage is a charity that is responsible for the conservation and enhancement of the National Heritage Collection of more than 400 historic sites and monuments across England, and a collection of over 1 million objects. Through these sites, English Heritage promotes public enjoyment, knowledge and education of our shared history and heritage, with the belief that heritage is for everybody. 

The Friends of Harmondsworth Barn were founded in 2005 following a public meeting called by John McDonnell, the local MP, after the company that then owned the Barn went into receivership. The Friends’ committee work to secure the preservation, maintenance and upkeep of the Barn as a heritage building, and to promote access to the Barn for the general public. When English Heritage acquired the Barn in 2011 the Friends were invited to manage it for EH. 

This conference has been made possible with generous support from the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.

Speakers and Audience 

The conference will welcome a broad audience, including academics, students, heritage professionals, members of English Heritage and architectural and archaeological societies, and the general public. Reduced-rate tickets will be available for local residents and students. 

Submission Guidelines

In your paper proposal, please include:

  • Title of your paper (please keep this concise)
  • Brief abstract (max 250 words)
  • Oral or poster presentation. If oral, preferred speaking time (20 or 30 mins)
  • Biography including affiliations (or if independent/freelance) (max 100 words)
  • Email address
  • Social media handles 

Please send abstracts and biographies to: [email protected]

The submission deadline is Friday 20 March 2026 at 12 noon. 

You will be notified if your paper has been accepted by 4 May 2026.

Further details regarding the programme, accessibility, and travel will be circulated once speakers have been confirmed. For any other queries, please do email the address above.

‘Facing Crisis: Art as Politics in Fourteenth-Century Venice’, Anna Christidou Memorial Lecture by Stefania Gerevini (Bocconi University), CEU – Vienna Campus & Zoom, 26 March 2026 (5:30–8:00 pm Central European Standard Time)

Although Venice emerged as a leading Mediterranean power in the Trecento, the city faced a series of crises during a brief but cataclysmic period coinciding with Andrea Dandolo’s dogeship (1343–1354): earthquakes, disease, fierce military conflicts, and dramatic political and institutional tensions had the republic on edge. It was nevertheless precisely at this time that the government sponsored a series of ambitious and sumptuous artistic campaigns in the church of San Marco: a reliquary-chapel, a new baptistery, and a folding altarpiece that blended Byzantine and Italianate visual forms. Far from being mere “vanity projects”, these works were affirmative political interventions that interrogated the meaning of community, authority, and (shared) political leadership at a time when those notions were unsettled. Looking beyond established concepts of triumph and imperialism, this seminar situates the arts of San Marco and the artistic interactions between Byzantium and Venice into ongoing processes of state formation, and attests to the power of images to inform—and transform—political imaginations in troubled times.

Stefania Gerevini is Associate Professor of Medieval and Byzantine Art at Bocconi University, Milan, and holds a PhD from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London. Prior to joining Bocconi, she held academic positions at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz, The Courtauld, and The British School at Rome, where she is currently a member of the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Letters. Stefania’s research and publications primarily concern the nexus between art and politics; and medieval materiality and performativity. Her recent book Facing Crisis? Art as Politics in Fourteenth-Century Venice (Harvard University Press), focuses on artistic interactions, political conflict, and public memory in Trecento Venice. The agency of medieval artifacts, the semantic affordances of different artistic media, and the interplay between materiality and immateriality are instead central to her current project, Hidden in Plain Sight: the Metalwork Altarpieces of Medieval Venetia (MUR-PRIN 2022), which she leads as principal investigator.

Find out more about the lecture and how to access the Zoom link on the Central European University’s website.

Lecture: ‘Grid as Ground: Ruled Lines and Manuscript Images’ with Hanna Vorholt, Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies, Friday 17 April 2026, (12:00 – 1:30 pm EDT)

Find out more about the lecture and register on the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies website.

Most printed and electronic documents, like this one, show text organized along invisible horizontal and vertical lines. In medieval Europe, where the primary text technology was the manuscript, lines formed visible grids on the parchment or paper surface. Scholars have examined the resulting patterns and analysed their role in the layout of the written text. While manuscript images were frequently executed on the same ruled surfaces as the written text, their relationship to the ruling has rarely been the subject of research. Hanna Vorholt’s forthcoming book Grid as Ground provides the first sustained analysis of this topic across the wide range of image types encountered in manuscripts, from tables, maps, and diagrams, to figural imagery across different domains of learning. The lecture introduces the project and some of the opportunities this analysis presents for humanities research on lines and grids as tools for cognition, creativity, and control. 

Hanna Vorholt

Hanna Vorholt is Senior Lecturer in Art History at the University of York. She was previously employed at the Fitzwilliam Museum and the British Library and received fellowships from the Warburg Institute, Cambridge University Library, the British Academy and the Leverhulme Trust. Her publications include Shaping Knowledge: The Transmission of the Liber Floridus (2017) and, as co-editor, Imagining Jerusalem in the Medieval West (2012), Visual Constructs of Jerusalem (2014) and Between Jerusalem and Europe (2015). Her forthcoming book Grid as Ground is under agreement with Harvey Miller Publishers. 

Grants for research on Chartres Cathedral, deadline 15 April 2026

The American Friends of Chartres is accepting proposals for its annual research grant to support a research project requiring on-site research in Chartres that promises to advance knowledge and understanding of the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Chartres or its historical contexts in the medieval to early modern period. The American Friends of Chartres will provide a grant of $2,500.00 and will facilitate access to the cathedral, the Centre International du Vitrail, the municipal library, archival collections and related resources.

Topics in the fields of art history, history, or related disciplines might include architecture, stained glass, sculpture, urban development, economy, religious practices, manuscripts, or the cathedral treasury, among others.

Applicants may be graduate students, recent advanced degree recipients, or established scholars. Joint projects involving faculty and students are also welcome. Following the research project, the grantee is asked to provide a synopsis of the research and conclusions, which will be publicized through the cultural activities and website of the American Friends of Chartres.

Questions about the grant may be addressed to [email protected]. 

Find out more about the grant on the American Friends of Chartres website.