Medieval Women’s Writing Research Group Conference 2024: Exchanging Words

Tuesday 18 June 2024, 9am - 5pm

Online and In-person, Room 2, Taylor Institution Library, Saint Giles', Oxford OX1 3NA

Free but registration required

Register here for in-person attendance

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The Medieval Women’s Writing Research Group Conference 2024 will be held on 18th June 2024 with the theme of “Exchanging Words” in Room 2 of the Taylor Institution Library both in person (presenters/attendees) and online (attendees).

The aim of this conference is to explore the concept of exchange, whether it be textual or material, to, for and between women in the global Middle Ages. As a research group based upon the concept of exchanging ideas, we wish to explore medieval women’s own networks of exchange and transmission, and the influence of this upon both the literature and culture of the period as well as the present day.

We are delighted to present the programme for the day:

9:00-9:30 Registration

9:30-9:45 Welcome and Opening Remarks

9:45-11:15 Session 1 "Scholarly Networks”

Katrin Janz-Wenig (SUB Hamburg) & Lenka Panušková (The Czech Academy of Sciences) | Communication Strategies Through Change: Translations, Compilations and Ekphrasis

Ved Prabha Sharma (Independent Researcher) | Women Scholars and Knowledge Exchange in Medieval Indian shāstrārth Tradition

Tatiana Barkovskiy (University of Cambridge) | A Beguinian Learning Network, or How to Approach ‘Medieval Women Mystics’ as Philosophers

11:15-11:45 Break with Refreshments

11:45-13:15 Session 2 “Relationships With and Between Women”

Francesca Maria Villani (University of Bari) | Eloise’s Psalmody: Body and Voice Through the Epistles

Lucia Akard (University of Oxford) | Talking About Rape and Exchanging Knowledge in Medieval Dijon

Meg Greenough (Independent Researcher) | The Wilton Matrix: Mothering in Goscelin of Saint Betin’s Liber Confortatorius

13:15-14:30 Lunch Break

Exploring the Taylorian’s Treasures, with Professor Henrike Lähnemann (University of Oxford)

14:30-15:45 Keynote Address

Professor Diane Watt (University of Surrey) | Medieval Women Writers: Troubling a Feminist History of British Women’s Writing

15:45-16:15 Break with Refreshments

16:15-17:45 Session 3 “Nuns’ Words”

Costas Gavriel (University of Oxford) | Gaining the Queen’s Confidence: The Relationship Between Leonor López de Córdoba and Catherine of Lancaster, Queen of Castile

Jane Bliss (Independent Researcher) | The Nun Changes her Library Book

Hilary Pearson (Independent Researcher) | Teresa de Cartagena’s Models of Female Authority

17:45 Closing Remarks

18:00 End of Conference

Please complete this Microsoft form for the purpose of dietary requirements/catering and accessibility: https://forms.office.com/e/hrm63Ncg2Y

Please direct any questions to any of the conference organizers:

Katherine Smith (katherine.smith@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk)

Marlene Schilling (marlene.schilling@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk)

Carolin Gluchowski (carolin.gluchowski@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk)

Santhia Velasco Kittlaus (santhia.velascokittlaus@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk)

The research group and the conference are generously funded by The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH) and their “Critical-Thinking Communities” Initiative.

The Medieval Women's Writing is part of TORCH Student Networks

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