Oxford Medieval Studies Week 8 Trinity Term 2020

15 June 2020
Karl Kinsella
oms red

Dear Medievalists,

What a strange term it has been. As we come to the final week of Trinity Term, I just wanted to thank everyone who worked so hard to make the seminars, reading groups, and lectures happen. You have all been kind, patient, and supportive. Hopefully next term, there will be some sense of normality and we can all be in the same room together with some tea and biscuits.

Seminars

  • First off today (15th), we have Helen Appleton speaking at the Old English Work-in-Progress Seminar. Unfortunately, I don’t have a title, but knowing Helen I have no doubt it’s going to be a fantastic paper. This takes place via their channel on OMS Teams.
  • Then at 5pm, Hannah Skodah will be speaking at the Medieval History Seminar and Hannah’s title is ‘“Things have changed a lot”: chivalric nostalgia in the later Middle Ages’. The talk will take place via the Seminar’s Teams. You can join the conversation by clicking on the link.
  • On Tuesday (16th) at 5pm, the Early Slavonic Seminar meets again when Robert Romanchuk tells us ‘How and Where the Old Slavonic Digenis Akritis was Made’. The seminar meets via Zoom and you can register here.
  • Also on Tuesday at 5pm, we have the final Medieval Church and Culture Seminar of the term, when three MSt students will discuss their work. Jenyth Evans’s talk is on ‘A Comparative Study of Lebor Gabála Érenn (The Book of the Takings of Ireland) and Geoffrey of Monmouth’s De Gestis Britonum (On the Deeds of the Britons)’. Lestra Atlas will discuss ‘Clerical Seduction and Construction of Sanctity in the Vita of Yvette of Huy’, and Evgenia Vorobeva will take us through 'Of Purses and Noses: Proverb, Emotion and Power-Shifting in the Saga Narrative'. We will meet via OMS Teams.
  • The Graduate Seminar in Medieval German meet on Wednesday (17th) morning at 11.15am, where they conclude their discussion of Meister Eckhart’s sermons on Freedom. For more information, get in touch with Henrike.laehnamann@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk.

Reading Groups

  • The Old Norse Reading Group meets on Monday at 5.30pm, and you can join them via OMS Teams. For more information, get in touch with William.brockbank@jesus.ox.ac.uk.
  • The Medieval Book Club has their final meeting on the theme of Travel on Tuesday at 3.30pm. This week they focus on Diplomacy and the writing of Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo and the Embassy to Tamerlane. Meet up with them via OMS Teams.
  • The Anglo-Norman reading group meet on Friday (19th), when they continue their exploration of Marie de France’s ‘Fables’. To join them, get in contact with Andrew.lloyd@ling-phil.ox.ac.uk.

To keep you busy during the vacation the people at Kent, along with some help from our own Henrike Laehnemann have put together a list of digital resources. You can find it at http://memslib.co.uk/. They’ve done a great job, so I hope you find it useful.

Also, do get in touch if you have any blog ideas you’d like to run past us!

In the meantime, have a lovely summer vacation, keep safe and I will see you on the other side.