Events Archive
HARVARD MEDIEVAL COLLOQUIUM – CALENDAR OF EVENTS – Spring 2023
Feb 2 (Widener D, 4:00 pm) - Welcome-Back Gebeorscip/Bibendum (co-sponsored with the Medieval Graduate Interdisciplinary Workshop). If you do not have HUID swipe access into Widener Library, please feel free to reach out to Emily (emilysun@g.harvard.edu) by email.
Feb 6 (CGIS South Building Lower Concourse, 4:00-5:30 pm) - Medieval Studies Spring Welcome-Back Reception, followed by the opening meeting of the Mahindra Center Medieval Studies Seminar in Tsai Auditorium from 5:30-7 PM
Feb 9 - Avantika Kumar, "Between Book and Body: Art, Language and the Limits of Interpretation in the Manuscripts of the English Benedictine Movement"
Feb 16 - Margaret Kim, “Marco Polo: Biography and Beyond”
Feb 23 (Widener D, 4:00 pm) - Gebeorscip/Bibendum (co-sponsored with the Medieval Graduate Interdisciplinary Workshop). If you do not have HUID swipe access into Widener Library, please feel free to reach out to Emily (emilysun@g.harvard.edu) by email.
[Feb 23 to Feb 26 - Medieval Academy in Washington, DC]
March 8 (Thompson Room, 5:30 pm) - Adrienne Williams Boyarin, "Jewish Women in Medieval England: New Tools for New Biographies" (Center for Jewish Studies, Medieval Studies)
March 9 - Adrienne Williams Boyarin, workshop for the English Medieval Colloquium, "Representations of Anglo-Jewish Women in Thirteenth-Century Legal Records". Readings will be circulated through the Medieval Colloquium mailing list closer to the date.
[March 16-17 - 22nd Vagantes Conference on Medieval Studies (click for more details)]
March 23 (Widener D, 4:00 pm) - Gebeorscip/Bibendum (co-sponsored with the Medieval Graduate Interdisciplinary Workshop). If you do not have HUID swipe access into Widener Library, please feel free to reach out to Emily (emilysun@g.harvard.edu) by email.
March 30 - Andrew Maxwell, "Veils of Oblivion: Contemplation and the Craft of Literature"
April 4 (Robinson Conference Room, 11:00 am-12:30 pm) - Cecilia Gaposchkin workshop, "Publishing in Medieval Studies" (co-sponsored with Medieval History Workshop & Medieval Graduate Interdisciplinary Workshop). Attendees should RSVP to Lydia Shahan (lydiashahan@g.harvard.edu) by Friday March 31 if they would like lunch.
April 6 (Widener D, 4:00 pm) - Gebeorscip/Bibendum (co-sponsored with the Medieval Graduate Interdisciplinary Workshop). If you do not have HUID swipe access into Widener Library, please feel free to reach out to Emily (emilysun@g.harvard.edu) by email.
April 13 - Sebastian Sobecki, “The Invention of Colonialism: Richard Hakluyt and Medieval Travel Writing”
April 20 - Nicholas Watson, “Sixteen Showings: The Search for an Intermediate Version of Julian of Norwich’s Revelation of Love and its Implications.”
April 21 (Houghton Library, 3:00 pm) - Sebastian Sobecki manuscript workshop at the Houghton. The workshop will include a crash course on late medieval English palaeography and a discussion of two manuscripts in the Houghton's collection, English 752 and Richardson 35. We have a 25-person room reserved in the Houghton, so those interested in attending should RSVP by emailing Emily (emilysun@g.harvard.edu) by Thursday April 20th.
April 24 (Barker Center 110/Thompson Room, 5:00 pm) - Telling Tales: A Reading with Patience Agbabi. A reading by poet Patience Agbabi from Telling Tales (Canongate, 2014), her 21st-century retelling of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, followed by a conversation with Anna Wilson (English). Co-sponsored with Harvard Medieval Studies & the Department of English.
May 4 (Widener D, 4:00 pm) - Gebeorscip/Bibendum (co-sponsored with the Medieval Graduate Interdisciplinary Workshop). If you do not have HUID swipe access into Widener Library, please feel free to reach out to Emily (emilysun@g.harvard.edu) by email.
HARVARD MEDIEVAL COLLOQUIUM – CALENDAR OF EVENTS – FALL 2022
Thursday 9/ 8 @ 4:00 pm
(Barker Center 133)
Ruminations II: Relics & Reli-queries
Join us for an afternoon of rumination, both literal and figurative! Please bring in a relic and be prepared to share, for ~5 minutes, its relevance to your personal experiences and investments in medieval studies. Artifacts modern and premodern are welcome. Images will be enthusiastically accepted in place of objects—please don’t commit a heist for this assignment! If you’d like to project any media while you speak, feel free to shoot Emily or Jason an email with the attached file(s).
Thursday 9/15 @ 4:00 pm
(Medieval Studies Library)
Gebeorscip/Bibendum Social Hour
Stop by for an afternoon of merriment. Refreshments will be served!
Thursday 9/22 - Saturday 9/24
(Barker Center 110)
Illuminated and Unsettled: Literary Forms and Cultural Power – A celebration of James Simpson on the occasion of his retirement
Thursday 9/29 @ 4:00 pm
(Medieval Studies Library)
Gebeorscip/Bibendum Social Hou
Stop by for an afternoon of merriment. Refreshments will be served!
Friday 10/7 @ Time TBA
(Houghton Library)
Houghton Library Visit: Chaucer in Print, 16th and 17th Centuries
Co-sponsored with the Renaissance Colloquium.
Thursday 10/13 @ 4:00 pm
(Medieval Studies Library
Gebeorscip/Bibendum Social Hour
Stop by for an afternoon of merriment. Refreshments will be served!
Thursday 10/20 @ 4:00 pm
(Barker Center 024)
Talk by Eric Weiskott (Boston College), “Unrecognizable Allusions: Geoffrey Chaucer and Elizabeth Willis”
Co-sponsored with the Long 20th C. Colloquium.
Monday 10/24 @ 12:00-1:00 pm
(Barker Center 133)
Premodern Race Seminar: Draft of article in progress by Anna Wilson (Harvard University), “Racial Innocence: Whiteness and Childhood in Chaucer’s ‘Prioress’ Tale’”
This is a PRS event, and materials will be pre-circulated. Those not on the PRS mailing list should RSVP at prs@fas.harvard.edu to attend.
Thursday 10/27 @ 4:00 pm
(Medieval Studies Library)
Gebeorscip/Bibendum Social Hour
Stop by for an afternoon of merriment. Refreshments will be served!
Monday 10/31 @ 5:30 pm
(Barker Center 110)
Mahindra Humanities Center Medieval Studies Seminar: Rita Copeland (University of Pennsylvania) in conversation with Nicholas Watson (Harvard University)
About Copeland’s book Emotion and the History of Rhetoric in the Middle Ages (Oxford UP, 2022).
Monday 11/7 @ 5:30 pm
(Houghton Library Edison & Newman Room)
Houghton-Medieval Studies Lecture in Early Book History: Sonja Drimmer (University of Massachusetts Amherst)
Tuesday 11/8 @ 11:00 am
(Barker Center 012)
A Breakfast Conversation with Sonja Drimmer (University of Massachusetts Amherst). Breakfast and coffee will be served.
Thursday 11/17 @ 4:00 pm
(Barker Center 024)
Talk by Daniel Donoghue (Harvard University), “Lawman’s Last Words”
Friday 11/18 @ 4:00 pm
(Medieval Studies Library, Widener D)
Nunc est Scribendum: A Conference Abstract Workshop
Come write your abstract for the Vagantes 2023 conference in the company of friends and fellow medievalists! Refreshments and snacks will be served, and conference organizers will be available for questions.
Thursday 12/1 @ 4:00 pm
(Barker Center 012)
Talk by Joseph A. Shack (Harvard University), Title TBA
Spring 2022 Schedule
Wednesday Feb 2nd
Martín Hadis, "Borges the Medievalist: Old English Poetry and Old Norse Myths in his Life and Works"
Via Zoom, 5pm EST - Contact Rob or Seif for Details
Wednesday Feb 16th
Anna Wilson (Harvard), "Petrarch’s Friends: Ernest Wilkins and the Medieval Academy of America"
Via Zoom, 5pm EST - Contact Rob or Seif for Details
Wednesday March 9th
Elizabeth Robertson (University of Glasgow), "Willful Griselde: Chaucer’s Clerk’s Tale and Late Medieval Voluntarism"
Barker 133 - Plimpton Room, 5pm EST
Wednesday March 30th
Emily Sun (Harvard), “On Stranger Shores: Medieval English Sea-Crossings, Then and Now”
Barker 133 - The Plimpton Room, 5pm EST
Wednesday April 13th
Ahmed Seif (Harvard), Title TBD
Barker 133 - The Plimpton Room, 5pm EST
Wednesday April 20th
Kathryn Maude (American University of Beirut & Bloomfield Fellow), "Feeling Bad in the Middle Ages: Weeping and Women's Literary Culture"
Barker 133 - The Plimpton Room, 5pm EST
Wednesday May 4th
James Simpson & Leah Whittington (Harvard), “The Dark Age (16th and 17th centuries): A Debate.”
Barker 133 - The Plimpton Room, 5pm EST
Fall 2021 Schedule
Thursday, October 21
Ambrogio Camozzi Pistoja (Harvard University), "“Creatio ad nihilum": Dante’s Meditatio Mortis and the Geneses of the Divine Comedy". Thompson Room (Barker 110), 6pm
Thursday, November 4
D. Vance Smith (Princeton), “The African Map of Europe: The Brut and Balliol College Colonialism.” Thompson Room (Barker 110), 5pm
*Co-Sponsored with The Standing Committee on Medieval Studies
Monday, November 22
""In Stori Stif and Stronge": A Conversation with David Lowery", Thompson Room (Barker 110), 5:30pm
*Presented by the English Department Graduate Medieval Colloquium, the Standing Committee on Medieval Studies, the Medieval Studies Interdisciplinary Graduate Workshop, and the Committee on Folklore and Mythology
Thursday, December 2
Kathryn Wagner (Harvard University) “The Shepherds’ Gloria: Reception of Latin Liturgy and the Figure of the ‘Lewed’ Listener in the Mystery Plays.” Barker 221, 5:30pm
Thursday, December 9
A Christmas Game: A Collective Zoom Reading of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight – in Honour of Derek Pearsall, @Zoom, 1-5pm
Spring 2021 Schedule
Thursday, February 11
Chris Jones (University of St. Andrews), "Fossil Poems and the Engrafted Speech: Old English in Tennyson and Whitman" @Zoom, 4pm
*co-sponsored with the Long 19th Century Colloquium
Thursday, March 11
Alexis Becker (Ithaca College), "Weaponized Literacy in the Lyric" @ Zoom, 5pm
Monday, March 15
Cord Whitaker (Wellesley College), "Black Metaphors: How Modern Racism Emerged from Medieval Race-Thinking" @Zoom, 5pm
*Hutchins Center event co-sponsored by the Standing Committee on Medieval Studies
Thursday, March 25
Joseph Shack (Harvard University) "Tracing Time and Eternity in Maxims II and Cotton Tiberius B. i" @Zoom, 5pm
Thursday, April 22
Rob Brown (Harvard University), "Towards a Theory of Middles: Dalliance and Duty in The Romance of Horn and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" @Zoom, 5pm
Fall 2020 Schedule
Thursday, October 8
Nahir Otaño Gracia (University of New Mexico), "Chaucer, Pilgrimage, and Crusade: Borders and the Global North Atlantic" @Zoom, 5pm
Thursday, October 29
Geraldine Heng (University of Texas at Austin), "Teaching the Literatures of the Global Middle Ages" @Zoom, 5pm
Thursday, November 5
Mary Dockray-Miller (Lesley University), "The Old English Exodus, the afrisc meowle, and the State of the Field" @Zoom, 5pm
*co-sponsored with the Colloquium on Race and Ethnicity, (reschedule from last semester)
Thursday, December 3
Lindy Brady (University College Dublin), "Early Insular Origin Legends" @Zoom, 4pm
Spring 2020 Schedule
Thursday, February 20
Jessica Brantley (Yale University), "Imagining Authorship in the Hours" @Barker 230, 5pm
Thursday, March 26
Mary Dockray-Miller (Lesley University), "The Old English Exodus, the afrisc meowle, and the State of the Field" @Barker 230, 5pm
*co-sponsored with the Colloquium on Race and Ethnicity
Thursday, April 2
Chris Jones (University of St. Andrews), "Fossil Poems and the Engrafted Speech: Old English in Tennyson and Whitman" @Barker 230, 5pm
*co-sponsored with the Long 19th Century Colloquium
Thursday, April 9
Kathryn Maunde (American University of Beirut), Title TBA @Barker 230, 5pm
Thursday, April 16
James Simpson (Harvard University) and David Hall (Harvard Divinity School, emeritus), moderated by Michelle Sanchez (Harvard Divinity School), "Predestination and Piety in the Early Modern World: A Debate" @Barker 230, 5:15pm
Fall 2019 Schedule
Thursday, September 12
Sebastian Sobecki (University of Groningen), "The Series: Hoccleve's Year of Mourning" @Barker 218, 5pm
Thursday, September 26
Spencer Strub (Harvard University), "Decision Points: Choice, Constraint, and the Ethics of Romance" @Barker 114, 5pm
Thursday, October 10
Jason Crawford (Union University), "What the Wolf Knows: George Herbert's Book of Wisdom" @Barker 114, 5pm
*co-sponsored with the Renaissance Colloquium
Thursday, October 24
Heide Estes (Monmouth University), "Gender, Jews, and Disability in Old English Poetry" @Barker 114, 5pm
Thursday, November 7
Anna Wilson (Harvard University), "Continuing Chaucer" @Barker 114, 5pm
Thursday, December 5
Nicholas Watson (Harvard University), "Manuscript Workshop: Religious Crisis and the Transformation of the Vernacular" @Barker 218, 5pm
Spring 2019 Schedule
Thursday, February 28
Yun Ni (Harvard University), "Iconoclasm and Liturgy in The Croxton Play of the Sacrament" @Kates Room, Warren House
Thursday, March 14
Emily Thornbury (Yale University), "Surface and Depth in Beowulf" @Kates Room, Warren House
Thursday, March 28
Anna Kelner (Harvard University), "Remedying Temptation in A Revelation of Love" @Kates Room, Warren House
Thursday, April 11
Anthony Bale (Birkbeck, University of London, 2018–19 Morton W. Bloomfield Visiting Fellow), “Margery Kempe, Renaissance Woman” @ Locke Room (Barker 230)
Thursday–Saturday, April 18–20
The Bloomfield Conference: Reading Then, Reading Now
Thursday, April 25
Katie Bugyis (Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2018–19 Radcliffe Institute Fellow), "Abbess as Mother? Constructions of Authority in Benedictine Women's Communities in England during the Central Middle Ages" @ Locke Room (Barker 230)
Thursday, May 2
Kathryn Mogk (Harvard University), "Listing Divine Names: A Study in Liturgical Form" @ Locke Room (Barker 230)
Fall 2018 Schedule
Thursday, September 20
James Simpson (Harvard University), "The Cultural History of Hypocrisy: Late Medieval to Early Modern" @ Kates Room, Warren House
*Co-sponsored with the Renaissance Colloquium
Thursday, September 27
Patricia C. Dailey (Columbia University), "The Exeter Book's Temporalities of Transformation" @ Kates Room, Warren House
Thursday, October 11
Susie Phillips (Northwestern University), "'A Very Profitable Book': Virtual Schoolmasters and their Mischievous Pedagogy" @ Kates Room, Warren House
Thursday, October 25
Monika C. Otter (Dartmouth College), "Of Psalmody and Mondegreens: Interiority and Expressivity in Sung Texts" @ Kresge Room (Barker 114)
Thursday, November 8
Barbara Zimbalist (University of Texas at El Paso), "Visionary Translation and Vernacular Theology in the Late Medieval Low Countries" @ Barker 018
Thursday, November 15
Bruce Holsinger (University of Virginia), "Alternative Facts and the Anachronistic Style" @ Emerson 210
*Co-sponsored with the the English Department Graduate Symposium
Thursday, November 29
Amy Appleford (Boston University), “'Behold, my life is but a distraction': Ascetic Reading, Poetry, and Prayer @ Kresge (Barker 114)
*Co-sponsored with the Renaissance Colloquium
Spring 2018 Schedule
Thursday, February 22
Jonathan Hsy (GWU), “Reimagining Medieval Deafness: Communication, Community, Deafnicity” @ Kates Room, Warren House
*Co-sponsored with the Race and Ethnicity Colloquium
Thursday, March 8
Aparna Chaudhuri (Harvard), "Ovidian Obedience in Chaucer’s Legend of Good Women" @ Kates Room, Warren House
Thursday, March 22
Julie Orlemanski (Chicago), "What Is Not Form, in Chaucer” @ Kates Room, Warren House
Thursday, March 29
Anna Wilson (Harvard), "Queering Petrarch's Letters" @ Kates Room, Warren House
Thursday, April 5
Daniel Donoghue (Harvard), Book presentation, How the Anglo-Saxons Read their Poems @ Kates Room, Warren House
Thursday, April 12
Ad Putter (University of Bristol; 2017–18 Morton W. Bloomfield Visiting Fellow), “Chaucer’s Rhythms” @ Kates Room, Warren House
Thursday, April 26
Jay Zysk (UMass, Dartmouth), “Babbling Bishops and ‘Scurvy Jack-Dog Priests’: Representing the Clergy in Early English Drama” @ Barker 114
*Co-sponsored with the Renaissance Colloquium
Fall 2017 Schedule
NB: During the fall semester, we meet in the Barker Center at 5 pm; if we are meeting elsewhere, it is noted below.
Thursday, September 21
Stella Wang (Harvard), "The Accounting of the Hereafter: Two Purgatorial Romances in Princeton MS Taylor 9" @ Barker Center 403
Thursday, October 12
Andrew Cole (Princeton), "Occasional Chaucer" @ Barker Center 024
Thursday, October 19
Yun Ni (Harvard), "'Gafe me Space and Time to Behalde It:' Images and Words in Julian of Norwich's A Revelation of Love" @ Barker Center 403
Thursday, October 26
Sarah Kay (NYU), "Singing with the Stars" (co-sponsored with the Medieval Studies Seminar) @ Barker Center 114
Thursday, November 9
Wesley Yu (Mount Holyoke), "On Rhetorical Phenomena: Medieval Poetics and the Double Burden of Particularity" @ Barker Center 403
Thursday, November 16
Brandon Hawk (Rhode Island College), "Reading Manuscripts from a Distance" @ Barker Center 403