Annual Medieval Studies Lecture 2022

The Medieval Studies Research Group at the University of Lincoln would cordially like to invite you to attend our online Annual Medieval Studies Lecture on 1 June 2022 at 6pm BST.

This year we are delighted to welcome as our speaker, Professor Amy G. Remensnyder from Brown University, an eminent international scholar of the medieval world, who will be showcasing her fascinating new research on the history of the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa between 1200 and 1700.

Lampedusa (5254484262).jpg
Lampedusa (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Title of talk: Escaping from Mediterranean Slavery: A Deserted Island and a Pirates’ Shrine

Abstract of talk: In the late medieval and early modern Mediterranean, enslaved people fleeing bondage created a maritime fugitive geography in which a tiny deserted deep-sea island lying between Mahdīya and Malta—Lampedusa—came to occupy an exceptional place. There, fugitives found succour at an unusual shrine shared by Muslims and Christians. It highlights the importance of the sea and uninhabited islands as a passage to freedom and also suggests that the Mediterranean system of slavery could engender compassion for its victims on the part of the violent men of the sea who were slavers—corsairs and pirates.

Biography of speaker: Amy G. Remensnyder is Professor of History at Brown University. In her first book, she focused on high medieval French monastic culture and collective memory. Her next book spanned the Atlantic, placing medieval Iberia in dialogue with colonial Mexico by exploring the Virgin Mary as a symbol of conquest and conversion. A practitioner of engaged scholarship, she is a co-editor of the volume Why the Middle Ages Matter: Medieval Light on Modern Injustice and is the founder and director of the Brown History Education Prison Project. She has held many research fellowships, including most recently at the American Academy in Berlin. Her current book project is a longue durée, maritime microhistory of Lampedusa, which brings together past and present to explore this Mediterranean island’s importance to mobile people now – migrants – and mobile people between 1200 and 1700: pirates and their victims.

How to attend: To register for the lecture, please click on this link. Attendees will receive an email detailing how to join two days before the event.

We hope you will join us!

Lincoln Medievalists at Pint of Science

This year’s Lincoln Pint of Science festival will feature two talks from members of the Medieval Studies Research Group.

The medieval and me: Remembering the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings

John Sandy-Hindmarsh

7pm, 10th May 2022

The Cardinal’s Hat, 268 High Street, Lincoln, LN2 1HW

Who were the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings? You may think you know the answer, you may not, or you may doubt the question is worth asking. In this talk, we will explore how asking these questions can raise surprisingly complex societal issues. We will consider how we as individuals and societies choose to remember the past, and how this impacts the way we perceive both the present and future. The aim is to demonstrate how asking the simple question of “Who were the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings?” requires us in turn to contend with the broader social issues of identity and citizenship.

For tickets and more information please see here: https://pintofscience.co.uk/event/how-the-past-shapes-our-identity

Mischievous Birds in Medieval Miracle Stories

Hope Williard

7pm, 10th May 2022

The Victoria, 6 Union Road, Lincoln LN1 3BJ

To inspire and entertain, medieval Christians wrote, read, and told stories about the saints – holy people who had led exemplary lives. This talk will discuss what these stories can tell us about animals in medieval European culture, focusing particularly on three biographies from France and England in which mischievous birds play an important role. The talk will include a wonderful creative response from textile artist Polly Lancaster.

For tickets and more information please see here: https://pintofscience.co.uk/event/animal-tales

Pint of Science is an international festival designed to bring researchers and members of the public together to share discoveries and conversations in a friendly and informal setting–the local pub! To check out the full programme of events in Lincoln please visit the festival website: https://pintofscience.co.uk/events/lincoln

All Welcome – Annual Medieval Studies Lecture: Professor Miri Rubin on ‘Who were the Strangers of Medieval Cities?’ (Thursday 3 June 21 6pm)

Following on from the success of our Medieval Week, the Medieval Studies Research Group of the University of Lincoln are delighted to invite you to our free Annual Medieval Studies Lecture on Thursday 3rd June 2021 at 6pm (on Zoom).
This year, our speaker will be Professor Miri Rubin of Queen Mary, University of London, a leading writer, broadcaster, and medieval historian who works on religious cultures and identities in the Middle Ages. She is the highly acclaimed author of several important books, including: Mother of God. A History of the Virgin Mary (London, 2009); Thomas of Monmouth, The Life and Passion of William of Norwich, trans. with an introduction by Miri Rubin (London, 2014); and Cities of Strangers: Making Lives in Medieval Europe (Cambridge, 2020).
The title of her talk will be – ‘Who were the Strangers of Medieval Cities?’
Abstract (in the words of Prof. Rubin): The title of my recent book Cities of Strangers (2020) prompts me to reflect with you more explicitly on the category ‘stranger’. Current research is showing just how diverse medieval cities were, but also how constitutive of urban flourishing this diversity was. It is appropriate therefore to consider how the differences between groups were managed and understood. Was it safe to be a stranger? How made it a beneficial state of living? How did strangerhood relate to ideas about identity? How did all this change over time?
For a free ticket, please register here via Eventbrite: The Lincoln Annual Medieval Studies Lecture

(You can right-click on the link to open on a new window)

We do hope you can join us as we approach the end of the academic year.