Conveners: Fiona Griffiths (Stanford University), Michael Grünbart (Universität Münster), and Simon MacLean (University of St Andrews)

Venue: Swedenborg House

The German Historical Institutes in London and Washington, D.C., are excited to announce the fourteenth Medieval History Seminar, to be held in London from 8 to 10 October 2025. The seminar will bring together Ph.D. candidates and recent Ph.D. recipients (2024/2025) in medieval history from American, Canadian, British, Irish, and German universities for three days of scholarly discussion and collaboration. Participants will have the opportunity to present their work to their peers and distinguished scholars from both sides of the Atlantic. Conveners for the 2025 seminar will be Fiona Griffiths (Stanford University), Michael Grünbart (Universität Münster), and Simon MacLean (University of St Andrews).

The seminar is bi-lingual and papers and discussions will be conducted both in German and English.

Programme

Wednesday 8 October

First panel

Chair: Stephan Bruhn (GHI London)

Michaela Selway (University of Tübingen)

Echoes of Scripture: Biblical Patterning and Theological Insight in the Works of Paul the Deacon

Amos Bronner (The Catholic University of America)

The Participation of the Unfree in Carolingian-era Justice

Comments: Elena Shadrina, Noah Weismüller

Second panel

Chair: Michael Grünbart (University of Münster)

Sarah Schnödewind (University of Münster)

Alles nur erdichtet und zusammengereimt? Zur Bedeutung von Dichtung in hagiographischen Diskursen des 11. und 12. Jahrhunderts

Rosemary C. Williams (University of St Andrews)

The Role of Mary in Dante’s Antepurgatory: An Analysis of Veiled Presence

Comments: Michaela Selway, Bee Jones

Thursday 9 October

Third panel

Chair: Fiona Griffiths (Stanford University)

Nathalie Schmidt (TU Dresden)

Obligatory and Objectionable. The Sick and the Women in the Order of Saint Anthony

Carolin Schreckenberg (Paderborn University)

Homo debilis, femina debilis? Genderspezifische Auffassung und Darstellung “behinderter” Frauen und Männer im 11. bis 14. Jahrhundert

Comments: Amos Bronner, Christina Becker

Fourth panel

Chair: Simon MacLean (University of St Andrews)

Christina Möller (University of Gießen)

Königliche Autorität und regionale Kräfte. Die Wettiner und das Königtum unter Rudolf I., Adolf von Nassau und Albrecht I. im mitteldeutschen Raum

Johannes Beul (University of Mainz)

Der Krieg der Fürsten und das Leiden der Mönche und der Bauern. Wahrnehmung von Kriegsfolgen und Konzeptualisierung von Akteuren und Betroffenen militärischer Konflikte in stauferzeitlichen Quellen

Comments: Robin Wheeler, Derek R. Benson

Fifth panel

Chair: Thomas Kaal (DHI London)

Bee Jones (Jesus College Oxford)

Bernard’s Barbarians. Bernard of Clairvaux, Máel Máedóc of Armagh, and Discourses of Barbarism in Central Medieval Latin Europe

Comments: Rosemary C. Willams, Nathalie Schmidt

Sixth panel

Chair: Michael Grünbart

Tamara Vitale (Trinity College Dublin)

The Kiss at the Crossroads of Meaning: (Un)defining the Pre-12th Century Kiss

Christina Becker (RWTH Aachen University)

Geschlechtsspezifische Vorstellungen in der norditalienischen Liebesbriefrhetorik der ars dictandi

Comments: Carolin Schreckenberg, Johannes Beul

Friday 10 October

Seventh panel

Chair: Fiona Griffiths

Elena Shadrina (Harvard University)

Status to Contract? Enslaved and Dependent Business Agents in Medieval Trade

Derek R. Benson (University of Tübingen)

Toward a Spectrum of Status: Occitan Lordship, Tenancy, and Middle-Men during the Long Twelfth Century

Robin Wheeler (Free University of Berlin)

Englische Wirtschaftsdiskurse im Hundertjährigen Krieg, 1415–1453

Comments: Tamara Vitale, Christina Möller, Sahra Schnödewind

Final discussion